Mobile Phone Thermal Cameras

[MG5150]

Hello Everyone

I am using my tax return money to purchase some thermal devices. I am going to get a thermal monocular and a clip on scope.

I have found some cheaper thermal cameras which attach to your phone so it can be used as a thermal scouter. Most of these are between $400-$900 AUD.

Has anyone had any experience buying or using these devices (Inifray T2, T3, XH09 or XH15)?

https://www.infiray.com/products/therma ... martphone/

I understand that you get what you pay for, but plugging a $500 external camera into a $2000 phone equates to similar price of a $2500 mid-range thermal monocular, the phone is doing all the processing.

If I can save $1500-$2000 on a monocular then I can get a higher end thermal scope/clip-on.

All feedback is appreciated

(PS - I would be hunting wild dogs and sambar on our rural property) has open spaces of 200-300m between tree lines. All the neighbouring farms tend to be similar with a max of 500m for most paddocks

[Lazarus]

I've been looking at them, I just bought my first thermal, and for the price, the camera would want to be good.

I bought an entry level HikMicro Thunder pro, and that cost $2K, a quarter of that for a phone plugin sounds steep, but I have zero experience with the plugin jobby, so it's more based on my parsimony than actual knowledge.

[stihl88]

Welcome MG,

I have the Infiray P2 Pro, I use it for electronics troubleshooting with the additional macro lens and recently mounted it to a drone (see below). I have a dedicated thermal scope also but was pleasantly surprised with the Infiray, it performed a lot better than i was expecting.

You may want to look at the more dedicated hunting phone mounted phone thermals, they run at around the $1k but have variable zoom ~ on memory from a ton of research the Infiray T2 Pro with adjustable lens is what you should aim for, i don't think there's better than this for your application. I believe you can get iOS and Android versions.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjDLrjPX9k

Here's a screenshot of a dog i picked up at a park approx 150 yards from camera, i have it mounted to a drone feeding back live analogue video via an onboard raspberry pi and high power video tx so it's not as clear as when mounted to the phone.

Dog.jpg (173.65 KiB) Viewed 6371 times

[bladeracer]

I have one of the devices that plugs into to the phone, the Topdon TC-001.
I don't recall the price as I got it a couple years ago, probably wasn't more than $300.
It's pretty handy for finding wall studs and it shows you where the cold spots are in your wall and ceiling insulation

I really haven't tried looking for live targets outside but the chooks show up nicely on it. It has no zoom and the phone is a tiny screen which makes it difficult. Obviously in pitch darkness I'm not going to see a rabbit 20m or 50m away without some sort of night-vision device. With this I would certainly see a rabbit at 20m, but I'm not convinced I'd see one at 50m as it would be a tiny spot on the screen, I really doubt I would see a fox or dog at 100m, but I guess it's possible.

With all the phones I've tried it on it doesn't go into the USB-C port with a phone cover, you have to remove the cover first. Or you can use the cable instead of connecting it directly to the phone, but then the device is small and fiddly to handle. But it has novelty value and is probably a good intro to thermal if you're struggling to toss several thousand dollars at a scope. I still can't justify the cost of thermal even after using this.

Hello Everyone

I am using my tax return money to purchase some thermal devices. I am going to get a thermal monocular and a clip on scope.

I have found some cheaper thermal cameras which attach to your phone so it can be used as a thermal scouter. Most of these are between $400-$900 AUD.

Has anyone had any experience buying or using these devices (Inifray T2, T3, XH09 or XH15)?

https://www.infiray.com/products/therma ... martphone/

I understand that you get what you pay for, but plugging a $500 external camera into a $2000 phone equates to similar price of a $2500 mid-range thermal monocular, the phone is doing all the processing.

If I can save $1500-$2000 on a monocular then I can get a higher end thermal scope/clip-on.

All feedback is appreciated

(PS - I would be hunting wild dogs and sambar on our rural property) has open spaces of 200-300m between tree lines. All the neighbouring farms tend to be similar with a max of 500m for most paddocks

[GuruGoose]

I have a T2pro and its by no means a high end thermal but its pretty good at spotting heat signatures at 300mts + and shapes at 100mts over time you get to know what your looking at going off predator characteristics but i still use my inferred scope or monocular to confirm the target