FLIR very carefully crafted the FLIR One Gen2 and its associated software so as to not compete with other cameras in their range.
Indeed, this I already guessed
.
Meetings were held to decide which features were to be included in the offering, and which would not. The inability to switch off the MSX was a direct result of such meetings.
FLIR designed the FLIR One G2 camera as an entry level consumer product and have no intention of providing enhancements or options that would make it a bargain-priced competitor to their more expensive cameras. Just good marketing. They never intended the FLIR One G2 to be a 'serious' thermal camera for use in industry or thermography. It is basically equivalent to a really cheap visible light digital camera used for party photos
This is indeed a logical marketing move, despite me disliking many stupid marketing moves... I respect that they have done this without getting away all the usefulness of the product, because for my use it's a huge improvement over "virtually nothing", and paying two or four times the price would not really have been an option for the time being (getting a decent lab power supply would have been far higher in my list).
You are right, Flir One G2 is among other things a digital camera for electronic (not music) party , it intents to be able to know which component will first release its magic smoke The Radiometric LEPTON 3 has only just been officially released. FLIR will likely wish to develop the LEPTON 3 market further by designing it into all manner of equipments. We may even see development in the automotive safety market following in the footsteps of the AUTOLIV/FLIR partnership.
I wasn't aware of this automotive target, this is extremely interesting I will follow those developments. On the other hand I also purchased the FLIR One G2 to see what can be done with a lepton sensor in case I decided that it can be useful for a totally different purpose (using the Lepton only available part).
A replacement for the FLIR One G2 would need to offer something new to the market as other cameras are now available to compete against it. I know that FLIR wish to increase the LEPTON series resolution further.
Well, in fact I wasn't exactly speaking in the vacuum... Inside the box of the Flir One G2 there was a nice message saying, "if you have any feedback write mail to someone in Flir (name.lastname1 [at] flir dot com) .... that I did
.
I detailed seven points : moving spot point, thermal scale with °C, rubber allowing recharge, rubber vs spacer compatibility, wire micro USB extender, MSX on/off, better compatibility list (including app on other app store market such as a****). To be honest, first, I was more curious to see if it was for "marketing" purposes or a real feedback wish than waiting for anything.
It seems it is a real feedback (wish is also an amazingly efficient way of marketing
), which I found really nice since for me this part how a company can do things right !
And eight days after I got a nice answer saying that I wasn't the first one giving such feedback (obviously, I would have been surprised if so), and telling me the following (extract of the mail) :
[...] As this product has been on the market for nearly 12-months, we have heard from customers with many of the same comments. We have been busy responding to these insightful suggestions in our next generation of products. We will be introducing 2-new models of FLIR ONE next year. You’ll be happy to hear that virtually every one of the things on your list has been addressed and incorporated. [...]
I both happy to see that FLIR is going to provide improvements on those points and... well I purchased the actual version without the improvements... on the other hand I didn't get it for decoration I'm already using it and it's really useful as it is (a good combination of Flir One app, Flir Tools and Thermal Camera+ from George allows me a wide and efficient use).
I received my micro usb wire extender, and for electronic debug with Flir One it's really handy