Upgrade recommendation from FLIR i5?

[jason_s]

I have a FLIR i5 at work that we bought sometime in 2014 or 2015. It works ok but the lack of a tripod thread mount is an issue, as well as minimum focus distance and a couple of other things.

I would like to buy a newer unit that:

- is at least 160x120 resolution
- covers the 0 C - 200 C range
- has good accuracy (+/- 2 C in the 50-150C range preferred, but I'll take what I can get)
- has a camera thread mount
- has minimum focus distance of 50cm or less
- has flexible image triggering options -- just a manual trigger is not very appealing. I'd like to either trigger a new image via USB/Bluetooth from a PC (example: Python script that runs and asks for an image every second for 10 seconds and then every 2 seconds for 20 seconds) or stream images to a PC where I can somehow pick off the ones I need and save them
- costs less than US$1200 (goal of less than US$800)

I like the way FLIR embeds the temperature data in the JPEG itself.

I'm looking at the FLIR TG267 which looks good except for what appears to be a lack of flexible triggering.

[Fraser]

You might want to take a very close look at the TG267 specifications. I believe you will discover that it is more of a visual IR thermometer and not a Radiometric thermal camera. There is a significant difference between the two. The TG range are a collection of hybrid devices that have combined a standard single pixel IR thermometer with a non Radiometric Lepton imaging core. Why they did this I do not know. Not the greatest idea to come out of FLIR.

[Fraser]

I do not know your operational use scenario but the remote control requirement pushes my recommendation towards the Dianyang Technology CA-10 that offers PCB analysis with a PC controlling the camera and capturing the image data. The camera is intended to offer the user decent resolution and measurement accuracy combined with a good quality stand design and versatile image analysis tools. Take a look at my review on this forum. The camera may be removed from its stand and mounted on a tripod or other support system if desired. The system comes in well within your budget and the analysis software is included for free. The cameras manual focus range is approx 20mm to infinity.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/review-dianyang-technology-ca10-circuit-board-thermal-analyzer-repair-rd/

Without knowing your practical usage needs it is hard to make other recommendations.

Fraser