@Seeker,
Who said it would be a potential replacement for the more expensive industrial thermal cameras ?
Not I.
To remove the emissivity setting is just weird. It is, after all, a mathematical offset against which all measurements are adjusted. Incorrect emissivity offset = incorrect reading of temperature.
This could of course indicate that SEEK are not confident in their units measurements so why bother with 'fine tuning' that may just confuse buyers.
Wait until you try to measure the temperature of a DUT that is lower emissivity though.
i.e. A DUT with emissivity of 65% requires a positive offset of 1.538 (100/65) in order to provide any sort of reasonable measurement. If the Seek is set with a fixed 97% emissivity offset you have a huge error in measurement. The unit will work fine on most dull, high emissivity surfaces though as they will likely be in the ballpark of the 96%.
Much depends upon the intended use of the SEEK. For personal building survey work it should be fine. For the more unusual DUT's the user just needs to be made aware of the traps caused by fixed emissivity. Remember, emissivity is at the very heart of thermography and is the most basic of concepts that should be understood for many uses of a thermal camera, beyond a toy,
I highly recommend that users of ANY thermal camera read up on the basic principles of thermal imaging so as to get the most out of their device. It is very different to visual photography. I can recommend the user manual for FLIR equipments and those of other thermal camera manufacturers like FLUKE and NEC AVIO, they normally contain a chapter detailing the basics.
I am under no illusions regarding the capabilities of the SEEK camera and its most likely market. It doesn't help to warn people of the pitfalls however
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Aurora