Accessory infrared cameras

[DMCutter]

I used to do a lot of IR thermography at my last job, mostly for building envelope evaluations, using a first gen FLIR camera. It was fairly low res but had a manual scale where I could narrow it down to few degrees to look for very subtle anomalies. When I left that company and started my own gig I opted not to invest big bucks in a camera and just pass on that type of work because chasing leaks got to be real old. I had an article in my Google feed today about a tiny little Infiray job that plugs into the USB-C port on your phone. Resolution looks to be several times higher than the equivalently priced FLIR and it has a manual mode and a variety of pallets. I'm thinking for less than $300 it might be a worthwhile investment. Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with phone mounted IR cameras?

[MickAK]

I used to do a lot of IR thermography at my last job, mostly for building envelope evaluations, using a first gen FLIR camera. It was fairly low res but had a manual scale where I could narrow it down to few degrees to look for very subtle anomalies. When I left that company and started my own gig I opted not to invest big bucks in a camera and just pass on that type of work because chasing leaks got to be real old. I had an article in my Google feed today about a tiny little Infiray job that plugs into the USB-C port on your phone. Resolution looks to be several times higher than the equivalently priced FLIR and it has a manual mode and a variety of pallets. I'm thinking for less than $300 it might be a worthwhile investment. Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with phone mounted IR cameras?

I've had the CAT phones with the built in infrared cameras for 6 years now. They're a handy feature. The S62 FLIR camera was a significant improvement over the first few gens.

I don't like the phones that much so I've looked at some of the phone mount cameras but I passed because when I needed it it would undoubtedly not be with me, but I'm interested in seeing what responses you get if I decide to go that route.

[Dov]

FWIW

One technique I use frequently when researching something for a client is Amazon 1 & 2 star reviews or other sources that have similar review systems from "actual" consumers. You have to ignore the positive reviews since bulk of those nowadays are some type of service (positive review that's paid to be positive) in the old days on Amazon that wasn't much of a problem but certainly is now.

My rule of thumb is not to consider anything that has 5% or higher 1 star review.

Generally 3% or less 1 star reviews if you have decent number of real reviews is solid choice.

Though I also read a bunch of the 1 star reviews to see what patterns if any are there, sometimes with some products that have prosumer or SOHO appeal a specific product might be good quality but require more or specific expertise to use well (routers for example). So if bulk of 1 star reviews are clearly from people that lack the technical chop to operate specific product correctly those don't apply to user that has those chops. But if user isn't technical then it would.

I don't know anything much about thermal/infrared cameras like this, if I had more familiarity with them might know of specific forums or reddits that would provide useful feedback.

Couple issues I would be wary of for any Android accessory not specific to this type of device:
1) what version of Android and what models of Android is it designed to work with? It might work great for specific combination of Android versions and hardware models but be problamatic for everything else.
2) is the Android app for it and your device getting patches regularly?
3) all Android apps and accessories need to be viewed with suspicion if using for anything connected to money, privacy or security. That includes using that Android device for any banking, online purchasing, or pay at the pump type transactions.

Just from the Android insecurity side of things I would prefer a stand alone device but understand that for your use case that might be a major con factor (ie more crap to carry around and keep track of).

HTH

Edited to add:

Android app for this device, if this is for correct device looks very bad 2.5 Star avg review and more 2 Star reviews than anything else on the bar graph.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infisense.p2plus&hl=en_US&gl=US