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Old 01-03-2017, 06:29 AM   #21
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A friend of mine who works search and rescue claims its invaluable in finding people in the water at night, you can put a spotlight on them and never see them but Flir leaves a great signature. Of course the one he has is very expensive.
I think that's a good example of the problem. You hear about these great stories that end up being the result of the very high-end models with stabilization, etc. The "affordable" $10k-$20k units perform differently.

So maybe I'm a complete sucker for buying a FLIR One, but after seeing the images from the other thread of an actual user operating the actual product, I think it will serve a valuable and useful purpose. Time will tell.
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Old 01-03-2017, 08:28 AM   #22
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I haven't used mine enough to pass judgement but if it saves my bacon one time it is worthwhile besides most boaters are gadget collectors who like playing with their toys. I still haven't learned my radar 100%. LOL
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Old 01-03-2017, 09:03 AM   #23
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[QUOTE=twistedtree;509687]It's a current model, the M-625XP. I ran it our whole trip up the coast in moderately bouncy weather. Between movement of the image due to boat movement, and modest resolution (640x480), I'd be shocked if you could pick out anything in the water. QUOTE]

Interesting, that is the high end model and you have, and you have a big boat. Perhaps the image stabilization will improve over time. Thanks for the feedback.

Getting back to the handheld, as noted I have had the Flir Ocean Scout 320 which has 640x480 res. It has been fairly useful, but I would say it is limited to stopping and looking for things at night such as a bouys at a marina entrance. I am sure there are others on here with more experience with these.

I will be interested to see how this flip phone compares, if someone has both, because that is a heck of a lot cheaper than the ocean scout models.

The reason I bought this, was based on an encounter I had at night leaving Catalina Island at 4 am a couple years ago. Leaving the entrance, there was a guy in a very small boat, no lights, and combined with the lights from the marina behind me, caused me some havoc. I was stopped dead my wife and both staring trying to figure out what was going on so we could leave. If I had this Flir back then, a quick check would have pinned down his location because he was ghosting in and out on the radar. It is also a great tool for night time search and rescue in that unlikely event.

And to be honest, its been a fun toy to play with in between its "useful" moments.
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Old 01-03-2017, 09:49 AM   #24
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Mine isn't stabilized. It has pan and tilt controls, but no stabilization.

Maybe I just need to use mine more. I'll try to do that over the next month or so.
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Old 01-23-2017, 11:04 AM   #25
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I'm cross posting this review of the FLIR One.

-------------

After reading this thread, I went and bought a FLIR One for iPhone.

I REALLY like the device, but I returned it because it’s totally unreliable.

The good part is that it does provide good thermal images. For example, I could see where my heating tubes snake through the concealed wall of my pilot house. And a couple of pictures of my electrical cabinet clearly showed the consumers of standby power - namely the fire shutdown control boxes, and associated external relays, all of which were glowing brightly in the image. I could also see at a glance that I didn’t have any overheating breakers or electrical connections. It’s much faster and more comprehensive than shooting everything with a temp gun. I also checked the power plug for our coffee maker while it was running this morning. The plug and cord were warm which is to be expected, but I could confirm that the receptacle was not. I can also see where the heat is getting out of my boat the most, and where the cold is getting in. With all this, I would rank it as one of the most valuable $250 diagnostic tools that I have.

But here’s the rub. The camera continually disconnects from the phone app, and the image goes black and says to reconnect the phone. A few seconds later, it comes back on and resumes with a correct image. And it continually goes through this disconnect, reconnect cycling every 10 seconds to maybe a minute. Reading the app reviews, it seems this is very common, so it’s hard for me to believe FLIR was not aware of it when they shipped.

I contacted FLIR support and they gave me a list of things to do. It was the usual cycling of power, do a hard reset, reinstall the app, try it on a different phone blah, blah, blah, useless stuff to get you off the phone. I did all of that, and the behavior is still the same. So rather than going down the rabbit hole with FLIR getting a replacement and trying to debug this thing, I’m just returning it for a refund. Maybe when the app reviews start to show a product that consistently operates for more than 10 to 60 seconds at a time, I’ll buy another one. I’d really like to have one, but it needs to at least stay turned on.
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Old 01-23-2017, 11:16 AM   #26
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Peter,
Thanks for this really useful info. My take so far on this thread is, a potentially useful on-board diagnostic tool, once FLIR gets the interface fixed, but not a useful night-vision tool.
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Old 01-23-2017, 11:37 AM   #27
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Peter,
Thanks for this really useful info. My take so far on this thread is, a potentially useful on-board diagnostic tool, once FLIR gets the interface fixed, but not a useful night-vision tool.
I agree. Any BTW, thermal imaging and night vision are apparently pretty different things. Maybe someone who knows more can explain more?
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Old 01-23-2017, 02:04 PM   #28
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As I understand, and I have both NV and FLIR, is that FLIR recognizes a heat signature while NV enhances the image. Both have their place and some Special Forces units have both on their weapons. If a person has been laying on the ground and left FLIR will still report a heat signature until the temperatures equalize, NV will not give a signature if nothing is there.

One of he most amazing features of NV is to look at the sky at night, you'll be amazed at the amount of stars you can see.
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Old 01-23-2017, 03:31 PM   #29
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I agree. Any BTW, thermal imaging and night vision are apparently pretty different things. Maybe someone who knows more can explain more?
Night Vision (as in Night Vision Goggles) uses a technique that vastly multiplies the tiny amounts of light that are normally present from starlight, moonlight, etc. So in that way, its a completely different technology from thermal.

Thermal Imaging creates an image based on differences in temperature.

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Old 01-23-2017, 03:35 PM   #30
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Hmm, I thought I posted this, but it doesn't seem to be here, so I'll try again.

I bought this unit for my iPhone from a company called Seek Thermal for use at work. I have used it quite a lot and it has performed great.

I tried very briefly to use it for night vision aboard the boat and it didn't seem very good for that, but I did not try to make any adjustments which may have helped a lot. Perhaps I'll try it again some day.

Compact | Seek Thermal

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Old 01-23-2017, 03:55 PM   #31
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Hmm, I thought I posted this, but it doesn't seem to be here, so I'll try again.

I bought this unit for my iPhone from a company called Seek Thermal for use at work. I have used it quite a lot and it has performed great.

I tried very briefly to use it for night vision aboard the boat and it didn't seem very good for that, but I did not try to make any adjustments which may have helped a lot. Perhaps I'll try it again some day.

Compact | Seek Thermal

Ken

Good to know.
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