Anyone hear the rumor of a $1,000 black and white infrared camera?

[Nick Gromicko]

I heard one is coming out.

[John McKenna]

Well, keep talking..!

[Marc D. Shunk]

Originally Posted by jmckenna1

Well, keep talking..!

You want one for each hip now? You can be like one of the wild-west gunslingers.

[John McKenna]

My Hero

[asargisian]

When I was in Vegas taking the ITC course, the Instructor mentioned that FLIR is coming out with a new Camera by the end of the year, he said he's not supposed to mention this but oh well..The size and shape is close to the Bcam series and the cost is going to be far far lower than any of them on the market. All he said It's going far under $2,500 and thats a fact he said.

So we will have to wait and see..He did mention the color of the skin, But it's not Black / White. It will have 2-3 color choices, But you never know black and white might be one of the colors. This is all he mentioned to us in class.

Aram
ITC Certified Level-1 Thermographer

[Kevin A. Richardson]

Within the next five years, every inspector will have one. Why wouldn't you? Better to get into it now!

Kevin

[John Snell]

Had this posting been made today (4/1), I would have been very suspicious! I first used infrared for building inspections in 1983 and have been training others ever since. In those 25 years I've seen a lot of changes but none has surprised me more than the price reductions we've seen in the past several years.

There WILL be further reductions but I know of no $1000 camera coming at this time. I fully expect we will hit $3500 within a year and two new technologies may push it a bit lower. The cost of germanium lens material remains the limiting factor at this time—as well as marketing costs and profits of course!

Readers must realize that not all cameras are appropriate for use in buildings and some cameras are much more than is necessary. While a black and white image (not a "skin") can work well, a thermal sensitivity of less than 70mK is, while not essential, vital if you want to do good work year round especially for moisture. Temperature measurement is not essential but a wide angle lens (25 to 40 degrees) is a must for working inside. Frame rates of 30 and 60Hz are not necessary IF you take the time to learn to get good, high-quality images with a 9Hz camera. For residential and small-commercial buildings a 160x120 array easily does nearly any job—despite the marketing push to buy larger arrays—but you'll get into trouble fast with that system on larger buildings. To reduce all of this to a "rumor of a $1,000 black and white" system is a mistake.

I WILL say there has never been a better time to be in the field. I would encourage all readers to develop a business plan that supports using this remarkable technology because it is not going to go away. Hopefully your new camera, whichever one you end up with and at whatever price, can be part of a profitable business helping homeowners make intelligent decisions. Hopefully it also will be lighter weight than this system, a 22-pound Inframetrics 740, which I'm shown using back in the early '90s.

Thermally yours,

John Snell
Snell Infrared
ASNT NDT Level III #48166
http://www.thesnellgroup.com
http://www.IRTalk.com
http://www.thermalsolutions.org

[ldapkus]

Thanks John.