And we're back!

After a few years of silence our Infrared blogging team is back! What use to cost $15,000+ 2 years ago can now be picked up for at low as $6,000 (we're exited!).

We are going to be writing everyday on the best products and thermal imaging applications out in the market today. Thermal and Infrared is going to be big - we're going to tell you about it!

If you have any questions please send us and email to abe.lake@gmail.com

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Macbook Thermal Camera

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Thermal Binoculars and Infrared Binocular Reviews

Thermal binoculars today are more advanced and less expensive than ever before. Thermal imaging cameras cannot see light. All thermal cameras can only see heat, therefore they can be used during the day and when it is pitch black outside. SPI has a wide selection of infrared camera and infrared cameras too.

If you are interested in thermal products offered by Sierra Pacific Innovations, contact a team member today by calling 702-369-3966

You may also visit www.thermal-binoculars.com for more information on their products

Monday, March 17, 2008

Cheap Night Vision Binoculars

About 3 years ago, the phrase "cheap night vision binoculars" would have been considered an oxymoron. Today, night vision binoculars and night vision goggles are available at affordable prices. If you are looking to purchase night vision binoculars we would suggest you visit X20.org's night vision department.

Night vision cameras and binoculars are also available from Sierra Pacific Innovations.

Tomorrow we will discuss thermal binoculars and where to find them.

Thanks everyone, and happy St. Patricks day!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Thermal Camera Tips

Looking for a site dedicated to thermal and infrared cameras?

LOOK NO FURTHER. ThermalCameraTips.com is here! This site is everything thermal. They have the latest eBay auctions for thermal cameras, all the links and information about infrared cameras. They even have books feed by amazon related to thermal.

It's a great site, and very easy to navigate. Check them out.

Thanks, and have a good weekend everyone!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Thermal Binoculars



Wow. We have never seen so many thermal binoculars offered under one roof. Thermal binocular and infrared binoculars are primarily used for the military and government, but are also available to the average civilian in the united states. Although expensive, these binoculars are quite impressive. They can be used during the day and at night.

This site also has many night vision monoculars and binoculars for sale.
Check them out here!

Thursday, March 06, 2008

M1 Thermal Camera for the Military

Wow. We must say that the guys at Military Infrared have done it again. This time they went huge. The new M1 High output thermal imaging device is one of a kind. We haven't seen anything like it. This bad boy is expensive and was built specifically for the Military and the United States Government. We have attached some images from one of their websites, but the YouTube video the posted is what blew us away. Just look at the detail. We like how they emulated a Taliban terrorist planting an IED. The image is so clear you can even see the wire. We asked and they told us he was over 100 yards away, pitch black, in the middle of the desert!











Amazing. We're impressed. Look for more exciting thermal infrared images and videos to come shortly.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

FLIR Thermal Infrared Camera Surveillance Imaging Video

Cool short MTV infrared camera video featuring thermal infrared imaging systems that are used for surveillance purposes by military and law enforcment agencies. Includes thermal pan tilt, infrared cameras and thermal weapon sight footage.

UAV Test Flight Predator style Thermal Infrared Surveillance of Ground Targets

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Test at Nevada test site dry lake bed. Shows night vision and thermal imaging from a predator style UAV platform. Includes ground crew footage.

Monday, July 10, 2006

RAZIR Infrared Camera Cellphone




OMG (Oh My Goodness) I can't believe this thing. This Raz-IR thermal camera looks just like a flip open type cell phone and is not much bigger. This is the type of camera I have been waiting for. I think they have crammed almost every feature you could think of into this camera and still kept it amazingly small.

I recently got to play with this little guy for awhile thanks to the
Infrared Camera Superstore and I must say that I was impressed. The camera takes both visible and thermal images and stores them together. You can even put a voice comment (something I don't really use) with the images. The software automatically opens all the images and the voice comment together. Very cool for a low cost camera.

Here are some images I took with the camera


Let me know what you think. Has anyone else had a chance to use this camera? I will be posting more on this device shortly. Maybe I can sneak in some sexy thermal girl images with my new infrared spy camera....JK...Let me know what you want to see in thermal infrared.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Name The Infrared Image (very popular)


Thermal imagers represent the true nature of things. Since they show you what everything looks like based on what is actually being emitted from the object rather than what is being reflected off of the object. For an in depth discussion of how thermal imagers work check out the previous post "How Thermal Infrared Camera Technology Works".

We thought about this and realized that we take for grnated what we have come to see in thermal image form through our infrared cameras. We would like to share with everyone the true nature of things. In this spirit we invite everyone to post comments to this blog requesting thermal images of common items. Whatever it is that you want to see let us know and we will post a stunning infrared image of it on this blog. Be carefull what you wish for the truth might shock you.

Here are some goodies to get you started.


Machine gun (Tommy Gun) automatic firing.


Human hand circulatory issues


A crock pot


Microscopic thermal image of a US Quarter


Circuit board PCB Thermal Image


Veins in human arm thermography

Requested BY Readers

Well we knew that this would be a request so here it is the first request for thermal pictures of womens body parts (breasts). These images actually have diagnostic signifigance. Thermal Infrared Breast thermography has been show to be an acurate tool in finding breast cancer early.Thermal Breast Image requested by M. Mouz

An image of vascular blood flow is above for anonymous (you can also see veins in the breast image).


Here is an energy audit image of a house. Note the areas around windows showing thermal differences.


This close up image shows a clearly defined area of heat loss.


Thermal image of a thermal camera. As requested by Da' Joind.

Post a comment and we will respond immediately!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

How Thermal Infrared Camera Technology Works

** Special thanks to www.x20.org and SPI Corp for images and information**
Thermal infrared imagers are detector and lens combinations that give a visual representation of infrared energy emitted by all objects above 0 k. In other words thermal imagers let you "see" heat. Depending on the sophistication of your infrared camera system thermography is capable of providing very detailed images of situations invisible to the naked eye.

This image shows the detail visible with the camera of two laptops operating normally. Note the distribution of heat across the keyboard and bottom of the screen.
Thermal imagers cannot see through walls, although you can gather much information about the inside of the wall as well as what is happening on the other side of the wall with an infrared camera. For example you would not be able to see people and plants involved in an illegal indoor growing operation from the outside of the building. You would be able to see and monitor the heat escaping from the building that would be a telltale sign of an illicit growing operation.


The red areas indicate excessive heat loss in these areas.

You would also be able to see things like studs inside the walls, or damaged insulation in roofing applications. You cannot hide from thermal imaging by covering yourself in mud to blend in like that movie tough guy. This might work momentarily, but infrared "heat" energy transfers well when objects are touching. Your body heat would quickly warm your camouflage resulting in a thermal image. We hope that dispels a few of the most common questions regarding infrared energy. Thermal imagers for homeland security and the ones in Hollywood are very different. The remainder of this paper will focus on the real life thermal imagers and how they work.


Thermal infrared image of block wall construction shows reinforcing rod and voids in cement fills.


Infrared moisture detection image shows an area of damage. The image on the right is with a regular camera and the image on the left is with the thermal camera. Note that with the infrared camera you can see evidence of water damage as well as studs in the ceiling behind the drywall.

The visible light spectrum. Ultraviolet to infra-red. Thermal imagers work in the infrared part of the spectrum.

Thermal energy is transmitted in the infrared wavelength ( 1 micron to 100 microns ). You can see by the image above that thermal energy is closely related to visible light in that it travels in a wave. The human eye can only see the narrow middle band of visible light that encompasses all the colors of light in the rainbow. Thermal infrared imagers translate the energy transmitted in the infrared wavelength into data that can be processed into a visible light spectrum video display. Visible light is dependent on a light source ( the sun or artificial ) reflecting off an object to be received by our eyes. Remember, all objects above 0 degrees Kelvin emit thermal infrared energy so thermal imagers can passively see all objects regardless of ambient light. This can give you an enormous advantage. Thermal infrared imaging performs in a wider range of environments than other night vision technologies. Additionally, IR devices can serve your inspection needs at night or in broad daylight. It is interesting to mention that since conventional cameras and even our eyes see colors and shapes based on the reflection and absorption of external light on an object we are not really seeing the true nature of anything around us. Much like Plato and the cave we are so used to seeing the reflected image in the darkness that we take it to be the true image. Thermal infrared cameras convert the IR energy that is naturally emitted from all objects and translate that into an image we can see with our eyes. The strange truth is that the weird images we see with the thermal imagers is actually more truly what everything looks like than the reflected false image we see every day with our own two eyes. Don't freak out just have a look.

Human imaging solution
This is a black hot thermal image of a human deep in thought. The palette on this image is reversed so that white is cool and black is hot. Take a look at the area of the eye at the point that it intersects the nose, this is usually the hottest area on the external surface of a human. Generally, this area will measure 92-95 degrees F.

Heat transfer between objects as shown by thermal infrared imager Thermal infrared camera captures IR heat image.
The image on the left shows two adults and a child through an infrared thermal imager. After a minute of sitting on the couch the thermal infrared energy of the people is transferred and stored in the couch until they get up. The image on the right illustrates the fact that all objects radiate heat. The heat from their bodies that transferred to the couch is now being emitted from the couch and displayed on a thermal imaging device. No visual light technology can record this type of data. The properties of heat transmission are more than an interesting novelty, this information can prove useful in a variety of applications. Law enforcement applications include criminal tracking, land/airborne surveillance, drug facility detection, or vehicles which have been recently operated all from a safe distance, industrial users can detect flaws in manufacturing or weakened insulators, fire safety professionals can detect full vs. Empty flammable storage containers, and forestry workers can easily track game or poachers. Other applications include non destructive testing, process control, predictive/preventive maintenance, building/factory diagnostics, energy audits, roofing/insulation inspection, insurance fraud prevention, veterinary/human medical imaging, border patrol, remote security monitoring, and many more applications being discovered.
3 dimensional thermal profile af a power drill Veterinary thermal scan of a bird parrot
3D thermal profile of a drill. Parrot Infrared and the classic thermal handprint on the wall image.
Types of Thermal Imagers
Thermal infrared imagers come in different configurations to suit your specific needs. Some imagers are designed to give you actual temperature measurement of the scene along with a color video representation. This type of imager is called "radiometric" and is used mostly for industrial ( predictive maintenance, process control, R&D ) and medical ( human & veterinary ) applications. Other imagers are designed primarily for surveillance and / or target acquisition environments. These units can be either hand held thermal imagers or fixed mount remote installations. Thermal Pan and Tilt based positioning systems are also available for mounting on buildings, poles, marine vessels or land based vehicles. The chief differences in surveillance units is going to be the optical components and the resolution of the imager. High end units for surveillance and target acquisition scenarios are capable of human detection at over 2 miles and vehicle detection at over 5 miles. Another type of detector is the aerial surveillance mounted thermal imager. These units are mounted to aircraft in gyro stabilized all weather housings. Typically they are remote controlled and are either alone or paired with a CCD TV camera. Primarily these units are used by law enforcement agencies and electronic news gathering teams. Newer systems in this application are specialized thermal imaging modules designed for autonomous UAV use. These small lightweight sensors fit into the parameters of small to large unmanned aerial vehicles payload and mission capabilities.
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Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Amazing Infrared Camera Technology

Welcome to the wonderful world of infrared camera and night vision technologies. We will attempt to cover this broad topic with personal opinions, historical time lines, hands on first person reviews and of course links to even more information. If you are looking to purchase a camera / thermal imaging system or if you are just interested in night vision technology you will find the answers here. Hopefully, you will also be entertained.
Some topics we will cover
  1. The history and development of thermal imaging in the military.
  2. The history and development of infrared camera systems for industrial thermography.
  3. Night Vision Technologies (past and present).
  4. Hands on test drive of every thermal infrared camera and night vision device ever made (a huge undertaking that will be ongoing and include detailed reviews).
  5. First person reviews of the latest emerging technologies.
  6. Personal anecdotes and unique insights from real world in the field usage.
  7. Images

We encourage you to respond to anything on this site. Together we can make this one of the more interesting destinations on the web!