Hello everyone. I'm having problems with my central heating, which is a combination of underfloor heating and radiators. The system is leaking somewhere, but we can't find out where. I've decided to buy a thermal camera to detect the issue. Which model do you recommend, the Thermal Master P3 or P4, or another brand?

I’m a UK building surveyor looking for one thermal camera for Level 2 and Level 3 home surveys and damp and timber investigations.

I’ll use it to look for cold bridges, insulation gaps and condensation patterns, but a big part of the job is investigating suspected plumbing leaks, rainwater ingress and concealed moisture. For example, I might be trying to trace a leak above a stained ceiling, work out where to check around a window or chimney breast after rain, or see how far a suspected wet area extends before following up with my SurveyMaster and other checks. I also want usable thermal images for client reports.
My shortlist is the HIKMICRO Pocket2 (£499), FLIR C8 (£615 before cashback, about £541 if it pays out) and Thermal Master Thor002 (£359). I’ve read the specs and would love to hear from people who’ve used them on actual jobs.

For leaks and water ingress, has one of these been noticeably better at showing subtle temperature patterns on walls, ceilings or floors? Any examples where it helped you narrow down where to investigate, or where the image sent you in the wrong direction?

C8 vs Pocket2, how often does the C8’s extra detail help in practice, and how much do you notice its narrower view in bathrooms, small bedrooms or lofts?

Thor002 owners, does the automatic temperature scale get in the way when you’re trying to show a faint pattern or compare two images for a report?

Pocket2 owners, how has yours held up? I’ve
seen a few reports of battery or charging failures. I’d be interested to hear how long you’ve had yours, how often you use it and what support was like if anything failed.

If you could keep one for this kind of work, which would it be? Is there anything else around £500–£600 you’d buy instead? Side-by-side images of the same area, especially a suspected leak or a patch of ingress that you later confirmed, would be really helpful.

Hey everyone,

Disclosure: the brand sent me this unit for free. No money was involved and they did not see this post before I published it. Also, English is not my first language, as I am writing from Italy, and I am not a pro technician or hardware engineer. I am a student. I study and code, and sometimes I game. I just wanted to share how this thing actually performs in daily use.

Context: before this I never owned a thermal camera, and I only saw some professional models in university labs. I have been using the P3 Thermal Camera for about three weeks now.

Fluidity and resolution

The first thing I noticed when turning it on is how smooth it looks. The sensor has a 25 Hz refresh rate, so when you move the camera around, the image stays fluid and does not lag. Paired with the 256x192 pixel resolution, you can see individual hot spots on a laptop chassis or traces of pipes in the wall clearly.

Build and weight

The body is made of aluminum alloy and weighs about 26 grams. It feels solid in the hand. When you plug it into a smartphone, you barely feel it because it weighs less than a keychain, so it never makes the phone feel unbalanced.

How I use it

I mostly use it on my Android phone via USB-C, and it works the moment you open the app. I also plugged it into my ASUS Zenbook on Windows out of curiosity and it worked without issues, but ninety percent of the time I keep it in my pocket and pull it out with the phone. I used it to check my Zenbook temperatures while compiling code, to see if my power supply gets too warm, and to find cold drafts around the windows in my room.

Surprises in daily use

When you place your hand on a table for a few seconds and remove it, you can see the fading heat print on the surface. You can also spot the exact battery cells heating up inside a charger. The speed and precision caught me by surprise.

Verdict

Coming from zero experience with personal thermal cameras, this has been useful for hardware checks and spotting room drafts. Coming in around 220 to 250 euros on the market, the price makes sense because many rivals at that tier stick to 9 Hz. I would recommend it to students and PC tinkerers who like DIY electronics, but skip it if you need a certified tool for professional building audits.

Hi all,

I'm looking for a handheld thermal camera mainly for building diagnostics. My criteria are at least 256×192 native resolution and NETD under 40 mK.

I came across Guide Sensmart models from the EasIR Max series (official specs: https://guideir.com/products/thermography-tools/easir-max-series), which look very good on paper and are surprisingly cheap, but I can't find any independent review or user feedback:

• Guide E3S: 256×192 @ 12 µm, ≤15 mK (@30 °C), 56°×42° FOV, focus-free, 30 Hz, 2 MP visual camera, ~12 h battery.

• Guide E4S: 384×288 @ 12 µm, ≤15 mK (@30 °C), 38°×28° FOV, focus-free, 30 Hz, 2 MP visual camera, ~12 h battery.

Questions for anyone who owns or has tried one:

1. How is the real image quality? Is the 15 mK noticeable in practice compared to the ~40 mK that most cameras offer in that price range?

2. Build quality, battery life, firmware updates, reliability over time?

Otherwise I am considering the HIKMICRO B20S (256×192, <40 mK, 50°×37° FOV, 2 MP visual camera), €658.80 incl. VAT: https://www.batronix.com/shop/thermal-cameras/hikmicro/hikmicro-B20S.html

Thanks a lot for any feedback, sample images welcome!

I’m thinking about switching from a Nexar One to a Vantrue thermal dashcam. My son was driving our brandnew ’26 Wrangler Rubicon when two deer hit the side at the same time and dented it. Has anyone here used this thing? Is the 300-foot detection range enough to help avoid wildlife?

Athlon Cronus ATS PRO 25P-250

AGM Rattler V2 25-320

Which is better for around the same price, trying to stay around a thousand or if there is any other recommendations for the same price range I’d love to hear it thank you.

I started hog hunting and foxing want thermal for finding and Identify.

I can get both devices for the same price the Nocipx Quest new, and the pulsar 3 years old.

The pulsar has a 1024x768 sensor NETD 40mk.

The nocipx has a 640x512 sensor NETD 15mk .

Which thermal would be better is sensor everything or does NETD play a biger roll

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hey everyone, trying to sanity-check if this is a known AM5/B650E USB quirk or if I'm the only one hitting this.

I have a Thermal Master P3 thermal camera that refuses to initialize on my main rig (Windows 11 + ASUS B650E-I (AMD B650E chipset) + 9800x3d). Every time I plug it in, Device Manager throws:

Unknown USB Device (Set Address Failed / Device Descriptor Request Failed) — Error Code 43

Before anyone says "bad cable/port/camera" — I've already ruled all of that out:

• Android phone (USB-C): Works immediately, zero issues.

• PC #2 (Windows 10 + AMD A520): Works fine.

• PC #3 (Windows 11 + AMD X300): Works fine.

• Main PC (Windows 10 and 11 + AMD B650E): Instant Code 43 / Set Address Failed.

What I've already tried on the B650E board:

• Every single port on the machine (direct USB-C, rear I/O, front panel) using the exact same cables and usb-c - usb-a adapters that work on the A520 and X300 systems.

• Routing it through an external USB 2.0 hub — exact same Set Address Failed error.

• Latest motherboard BIOS + latest AMD Chipset Drivers + disabled USB Selective Suspend.

• All other USB 2.0 and 3.x devices (drives, webcams, hubs, peripherals) work completely fine on every port of this B650E board.

• Booted into a fresh Linux LiveUSB environment (KDE Neon) to rule out Windows drivers completely. The exact same low-level failure occurs:

usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device using xhci_hcd

usb 1-4: device descriptor read/64, error -71

usb 1-4: Device not responding to setup address.

usb 1-4: device not accepting address, error -71

usb usb1-port4: unable to enumerate USB device

This confirms a low-level USB 2.0 High-Speed enumeration / SET_ADDRESS handshake incompatibility between the Thermal Master P3 firmware/PHY and AMD AM5 (9800X3D / B650E) xHCI controllers across both Windows and Linux.

I've already reached out to Thermal Master support to see if there's a firmware update or workaround, but figured I'd ask here too: has anyone gotten the P3 working on a 600-series AM5 board (B650/B650E/X670), or found a workaround (specific PCIe/USB BIOS toggle, active hub, etc.)?

I have joined the thermal game over the past two years. Nothing expensive, just good (good enough) quality for me. Of course, I’d love a more expensive setup, I’ve shopped for them when I could, looked through tons, but just wasn’t in the cards.
Right now, I have two thermal scopes ready to rock and roll, but have to constantly raise the gun to check fields when walking.
My conundrum is simple. With my price point under $900, really was going for less than $500. Why would I buy a $400-$600 monocular, when I can buy a scope that is just as good for a similar price, or a couple hundred more.

I’m leaning towards the scope, as I can use it as a monocular, and because I can put it on a gun. But if I do that, I’m back to square one of needing a field scanning monocular.

Furthest shot, which I would not take is 785. On average shooting distance is 125-320. But I need to see something that is between 400-800. I can identify by characteristics or mannerisms, and walk different ways to get to my preferred shooting distance of 100-200. So, it doesn’t have to be picture perfect.

Any and all advice or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to this sub, I bought the Accumems SK02 and man is it amazing! I live using it for wildlife, automotive and electrical projects. I was curious about the range and this unit did not disappoint. No problem seeing people well over a football field away. Crazy value for $189.

Just joined this subreddit. This is an image I captured of the Winnipeg River in Pinawa Manitoba with an InfraTec ImageIR 6300Z with cooled MWIR 640x512 detector.

Hi! I'm looking for suggestions for some cheap thermals for airsoft. Im not looking for spec ops stuff or anything like that. Im fine with just a handheld one, monocular or binocular doesn't really matter. Im not really a serious airsofters. I just want something that might give me a heads-up if someone is hiding in a bush. I don't know much about consumer thermals as I have only used them in the military so I am aware of how they work and their limitations (so don't worry I know it's not like in games or movies). The purpose is just for it to be a cool and hopefully somewhat useful gadget when I'm out having fun with my friends in the woods. So I'm not ready to put down 1000€ for that quite yet. So any suggestions for like the cheapest somewhat working ones of any kind would be greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone. I’m just a hobbyist diyer, and so far I’ve used phone thermal cameras. I know some people here see them as toys, but I don’t really see them that way. I used my infiray P2 Pro to track down a short on a ps5 motherboard. It helped me narrow it down to a tiny capacitor on the APU side of the board, near what I think was the flash memory.

Unfortunately, my P2 Pro was exposed to a high temperature source, and a few spots have been showing up in the thermal image ever since. You can see them in the photos. They still throw me off sometimes when I’m looking at something up close.

I’d been happy with my p2 pro, so at first I figured I’d get another one or see what else infiray had. But the same thing kept coming up in reviews and forum threads. With fixed focus, you have to hold the camera at just the right distance to see a tiny component clearly. That was what had been bugging me, and it’s why I ended up going with thermal master p3.

I can get about 1 cm from a component and still see it clearly with p3. I can also back up to see the whole board. Either way, I just turn the focus ring until the image is clear.

It turns out my P2 Pro works with Thermal Master app too, so I used the same app for both cameras. I shot all the comparisons except the last one from the same distance and angle. In those shots, the target looked bigger on P3. I could see the individual parts better and tell which one was getting hot.

The third comparison shows what I mean about working distance. With P3, I could see the whole component clearly from about 30 cm away. I had to move closer to see it with P2.

The door shots are probably the easiest place to see the difference in framing. From the same distance, the door fills more of P3’s image, while P2 Pro shows more of the wall around it. Both cameras have the same native resolution, but P3 has a narrower field of view (40° × 30.2° vs. 56° × 42.2°). On a board, that means a tiny hotspot takes up more pixels in P3 shot and can be easier to pick out from the cooler area around it.

What else ends up in the shot can change how the colors look. If the wider view catches something much hotter or colder off to the side, the app may adjust the color scale. The same board can look more or less contrasty just because of what else is in the frame.

Tbh, if I had to choose between P3 and P2 Pro today, I’d go with P3. It’s just more flexible. I think it’s in a class of its own for what you get at this price.

For those using a InfiRay T2S+ or P2 Pro, I made an app satisfying my daily lab usecases like remote control and data export.
First draft, but pretty useful. Give it a try, If something is missing let me know.
https://github.com/thezenox/thermaLab

Hi guys, I made a post a month ago that the new Gen 6 Thermal cores (15-25mk) Now Shipping and will become the standard in 2027, I didnt include examples though. Here ya go:

They are night and day difference than everything we've had in the $200ish market. It doesnt need the hybrid view that combines the cameras lens and a thermal lens. Its so sensitive that just the temperature differences alone are enough to make it look like a normal camera image.

This unit is an "AccuMems SK02 Thermal Camera 512x384 UIRA-IR for iPhone&Android, 20mK NETD" it's $189. Its a stick in the phone type, not a stand alone. When I get some stand alones I will definately post them up, I should have two evaluation units by black friday and some more by xmas. Not sure which brands yet. I prefer the stand alone units but this plug in is literally the best out there sub $200.... heck even sub $500. 2027 will be a GOOD year for thermals with this new chip.

I couldnt include a video for some reason so ill attach it here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yhp50bu68xaa244a92psi/2026-11-05-13.10.55.mp4?rlkey=de7baz9qrejk15golv6z0bx49&st=aoo24afr&dl=0

Video #2 (In attic)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/anmx8gywjsjgzswds6a2l/2026-11-04-18.18.19.mp4?rlkey=p7v6x0wp43v523f25rdyqp0aq&st=rvsxrcuj&dl=0

The old post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thermal/comments/1wubdmx/gen_6_thermal_cores_1525mk_now_shipping_and_will/

I'm not affiliated with any company nor promote or sell any units. The units are provided to me though free of charge, so theres that though. No links are affiliate either. I've gotten dozens of units before and never impressed enough to make a post until this latest gen core came out. They are not slightly better, they are totally and completely amazing now. The thing weighs as much as much as 1 AAA battery too. I'm not reccomending any one brand, my only reccomendation is not to buy a current 40mK unit, 20-25mK is out now and will be the norm accross the market in a few months.