Best Thermal Camera YET? (HIKMICRO vs. TOPDON)

It's been 2 years since the last Thermal Imager review!

Now there are a couple HOT new players on the market:
HIKMICRO Pocket 2
TOPDON TC View

Will these two newcomers edge out the FLIR ONE and TOPDON ITC629?

Let's put them to the test and see how they stack up!

HIKMICRO POCKET 2: *******SAVE $150 with DISCOUNT CODE [8HLXYKOO]********

TOPDON TC VIEW: ********SAVE $60 with Amazon PRIME********

[smh]

Year 1998, took a month long class at FLIR. That and $11K got certified to purchase and use an actively-cooled FLIR IR "camera" that was literally the size of refrigerator, and rolled on a cart. 10 yrs later we had handhelds that cost a measly $24K each, which was actually considered affordable. Now.. a smartphone plug-in. sheesh. I wonder if we fully realize and/or appreciate the ever increasing technology. Enjoyed this video, btw.

[wino]

So the reason that the image didn't align in the Fusion mode is because you had the Parallax correction set for 1m (top middle of screen at 5:21). As someone else said the camera takes the IR and Normal pic through 2 different lenses and you have to set the distance to 0.3m (1ft for our American Cousins) otherwise they will be wildly out of alignment when looking close up!

[belljoxer]

The thermal and optical images are coming from different lenses. I have a different model HIKMICRO camera and there is a setting to tell the camera what distance range you are shooting from. This information is necessary so it can correct the image offsets and merge them more accurately.

[dericn]

Thanks Ivan. Based on your review, I bought the TOPDON one on Black Friday. Just got it today, and am very impressed with it. By the way, the extension cable they supply WILL work with your phone. The USB-A side pops off, revealing a USB-C connector.

[michaelwitmer]

ivan, the topdon comes with a cable to attach your phone with the case on. no need to buy one. You had it laying on your table there. I didn't notice at first, but if you look closely you will notice that one end of the cable has a tether connected to an adapter. So, that cable supplied converts into two different ones

[mikeburdi]

Thanks for the review. I have been contemplating getting a new unit for a couple of months now. Your honest, independent review makes it a bit easier. Thanks again and cheers!

[unscrat]

I have the pocket 2. It’s quite good. Decent resolution, and good refresh rate. I don’t use the optical camera at all . There is enough resolution to identify what you’re scanning.

[dosgos]

We had the Flir Pro and used it with an iPhone. It was awesome. The phone & gizmo battery levels have to be monitored. Generally, I think dedicated devices are best for pros. One can use their phone to photograph the screen to email-text in the field where necessary.

[mikehonda]

I’m an iPhone user, and I’d pick the Hikmicron no question over the TopDon for a couple reasons, and not just only because I use Apple. With the Hikmicron, I see the camera wireless connection to the phone being a winner overall, because both Apple and Android can charge their devices and still use and mirror to your phone. What makes it better for Apple, is you can screen mirror across all of the Apple eco system while still being connected wirelessly to the camera using the iPhone as a hub. Like if your phone is too small to see, I can screen mirror my phone to my Apple TV and have a 11”-10, 000’ (yes I mean feet) tv monitor or projector completely wirelessly. Which is helpful in a shop, or live shop training. Though the price is a bite to take, you’re not stuck with a useless device because it’s android only, and vise versa in minimum cases.

[JohnnieBravo]

This is so weird. I was looking at the Topdon cam yesterday and today, to look at tire heat patterns on my old 71 Camaro road rager, and heat loss on my house, now that it's winter here in Alabama. (we don't do winter down here like you guys do I've spent a LOT of time supporting guidance systems on longwall and continuous mining machines in PA, so I'm well familiar with your winters there )

[sixtyfiveford]

I have the Topdon TC VIEW and love it. The resolution is phenomenal.

[craiggoodwin]

Ivan, I don't know if I can afford to watch your channel much longer. Great review. Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for Sharing!

[GeminiSeven]

I have the Seekshot Pro and the thermal image does not update nearly as fast as the HIKMicro and that is very frustrating when you have to move the camera super slow to get a good image read. I like the refresh rate of the HIKMicro and hope that it will be a better choice in the future. Thanks so much Ivan for all your great down to earth reviews. By the way since your review the price went up to list price on Amazon, I had the same thing happen when Eric O. recommended the Astro Scraper and the price went through the roof and availability went south. You two definitely Rock the markets...LOL

[NightRunner]

I have a Topdon TC001 that I got just about 2 1/2 weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Two small cons - On Windows (yes, it does Windows) it will occasionally freeze/drop connection. I still don't know why, but it could be due to the 32' USB active extension I'm using. Sometimes it goes over 24 hours without a problem, sometimes half an hour. Seems to do it when I do things that *might* be disturbing the cable, but as I said too soon to tell. The other thing is the frequent lag spikes due to the auto shutter messing with the range of the unit. You can actually turn it off in the phone app, but no option for that on the Windows app as of this writing. Turning it off locks you into a range of temps, so be aware of that.

Anyways, the update rate is nice and fluid, and the imagery on the high quality mode is really nice. High temp range is much noisier but as I said, that's for HIGH temps, like above 500F. No, the chicks don't actually go that high, hopefully, so in normal use you're not going to be using it. I've been sticking mine in my home window to watch the real world for a while (it can see through window screen, NOT glass) and it can easily spot people from well over 500' away and even small animals like cats from over 200' away, day or night. The temp readings appear to be quite accurate given the cheapness and the general nature of longwave IR. My phone wouldn't allow straight connection (too long a jump) with my existing phone case so I created a 3d printed one to hold both while using the included USB extension cable, and it works great, and I don't have to ever remove my phone's armor. The apps both need a little improvement here and there, but the phone app unsurprisingly takes the lead here. The Windows app needs more of the phone functionality and some attention to the way the bright white floating numbers easily get lost in high temp areas of the view. How they could have overlooked this obvious flaw all this time is beyond me. They could have simply made them gray and fixed everything since the cold temp will float to dark regions and hot will float to bright regions on most of the palettes. Or, show some interest and allow custom colors, it's not rocket science. Also, no current option for custom palettes, and the color stretch function is bugged and locks to impossible numbers outside of the normal use range (mine is stuck at -279F / -473F), yielding a black screen with your cold and hot readout floating against it like a teaser for the real thing. Aside of that, it's great and you can freely choose palette, dot, line, rectangle, circle up to ten total, and the global with the hot and cold seeker dots with no problems. To mitigate the white numbers getting lost in hot areas, I choose "blackhot" and have OBS studio grab the image stream and flip it negative, giving me black numbers against normal whitehot video. It's a PIA but it works. Besides, I'm only doing Windows right now because it's new and interesting to watch and record the real world in thermal on my PC. I'll get over it eventually and be back to the phone, which works a whole lot more intuitively. One note: Don't let this thing stare at the sun or you could burn a dead spot into the sensor. So, it's only so useful as a security or entertainment cam for outdoors. Beyond that, these cams are useful for SO many things. Monitor your Raspberry Pi's mainboard for overheating. Check for leaks both thermal and water in your walls or ceiling. Check your hot water heater for failure signs. Check your electricity breakers for the same thing, or for unusual loads. Check a huge array of things for overheating like your car brakes, engine parts, whatever. Check your vents for proper airflow. Check your damned flowerbeds for wet or dry spots. Check your legs for abnormal hot or cold spots that could indictate injury or disease. Take it outside at night and watch bats hunt for bugs. Light a fire and sit mesmerized at the hot swirling updraft. Watch your 3d printer print glowy lines of plastic and look for print overheating that will cause warp. Find the studs in your ceiling with ease. Find rats in your attic. There are SO many things you can do it's ridiculous to try to list them all. And at $200, similar pricing to a gaming habit, wtf are you waiting for? It's cheap, high science fun and usefulness just begging for you to grab it.

[kv]

The last 2 recent product review videos have been very good. Coming from you, Ivan, I definitely trust your opinion .

[herrtomas]

The TC002 is now available for the iPhone (or iPad). That's great because you can use it on a much larger hi-res screen. Just bought one - brilliant!

[Jakeisks]

The TOPDON TC View (TCView, TC001 camera) causes screen tearing on my Galaxy Tab A8 (fresh install of Android 14).

[Dave-eikk]

I have a UNI-T pro UTi690B that I bought around a year ago. Had to order it with the Banggood app from China (which I almost never do). But I have to say, I’d rather use it than any of the 4 IR cameras I saw you review. It is built in the same form factor as the older pistol grip TopDon you reviewed but has better specs. For instance:

255 X 192 IR resolution

Configurable visual image overlay with parallax correction and switchable white illuminates so you can use it in dark places (like under a car dashboard) and still see the visual light image overlay.

5°F -1022°F measurement range.

USB-C Rechargeable lithium ion battery

Micro SD card slot for image storage

IP65 water resistance, 2m drop tolerant

Lots of configuration options for how the image is displayed.

I see it listed on eBay for more than I paid for it when it was first introduced. So lookout for sales. Banggood has it for $349 right now so their sale price is no longer in effect.

Check it out on YouTube. There are other sites that have reviewed it. I highly recommend it even if you have to pay full price.

[kingtracker]

excellent video as allways I bought the topdon tc005 3 weeks ago and so much problems with image I call topdon they end up sending another one but almost same problem customer service is not that great just shop around before

[publicmail]

Ivan, check out infiray line, including the T2S+ for $300, comes with cable and nice handheld universal mount. Just bought one and the specs and hardware and price are the best, IMO. They carry a full line but theT2S+ model has adj. focus down to macro and no built in battery bs. Of course depending on use heavy duty model with their own screen too.