I really like mine, would pay retail twice for it certainly. It is like having 20,000 ir pointers in one screen. Cost of mine was 799$ w/o accessories ( battery, case, current clamp).
There is a hellofadifference in ta 1000w hub motor running on 3kW vs a 3000w hub motor running on 3kW. Camera will show that. Lol. However, a thermal color changing sticker can tell you this too. For about 10 cents.
The tool tells me alot, alot more than a spot IR pointer. It teaches me things. I see the reflection of an amazing amount of technology, research and development that thermal cameras have accomplished..
My dad the superpowerindustry engineer of 50 years says its a trinket. A toy. Not very usefull. Nice, but not necessary, for any "real" engineering work... I even take pics of our boilers and the steam engines and try to tell him stuff.. and he is like " I knew that without the camera". Lol.
I am an amateur electrical enthusiast. I play with dangerous things. I sell my play as paid labor to my customers. People come to me cause it is known I " know " what I am doing. ( kinda do, analog electronics are easy.. ) .. Like today I am doing an IOTA charger/load center in a 2005 Sprinter by Mercedes. 12v system with shore power. Hooking up 120v and whatnot to a permanent installation on a deep cycle in a van, for the camping. 30A 120v main breaker, small plastic NEMA rated panel for the van... but in the initial test, I take a view of it under power and see hot spots, wires that are to small, hotspots easily and shows my error. Is the charger working? Is the load power ok with a 10g stranded on the 30A breaker? Is that spade terminal that I thought might not have crimped that good.. heating up dangerously>? Can I run a 12A vacuum on the circuit safely? How about a circular saw off the inverter?
It is also cool as a hunting tool. I can see a cat from 100 yards away in the absolute black of night.
However, you cannot hunt frogs with it. Doh!
It will for sure tell you if it is " just hot.. or way tooo hot".... I wont ever not have one for the rest of my life given how useful mine was/ is. Plus all the pics of the other things ( doggys, houses, cars, HVAC systems)
I couldn't imagine spending 1000$ on just a Thermal cam. ( the low resolution cheap cameras suck, so I wanted something with a good resolution) ... So I got the FLIR DM285, a datalogging multimeter of very good specs and is also just happens to be a thermal camera. So the incentive of a datalogging multimeter plus thermal camera made me spend the 1000$. A very good, 40,000 count meter that datalogs up to 3000A ( 3x a second). 9 FPS maximum ( as per U.S. laws, so we dont go making home made heat seeking missiles to go shoot around out back in the cow pen).
Some pics I have taken.