FLIR C5 Compact Thermal Imaging Camera with WiFi: High Resolution Infrared Imager for Inspection, Electrical/Mechanical, Building, and HVAC Applications

We are using it in our village to survey houses for heat loss. It is extremely easy to use and gives results that are simple and intuitive to understand. Brilliant camera!

Good size display easy to set up and use

Pros:Compact, tripod connector, MSX software, USB-C charging, 2 yr warranty on unit, 10 years warranty on sensor.Cons:160x120 IR sensor, must have a steady hand when taking images.Overall, it's ok, although I think a bit sluggish and pricey, as you can get 320x160 sensors for approx 20% cheaper (but warranty or CS is v bad apparently).Wifi acquisition takes ages, hence to boot the thing - Only turn it on when you need to upload, otherwise it'll spend the first 10/15 seconds waiting to acquire a wifi signal - wasted time where you can't actually use the device.To change the 'spot light' function, you need to swipe down from the top of the screen to activate it.To change the brightness, you also need to swipe down and set it from there.To access the images, you can't simply connect it to a laptop, you must 'upload' it to the ignite.flir.com website where it will save images for you.You get approx 1G of upload data to save.Saving is easy, and you can select/create folders as you need, and also annotate the images as you take them.Image is of back on one of my racks at home.

Easy to use and set-up, albeit long winded. Used it around the house to find dilapidated electric chargers, bad electric transformers, subsequently removed. Checked central heating and boiler flow and returns with aim of lowering temperature. Used it to find cold bridges in external walls, floors, and ceilings. Great tool for any household as you can find your self where the problems are before calling in the professionals. Cool tool for checking the composter.

Having two units become faulty in the spell of 10mins with both of them failing is not good nor impressive. The first one didn’t switch on just a black screen. The second one worked well for 7mins then wouldn’t switch off, with all the settings gone off the touch screen. I’ve been a building surveyor for a decade and have used flir equipment over this period. Granted the equipment I’ve used in the past was £10k and belonged to large organisations, this is only £650, and you do get what you pay for, however, I’m glad I tested the kit before going to site tomorrow. Albeit I will have to cancel the pathology inspection, I’d rather that, then be onsite with inadequate and failing equipment. It would have been embarrassing in front of the client who has paid for my time.Utter garbage save your money, either don’t bother or go to E5 or and above.I’ve just ordered an E6 at £2k, this should hopefully be an improvement over this piece of junk (putting it nicely). One reviewer stated the C2 they owned, which this unit is based on would make a great expensive paper weight. I fully agree.The only positive from this experience is Amazon and their after sales customer care. 100% satisfaction, sent me a second unit before Monday with the first unit delivered Friday (24 hours turnaround) Thank you Amazon and your support team via email and online chatting.

Easy to use

A couple of people from our energy company (Octopus) came round to check their customers were OK for the winter and one of them did a free thermal image check with a FLIR camera attached to their phone.It crashed several times but when it worked it was really informative.So I decided to buy one of these units thinking that an all in one would be more reliable because we all know what phone apps can be like.I was very disappointed.On initially powering the unit up, it hung on a progress bar as shown in the first image. It didn't progress at all no matter how long I left it.I power-cycled it a few times and eventually it booted and showed an image and I thought "yay, it's working" before powering it off.I switched it on some time later and got the progress bar again, and again, and again, and when it finally booted successfully, I got a white screen with the temperature reading 83C and nothing I did could reset it.I performed a firmware update which did get it working but the next day, I was in the same situation, progress bars and white screens.When the camera is working, it seems to hang every few seconds with the word "Calibrating" appearing at the top while it figures out what the minimum and maximum temperatures are in it's view. It feels like there's a small hamster for a processor in there and maybe buying the version that plugs into your phone would mean you get a faster, pause-free experience (and you have the option of unplugging the device when it starts acting up)When it works, it's amazing. I'll never look at the cats the same way again but I can see my central heating and underfloor heating pipes as clear as day when the heating is on and I can see exactly where the draughts are coming in and how effective draught excluders are when they are installed.

Bought from the warehouse for a community energy cooperative for us to help people identify poor insulation in their homes. Despite being from the warehouse, this still had its screen protector in place, indeed it looked like new, although the USB lead was missing. We're still learning but it looks really promising.