TOPDON TC001 Thermal Imaging Camera for Android, 512x384 High Resolution

I have tried this camera against a very expensive handheld FLIR and a temperature probe sensor and this seems to be very close in comparison. The emissivity feature works but it doesn't seem to be super accurate when viewing things like shiny metal. I used the tempersture probe to get a baseline on a shiny metal object, adjusted the emissivity on the camera multiple times and could not accurately get a reading. Another thing I've noticed is when viewing an object that emits infrared (a TV remote control), this camera does not pick up any signs of infrared. I'm not sure if it's the type of lens over the camera or what, but trying every different color scheme and tried different settings, nothing seemed to work. Even with what I mentioned above, this thermal camera works very well. The update speed when viewing an object is so fast, the handheld FLIR doesn't compete. As soon as I move the camera to view an object, it shows the updated temperature almost immediately.. and on 3 separate parts of the screen! It shows where you are aiming and automatically locates the coldest and hottest objects in the view. The different color schemes are nice, I like how intuitive the app is to use, it gives you information on the emissivity section with common emissivity settings, it has a picture in picture mode so you can view in thermal and in normal lighting, the carry pouch, and USB line is also a nice addition; I have an otterbox case on my phone and because of the cable I don't have to remove the case to use the thermal camera. I've used this camera on my house that I'm remodeling to check for hot spots in the walls and ceiling; I've also checked another closed in house to check for leaks in the walls. I am very pleased with this purchase and will be recommending this thermal camera to others in the future.

It's really a good little thermal camera for the price. The thermals are good, the temperature seems accurate, the build quality is good. If you need an inexpensive thermal camera this is it. The good: It has a nice quality little case that comes with it, similar to a small hard drive case. Very protective. The build quality is good. It comes with an extension cord that's around 9" long (which you will need if you have a phone case that prevents the camera from seating all the way into the USB port). The image quality is good, and it seems accurate. The bad: It doesn't overlay a real camera image with the thermal image. That's a much more high end feature. The USB port length is not adjustable, so if your phone has a case on it that blocks the body of the thermal camera from getting close enough to the body of the actual phone, then the USB port won't plug in deep enough to work. That's why you get the short USB extension cord. The cord also keeps your camera easy to move around with your other hand. It's amazing what you can do with a thermal camera. You can look at your walls, windows and ceilings to see where cold air is leaking into your house. You can check for overheating electrical components. You can see if certain parts of an electronics board are failed and heated up (for PCM and motherboard repair, etc). On cars, you can look a cold car over in the morning and see if there are any warm spots. Warm spots indicate that some piece of electronics is running when it shouldn't be, causing a parasitic draw. You can spot bad bearings in a spinning pulley that are beginning to heat up. You can see if your brakes work evenly on both sides of the car, or if you have a bad wheel bearing. You can see if coolant is flowing properly thru a radiator, or if a thermostat is open and flowing water. It's really good for automotive diagnostics. If you are looking for a budget thermal camera, this is it!

This review is for the "TOPDON TC001 Thermal Imaging Android, 256x192 IR Resolution" camera. This is a very nice IR camera, certainly well worth the price. I ordered the "Grey" finish version, and the photos for the "Grey" version do not show the zippered hard-shell case, the USB extension cable, or the lens cleaning cloth that is shown with the "Blue" version. However when mine arrived, inside the box was a hard shell zippered case, an extension USB cable, and a cleaning cloth. So the "Grey" version ships with the same set of accessories that are shown in the photos for the "Blue" version. The attached photos show the case and accessories that are included. The great aspect about having the case is it provides a protected location to store the camera when not in use. Not that the camera feels flimsy, it is metal and feels to be of high quality construction, but being a camera, the lens is the most important external part to not damage, and having the case provides that protection in storage. The camera itself works very well with a PC/Laptop. I have been using it so far with the tomshaffner/PyThermalcam software that is available from Github (just search Github for tomshaffner/PyThermalcam and it will come up). Plugged the camera into its extension cable, plugged the USB-C to USB-A adapter into the other end of the cable (as my laptop only has USB-A ports), launched PyThermanCam, and a thermal image popped right up. I've attached a snapshot of a sample thermal image of a circuit board that was powered up for a few minutes to warm up. This is actually the purpose for which I purchased the camera, finding hot spots on circuit boards for repair purposes. Although now that I have it, I suspect I'll find additional uses as time goes on. Very pleased with the purchase and I expect this camera to be very helpful in the future.

This device was pretty easy to add to my Galaxy S21 camera. Download the "TCP001" app (why the weird, generic name?), and then plug in the camera - it's that simple. The included kit is nice - the FLIR device, a USB-C cable w/ a USB-C to USB adapter, a cleaning cloth, and a zippered protective clamshell case. Resolution of the images was pretty impressive. It detects footprint heat signatures in the carpet, which surprised me. Software is fairly easy to use - I was making my way through it immediately, so it was pretty intuitive to me. Now, the few (nit-picky) criticisms: 1) Buy the suggested USB-C extension plug that Amazon offers to bundle with this - don't rely on the included cable if your phone case won't let the camera plug directly into your phone. With my phone's case on, it won't plug in and connect, requiring me to use the bundled cable to test it - that's a kludge fix at best. I bought a USB-C to USB-C adapter and am very happy with that setup. 2) The app you need to be downloaded from Google Play is called "TC001". I get it, it's a foreign company and English isn't their first language, but they need to get a better descriptive name than what sounds like a temporary file name for your app. Searching on "topdon" got me zilch in the results. 3) When walking around the house with the camera functioning, it will sometimes make some "click-click" noises, which seems to be the camera trying to figure out what exactly to focus on. It takes a second for it to finally snap to and find the wall or object you're pointing at. 4) We tried to use it to "look" at some deer at our bird feeder at night. It won't look out a window, but if we opened the window up it was able to see past the screen and show us the deer. Not handy in the winter, but then that's not it's main purpose.

I bought the FLIR ONE PRO LT and man is that terrible. This beats the Flir in EVERY CATEGORY EXCEPT ONE Pros: -Resolution, nearly if not DOUBLE the resolution of the FLIR, meaning, you can actually make out what you're looking at through the view finder. -Refreshrate, 24FPS is not SUPER FAST, but it beats like the 12FPS of FLIR -NO WATERMARKS, your images are nice and clear of any annoying watermarks since apparently FLIR thinks they're that important. -Higher Range; the FLIR ONE taps out to just above the boiling point of water. This goes up to almost 1200F. Which is great, since I live in Mississippi now and my car can get over 248F in spots and would be SOL with FLIR. -SLIGHTLY, EVER SO SLIGHTLY smaller package over all. -Uses phone power to power it. Claims that it's only 0.35W so it's sipping power, but it's minimal enough that I'm not too worried, and I'm not using this for An EXTREMELY LONG PERIOD OF TIME. The FLIR used a battery, while considerate, meant it was almost always dead when you needed it. -Can use USB C EXTENDERS which I think I ran into issues using those with the FLIR. Cons: -USB C Length; this is literally the ONLY WIN to the FLIR, the FLIR introduced a retractable and extendable USB C port on it so it could fit even the thickest of cases. WHERE THIS has trouble getting past my TPU case on my S23 ULTRA. ANNOYING, but not world ending. -This one's an odd one, and when you have this on your phone facing away from you, your pinky tends to want to rest RIGHT ON THE LENS. CAN'T EXPLAIN IT. For some odd ERGONOMIC reason, that lens is just perfectly located for a comfy PINKY resting point. -The app is not SUPER INTUITIVE, like I didn't realize you have to go back to the main screen to change to IMPERIAL, since you can't do it in the viewing mode. FRUSTRATING. Also the App looks very early 2010s, kind of going for that super dated skeuomorphic look. Has PALM OS vibes to it. Luckily doesn't require you to give it any personal information and seems to only want LOGICAL access to storage, photos and audio. You don't have to sign in to use it, just plug in and play. Will even auto-open the app when you plug in the device. Conclusion: I can't be happier with it. I was so disgusted and disappointed by the FLIR product that 5 years later I tried this finally, also had a $70 coupon on it, neat, so scored it for like $220. There is a slight lag between your movement and the view finder, but it's really little, meaning the processor on it must be pretty good. If you need a thermal imager I'd recommend this one. Since their standalone with screen is an android device with the same specs as this, but for $500. Which just doesn't make sense, and given that the iPhone 15 is going to finally join the USB C clan, means it should work on iOS as well, since TopDon does offer a Lightning version of this as well. So would imagine that it would be a plug and play experience on iOS with this version. Also the fact that you could hook this up to your PC and use it with that, increases its flexibility and usefulness.

I LOVE this camera!!!!! I've been wanting a thermal camera for several years (I'm a Nationally Certified Thermographer) and I'm used to using Ratheon and other retardedly priced Thermal Cameras. THIS is THE best unit I've found that connects to your phone. Temperatures are pretty accurate and will show you thermal leaks (hot and cold) in your house. You can use it for electrical connections (boards, wiring, and outlets) and see where your thermal overloads are. I've not tried it for tracking (got it after the Spring heat arrived) but I imagine it will work great for tracking when the weather is cold. I've found my dog's poop in total darkness already! LOL I highly recommend this camera. BUT, order the USB-C to USB-C adapter if you have a phone case. It WILL NOT connect to the phone if you have a case on it (unless you're using that weird USB-C cable connector that comes in the case). Speaking of the case, it is easily carried in a cargo pocket. If you don't wear pants or shorts with cargo pockets, just move on. This technology is above your comprehension, anyway. LOL

It is important to note that the build quality of the product is good, seller ships fast and for it comes with all necessary accessories. Pros: * Cheaper than others, especially for the price range (considering the discount). * Better than Flir in almost every situation in that price range and you don't need the visible light camera. * Easy to use software, gets the job done. * Very good build quality. Cons: * Support seems to be nonexistent. I submitted a ticket more than a week ago, followed up and still don't have any answer. So if you are buying this Chinese product with the hope that the US office will be helpful when you need support, you'll be wrong. * There is a visible Vignette around the corners of the image that usually results in a slightly higher temperature readings, especially when there is small variance in the temperatures in the picture. See attached videos and photos. This results in Hot reading to constantly stay top-right (or other corners) when assessing walls. I have to draw a square in the middle to keep the readings accurate. And YES, I've tried to clean the lens with the provided cloth. I've seen this in other reviews uploaded in Amazon. * Software is quirky sometimes. Doesn't remember settings and flips to default orientation on it's own. Sometimes I need to switch between High-Temperature readings and back to Normal-Temperature to fix image color distortions. * Still on mobile app, after the latest update, the gallery in the app doesn't work at all. UPDATE: Finally I was able to connect with support. They were very helpful and offered several options to resolve the issue. Also there was a recent app update for Android that fixed a few of the quirks. I still see a room for improvement but it is much better. Haven't had issues with crashing. I am pretty happy with the quality of the camera and what it offers compared to similar class products. Great value if you are looking for thermal imaging.

Arrived in less than 24hrs, new in cellophane wrapped box, came in a nice zippered pouch, looked over the limited instruction sheet but no need because it's plug and play. Simply download the free top don app from play store and plug it in the USB charging port of your phone and it automatically works. The app/camera controls are simple and easy to make whatever adjustments you want. I was impressed with the picture quality and clarity. I tried it out after coming in from the cold outside and I could easily see my cold fingers/toes show up as blue/black as compared to the rest of my body which was yellow/Orange. I researched on YouTube before buying, and I was originally going to buy the Ames thermal camera from Harbor freight, it is 220.00, but I had a 25% off coupon. I'm glad I bought this Topdon instead, the quality and versatility are so much better. so for just a few dollars more you get a compact high quality thermal camera at a budget price that There are thousands of uses for. You can easily take photos and videos of what you are looking at. And best of all there are no batteries or SD card to buy or format. Just plug it into your phone or tablet and your good to go with a much larger screen to view it on. I have a simple moto G tracphone and had no issues, just plug and play. One thing I will be using it for is ghost hunting as I believe it will be very useful and certainly budget friendly.

Bought this yesterday, it arrived today. It is awesome and will likely pay for itself in no time. First, the bad point: the software is awful. Just brutally bad. It has settings for colour modes, contrast, point settings and things, but it forgets them and resets to defaults if you leave the app for a second (say to respond to a notification or something), or worse, if you just rotate the device. Seriously, rotating (even just by accident because you're moving around to get a good angle on something), and it resets all your settings. Hopefully the software will improve. The camera itself is great. Feels well built (granted I've only had it for a few hours now, so it may still fall apart). It seems sensitive enough for home/DIY use. I can walk across a wood floor in socks, turn around and see my foot prints, including individual toes, as heat marks on the wood. It even picks up a change in temperature when I walked across a concrete patio in the rain, with flip flops. One of the main reasons I picked this up, was to check insulation in my ceilings and walls. The camera instantly proves that the electrician I hired to install some pot lights, messed up the insulation in the ceiling. I also used it to check my electrical panel. I can instantly see any circuits that are drawing a lot of power. Or, in my case, I can see that the load appears to be low on most. The only circuits that appear to be hotter than the others are the AFCI breakers, and they are expected to be hotter. I had been thinking of buying the FLIR phone camera but ultimately choose this Topdon one for the following reasons: a) no internal battery! I've seen some people list this as a con, but it was the ultimate pro for me. Over the last 10 years, nearly every device I've had die, has died because of the internal, non-replaceable lithium battery. They always expand and burst out of the device, cracking the screen or casing. i've had laptops, phones (Samsung, Google, Apple), iPads, Apple Watches, and even just external battery packs, all swell and burst, destroying expense gear. With no internal battery in this, I expect it will easily last 5-10 years being used as infrequently as one would expect for a home user. b) while the software isn't great yet, at least you own the photos you capture with it. With the FLIR's it seems they add their logo watermark to every image, without an option to turn it off. Based on someone else's review, FLIR stated the logo is there because they claim copyright on the images generated. No thanks. c) price. This camera has a higher resolution than the FLIR, for less $. So far, pretty happy with it. The cost seems reasonable ($399 - $50 coupon when I purchased) and should earn it's cost back in time and energy savings. Since I can see exactly which walls (or sections of walls) I need to open up to fix insulation, I will only have to repair the problem spots.

Very good product

Greatvlittle product. Very easy to use

Very simple to set up, solidly built and works well, perfect for checking out my battery and inverter cables for hot spots. The only very slightly negative point is I can't plug it into my phone with the thick protective case I have. So I've used self adhesive velcro tape to be able to attach it to the back of the case when needed, and used the supplied cable to plug it in.

Lo uso casi todos los días para mi trabajo,es espectacular como funciona....y por ese precio, ya he comprado 4 como esto para mis técnicos