First, let me begin by telling you I am a police officer and I use this FLIR while on patrol. I purchased this myself since I primarily work night shift. At first I was very impressed with the capabilities of this camera. I was able to locate deer roaming near the roads out to a distance of about 500 yards. I could detect people out to maybe 200 yards without a problem. Works really good when I need to see down a dark ally between homes. Warm cars are no problem to spot and people hiding in the bushes are easy to locate. Stand in one spot for a few minutes and it can detect the footprints on the ground even if you were wearing boots. I passed college Physics so I am little embarrassed to admit that I expected this to be able to see through my cars windshield, it can't of course.
The usefulness drops rapidly as the humidity increases. I find myself having to adjust the sensitivity of the unit by switching to the mode that enhances heat by painting it red. This is the only setting that allows any kind of sensitivity adjustment so you better like the red color enhancement if you buy this unit. Also, the description says it has a zoom feature. It does NOT have a zoom. This model has a image freeze button instead of zoom.
I have been using the unit every night for about 6 weeks now and I have noticed a steady degrading of the heat sensitivity. At first the images were very contrasty with a nice separation between the hot and cold objects. Lately the image has been very muddy and its getting harder and harder to see differences between hot and cold objects. Washed out would be a good description of the image quality lately. I thought that humidity was causing the problem but it persists even on cold dry nights. I'm beyond the Amazon return period so I'll have to do the warranty thing with FLIR (Oh joy!).
Overall, I really wanted to like this product but its long-term reliability is now suspect. If it worked like it did for the first two weeks I would have been very happy with this FLIR.
UPDATE 1-3-11
I have been using the FLIR for a few more weeks now in varying weather conditions. It still has the same problems with high humidity nights but recently we have been getting some cold (mid 30s) and low humidity nights. I was eager to see how well it would function under those conditions. I am disappointed to say the least. Its plenty sensitive, that's for sure, and that's the problem too. While patrolling I use it to look out my car window to see if there are prowlers/burglars hiding out in the dark areas behind our businesses. The problem is that the buildings are so bright (white?) in the viewfinder that I can't even tell if a person is present. The building heat signature completely overwhelms the scene and renders the FLIR useless for spotting people. Now, the high temperatures during the day are in the low 50s and some of these buildings are unoccupied and not heated so I'm at a loss why the FLIR can't differentiate between a 50 degree building and a 98 degree person. Even worse, the same problem is present when looking at trees and brush. They also are pure white in the viewfinder. I have been surprised three times when looking into a front yard and not noticing a person standing in front of trees and bushes because they were lost in the white glow. I ended up seeing them with my alley lights instead.
I spoke with FLIR customer service today. The rep was very friendly as I explained the issues I am having with this camera. The bottom line was, this is just how a thermal imager works. I asked if there was a way to reduce the sensitivity and the answer was "no". I have been rolling my car window up about half-way and incorporating the window in the viewfinder. The heat of the window seems to help reduce the sensitivity of the remaining scene to a point where I can use it more effectively. Not a great solution that doesn't work when I am out walking with the FLIR.
Bottom line. I spent $2000 for a product that is less than useful for patrol purposes. It's great for spotting game on an empty field with no trees or bush. Deer stick out like sore thumbs from several hundred yards away. However, add any heat signature in the field of view (trees, brush, roads, buildings, the sky, etc) and the usefulness drops drastically.
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