interested in Thermal Imaging Cameras?

[kdc331]

I am a full time firefighter. I sell ISG thermal imagers for firefighting. New ones would not be cost effective for you to buy for personal use. However, I am thinking about starting to take older units in on trade. The price of these units will be around 2K-3K. They will be hand held cameras, batteries, chargers, etc. Is this something there would be a market for in the hunting community. This is NOT nightvision. It is thermal imagery, in other words it sees differences in temperatures. These are not scopes. What do you think?

[Kingrabbit]

can you walk around with them and keep a clear image, or will you need to stop and wait for it to clear up..?

[ccupit]

seems expensive .what does a new one go for ?

[txfireguy2003]

I think they might be very useful for finding wounded or freshly killed game, as I've used them to search for missing children and you can see lots of critters moving around in the woods. As far as actual hunting though, since I know the size and weight of them, I wouldn't think they would be that helpful, besides, don't they have a limited range? As far as a tool to find your already shot game....would be nice to have, but dang, 2k-3k is a little steep for a tracking tool IMO. Not that it's not a good idea, I just don't see it as being practical.

For the person who asked about time delay....there is none really. We use them as search tools in fires, you crawl around in the fire building, looking at the screen, looking for people, or looking for hotter areas (seat of the fire). It's real time.

[Bowhuntr11]

I wonder how fast blood would change temps to not be seen by this? Could you wait 30 minutes and look at the ground and still see a blood trail? If so, then that would be huge too.

But my bet is that the blood would change temps pretty quick especially if it isn't alot of blood.

[backbone]

What kind of cameras are they?

[medic151]

I use ours at the station to shoot rats in the attic in the dark. I just hold the bb pistol out in front of the camera and can see the sights and bang, dead rat. Not really practical for real life hunting in my opinion, maybe like mentioned above for recovery.

[Team me]

Fluke makes some. I been trying to get one at work but boss is not wanting to buy me one yet but I'm still trying.

[kdc331]

All great questions! they are hand held and most weigh less than three pounds. They do not have a max range as they are seeing temps and not relying on light. I have seen cows at 8-900 yards in the winter. I actually used it to track a blood trail from a hog in the winter. In the summer, the ground would be warmer so the temp difference would not show up as good. A new one is 10-12k depending on what it is. If u YouTube thermal imaging hog hunting you can see a ton of people using this technology. It works better than night vision bc it doesn't need ANY ambient light. Www dot Isgfire.com

[kdc331]

Medic 151 r u in Bedford?

[medic151]

No, Richardson.

[KSHogman]

I would be interested

[pickles]

What are the minium / maximum temp ranges on these cameras?

We have one where I work. We paid over 50k for ours.

[Team me]

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/usen/products/CategoryTI

These are around 3k up to 5k for the best one. What's yours look like and why are they better ?

[Atfulldraw]

I've been looking for one for a while.....