FLIR C3-X Compact Thermal Camera
FLIR C3-X Compact Thermal Camera
MSX adds visible light details to thermal images
FLIR MSX (Multi-Spectral Dynamic Imaging) adds visible light details to thermal images in real time for greater clarity, embedding edge and outline detail onto thermal readings. Unlike image fusing (merging of a visible light and thermal image), MSX does not dilute the thermal image or decrease thermal transparency.
Thermal imagers with MSX capabilities actually have two cameras—a thermal imager and a visible light camera (i.e. a typical digital camera). Every time you take a picture, both a thermal image and a visible image are captured simultaneously. Built-in software extracts key visible image elements—outlines, words, numbers, and other high-contrast edge details–and adds them to the thermal image. This helps give the image definition and makes it easier to tell what you’re looking at.
| Weight: | 191 g |
| Size: | One Size |
| Dimensions: | 2.4 x 13.7 x 8.4 cm; 191 Grams |
| Model: | FLIR C3-X |
| Part: | 90501-0201 |
| Colour: | Multicolour |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium Ion |
| Manufacture: | FLIR |
| Dimensions: | 2.4 x 13.7 x 8.4 cm; 191 Grams |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | One Size |
Buono il prezzo, non semplice la partenza (c’ da registrare il prodotto su “FLIR ignite” per poter utilizzare adeguatamente le foto. Modesta la risoluzione (quasi come quella della Flir ONE da attaccare agli smartphone. Buoni (ma non eccelsi) i report che si ottengono con il programma sul web. Il costo, non enorme, la rende utile per un primo approccio con la termografia che deve essere ben assimilata prima di un utilizzo disinvolto.
Nel complesso un buon acquisto per iniziare.
Nothing to dislike about this product I use it to see where heat accumulating In a server room
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.
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.
I have attached images of the seek shot pro and flir c3x so you can compare the quality.
Choose flir c3x, if:
– only used inside buildings
– close ranges
– home inspections
– easy reports
– fast and clean UI and UX
– better feeling product
– better app
Choose seek shot pro, if:
– longer distances
– outside
– higher resolution needed
– patience to practice using precision mode
– accept ugly images
– using for animals
– navigating at night
– night vision
– hunting
– bad UI and UX
– unresponsive screen that doesn’t always react
I found the c3x with MSX created a better result than the seek shot pro for home inspections. It has better automatic sensitivity to identify issues. The seek had to be set manually on occasion to see the same issues.
But outside, looking for animals, night vision and longer ranges the seek shot pro outperforms massively!!
I use for both home inspections and security so seek was a better choice for me and i was willing to work with the terrible touch screen, grainy images and poor app for that resolution for my purposes.
Best way to think of this is flir is apple iphone and seek is samsung android. Samsung has better hardware whilst apple uses lower spec hardware but gets more out of it, less issues, responsive and its friendlier to use.
Also seek is noisy it clicks every few seconds as it calibrates , flir just says it on the screen.
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!
Die Kamera tut was sie soll, allerdings so scharf wie auf den Bildern ist die Auflsung nicht. Zudem, wenn man das MSX Feature auf 1 Meter einstellt (oder auch nicht, kein erkennbarer Unterschied) und verwendet, ist das Normal-Bild vertikal etwas verschoben, was die Orientierung nicht erleichtert, sondern eher erschwert. Fr diesen Verwendungszweck ist es besser nur das Wrme-Bild zu benutzen.
We don’t use it with the FLIR cloud service, but it’s possible to just copy the pictures off it directly.
It’s reasonably battery hungry but not excessively so. Lasts long enough for our jobs – a couple of hours?
There’s no way to turn off the “FLIR” embedded logo it puts on every picture and this sometimes gets in the way, so you have to position the camera accordingly. Imagine if you got an iPhone and all your pictures had a little Apple logo in the bottom right corner that can’t be switched off… whatever. FLIR seem to insist on advertising on your pictures, even though this device is not exactly cheap!
I haven’t given it a whole lot of use, but at the time of purchase, I picked it up for about 450 (I think it was on amazon day).
It is quite easy to use, and it’s definitely helpful in finding minor issues when doing domestic surveys. It’s useful for spotting where the damp is occurring, rising damp and cold spots in a room. I’m sure there are many other occasions that this could be useful.
It is certainly not the best, but at its price, for its very pocketable size and for smaller servicing, it certainly serves its purpose.
Compact design, there is no onboard storage so any pictures have to be transferred via the app which is a pain in the backside to be fair. Overall though it is a great camera.
Bought this to use for hunting down cold bridging in typical new build housing and seriously put off the mobile phone attachment models. The C5 is very compact and very easy to use. It’s increased cost over the lower models is well worth the money to get 180×120 thermal detection. Battery charges fairly quickly and lasts hours. Comes wit ha good quality belt holster style carry case that is plenty tough enough for typical usage cases. The device itself has a rugged rubber shell. Screen is large and clear but as with all Thermal cameras, don’t expect to just be really proficient at using it for a while unless you are already trained in their use. Also they are incredible for finding damp that is not visible to the eye.
Compact, tripod connector, MSX software, USB-C charging, 2 yr warranty on unit, 10 years warranty on sensor.
Cons:
160×120 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 320×160 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.
Upgraded to this from the C2 and am very pleased with the extra clarity and features – not least the min and max temp spots. The MSX technology produces images of a clarity one might associate with cameras offering a higher resolution than the modest 160 x 120 provided. The Flir tools software provides the opportunity re-consider on-site choices once back in the office, and enables the manipulation and enhancement of saved images, An affordable must have tool for surveyors and building inspectors.
The FLIR C3 has allowed me to leap into another realm. With a quick scan, I can see if there are any hot spots that would lead to problems. Fuses with corroded holders. Electrical connections with loose screws. Wires which are being overloaded. And not just my word. With a press of a button, both the infrared and actual images are captured. Now I have it documented such that I can show the customer. After repairs are made, I can check later to make sure the problem is solved. Battery last forever. If you have the money, it’s worth it. Glad I was able to purchase the FLIR C3.
My only reservation is that it takes about 2 minutes to ‘warm up’ when you first switch it on. It’s not too big a deal and it warms up much quicker if it’s only been off for a couple of minutes.
I found it’s too easy to accidentally press the power switch when you’re trying to take a photo (the buttons feel the same without looking where your fingers are). This is a pain when you have to wait for it to warm up again on when you switch it on again.
I like the MSX feature of this camera it certainly helps to identify objects, I use it as an electrician and it certainly serves my needs.
They could improve on the IR sensor maybe by taking it to the same level as the sensor in the FLIR Pro used with the iPhone
I would also recommend downloading the flir software for PC. (Not available for Apple) the software allows you to pick certain temp spots in the photo which is very helpful.
Mein Akku hat sich auch frh verabschiedet. Kurz nach der Garantie ging nichts mehr.
Der Support wollte mir zuerst nicht helfen, da ich die Kamera bei Amazon gekauft habe. Nach dem Erlutern der aktuellen Rechtslage bekam ich das Angebot, fr das Einsenden/Diagnostizieren 195 zu bezahlen. Eventueller Ersatz wird verrechnet.
Was man zum Wechseln bentigt ist ein kleiner Schlitzschraubendreher, einen TX6, einen Ltkolben und ein Ersatzakku (z.B. Varta 1/LPP 523450 S PCM W Spezial-Akku Prismatisch Kabel LiPo 3.7 V 1000 mAh). Mit dem Schraubendreher nimmt ihr die Objektivklappe (das grere Metallding) ab. Diese ist aufgeklebt! Also in den Schlitz zwischen Metall und Gummi und ordentlich hebeln. Darunter sind 2 TX6 verborgen, die ihr Wegschraubt. Danach die seitliche Klappe ffnen und den Deckel unter lsen der beiden kleinen Clips neben der USB Buchse abheben. Beim Abheben kann man den Flachbandstecker lsen. Der ist geklippt. Einfach nachher beim Zusammenbauen wieder reindrcken. Das Akku hngt an einem geklippten Verbinder. Den auch lsen.
Jetzt geht es ans Lten. Den Verbinder ablten und an das neue Akku lten. Die Schutzfolien msst ihr natrlich partiell entfernen und nachher wieder irgendetwas zum Schutz darberkleben.
Zusammenbau in umgekehrter Reihenfolge.
So, nun ist das Schtzchen durch den Einsatz von 1h und 30 wieder betriebsbereit.
Viele Leute machen sowieso nur vergleichende Messungen und keine Absolutwertmessungen mit Thermalkameras, deshalb ist die Messgenauigkeit und Emmissionswerteinstellung weniger wichtig.
Das Standalonegert ist einem Handy-Aufsteckmodul auf jeden Fall vorzuziehen, denn wenn das Handy (geringe Lebensdauer)den Dienst verweigert, ist auch die Thermalfunktion futsch.
Hier die Vor und Nachteile kurz zusammengefasst …
Vorteile
– gleiches Softwarepaket wie fr die teuren FLIR Systeme nutzbar (Nachskalierung, Protokolle, …)
– Sehr kompakt. Passt in die Hosentasche
– Das robuste Design (das Gert hatte zwar leichte Gebrauchsspuren, war aber sonst IO)
Nachteile
– Den Auslser mu man sehr stark drcken bis er auslst
– Kein Stativgewinde inkludiert
– Der Parallaxenfehler zwischen Thermal- und Normalbildkamera strt beim ausfindigmachen von Problemen
Wenn man die Nachteile bereinigt, gibts aus meiner Sicht 5 Sterne!
We purchased this product to identify wildlife in difficult to access areas. Mostly raccoons and squirrels in crawl spaces, attics, walls, etc. Also works well to find possible entry points.
Attached images show:
1) Mother raccoon and babies in an attic with no access.
2) Mother raccoon and babies in an attic over a garage.
3) An injured raccoon nesting under a shed.
What is the bad?
Battery not being removable is likely to present an annoying issue at some point.
An extra $200 for the C2 that comes with a case seems steep. We purchased one of the waterproof cases with foam inside for about $40 at Canadian Tire and cut the foam to the shape of the camera.
I bought this mostly for personal use in inspection of home or sons rent houses. Just a couple of days after getting this camera, a friend asked to borrow it for his home. Well, later the same day, his wife saw some water coming out of his wall in his bathroom. He got to looking at the problem, he couldn’t tell where the leak was coming from in the wall. He remembered he borrowed this camera and he got to looking and found the cool spot did not originate from the wall, but in the ceiling area of his bathroom and water was running down the nearby wall. By using this, he cut out a small area of the ceiling and was able to fix the leak (PEX Pipe) without tearing out his wall and ceiling to find the actual leak origination spot. Talk about coincidence, he just had the leak the day he borrowed my camera. Go figure. Anyway, this camera already payed off for someone, although not me, it can be a valuable tool. I would just as soon not have a leak myself to test further.
Pluses:
Easy to use as these things go…
Software add huge value, allowing photo/heat image overlay, and temp readings, and report writing.
Portable.
Video mode. handy when looking around for problems.
Cons:
You need to know what your doing, there are some tutorials you can watch. Not a problem for Pros, I guess.
The sensor is not high resolution, 160 by 80 or somesuch. So the infra red picture lacks detail.
The recalibration happens frequently, about every couple of seconds, which can be very inconvenient since everything freezes. I believe that is a thing with IR cameras, but I’m guessing they get better as they cost more.
Accuracy. The measurements I took for temperature were miles out. Probably related to the distance setting, which could not be changed (on my particular set, I think this was a fault). So fine at 1 metre, but the picture I supply here, at about 4 metres was inaccurate, since the ambient temperature was around 10 degrees.
Finally, the usb plug in the rubberised case was very, very difficult to insert. Again, it might have been faulty, this was a amazon warehouse “refurb” for a very good price, but I had to return it for these reasons.
Round TWO: (Replacement Camera with everything in the box and no NASTY HAIR )
Got the replacement 2 days later. This camera is awesome! Does everything exactly as advertised. It’s perfect for beginners (like me). Also has more fine tuning details available than I was expecting. Picture is perfect and it really gives you a new “Sixth sense”. Only If you’re really close to something the MSX feature overlay is a LITTLE off but it’s not a big deal because the feature does make a huge difference. Pricing is just right, I cant imagine how much better a $1000+ camera could do. I’m an automotive tech and I’m sure this will help with a lot of A/c and heating issues along with general cooling system diagnostics. Possibilities are endless. Let’s just see how long it last, with the proper care of course. (OH! And thanks to my wife for this AWESOME gift! )
Good high end quality product used mainly in a home renovation project for detecting hot spots in electrical wiring, and cold spots due to insulation deficiencies.
In my work environment I have seen the benefits to identify electrical hot spots early as these can cause more energy consumption and also a potential risk to start a fire. The unit itself seems to be working quite well and have revealed a few problem areas already that requires attention.
Looked at other less expensive options where a camera unit plugs into an iPhone, but were not convinced that the iPhone option will continue to work as good in the long run vs. this compact thermal camera unit due to the fact that manufacturers of iPhone’s tend to change the connectors over time and older accessories cannot be used on these newer devices.
The screen is slow to update, and you’ll be looking at about 30s for it to boot.
But it works well. The MSX technology is a definite plus.
If you’re wanting to discover the world of thermography then this product is a great introduction.
I’ve been using it round the house to test it, it’s surprising what it’s revealed.
This is truly an awesome camera. The integration of visual digital camera images with infrared leads to an augmented form of vision that you have to see to believe. You can actually observe thermal footprints on the ground when someone walks across a cool floor!
The engineers did a great job of making very advanced technology easy to use. For example, the auto-calibration feature periodically updates the false color to temperature mapping so you can get the maximum information out of the image without any user intervention.
This is simultaneously a very useful device (I bought it to discover where my house needs more insulation) and one of the most fun high tech toys I have run across. It is also a great educational tool. My son used it to explain to his classmates how the James Webb space telescope will let us image celestial objects that are hidden or partially obscured in visible light. After playing around with this camera they had an intuitive understanding of how imaging objects in other spectra can expand our knowledge of the universe.
The camera is well made from high quality materials (metal body with rubber armor) and is manufactured in Estonia.
All my geek friends that I’ve shown it to immediately want one!
Only minor complaints about the FLIR C2 – the power button is on the left, and it seems to take FOREVER to calibrate – and while using it, you have to stop repeatedly while it recalibrates. All in all, very handy for finding heat leaks, at least when the weather is cold.
It does as it says on the tin….. though took a while to get the software running following a web download, once running simple to work out with a little playing, I didn’t need to read the manual of x 100 pages to get going, they could do with a quick instruction guide and a tips list and save a huge trawl
I work in IT environments and this defiantly provides quickly the missing link in understand how heat needs to be managed/channeled correctly to allow adjustment and therefore providing a faster more efficient solution to cooling devices. Especially to those who have no concept of why something needs to be done but need to fund the change to then make a saving,”its always been done that way” type conversation can be very frustrating day in day out, a picture speaks a 1000 words as they say…
No doubt the same could be said in any work place where this product provides benefit/understanding by being able to see what you are talking abou
If you’re going to invest in million dollar 30-year mortgage, it’s well worth the price of this product to help you know what you’re getting into.
First things first, as cameras go, the C2 has little to no resolution when compared with any other digital camera on the market today. The visible spectrum capture is a whopping 346×462 pixels (I’ve not been able to capture at the spec’d 640×480), and the thermal/IR capture is 80×60 pixels. The Mac OS software was last updated in 2014 and while it gets the job done it could use some more development time to add stability, features and little improvements like remembering the folder path you choose to use instead of constantly defaulting to the one it wants to use instead, and the creative part of me would really really love more palette choices…but I digress.
The camera is easy to use, just point and shoot. The provided lanyard is helpful for wearing it around your neck and giving enough slack where you can move the camera around quite a bit without having to take it off, handy for me when I’m also carrying DSLRs. Battery life isn’t great, about 90-120 minutes from a full charge to flat, I wouldn’t recommend a power down/power up in between shots to conserve battery life unless you have some extra time because it takes around 45 seconds to fully boot. I find the touchscreen menus are constantly being selected without me touching the screen, I wish I could lock them as I’ve accidentally changed settings several times. And from a usage standpoint, don’t get too physically close to your subject or you can “pollute” your shot with your own body heat shadow, something that didn’t occur to me until it happened.
So yes the C2 is far from perfect on a lot of points. And yet…there’s something uniquely cool (no pun intended) about the results when you take the thermal image and overlay the detail from the visible spectrum and play a little with the software as far as the palettes and thermal range go. This is probably not everyone’s cup of tea and it’s not exactly inexpensive for what it is and there are all kinds of limitations as I’ve noted. But I’m very happy I got one all the same!
FOR THE PRICE YOU JUST CAN’T GO WRONG. IT UP THERE WITH THE BIG BOYS AND HAS AN ADVANTAGE OF BEING SMALL. THE SCREEN IS BIG ENOUGH TO BE NICE AND USEFUL. IT’S TOUCH SCREEN IS EASY TO USE. THE ONLY DRAW BACK IS THERE’S NO TRIPOD MOUNT SO I HAVE MODIFIED AN MOBILE PHONE HOLDER AND USE THIS INSTEAD. OVERALL I GIVE THIS FLIR C2 5 STARS.
If there was a way to say 4.5 stars then I’d rate as such.
I have one grievance, and I suspect that it’s due to my unique viewpoint.
As an ece engineer (in the world of computational lithography) I work mostly in linux (as do 95% of ee/comp engs I’ve met over my career), so I will buy things [or not] dependent on OS support.
Now, I got soo excited about this product that I completely forgot to check if they support linux (and to be frank, I’m glad I didn’t check, this tool is freakn awesome).
so I’m stuck trying to hack into the gige stream using ROS (which stinks so far since I haven’t yet gotten it to work).
I don’t know why FLIR fails so in linux, I was really surprised (I’d expect more from someone who makes such a sweet tool).
Aside from that, perfection!
This is my first thermal camera and I have to say it has been a lot of fun! I got this because I had a outlet in my house that only had LED christmas lights plugged in started to overheat and melt. I freaked out and didn’t leave the house without turning the power off at the breaker box. That started to get extremely annoying so I opted to get this camera to check EVERYTHING with electricity in my house. I succesfully checked everything and all was good. Well except I found that there were a LOT of places around the house that the insulation was absent allowing heat to enter causing excessive strain on my AC unit. Fixed those things and my electricity bill was a good $50 less than previous months and years. This in itself made the price well worth it.
Now since this is a Flir, once you register the camera on their site they offer a TON of training materials and even a program to allow me to create very professional reports in the event I decide to use this for a side job. I cannot reiterate enough the amount of useful stuff they will provide to you.
Now for the reason for only 4 stars. This camera has no type of cap to protect the glass over the censor. Now don’t get me wrong they did design a rubber bumper around the lens to keep from easily damaging the lens but that will not protect it from dust scratching the lens. I ALWAYS sit this with the censor face down due to the rubber bumper they did add to the front (picture). It seems it wouldn’t have been too difficult to create a cap to wedge onto this rubber bumper to protect from dust.
Overall I am EXTREMELY satisfied with my purchase and the camera’s features are the same ones found in the MUCH more expensive models. You’re not missing too much by buying the cheapest thermal camera they offer. Well done Flir!!
the down sides are that (as expected for the price) the resolution for both the thermal image and the regular image are very low. the thermal image saved to the memory is more than adequate for my purposes , but i was really surprised as how low resolution and grainy the regular images are.
the construction is solid as the unit is covered in a rubber/plastic shell which allow it to better withstand rough treatment.
there is no accessible battery and it must be charged with a USB cable
the memory is internal only with no ability to use an SD card
there are plenty of user configurable settings using the touch screen on the camera.
with these few detractors, i am still very happy with the unit considering its price point.
I have attached a few of the pictures of the floor that I took on October 1, after running the floor heat for about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. I did not take as many pictures as I “looked” at the hoses when placing the stands. One thing I discovered, when looking at floor heating hose in outside concrete, look early in the morning before the sun can warm up the concrete.
The camera is easy to use, and it provides a digital image in the background making it easier to read where the photos were taken. It doesn’t have a SIM card, but it plugs in the computer easily with a USB cord, and it’s easy to download the images. You can recharge it through the USB port, so we recharge it in the car.
I read all of the negative reviews before I bought this, and I am confused. Apparently there is the expectation that this will function like an infrared camera that costs thousands of dollars. Look, don’t buy a Hyundai and expect a Porsche.