Thread: Cheap cheap Thermal Camera for Android Phones

I've been circling the thermal camera threads for ages wishing and wanting one but on a tight financial leash with she who must be obeyed.

I started seeing stuff appear on Ali Express, and I've brought a bit of gear from there and understand the pros and cons. In particular an Android thermal camera attachment caught my eye. My needs for thermal were very basic, more experimental/wanting to learn how they work/their practical uses. So I bit the bullet and ordered one. Also worth noting is my phone is a waterproof model so using it in 'the wild' won't be an issue, and it has a massive battery (it's an Oppo Reno 13F).

I purchased the Tooltop M7 Outdoor Thermal Camera from the Tooltop Direct store, here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009176174066.html

Cost landed in NZ, including freight and GST was nzd$388.

Technical specs are:
Specifications:
Model: M7
Detector Type: Vanadium oxide uncooled focal plane detector
Effective Pixels: 256x192
Pixel Pitch:12um
Spectral Range:8um~14um
Sensitivity (NETD): ≤40mK@f/1.0
Focal Length: 10mm
Field of View: H: 17.5°,V: 13.1°
Focus Control: Manual Focus
Color Palettes:6 (white hot/black hot/iron red/alarm/emerald/amber)
lmage Mode: General Mode/Raw Mode/Jungle Mode/Sketch Mode
Cross Cursor: Color & Style Switching Support
Thermal lmage Flip: Support
USB Port: TYPE-C
System Requirements: Android 6.0 or later
Power Supply: DC 5V
Power Consumption: 0.35W
Operating Temperature: -20°C~+50°C
Product Dimensions: Ф26 mm x 29.5mm
Net Weight: 26g

The camera uses an app called Pixfra Sight from the Google Play store (all english language, no strange Chinese stuff).

I ordered on 6th August, and it arrived on 12th August.

Playing around with it at home I found some quite interesting uses for it like finding studs in walls, checking for hot spots in the roof, and spotting rats/mice in the neighbours garden. I also found holding it was a bit clumsy, so ordered a 'pistol' grip and phone clip from trademe (around $20 altogether) - which I highly recommend.

I really wanted to try it with some animals so went for a drive nearby, spotted a field full of bunnies next to the road and stopped to take some piccies. The video below is around 2pm on an overcast day. I used the black hot palette as this was easier to see on the phone during screen during daytime. The bunnies here were easily visible with the naked eye, and range was on average 75m. One interesting point to note was there were several I didn't notice and only realized they were there on reviewing the video. If I had been out hunting the thermal would definitely have helped. I also tried some sheep 150-200m (not in the video) and it worked well.



So $388 to get my foot in the door of the world of thermal. From what I've seen so far it's definitely been worth it and I'm looking forward to getting out on the hunt with it.