My employer recently paid for me to aquire my cerification in infrared thermography. In a couple of weeks, they are going to rent an IR camera for an indetermined amount of time and send me to a couple of jobsites to shoot some electrical panels to look for hot spots (shorts, arcing, etc..).

The cool part of this is that I get to keep the camera with me. Any ideas what I could shoot on a car/truck/house?? I can take pictures and also record movement with a video camera running off the IR output.

These things are so freakin' cool. Think 'Predator'! Pricey though. The model I will have is 25 grand and its a low-end model!

 

I had something..... but then both my conscience and my logical thinking kicked the perverted thoughts @$$. So... yeah. I'm sure you'll find something to do with it. You basically have an x-ray gun. When you tweak the sensitivity, some of those will see through walls.

 

When the guy came to do the demo, he put it on the wall and showed us the studs in the wall (the studs transfer the heat / cold from the outside better than the insulation in the wall). Not sure if my wife will go for a 25K studfinder.

You're right about tweeking it though - I used mine to find the veins in my arm. Pretty cool!

 

Is there a way to calibrate the camera to find out actual temperatures, or is it just a relative temperature measurement?

Take some pictures of the radiator, engine, brakes, axles and transmission.

 

You can tell exact temperatures. A scale is located on the side of the viewable screen that automatically changes the range its in to suite what your looking at.

 

Tire temps after driving, intake temp, etc. There are a couple ideas for you.

 

do you think you could lug that thing into the gym and be inconspicuous with it? You could tell them you are filming a documentary on aerobics or something.

 

That would be easy actually, its pretty small. For the curious:

http://www.flirthermography.com/cameras/camera/1015/

 

Those things are great for finding out where you need to do some work on your house. Any heat transfer from inside to outside (or ther other way) shows up well. Find those spots, patch a small hole or two, add some weatherstrip and some insulation - you'll be amazed at the differences in the comfort level of your home and your heating/cooling bills. The drawback is that the camera picks things up better when the inside & outside temperatures are quite different - not easy to do this time of year. You may have to put your furnace or AC on high for awhile.

 

that's pretty easy to do here. it's been almost 96 everyday for the past week.

 

Shoot, that's nothin!

 

I know. there's always some place worse. I guess, after I die, I'll find that out personally, .

 

Well, come to Phoenix and experience hell on earth. Too hot to do anything but watch movies. Kinda sucks.

Is it humid there?