A test report with the question: Do you need a thermal imaging camera?

(Maker’s Fun Duck) has a recent video review of a cheap thermal imaging camera from a company called Kaiweets, which you can see below. It met all of its criteria: it was independent, handy, affordable and not too cheap. The question is: does it work well for the things we would do with such a camera?

This is of course a tricky question because the uses are different for everyone. Consider a soldering iron. A tiny device is great for working on circuit boards, but poor for soldering large coax connectors. A soldering gun works well for this purpose, but is too much for the circuit board. The same applies to thermal imaging cameras. For example, some are good for finding leaky parts in houses, but may not be as good for finding broken components on a circuit board.

(Duck) starts looking at coffee cups and handprints. But he’s quickly moving on to circuit boards like a 3D printer controller. He also gives a number of tips on how to get accurate readings.

He seems to like the camera. However, your use case might be different. For example, there are some advantages to connecting cameras to your phone, but there are other considerations. The camera appears to have a resolution of 256×192 and can be connected to a PC. It sells for around $250 on the street.

Small cameras are valuable, even if you have to connect them to a phone. Like many other things, thermal cameras are getting better and cheaper every year.