Testo 870 Thermal Imaging Camera - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2013, 02:56:01 pm
content: I saw this today and hadn't seen any posts on the forum about it.http://www.testo.in/en/home/products/productdetail.jsp?productNo=0560%208701http://www.ipi-online.com.au/testo-870-1-infrared-camera/Interestingly enough, for an additional $559 you can upgrade it to 320x240. Or for cheaper presumably if you can get Mike to do it for youhttp://www.ipi-online.com.au/testo-super-resolution/What I don't get is:QuoteHow does 320x240 "correspond" to 640x480?Looks very similar to the E4.

author: ixfd64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2013, 05:18:21 pm
content: Sounds a bit too good to be true, but I'm curious on how this plays out.

author: leafi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 02:48:54 am
content: I was looking to buy a Testo before I bought my FLIR E60. The way it was explained to be by the sales guy Testo takes multiple pictures and stitches them together and uses the very small motion your body makes to provide a position delta. Basically you are shifting the image center by a very small amount and the imager is combining the images to give you higher resolution. From what I was told it wont work with a tripod as it wont be moving. This model could be different but that was what I was told.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 03:41:46 am
content: Quote from: leafi on December 17, 2013, 02:48:54 amWhy tripod? This camera is self balancing ;-)

author: leafi
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 05:12:25 am
content: Lol niceI mainly wanted to use a thermal camera to look for hot spots on boards so I was rather interested in how well they would perform in close. They really did not have any video or pictures of electronics with small components such as 0402 0201... It is also really uncomfortable to be holding the camera so I like to use the tripod to keep it in place.I knew the FLIR would do the job however what I did not really understand is the minimum focus distance. I ended up buying a 45 degree lens for the FLIR which lets me focus down to about 6 inches but it would be nice to be able to get closer for things like looking under BGAs. It can do it now but it is a pain.The sales guys were trying to up sell me to a T420 I believe because it has magnification lenses and is more ergonomically friendly for lab use. Yes they were right but it was twice the price. Now people can get what the E4 for like 1K and hack it to get 320x240. It is also nice that the T420 could be remotely controlled.Testo should also have radiometric video by now. When I was looking at them it was being tested. It really pisses me off that FLIR charges you for FLIR tools plus to allow it to capture radiometric video. WTF FLIR!Personally I think they all need to get their act together and realize that they are missing the market segment right now. They are trying to push the huge sensor cameras for engineering. Im sorry but we do not all have 20K+ to blow on a thermal camera... especially when we can buy your 1K camera and unlock the resolution (which we already paid for since we had to buy the imager already). Its not like they sold us a cheaper imager, we paid full price for it.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2013, 05:19:32 am
content: Quote from: Stonent on December 16, 2013, 02:56:01 pmI think they mean their "SuperResolution" technology can upscale 320x240 to a 640x480 level of detail.Upscaling technology has become quite advanced. I think one method used is to vectorize the image and then selectivly merging that back into the low res picture, it has the effect of sharpening up all the edges quite nicely.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2013, 11:43:08 am
content: Ref fitting a close-up lens to a thermal camera.Close-up lenses can be bought for around $30 if you want to look at electronics. They are used as auxiliary lenses in front of the primary....like fitting a monocle to your cameraOn e*ay, look for 20mm diameter ZnSe CO2 laser lenses. They work fine on a thermal camera. Several focal lengths are available. I use 100mm with my PM695 as that has a 24 degree lens. The E4 has the wider FOV of 45 degrees so I use a 50mm FL ZnSe lens.Take a look at the FLIR E4 Useful information thread on this forum for more detail.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/flir-e4-the-useful-information-thread/For anyone owning a Testo TIC, I have a very expensive OEM Germanium lens protector that I may be willing to sell at a more wallet friendly price. PM me if interested.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2013, 12:43:39 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on December 17, 2013, 03:41:46 amAnd also appears to be able to polish a portion of the surface it's placed on.

author: HKJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2013, 02:22:42 pm
content: Quote from: Stonent on December 16, 2013, 02:56:01 pmHow does 320x240 "correspond" to 640x480?The SuperResolution is not an upscaled image or a higher sensor resolution, it uses camera shake and combines pictures to get the higher resolution. This means you get better resolution, but not four times better as the numbers suggest.It does not work on the imager, but only in the PC software.Also note that Testo uses their own image format, i.e. to get normal pictures the PC software is always required. The PC software is free (It is possible to download it and test it) and can do a lot of stuff with the thermal images.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2013, 08:14:07 pm
content: The Testo Super Resolution is explained here:http://www.testosites.de/export/sites/default/thermalimaging/es_ES/local_downloads/4_Building_Thermography.pdf

author: tomas123
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 30, 2013, 12:42:58 pm
content: Super Resolution is simpleTake some images (i.g. 4 ... 16) and stack they with an Astro Stackerresult: Super Resolution and DenoiseI tried it successfully with16 Bit RAW Imagesfrom a Flir Cam and Stacking Software:-Registax-avistack-Photoshop/ automation / HDR: automatic align source imagesEnlarge images to 200% before stacking!

author: tomas123
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2014, 12:57:47 pm
content: here is a better articel to explain the SuperResolutionhttp://www.testosites.de/export/sites/default/thermalimaging/resources/downloads/Background_article_SuperResolution_EN.pdfhere I posted a sample with stacking of 90 Flir imageshttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg363213/#msg363213

author: ixfd64
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2015, 10:01:27 pm
content: Sorry for bumping such an old post, but Testo is now offering SuperResolution for free on lower-end cameras:http://www.testolimited.com/thermal-imaging-cameras