Seek Thermal Camera

Post date: Oct 23, 2014 3:04:21 AM

I just got the Seek Thermal Camera in the mail after waiting for a few weeks after ordering it on day one.

Here is a quick video taking it out of the box.

And a quick thermal video using their Android App

Here is a Side by Side comparing the Seek Thermal with the FILR Lepton in the breakout board

Here is a photo of it plugged into the boost mobile Moto G (I bought just for it, since it was not compatible with my nexus 5) (good thing it was only 70$)

And a photo of me.

a comparison with the FLIR lepton. The Lepton has much less noise, but lower resolution. The Lepton handles motion better and seems to have better dynamic range.

Mini Review:

I like how the unit is small and plugs into the USB port. The android app itself is fairly nice as well with lots of options and can take video as well as photos.

The sensor on the other hand does not handle motion very well at all. Anything moving is super blurry. This is good for taking photos of stationary stuff, but the images all have very noisy lines going through them, making it seem poor quality. The resolution is nice when there is no motion. Also I don't like how the Seek thermal logo is stuck on the saved images as well. For $200 it is not a bad deal for a thermal camera, but don't expect quality of the $1000+ cameras. If you want something that plugs into your android to mess around with, then go for it. If you want a high quality sensor to hack into something else, I think I would look elsewhere.

Side by side with the FLIR one, if you have an iPhone I would go with the FLIR one. Mainly do to the noise and the zoom levels.

Update:

Bonus Footage of me just taking it at night into the backyard and in the kitchen with all the lights out.

One thing that I didn't like was the zoom level, I found it to be too much zoom. It was difficult to walk around with it and didn't get a feeling of my surroundings with it. Felt kind of like walking around looking through a telescope.