Seek Reveal $299

Anyone have any info on the Seek Reveal? They have a cyber monday promo with “holidayheat” coupon. Price is right. How about durability? Supposedly affiliated with Raytheon, does the military grade equipment know how transfer as well? Thermal res is about 32,000, twice the minimum Resnet standard, I believe.

It’s a standalone unit, as opposed to their other products which are smart phone plug in attachments (kind of cheesy).

Does this product stack up? If not, why?

500-ft. viewable range
240x320 Display Resolution
Detectable range of -40° to 626° F
36° field-of-view
206 x 156 Thermal Sensor
Rechargeable lithium battery with 11+ hour runtime
300 lumen LED spotlight
Seconds to set up, simple to use
Removable MicroSD card for photo storage
Compact enough for one-handed operation
Vanadium Oxide Microbolometer
12μ Pixel Pitch
Chalcogenide Lens
Long Wave Infrared 7.2 - 13 Microns
Model: RW-AAA

http://obtain.thermal.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RW-AAA

Seek Reveal.jpg

Be careful with specs. Display resolution is not sensor resolution. No indication that images are radiometric. I will bet that the photos of the display show images that are “simulated displays”. I think that their ad copy gives a good indication of intended use/users

Does that describe you and your intended use?

Gee, why did I just buy a camera for $29,900, when I could have just used one of these for $299 ?!

I don’t know… they saw you coming? :shock:

Well reading down a line or two it says, 32000 pixel and 206 X 156 thermal sensor which is not bad. My question is software, there is no info available on seeks web site that I can find. To be able to write reports or to interpret in the field you need to know what the imager is telling you, ie, what is measured temperature of blue, red, yellow, etc…

MK rating? The lens is not germanium? Just saying.

I found where it does display temperatures in the COMMUNITY section,
but it may not be that model. Hard to tell.

Here is another model…
http://obtain.thermal.com/product-p/uw-aaa.htm

The coupon code “holidayheat” knocked off 62.25 on this model and
brought it down to $186.75

I am not endorsing this camera, just playing around right now.

It’s a thermal imager, not an imaging radiometer. The picture is it. No need to have reporting software for a non-radometric .jpg. Range adjustment? Span adjustment? Emissivity doesn’t matter if you are not determining temperatures, only contrast. Constat out of focus?

Again, do you fit their description of intended user / use?

Below are some comments from a LEVEL III instructor friend of mine…


Hey John:

I’m familiar with the Seek thermal imager products. Seek is using the same detector and lens from their cell phone products. The thermal sensitivity or NETD does not comply with the RESNET Standard for home & building inspections. The information online indicates a thermal sensitivity of 1.00F or 0.55C. The FLIR E6 has a thermal sensitivity of 0.06C or 0.108F.

Buyer beware of marketing tacktics. Below are two images taken from the website video of the Seek Reveal. The first image shows the actual image quality of a person taken by the product in use. The second one is a photoshop brochure image with high resolution and sensitivity. Unfortunately, it is legal for manufactuers to photoshop high resolution infrared images into ads for marketing purposes even when the imager is not capable of this kind of performance.

The frame rate is listed as >9hz / the FLIR E6 is 9hz. The field of view is 36 degrees / the FLIR E6 has a better 45 degree wide angle. The FLIR E6 also has MSX image enhancement, picture in picture viewing, removable batteries, free software, area box with hot and cold spot measurements, fully radiometric .jpg images for analysis and easy integration into third party reporting software.

Below are some additional comments from a user that indicate the images cannot be adjusted by software after they are taken (non-radiometric image storage).

As thermal imaging quickly becomes cheaper, many phone based cameras like the Seek Compact, FLIR One and Therm-App have been released. However, very few, if any, dedicated thermal imaging devices have been released to take advantage of this new lower cost technology. The Seek thermal is basically the original Seek Compact in it’s own dedicated chassis with screen and a LED flashlight.

  • 206 x 156 Resolution
  • 12um pixel pitch
  • -40° to 330 °C (-40° to 626 °F)
  • Image saving onto MicroSD Card
  • $399 USD

Unfortunately there are a few issues in this camera that stand out to me.

  • No manual focus - so no macro shots - therefore suboptimal for use when building PCs etc. This is a bit ironic because their very own “Seek Compact” for phones ($250) has manual focus and decent macro capability.
  • Bad image quality - While the 206x156 resolution sounds impressive, it really isn’t. Since the original seek thermal, seek has had issues delivering image quality on par with their rivals (specifically the FLIR One Gen 2), despite their higher resolution. This is mainly because of pretty big issues with noise and low sensitivity on their sensor. The Reveal uses the same sensor & lens combo as the Compact, so expect similar image quality (unless they really stepped up their image processing game).
  • No radiometric image storage - this is less of an issue for casual users, but this basically means “what you see is what you get”. ie. what is displayed on the screen is what is saved. You can’t save a raw image for analysis with third party software later like you can on the FLIR One.

Still, at $399, this, along with the Original Seek at $249 and FLIR One Gen 2 at $249 offer very good value for anyone who wants to play around with thermal imaging, provided your expectations aren’t overinflated (because, after all, most of the thermal images you’ve probably see were taken with cameras that easily cost over $5000).

Another device that’s a competitor to the Seek Reveal is the FLIR TG165, also at $399. While it has better temperature precision and possibly accuracy, it’s thermal resolution is limited to a very low 80x60 pixels (that said it’s thermal sensor is much higher sensitivity and lower noise than the Seek’s).

See images below

Are you sure the price is right for who and what you are?

Kinda cheesy? That’s like asking a lineman to see if the transmission lines are hot with a voltage sniffer. Or a ford ranger to haul 80,000 lbs.

You need to assess your needs, if you’re a professional (and I know you are) do you really need a toy?

This is more like the resolution you end up with rather than the 640x480 marketing pictures they took!

ScreenHunter_51 Nov. 25 12.45.jpg

SEEK are the ones that see the fools coming! :wink:

I can measure the temperature of aircraft engines at 35,000 feet about like this thing does at 500 (max range).

You mean can’t spend $299 and get a professional tool? Who knew?

It appears all their products utilize the same sensor, but as John mentioned this model might not measure temperature, just contrast.

Thanks Chuck for pointing out the range/span adjustment, can’t determine if it has that capability.

Yep, Raytheon products can see aircraft engines even higher than 35k ft

would a home inspector need to find a jet plane?

Thank you everyone, especially John, Ken, for the excellent and relevant information/ comments.

Just because they’re made by Raytheon does not mean they are capable of that (just like any other camera manufacturer).

If you read the specifications it tells you that that particular Raytheon device works up to 500 feet.

Not to beat a dead horse to death again, but you people just can’t seem to grasp the fact that using thermal imaging for building applications requires more than just about any other application out there. You are taking indirect temperature measurements. You are utilizing low temperature differentials. Even when you have an 18°F temperature differential between inside and outside, the differential between wet and dry materials is 4° or less.

No, we don’t need to know the temperature of aircraft it 35,000 feet, but if you knew what you’re talking about you would realize the temperature differential is an engine at 500°F against a -75°F sky, and that this two hundred dollar device can’t even see it.

It would be interesting to see what the thermal image of the USAF (or Navy) planes at the base nearby (about a mile or two away) look like. They occasionally take off almost vertically, looking more like a rocket than an jet plane. I imagine they run a wee bit warmer than 500 degrees.

The sensors are probably from outdated hardware. Instead of closing down a plant, someone came up with an idea of using it for low quality civilian usage. That’s what Intel does here, once a chip becomes dated, they scrap the whole manufacturing facility. But all that is speculation.

A good Thanksgiving to all you people out there. We have everything to be thankful for, including this message board.

I used seek thermal at the beginning of year,it is not useful.I think Flir one 2 gen is much better if your want low cost camera.

By the way,how about Therm app from Opgal?Anyone has ideas on this?

Wow, here we are as an industry, complaining about people low balling and you want to buy the cheapest tool possible.
206x156 array for a camera, is really low resolution, using it in your report. Your camera is at least 5Mpixels, this is 0.032M pixels. I have attached an image at that resolution. Then if it is saved as a jpeg, there is even more image loss.
All the best to ya,

206156.jpg

206156.jpg

206156.jpg

Hello, I was just reading about your Seek Reveal Thermal imager. I’m looking at buying one, and really know nothing about them. Have you used yours ? If so do you think it’s worth investing in one. If your not using it. Would you consider selling it. I just don’t want to get ripped off, buying it from a website I know nothing about…
Hopefully you get this message.
Thank you
Jeff C