An honest review of the Hti HT-18 thermal camera.

The Hti HT-18 also known as 220 x 160 IR Resolution Infrared Thermal Imager on Amazon is a thermal camera that shows much promise spec-wise for its price tag. But is it worth it? You can find out in 8 minutes by reading our Hti HT-18 review.

PROS: High infrared resolution, great battery life, Large LCD screen, very good value for money.

CONS: Battery is hard to replace.

Product	Type	Resolution	Battery capacity	Waterproof	LCD screen	Price
Hti HT-18	Handheld	220 x 160	18650mah	No	3.2″ TFT	Click for more info

Hti HT-18 Specifications

Hti HT-18 – Specs & Review

This is the Hti HT-18 handheld thermal camera. On Amazon you’ll find it listed as “220 x 160 IR Resolution Infrared Thermal Imager” made by Hti-Xintai. This is has been a succesful camera, no doubt and its 4.4 rating on Amazon says a lot. I had been curious whether manufacturers from China will make it in this industry and they seem to be doing very well at this point.

When you look at the device for the first time, the first thing you will notice on the back is that it has an infrared sensor and right above it there is a little visible light camera. That’s because the two images are going to be overlapped for image enhancement.

The buttons on the front are nicely position and feel good to the touch. There is the power button on the left together with Menu, Select and Enter buttons.

Let’s get rid of the datasheet and the specs and just have a look at how this device really works and what can you adjust in our Hti HT-18 review.

If you want to change the level of image blending using the left and right buttons and there are 5 modes: Either just the infrared image or the visual image. Then in between you can choose to blend them in a 25%, 50% and 75% ratio.

On the screen, the thermal imager will display 3 points on the screen. The one in the middle is for center spot thermal measurement, it is fixed and its temperature will be displayed in the upper left corner. The other two are dynamic, they will move as you move the camera around and they show the highest and the lowest points in the picture. You can turn all of these on or off selectively.

The Hti HT-18 has several color palettes to choose from including Rainbow, Cold Color, white & black, black & white and iron oxide red. Grayscale palettes usually work best when you just want to find the warmest or coldest spots.

When we go into the settings menu we’ll find all the basic adjustments:

• The Auto shutdown feature which you can set to power off the camera after 20 minutes, 5 minutes or none at all.
• You can adjust the brightness of the screen to either High, Medium or Low.
• The language can be changed to either English or Chinese, which should give you an indication as to where the world is heading.
• You can switch between temperature units, either Fahrenheit or Celsius.
• The date and time can be adjusted down to the second for some reason.
• The center spot thermal measurement can be activated or deactivated
• Emissivity can be adjusted. The glossier the material, the lower the emissivity but for best results, just google for an emissivity table online for the specific material you are looking at.

Hti HT-18 – Thermal imaging quality

Let’s have a look at the image quality of this 220 x 160 IR Resolution Infrared Thermal Imager. That starts with the most important aspect, that being the infrared resolution. It is 220 x 160 pixels, which accounts to 35,200 pixels in total.

This is a high resolution for a camera in this price point and what I’ve noticed is that chinese manufacturers keep raising the bar in the pixel / dollar value. With every year that goes by, we get more and more resolution for the same price and this is no exception because it actually exceeds the 32,000 pixels in its price class.

When you use it, you’ll immediately notice how detailed the thermal images are and how the outlines are well defined even without using the blending mode. When you press the trigger, you capture an image in JPG format.

The refresh rate this time is limited though to the 9Hz to match the EAR export regulations in the USA and it doesn’t have a manual focus mode.

Hti HT-18 – Temperature Range, Accuracy

But what about the Hti HT-19’s temperature measurement accuray, range and sensitivity? The temperature range is moderately wide between -4 -> 572°F (-20 to 300 C). You can use the camera for HVAC because AC is within these limits and so are the heaters.

The camera is also very accurate, with a measurement precision of +/-2.5 C and again, this is the standard for its price range. Then there is the 0.07 C thermal sensitivity, which like the accuracy places it in the middle of its price range.

This thermal imaging camera has a viewing angle of 27° x 35°.

Hti HT-18 – Battery life & Memory

And so we get to real word usage aspects like the internal memory. Hti Xintai have not put an SD card slot on the camera and instead equipped this thermal imager with a 3GB internal memory, more than enough for all your thermal images, we have no objections here.

Same goes for the battery, where instead of AA batteries they have mounted a 18,650mah rechargeable Li-Ion battery that you can charge using the micro USB cable. You will easily get a few hours of thermal imaging out of this 2000 mah battery. Note that it is very difficult to replace the it since the camera is glued together.

Even though the camera is glued together tightly and the design is sturdy, it is not waterproof or dustproof or at least, Hti have not published an IP rating for it. It is possible that it may withstand some splashes but it is not a given.

One of the best aspects of this infrared cameras is that it has a 3.2″ inch color LCD screen and here it is superior to other cameras in its price range which usually have a 2.4″ screen.