PROS: Very wide temperature range (Up to 1000° C), 6-hour battery life, 16GB SD Card included, Video Recording, Thermal data for every picture
CONS: Low Infrared Resolution, long start-up time (but there is an intelligent sleep mode)
| Product | Type | Resolution | Battery capacity | Waterproof | LCD screen | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PerfectPrime IR0280 | Handheld | 32 x 32 | 6 hours (18650 Lithium battery) | No | 2.8″ | Click for more info |
PerfectPrime IR0001  | Handheld | 32 x 32 | 6 hours | No | 2.4″ Full angle HD | Click for more info |
PerfectPrime IR0002  | Handheld | 60 x 60 | 1.5V x 4 Alkaline Battery, 6 hours | No | 2.4″ | Click for more info |
PerfectPrime IR0280 Specifications
| Type | Handheld |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 32 x 32 |
| Pixels | 1024 pixels |
| Connectivity | USB |
| Temperature range | -22 to 1832 °F (-30 to 1000 °C) |
| Accuracy | +/- 2 ° C |
| Thermal sensitivity | 0.15° C |
| Distance | |
| Storage Type | Internal 1 GB, SD Card |
| Battery capacity | 6 hours (18650 Lithium battery) |
| Dimensions | 11.26 x 7.68 x 3.31 inches |
| LCD screen | 2.8″ |
| Refresh rate | 9 Hz |
| Applications | Building Inspection, HVAC, Home Inspection, Roofing, Electrical Inspection, Automotive diagnostics |
| View Angle | 33° x 33° |
| Features | Waterproof, Dustproof, Manual Focus, Visual Camera |
PerfectPrime IR0280 – Specs & Review
The PerfectPrime IR0280 is a handheld thermal camera with an extremely wide temperature range.
On the back of the device you will find the infrared sensor, a 0.2 megapixel visual camera and very interestingly, a speaker. The build quality is decent, the buttons are rubberized, the plastic feels good to the touch and the trigger is smooth. The USB port and SD Card are covered by a cap to prevent dirt and dust from getting in there and at the bottom you will find a tripod mount.
When using it, you can just tap on the touchscreen to measure the temperature in any point along with the fact that you have the option to have 2 additional points in the picture showing the coldest spot and the warmest spot. Along with that, you can switch between imaging modes. You can either have the image from the visual camera or a blend between the visual and the thermal image. It also has digital zoom.
The camera has an intelligent sleep mode so you don’t have to go through the power up process every time, which takes about 40 seconds. The battery doesn’t discharge if you let it in sleep mode because it uses very little battery.
The device is equipped with a USB port for charging that you can also make use of to download the thermal images.
Let’s go into the settings menu and have a look at what you can change and adjust. First there is the screen brightness, the time and date and the measurement units between Fahrenheit and Celsius. The camera also lets you set the emissivity, useful to change when you want to measure body temperature or other materials with a low emissivity.
In terms of color palettes, the camera lets you choose between 9 color palettes, including rainbow and grayscale. You can choose to hide the color scale when you are capturing photos.
Then there is an auto power off option where you can set the timer for the camera to automatically power off. Then, there is another interesting feature, a temperature alarm. When the camera detects a certain temperature, it triggers an alarm using the built-in speaker.
Similar to that is the auto-monitor alarm that takes a picture when it detects a certain temperature.
PerfectPrime IR0280 – Thermal imaging quality
This is a budget thermal camera so we did not expect much in terms of resolution, but the IR resolution here is way below the average that you can get from infrared cameras at this price. The PerfectPrime IR0280 infrared thermal imager has an infrared resolution of 32 x 32 pixels. It totals just 1024 pixels, much lower than the average for a camera at this price which almost always exceeds 10,000.
But where the IR resolution lacks, the IR camera compensates in features because it lets you not only capture photos in BMP and JPG format but also record videos. The video files are stored in MP4 format.
It also records radiometric data from the photo into a CSV file. You can tap anywhere on the screen to measure the temperature in that particular spot. Even though PerfectPrime call it a Visual IR thermometer, it is actually a full-on thermal camera because it records the temperature data too.
The refresh rate is as good as it can be with a 9Hz frame rate. There is no manual focus mode installed on this camera, it is a fixed focus lens.
PerfectPrime IR0280 – Temperature Range, Accuracy
So the camera doesn’t really fare exactly well in the imaging quality sector, but let’s go further into temperature accuracy and range with our PerfectPrime IR0280 review.
The camera is right on par in terms of thermal sensitivity with a value of +/- 0.15° C and the same can be said for the temperature measurement accuracy which is rated at +/-2° C. The viewing angle is narrower than we would like, just 33 by 33, but this actually comes to its advantage because it means it can represent more detail in that number of pixels.
But what about the temperature range? Here is where the PerfectPrime IR00280 surprises, with a supposed -30 to 1000° C temperature accuracy. There are very few thermal cameras on the market with this kind of temperature range so we will take the higher end with a pinch of salt, because as we know, the more you go towards the ends of the temperature range the accuracy of the temperature measurement drops.
Still, it makes it completely usable in extremely hot environments like low-cost firefighting when the department cannot afford professional Flir cameras.
So to sum up, I would be curious to have it tested with a material that is lit up to 900 degrees Celsius and a benchmark tool to see if that 2 degree accuracy really holds.
PerfectPrime IR0280 – Battery life & Memory
So what about the internal memory of the PerfectPrime IR0280? Here is where things get really nice: You not only have a 1GB internal memory, but the camera also has an SD Card slot and a 16GB micro SD Card is included in the package.
Things get even better when you have a look at the battery life. The thermal imager uses a 18650 lithium battery with lasts for up to 6 hours of thermal imaging.
Unfortunately, the camera is not waterproof or dustproof and there is no IP rating for it, so you need to be careful when you use it, especially if there are chances it is going to be splashed.
The LCD screen size is surprisingly big too with a diameter of 2.8″ and the infrared camera comes with 2 years of warranty.
