Good thermal imager
The first unit I received worked well, but did not accept firmware updates. TOPDON worked with me to assess the problem. It was determined that the unit was faulty and should be replaced. TOPDON expeditiously replaced the failed unit. Shipping took a while because it travelled across the country and had to go by surface since there was a Li ion battery. TOPDON provided the shipper and carried the charges. They were good to work with. The TC004 is a good IR imager for the price. I have watched microbolometer array thermal imagers for years. This is the best thermal imager available for the price having a focal plane that is 256x192 pixels. Comparably priced devices generally have smaller arrays so less resolution in their field of view. The TC004 is a handheld unit with a pistol-grip type of handle. It is sturdy and well made. I like this better than a device that plugs into a smart phone. It is more stable and easier to point and shoot. It has a ½-20 thread in the handle bottom so it can be mounted on a tripod. Very convenient for stability. The battery life is excellent. I have not had it run down. I find when charged, it will run for quite a while. The manual is pretty lean. The first 15 pages are in English. The remaining 85 pages are in other languages, clearly an international product. The imager can take stills and video. Associated with the camera is a free downloaded software package, TDView that runs on PC Windows 7, 10 and 11. Thermal analysis can be done with TDView of acquired still images whether taken remotely or while tethered to the PC using TDView. Video taken with TDView while the TC004 is tethered is in .irv format and can be post processed for thermal analysis by extracting stills from the played back video. Video acquired remotely is in .h264 format and can only be viewed in TDView, but not post processed for temperature analysis. Overall, this is an excellent device for the price. I acquired mine on a Christmas sale. I give it 5 stars. This a helpful device for assessing heat leaks in my house. Scary! It has other interesting uses too. I recommend this as a useful addition to any measurement toolkit. Read more
























