Choctaw genealogist—February 6, 2024✓ Verified purchase
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
Joe E S—November 1, 2023✓ Verified purchase
This product, the TOPDON TC004 thermal camera the only IR Thermal Camera (that I have found) that can display its images live on a computer or projected on a screen. The is great for educational purposes. It has all the standard features you need to use it as a work or home tool, and it is reasonably priced for that purpose. However...while I am happy with the product quality, features, and performance... all of that may come at at an additional yearly price. All of the analysis software that is needed for the TC004 camera to work with a computer has to be downloaded from the TOPDON website in the form of RAR files. To do that, you have to download the WINZIP software from Microsoft... by either buying it ($54 per year) or downloading it through the limited trial period. I got the RAR files... but I don't know if they will stay active after the trail period expires. If they don't stay active, then I will have to return the camera to TOPDON. I don't want to pay over $330 for an IR camera, and then have to keep paying $54 per year for the WINZIP software to use it. I think they must have a better way to do this... and I have challenged TOPDON too come up with that. The cost of the software purchase is not mentioned in the product description. Read more
K. Vernon—July 14, 2025✓ Verified purchase
I've had this for about 6 months and used it occasionally for building maintenance tasks/troubleshooting. I have no idea how accurate the readings are in terms of absolute temperature, but the sensitivity of this thing for relative temperature is fantastic. Walk across a wood floor barefoot and see your footprints (not practical, just an example), see water lines behind drywall, air ducts under the floor, moisture loaded spots usual suspects. In one case I was looking for wet spots in the plaster ceiling of a 100 year old church with ~25' ceilings and could clearly see the ceiling joists scanning from ground level, very impressed. Picture is very clear in IR and standard. The basic controls and adjustments are intuitive and easy to use. I was worried I'd be getting junk if it wasn't a FLIR or Fluke, but this thing has pleasantly surprised me. I haven't been rough with it, but the build quality seems rugged. Very pleased. Read more
Andy—November 27, 2024✓ Verified purchase
The media could not be loaded. I’ve been using this thermal imaging camera for the past two weeks now. The unit itself is very high-quality. The screen resolution and ability to show the vast temperature range difference is impressive, the price range is very affordable, and the amount of uses are limitless. So far I’ve used this for checking the efficiency of my outdoor Wood Boiler, indoor fuel oil Boiler, checking for drafts throughout my house, vehicle and small engine temperatures, and Finding heating pipes in my walls, just to name a few. The unit feels good in my grip And has multiple settings to get a more accurate thermal picture. My personal favorite is the rainbow palette The only con of this thermal imaging camera I have comes down to how the format of the SD card is. I tried plugging The SD card into my iPhone and Mac computers and it said that I could not read the files. After purchasing and testing, I assume this only works on Windows operating systems but I didn’t see any mention of this on the product page or in the manual. Read more
mmm222—December 28, 2025✓ Verified purchase
I bought this to help identify a leak in my roof and it worked great. The screen was a nice size and you could save pictures if needed. The colors were easy to see and with little instruction you can tell what you are looking at. It comes with a nice case for portability and to keep everything together. This was packaged very well for shipping and came with no issues. It charged fast and lasted for as long as I needed but I am not sure how long it would last as I didn’t run it to empty. This is a good unit and I would recommend this if it is in your price range. Read more