|
We are so proud to provide these !!
|
The image resolution of a thermal imager is very important. It is the MOST important element. It makes the difference between being able to discern a human figure at a quarter mile distance, or only 200 yards. If you spend $500 to see only 200 yards, and then you try a $1000 device that allows you to spot people a quarter mile away, you will regret the $500 purchase and you will wish you had waited and saved up to buy the $1,000 device. Fifteen years ago the pocket size thermal imagers did not record video or still images, yet they cost $9,000. We used those early models and figured out a few things: 1) You will not ever want to be without one in the woods after you try one even once, because you will feel so much more comfortable. 2) You want to be able to record what you are seeing. 3) The price tag will eventually be much lower, just like with all other electronics. Thermals eventually got much cheaper. The cheapest units (160 lines of resolution) eventually got down to $500 or so, but the resolution of those units was so poor compared to the first types (320 lines) that their effective range made them far less useful. If you see a big warm blob at 250 yards away in the dark, you really want to know what it is. When you zoom in ... you want to see it more clearly, rather than less clearly. For that reason you never want to go below 320 lines of resolution. The BFRO thermal imager has 384 lines of resolution. It also has a bunch of other features that we could not have dreamed of back when we were using the $9,000 units, features such as: 1) Hours of recording time. It creates video files that are easily downloadable and playable on any device. 2) Various color palettes. That was the realm of $14,000 devices only
ten years ago.
|
||
The above YouTube video is test footage from the new limited edition BFRO brand thermal video camera ($995). This guy and his dog were on a cold grassy lawn in near total darkness. His distance was roughly 200 feet. The image becomes somewhat pixelated when it zooms incrementally to 4x. Most impressive: Notice the warm diagonal line above the guy. That is a long staircase leading up a hillside slope. It is more than a QUARTER MILE away. Beginning at the 1:33 mark you can just barely see the heat signature of a person climbing the stairs ... To reiterate ... the heat signature of a person more than a quarter mile away. Amazing! This "iron" palette is only one of the color palettes the camera can do. _______________________________________________________________ $1000 is an important threshold for affordability. The cheapest thermal imagers cost $600, but the resolution of those units is 160 lines. The video quality is so poor that a person standing 100 feet away is just a blob of heat that could be a tree stump. The better thermal cameras usually cost much more money. The most comparable FLIR unit list price is over $2000. This BFRO-branded thermal camera is BETTER (especially for Bigfoot research use) than a $2,000 FLIR. The BFRO scope has 384 lines of resolution compared to 320 lines of resolution (FLIR Scout III 320). It also has impressive zoom for a thermal camera (4x). The BFRO scope also streams live thermal video to multiple nearby smartphones, so everyone around a campfire, or sitting in a car, can view and record the live stream on their own phones. You can also set it on a vehicle roof so people in nearby tents (20 foot range) can watch and record on their phones while in their sleeping bags ... for several hours. If you are interested in one, please email the BFRO: [email protected] If you wonder why people would pay $1,000 for a good thermal scope, it is not because they expect to immediately film a Bigfoot. It is because a thermal scope opens up a whole new world: the world of the woods at night. You will feel ten times braver in the woods in the dark if you have a scope like this. It is more comforting than a gun because you can spot and identify any type of animal that is moving toward you in the dark, even animals behind bushes. You will go from being terrified of brush crunching animal sounds, to actually seeking out those sounds in a dark forest. It is a completely different experience because you have sooo much less anxiety. You wil no longer fear the darkness. Rather, you will own the darkness. |
We greatly appreciate it when a new attendee of a BFRO expedition
comes equipped with any model of thermal video camera that has decent specs --
good resolution (i.e. at least 384x288 lines), some zoom control, long battery, on-board
file storage, etc. The specs of this unit overall are the minimum for field
research use (as opposed to security use or industrial use) . Thermal caneras
with better specs cost 2-3 times as much money.
To buy one of these scopes contact the BFRO Investigator (Damon Pfeiffer in Ohio) who can ship one to you. Send the email to [email protected] and we will forward it to him.