When we reviewed the FLIR One iPhone-attached infrared camera back in August, we found the device to be kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, it was undeniably a neat gadget—the device snapped onto the back of an iPhone and blended together a small infrared sensor (FLIR’s Lepton core, measuring 10.6mm on a side and 5.6mm thick) with a VGA camera to produce a Predator-style live infrared picture of the world. However, the fact that the device was built into an iPhone case and was therefore only compatible with specific iPhone models was a pretty big negative. The $349 price didn’t help, either, with many Ars commenters saying that they thought it was cool, but not $349 cool.

FLIR has taken a two-pronged approach at addressing the complaints with the device. First, the existing iPhone-shaped FLIR One devices have been reduced in price to $249. Then, before the end of this year FLIR will be releasing a redesigned, much tinier sequel to the original. The new device will also be called the FLIR One (not “FLIR Two,” as much as that seems like a gimmie of a product name), and it will come in both Lightning and microUSB flavors and plug into whatever kind of modern smartphone you might have (provided it has one of those two interfaces—sorry, 30-pin iPhone users).

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

Lee Hutchinson

The new device comes with an updated Lepton sensor that’s four times as sensitive as the Lepton in the original FLIR One, and it also does away with the clumsy mechanical calibration that we found ourselves having to trigger pretty regularly on the original model. The new FLIR One auto-calibrates itself without the need to pull down a shutter. FLIR has also consolidated the functionality of most of its FLIR One apps, rolling photos, videos, panoramic images, and all the other functionality into a single app.

Pricing hasn’t been set, but we expect the new version to sell for at least as much as the original.

The updated FLIR One wasn’t the only thing FLIR had to show off—we also got a peek at the FLIR C2, a handheld sensor that is designed to fit into the gap between the low-cost FLIR One and more professionally targeted infrared devices. The FLIR C2 resembles a very thin point-n-shoot camera and is aimed at building inspectors and other construction-type “prosumers” who need to be able to spot things in the infrared, but don’t necessarily have thousands of dollars to spend on a bigger infrared sensor. The C2 costs $699 and will be available in March.