I finally got my hands on the FLIR One. Thanks to the excellent people at FLIR that sent me a review unit. After playing with it for a couple of days, I am very impressed. VERY impressed.

For a review, I am going to interview myself. Yes, I learned this self interview trick from Chad Orzel.

What is the FLIR One?

That's a pretty simple question. The FLIR One is an infrared camera attachment for the iPhone (5 and 5s). It comes with a case so you can snap it on your phone.

Image: Abby Allain

Once it's on your phone, you can take awesome IR pictures like this:

Image from FLIR One. A dog. Image: Rhett Allain

In the above image, you can see my dog and the spot where my dog was sleeping (because it's still warm).

What is infrared light?

Here is the short answer. Infrared light is just like visible light except that it has a different wavelength and your eyes can't see it. Every object around you does two things. First, it reflects light. The reflection of visible light is how you see most of the things around you. Second, it emits light. The wavelength of light an object produces is dependent on the temperature of that object. For room temperature objects, this wavelength falls in the infrared. So the IR camera detects the IR light around you and displays them as different colors in the images. But don't forget - objects can still reflect infrared too.

Here is a much more detailed explanation that I wrote a while ago.

Can the FLIR One use different colors?

Yes. I don't know why, but I always use the "iron" color scheme. Here are some other options.

Image: Rhett Allain

But don't worry about what color mode you are in. You can always go back and change the colors after you take a picture.

Tell me some more about the camera.

Ok, but that's not a question. The FLIR One actually has two cameras. There is the IR camera with a resolution of 80x60 and a visible camera at 640x480. Yes, the 80x60 resolution might seem low (but really most IR cameras have low resolution). However, the FLIR One uses these two cameras together to make a more useable image. Here, compare these two images. On the left is a normal FLIR One image and on the right is an image without the visible camera added (this is called MSX blending).

FLIR One images with MSX technology on left and without on right. Image: Rhett Allain

Of course if it's dark in the room you are looking, the visible camera won't really see anything anyway. But wait! There's more. The FLIR One can also record video. Yes, I think that is pretty awesome even though it is only at 8.1 frames per second. Still, this is better than a still image in some cases.

Is this the best IR camera?

Here is my quote:

"The best infrared camera is the one that you have with you."

Since the FLIR One is an attachment to the iPhone, you can carry it with you where ever you go. Who cares if you have a higher resolution IR camera if it's sitting at home. You can take pictures of cool things you see if you don't have camera with you.

Also, I would like to comment on this IR camera from an educational perspective (since I use an infrared camera in some of my classes). In the past, it was rather difficult to display real time images from a traditional infrared camera. Yes, I know that in some cases it is easy to plug an IR camera into a projector. However, I was using one of the low end cameras (even these are expensive). My solution was to have a video camera connected to the projector and pointing at the IR camera. This was quite awkward.

With the FLIR One, you can just use something like an Apple TV or anything that supports airplay. Then you just share your iPhone screen to the server, and presto. IR video on big screen.

What about battery life?

The FLIR One has its own battery. This means that taking IR pictures really doesn't use more battery than any other iPhone app. Of course this means that you have to charge the FLIR One separately from the iPhone.

Does the FLIR One case make the camera too bulky? Is there anything you don't like about the FLIR One?

Technically, that's questions but I will answer both. The iPhone with the FLIR One case is noticeably bulkier than just a plain iPhone. It still fits in my pocket just fine. I do find that it's a little bit harder to type one handed with the FLIR One on. I guess it's not a huge problem. You can take the FLIR One off very easily and just put it on when you want to take IR pictures.

The one thing I don't like is the charging. With the FLIR One on, you can plug a USB cable into the IR camera and it will charge the FLIR One battery. It will NOT charge the iPhone battery. The only way to charge the iPhone battery is to take the FLIR One off and use the normal Apple lightning cable. The bad thing is that you can't use the FLIR One AND use the lightning cable at the same time.

How much does it cost?

This is a great question. It's both useful and easy to answer. The FLIR One costs $349. You can buy it directly from the FLIR One website.

Do you need an app on the iPhone to use this? It would seem like you would.

Yes. There is a free FLIR One iPhone app. The app lets you use the camera, measure temperatures and take both pictures and videos. There are some other apps too. In fact, there are 4 other FLIR apps right now.

CloseUp: This app lets you adjust the difference between the visible camera outline and the thermal image. You need this app if you want to look at something closer than about 1 meter since the two cameras are not at the exact same location. Here are two images to show you what I mean. The left image is with the normal FLIR One app and the right is with the Closeup app.

Comparison between FLIR One and FLIR One Closeup images.

Paint: This is just a fun app. You take a picture and the app displays only the visible light part of the image. After that, you can use your finger to "paint" over the image and display the IR part of the image. Here is an example I made by putting a grocery bag over my head (which you should realize is potentially dangerous - I'm talking to you, kids).

From FLIR One Closeup app. Image: Rhett Allain

My kids really like this app.

Panorama: Hopefully this title is self explaining. Here is a panorama I created.

FLIR One panorama. Image: Rhett Allain

Timelapse: Again, self explanatory. You just set the time interval between images and BAM. There you go. I have to admit that this can be tricky. My normal camera mount for my iPhone doesn't work with the FLIR One on and you can't use external power for the iPhone either. Still, it's cool.

I think there is an option to include a time stamp in the video. However, there is one problem. If you turn the phone in landscape mode (as all video should be - hint: VVS), the app still records in vertical mode.

Why is this blog post so long?

The post is as long as it needs to be to answer the questions. I am answering this question even though it has nothing to do with the FLIR One and that makes this post even longer. Are you happy?

What can you use the FLIR One for?

There are some obvious answers here:

Home uses: find leaks, pipes, thermal insulation problems, hot wires and cool stuff like that.

Seeing in the dark. This isn't always that useful, but yes - you can use ambient infrared to see stuff without visible light - that is unless everything around you is the same temperature.

Looking for animals (or people) in the woods. In the winter, warm blooded animals (like humans) are warmer than the surroundings and stand out. This doesn't work so well in the summer. First, the leaves get in the way. Second, the animals are about the same temperature as the surroundings. It's awesome in the winter though.

Finding ghosts. Just kidding.

But there are other things too. When you have an IR camera with you at all times, you just start to play with it. You just never know what cool things you will see. I like to use the FLIR One for teaching physics classes. Clearly you can see how it could be useful in this case. Oh, here is an awesome video showing bread in the bakery section of the grocery store. You can tell where the fresh bread is because it's warmer.

Honestly, I think that as more and more people use IR cameras we will find new uses that we never thought of before.

Can you see through walls?

This was a question from my son. No. You can't see through walls. Walls are just too thick for IR to penetrate. Actually, you can't even see through windows or water since IR doesn't transmit through those substances. But I saw something where the military used IR to see where people where in a house. No, that was just fiction (probably). It almost certainly wasn't real infrared.

Last question, I promise. Should I get one?

That's a tough question. I don't know who you are so I don't know what you should do. For me, I think this thing is overall pretty fantastic. The IR camera (in general) lets you see stuff that you couldn't otherwise see. It extends your senses beyond normal human level. The IR camera makes me feel sort of like a superhero. I know that sounds dumb, but it's true.

If you are interested in IR cameras and you have an iPhone 5 or 5s, this is a great deal. Other IR cameras are going to cost around a thousand dollars or more. On top of that, this is an IR camera that you can carry around with you where ever you go. For a more traditional IR camera, you can take pictures but you can't immediately share them on twitter or instagram.

At a price of just under $350, I think this is a perfect item for physics departments.

I have been obsessively taking pictures since this FLIR One arrived. I try to tag most of them with the #FLIROne tag - or just follow me on twitter (@rjallain) or on instagram - @rhettallain.

If you have any other questions, send it to me through twitter - @rjallain and I will try to answer quickly.

One more thing. Here are some other infrared posts that you might like.

One more reminder. This post is based on a FLIR One review unit provided by FLIR. I said that before, but I just want to be clear.