The most amazing thermal camera (photos)

[Bruno28]

Look what I saw in the Security Conference in Sydney today. It's a Flir camera that is military equipment.
This camera has a HUGE germanium germanium lens. It costs $500,000 aud.

With a radar it is able to lock on the subject such as planes, people, etc.
It is a telephoto capable thermal and visual camera, it can zoom in and can spot people up to 13km away (as told by the sales person).

It is on a motor that spins 360 around and also up and down.

It is a cryogenic system so you could hear the refrigeration working. Uses nitrogen at 2 degreea Kelvin.

This is the baby version to a bigger brother.  This is 640x480 pixels and the bigger brother is 720p from what the guy told me (But he wasn't very confident on his answer)




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[frenky]

This will be a great dumpster find in a few years. 

[Bruno28]

This will be a great dumpster find in a few years. 

Oh that would be amazing. This thing seriously impressed me. Would love to have it.
If you know what dumpster to look For, let me know cause I know people who find amazing things and I never do.

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[PedroDaGr8]

It is a cryogenic system so you could hear the refrigeration working. Uses nitrogen at 2 degreea Kelvin.

2K is below LN2 temperatures, that would likely be liquid helium (possibly with an LN2 jacket).

[Fraser]

That FLIR camera is certainly quite impressive....... BUT..... LN2 liquid cryo cooling .... Really ?? Very surprised to hear that.

If you want to see what the 'Big Boys' play with, take a look at the offerings from SELEX Galileo. They produce amazing cameras with performance that makes this FLIR camera look quite ordinary 

http://www.leonardocompany.com/en/product-services/difesa-terrestre-navale-land-naval-defence/optronic-systems/infrared-detectors-cameras?p_p_id=fnmrenderportlet_WAR_fnmpublishportlet_INSTANCE_4lZcbcBCL9nB&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&_fnmrenderportlet_WAR_fnmpublishportlet_INSTANCE_4lZcbcBCL9nB_rend_0_offset=10


Details of the Horizon camera attached.... spots a vehicle at 50km and a human at 30km using its 1280 x 720 Stirling system cooled array 

This is the stuff that is now on the battlefield 

Fraser

[CatalinaWOW]

FLIR actually knows what they are doing.  If you go to their website and look at this system it is Stirling cooled to LN2 type temperatures since it is an InSb system.  Has quite respectable but not fantastic specs.

The salesman was obviously clueless or misunderstood.  His foible on LN2 temperature.  The fact that he didn't realize that the big brother camera resolution number was actually the visible sensor.  I suspect the price has also gotten garbled somewhere.  I don't know how FLIR prices this system but would guess the number reflects an optimistic markup by the importer on a system with all the bells and whistles (Dual Mid IR/Visible Cameras, Laser range finder, all the geolocation sensors and integration with the radar system).

[Fraser]

CatalinaWow,

Did you spot that weird 'filler cap' on the top rear of the thermal camera ? I felt sure FLIR would not use LN2 cooling these days but that 'filler cap' looks a lot like the LN2 Dewar cap found on LN2 Cooled cameras of yesteryear That made me doubt myself, but the fact that a cooler could be heard made me pretty sure that a conventional Stirling Cooler was in use. Even the venerable old Thermovision THV-1000 high resolution thermal surveillance camera of the early 1990's used a Stirling Cooler.

I wonder what that 'filler cap' shaped protrusion actually is ?

Fraser

[CatalinaWOW]

I didn't pay attention first time around.  Lots of possibilities. 

1.  They didn't want to redo the casting for the case so just left a filler cap there.
2.  Option for LN2 filling if Stirling cooler failed (they once had a horrible reliability problem, which still crops up from time to time).
3.  Reused/repurposed hole now used for switch access or possibly even a dessicant cartridge.
4.  Range switch for the zoom optics.
5.  Filter holder.

Of course another possibility is that the FLIR web site is misleading and this camera really is LN2 cooled.  The sound heard may have not been refrigeration but the sound of the non-uniformity correction system at work.

It is interesting to think about the market strategy for this camera.  At least as presented at this show it isn't a price leader or a performance leader.  Maybe just an attempt to get value out of some older stock or assets they have purchased.  You know they understand the technology and market pretty well so there has to be a way this makes sense in their minds.