Undecided about which thermal camera to buy

[someversation]

Hello,

in the last days I read through a lot of content in this forum and I'm still undecided what to do. I wanted to buy a thermal camera for a few different use cases under 1000€:

1). To inspect our bees during the winter. To see if they're still alive and if possible to see where they are sitting.
2). To look for thermal bridges in my (and others) house.
3). Just for fun thermal images. I really like the way you see the world with a thermal camera.

I already bought a Seek Thermal ShotPro, but the first one arrived with a broken lens:


So I returned it and got a replacement. But the image of this one is very grainy and shows temperatures that differ more than just +-5%  from what they should be:
Boiling water:

Thawing ice + my hand for comparison:


I got some pictures where my forehead shows the temperatue at 42°C and as far as I know I'm not dead yet. So this one will go back as well and I hope for a full refund.

If I found this forum before buying the camera I wouldn't have bought the camera at all instead, right now I'm a little torn between the HTI HT301 (because the images I saw were really great, the possibility to do videos) and the FLIR E4 (upgradebility (!) and overall functions e.g. MSX, different palletes, possibility to import radiometric images to joe-c's software...).
Or is there any other great option that I'm not seeing (FLIR E40 above my price range and all the other dongles for Android with a picture quality at a slightly higher price point)?

[alex871]

I too disappointed by the seek I decided to return it. Now I got an ht-301 that has yet to arrive. We hope well

[emsnickw]

I had a first-gen FLIR android camera and although it took good thermal pics it would constantly freeze. Ended up returning it. It was good for finding out my new house had no insulation in the walls though! (common for houses built pre-1960 apparently, who knew)