I've been trying to find someone locally who has thermal NV of any type that I can try. I'd like to have something that can be used to scan an area and locate critters within a 50 to 100-yard radius in the high desert near Carson City, NV. Then I could position myself to use a PVS-14 and IR illuminator to "see" and hunt them. Without the ability to scan an area with a thermal detection device, I'm left waiting for a critter to walk within PVS range. Usually this means I waste a lot of time because there are no critters in my immediate area.
That is exactly how you use a thermal scanner.
Reviews of these lower cost FLIR handhelds are mixed and some owners find them useless for what I want to do. Their effectiveness may depend in part on the temperature difference between the ambient environment and the critter's warm body. On a hot night (say, more than 70F) this temperature difference may not be enough to give useful contrast.
They are not useless for what you want to do, they are perfect. They do have limitations that you will learn to work around over time and experience using them, however virtually nothing inside of a 50-100 yard radius from you would not be picked up by a PS-32 unless it is behind an object.
Many commenters suggest that internal batteries are a bad idea, and removeable/replaceable batteries are much better. I don't want to have my batteries fail while I'm in the field and need to recharge back home.
I've been using mine for two years, our hunts last 8-10 hours and the internal batteries have never been a problem. You can get portable battery chargers with 18650 LI rechargeable batteries and USB port to charge them in the field if you are going to be foutdoors or days on end.
Finally, with the modest resolutions of these lower cost FLIR handhelds (I mean the size of the pixel array), a smaller FOV is better for seeing small, hot bodies. However, the FOV is more like 20 deg and 7 deg would work better to see details (and you can buy a super expensive IR lens to get you there). Simply, you get more pixels per square degree and therefore better definition.
The more FOV the better for scanning, you can always use the internal magnification if need be to zoom in on something.
Would anyone like to respond to these comments, which are not mine but remain in my head when I think of plunking down $2k for an affordable thermal NVD?
