A thermal imager (video camera) will open
a whole new world for you: the world of nature in the dark.
A thermal imager is a much better option than any type of
nightvision scope because it reveals the presence of animals so
much better, and from such a greater distance.
It is
unavoidably nerve wracking to walk along an unfamiliar trail in
the dark. You will worry what may be laying in wait as you pass
by. There is no way to avoid that, even if you are carrying a
flashlight.
Imagine being able to push a button to make
every animal in the woods light up like a lantern, so you can see
where they are, and where they are not, even the smallest bird or
mouse. That is what a thermal imager does, in effect.
You will know for sure when nothing is around you or up ahead of you. You
can be totally at peace as you walk or rest in an otherwise perfectly
peaceful place. It changes the whole experience.
The image
resolution of a thermal imager is very important. It is the MOST important
element. It makes the difference between being able to discern a human
figure at a quarter mile distance, or only 200 yards. If you spend $500 to
see only 200 yards, and then you try a $1000 device that allows you to
spot people a quarter mile away, you will regret the $500 purchase and
you will wish you had waited and saved up to buy the $1,000 device.
Fifteen years ago the pocket size thermal imagers did not record video or
still images, yet they cost $9,000. We used those early models and figured
out a few things:
1) You will not ever want to be without one in the
woods after you try one even once, because you will feel so much more
comfortable.
2) You want to be able to record what you are seeing.
3) The price tag will eventually be much lower, just like with all
other electronics.
Thermals eventually got much cheaper. The
cheapest units (160 lines of resolution) eventually got down to $500 or
so, but the resolution of those units was so poor compared to the first
types (320 lines) that their effective range made them far less useful.
If you see a big warm blob at 250 yards away in the dark, you
really want to know what it is. When you zoom in ... you want to see it
more clearly, rather than less clearly. For that reason you never want to
go below 320 lines of resolution. The BFRO thermal imager has 384 lines of
resolution. It also has a bunch of other features that we could not have
dreamed of back when we were using the $9,000 units, features such as:
1) Hours of recording time. It creates video files that are easily
downloadable and playable on any device.
2) Various color palettes. That was the realm of $14,000 devices only
ten years ago.
3) Zoom capability; incremental steps up to 4x
4) Adjustable image enhancement, to reveal more details on warm
bodies.
5) Wireless streaming capability, so other people nearby
can simultaneously watch through their phones, or so you can be in your
sleeping bag watching what is happening outside your tent.
Ohio BFRO investigator Damon Pfeifer sourced these new devices out of
Taiwan (now the leading computer chip makers in the world) and is now
selling them cheaper than similar units out there. He sells them for $995.
They are limited edition but he will order more as necessary.
This
scope design from Taiwan is actually a better weartherized version of this
same AGM monocular, made by the same source manufacturer. Hence, if
you want to know all the internal technical specifications for the BFRO
thermal monocular the review the specs for the
AGM ASP
TM25-384 ($1,800).
Here is some
test footage from the BFRO thermal on YouTube. NOTE: YouTube compresses
their video uploads a bit which lowers the sharpess from the original
video. Hence, the video you will see below is slightly less sharp than
what you can see on a video player on your computer that shows the
original resolution.
The above YouTube video is test footage from the new limited edition
BFRO brand thermal video camera ($995). This guy and his dog were on a cold
grassy lawn in near total darkness. His distance was roughly 200 feet.
The image becomes somewhat pixelated when it zooms incrementally to 4x.
Most impressive: Notice the warm diagonal line above the guy. That is a
long staircase leading up a hillside slope. It is more than a QUARTER MILE
away. Beginning at the 1:33 mark you can just barely see the heat signature
of a person climbing the stairs ...
To reiterate ... the heat
signature of a person more than a quarter mile away. Amazing!
This
"iron" palette is only one of the color palettes the camera can do.
$1000
is an important threshold for affordability. The cheapest thermal imagers
cost $600, but the resolution of those units is 160 lines. The video quality
is so poor that a person standing 100 feet away is just a blob of heat that
could be a tree stump.
The better thermal cameras usually cost much
more money. The most comparable FLIR unit list price is over $2000. This
BFRO-branded thermal camera is BETTER (especially for Bigfoot research use)
than a $2,000 FLIR. The BFRO scope has 384 lines of resolution
compared to 320 lines of resolution (FLIR Scout III 320). It also has
impressive zoom for a thermal camera (4x).
The BFRO scope also
streams live thermal video to multiple nearby smartphones, so everyone
around a campfire, or sitting in a car, can view and record the live stream
on their own phones.
You can also set it on a vehicle roof so people
in nearby tents (20 foot range) can watch and record on their phones while
in their sleeping bags ... for several hours.
If you wonder why people would pay $1,000 for
a good thermal scope, it is not because they expect to immediately film a
Bigfoot. It is because a thermal scope opens up a whole new world: the
world of the woods at night. You will feel ten times braver in the woods in
the dark if you have a scope like this. It is more comforting than a gun
because you can spot and identify any type of animal that is moving toward
you in the dark, even animals behind bushes. You will go from being
terrified of brush crunching animal sounds, to actually seeking out those
sounds in a dark forest. It is a completely different experience because you
have sooo much less anxiety. You wil no longer fear the darkness. Rather, you
will own the
darkness.