You can now afford a great thermal imager ($995)

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.