Seek Thermal CT-AAA COMPACT XR-Outdoor Thermal Imaging Camera for Android USB-C

My experience with this *Seek Compact* version of the camera put my fears to rest and I'm thrilled!In 2020 I air-sealed my attic & basement rim joists. I then discovered that exterior insulation (under the vinyl exterior) was poorly installed. I looked at 6 more houses in other communities and found the same result...i.e. look "under the hood" of your house and you're likely to find crummy workmanship that reduces your energy efficiency.I want to kill drafts and save $$ heating/cooling my house (and my kids houses). Where to focus my effort? A thermal camera would help, but I can't afford a pro camera. So for 2-3 weeks I read dozens of reviews on affordable thermal cameras. This Seek camera stood out due to the many favorable reviews. I favored the Seek over its nearest competitor because Seek has the higher pixel count. I did hesitate 'cuz of reviews reviews saying: image quality is terrible; the camera won't work unless you register; the camera steals information. But some excellent reviews addressed these issues for me, so now I'll add my experience. It may help others who'll consider this for future purchaseAPP ACCESS TO PHONE:I did NOT need to give the Seek app access to my phone. I did NOT need to register the camera. Here's what I did. I dug up my 2014 LG G3 phone (no SIM card). I charged it, connected to a guest network, snapped the camera into the phone port and I installed the Seek Thermal app. Pop-up windows appeared asking for access to camera, photos, mic. **I denied access**. To my delight, the thermal camera image nevertheless appeared and I was quickly seeing images! Yes the Seek focus knob is a little tricky. It requires patience. When you change the focus knob you need to wait 2-4 seconds for the image to update. If you're not patient the focus knob could appear to be useless. I also adjust my range further/closer to the target of interest as part of my focusing process. Well, in less than 5 minutes I was getting the hang of it and could easily recognize my thermal images. This was especially true when I switched the color palette. For me, 'amber' screen images were very clear.Here's the limitation in my strategy. Because I denied app access on my phone I couldn't save thermal images as I walked around my house. For many uses that doesn't matter. Looking for a hot, or cold or wet spot? There it is - problem identified and you never needed to grant the app phone access or register the camera. But if you're surveying areas in your house like I am (for work when Spring returns) it could be cumbersome to record/diagram/inventory all the needs. You probably already saw that I attached pictures to this review, so yes, took the next step and gave the Seek app access to storage on my old LG G3. Then I could walk around cataloging areas that need work. When I stopped using the camera I disconnect it from the phone, powered off my G3 and put them both in a drawer.CAMERA FIT:I bought the older micro USB style. It snapped into my phone and is a very rugged connection. There's no danger of the camera falling out even if I shake the phone. It would require dropping the camera or solidly smacking the phone on something to dislodge the camera. I did have to remove the hard-shell case and rubber cover from my LG phone to fit the camera, but this is a minor issue.BATTERY LIFE: I agree that the camera is a battery drain. I walked around with the camera on for ~30 minutes and my phone battery went from 98% to 62%. Your experience will differ. For sure my 5+ year old G3 phone battery is nowhere near its original 3000mAh. May be best for you to guess you'll get an hour of power before your phone will need juice.Temperature accuracy:I brought a pot of water to boil on my stove and viewed thru the Seek compact camera. The imaging spot jumped around due to the rigorous boiling, and was reporting temperatures of 207-210 degF. Or, when I image a person, the camera shows readings of 96-97 degF. These are both more than good enough for the current and expected work I plan with this camera.IMAGES (attached)One pic is my fireplace. You can see logs in the fireplace. The heart-shaped glow centered above the fireplace is a hanging wreath at room temp (bright). You can see the horizontal mantle, the candles on the mantle and even draped decoration. Lower left corner reading of 78F is the edge of a charging plug.Another picture is of my front door - poor insulation around the door perimeter. The door window showed 57F. I have clear heat-shrink plastic insulation covering this window. The thin plastic insulation might be invisible to the Seek camera and it might be reading the temperature of the inside surface of that window. The high temp reading in the lower right corner is from an adjacent heat register.3rd picture shows exterior wall next to my kitchen sink. Can you see the dish-drying rack, a coffee filter cone and a wall plug and power cord on the right? What troubles me is the dark blob that's about in the center of the pic. It's . the light/disposal switches. Even though I previously insulated that plate with 'foam pads' from a big box store and later w/Great Stuff, it's still really cold. The cold even 'flows' down the wall and chills my sink counter. The Seek compact reveals that there's ~6" x 4" section in the wall cavity that's missing insulation. The camera revealed 3 other exterior wall outlets in my kitchen with the same missing insulation defect.4th picture is a section of exterior wall. Maybe you can ID what it shows without my description and then decide for yourself if the image quality from the camera is useful.I'm very happy with the performance/price ratio. Its' working really well and I anticipate getting lots of data that will direct my work to make my house more comfortable, less costly, and more environmentally green. Thanks again to the positive detailed reviews from people before me. Good luck to those of you considering this Seek compact camera..

I read quite a few reviews here before purchasing, got the Seek Thermal Compact imager with some uncertainties, but have been VERY HAPPY with my purchase. The Seek Thermal Compact works VERY WELL with my Galaxy Note 8 phone. I've had no problems with the phone quickly detecting the device inserted into the USB-C port via an adapter or in using the app (see the official Seek answer in the Questions section here on which adapters work-I got recommended Weduda brand).My only regrets are that the device is not offered with a USB-C connector and that it takes some practice to learn how to focus the thermal image: you need something with good contrast to focus effectively and I often look around for something a similar distance away to focus on before taking a picture of the area that I want. The side-by-side optical image vs. thermal image part of the app works OK and allows you to simultaneously take separate optical vs. thermal images of an area with one screen tap to help you remember later what the thermal image is all about-taking notes is highly recommended, too! Only problem is that thermal image is quite a bit telephoto as compared to my standard Note 8 camera magnification and the two images are off-center relative to one another as the thermal camera is mounted on the opposite end of the phone (top) as compared to the Seek device plugged into the USB-C port via an adapter at least 6-inches away from the Note 8 camera lens.I got the device to hunt for a roof leak and because of the app's automatic color range adjustment, it's quite sensitive detecting areas that are a few degrees cooler than their surrounding due to water evaporation. Thermal images do seem a little noisy and if you don't look out for stray fingers at the periphery of camera view, a hot little finger inadvertently left in lens view can distort the color differences you want to capture as the heat of a finger puts everything else at the bottom of the thermal scale in a normal ambient environment. As another reviewer pointed out, if you stand someplace in barefeet for a couple of minutes, the device is sensitive enough to see the thermal footprints you left when you move away from the spot!Besides homing in on my leaky roof problem with the device, I'm sure that I'll find plenty of uses for checking for thermal leaks in our insulation come the winter months and trust that the device will more than pay for itself when used in that regard. I have several infrared thermometer guns but they don't come close to giving you the big picture as this device literally does, while also allowing you to view difficult to reach places like vault ceilings - the Seek Thermal Compact is accurate to within 0.5 to 1.0 deg F of the best-selling thermal gun that I got on Amazon when tested on a number of objects around the house - and this is without any adjustment for thermal emissivity, which you can only do on the much more (~2x) expensive Thermal Compact Pro. I got the Compact version vs. the XR version for the Compact's 36 degree field of view vs. the much more limited 20 degree view offered by the XR - and Seek's own literature recommends the Compact or the Pro for use inside a house over the XR. Otherwise, in a tight space, you could find yourself unable to get back far enough to take in the big picture - but you can usually move closer to narrow the field of view if needed. The attached pictures show simultanous thermal/optical photos of a water leak area in our bedroom ceiling and also of our cat on the family room floor. The fifth picture, taken from further away in the bedroom, shows how some part of the leak seems to run down a seam in the sheetrock before it exits into our bedroom below! Last picture is wife sleeping in bed with only arms and head outside of covers. So, great thermal imager for its price (and if used with the right USB-C adapter and up-to-date Android phone).P.S. Seek should make the compact plastic carrying case big enough to hold the imager when a USB-C to micro adapter is attached. The fit of the Weduda adapter is very tight-which is good-you don't want the Seek device to fall off your phone! But once you have the USB-C adapter on the thermal imager, it no longer fits in its nice little plastic carrying case. What I did instead was cut a larger slot out of the box the imager came in so I can store and carry the imager with USB-C adapter always attached. Bit afraid I'll damage or wear out the connector/imager is I am constantly trying to attach and remove the USB-C adapter. Better yet, for future purchasers, Seek should make a device with a straight USB-C connector. Get with the times!