Real start-up time is the time that elapses between the press of the on/off button and the display of the observed scene on the device’s screen.
In this article, we also list ready-to-use time. This is the time that elapses between the press of the on/off button and the point where the device starts to respond to the user’s actions. In some cases, real start-up time and ready-to-use time are the same, but that’s usually not the case.
Many thermal device manufacturers do not list these, and the information of those that do is sometimes misleading. For this reason, we have decided to put the thermal devices to the test ourselves. The real start-up time and ready-to-use time of each device are displayed in the table below. All the devices were tested under the same circumstances.
If you wish to learn more about how the device performed, click Read More. The article will be regularly updated with new models.
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Test procedure
Each device was turned on 8-16 times in a row. We compared the results to see if there's any considerable outlier in terms of results and what to do with it. To portray the most accurate results we chose 5 different testings which varied in their start up and ready to use time (the ones with the longest start-up and ready-to-use time, and the ones with the shortest). The results of start up time and ready to use time are shown at the end of this video.
Every device is powered off completely (not in standby mode) before we start the stopwatch.
We tested each device before filming to make sure we were stating the times correctly. While doing so, we realized that the best way to show you the real Ready to Use time was by pressing the Zoom Button (if available). When the device responded, we immediately stopped the timer. To make sure we didn't slow down the ready to use time, we pressed the button less frequently until stopping completely - in order to ensure objectivity of results.
GoPro Stand
GoPro
Please note that the flickering and double vision are the result of filming with the GoPro, and not due to the thermal device. The primary focus was demonstrating a real start up and ready to use time, therefore the image quality was not optimal.
Temperature
Please take into consideration that the start up time might vary at different temperatures. You can see the temperature at which this was filmed in the bottom right corner of the digital watch.
Batteries
Each device that we tested was fully charged. The battery status can be seen on the display of thermal imagers. For the devices with generic insertable batteries, we used the Panasonic brand. Please note that the results might vary using different batteries.
Panasonic Batteries
Device Settings
Each device was tested with the default settings, at it comes out of the box.
Probability risk
No testing can account for 1/n probability that a device may take longer to respond on every nth try. We did our best to exclude such happenstances by doing trial runs with every device.
Our observations
Our observations for each device are also listed (particularities when it comes to turning the device on, the buttons, batteries, etc.), which you can also find in individual blog posts posted per every device.
