Today I received my Guide PC210 thermal camera which is half the price of FLIR C5 so I was really curious to make a quick test to compare them.

To be honest I was about to purchase a UNI-T UTi260B camera but it wasn’t immediately available in Europe. The comparison of Eleshop.eu between those two affordable thermal cameras listed PC210 as a winner and the review at EEVblog was also positive.

In summary, I believe that PC210 is an excellent alternative to FLIR C5.

Here is an image taken by both cameras in a bathroom in complete darkness:

Here is another one in complete darkness:

Here is an image taken at night in a room with the lights on:

As a beginner in thermal imaging, having experimented with both cameras for a couple of minutes, my conclusions are:

• The PC210, with its higher infrared resolution of 256×192 pixels, captures more thermal details compared to the FLIR C5, which has a 60% lower IR resolution of 160×120 pixels.
• FLIR C5 does a better job at mixing the visible light details to thermal images using their patented MSX® technology.
• The PC210 has a better refresh rate (25 Hz) compared to FLIR C5 (approximately 9 Hz), which makes the PC210 feel a lot smoother for real-time observation of a room, for example. Also PC210 boots up really quickly.