Thermal camera

[mosha]

any body know how is the thermal camera work for treasures hunting, is it defferent than the IR camera?

[Dirk]

> any body know how is the thermal camera work for
> treasures hunting, is it defferent than the IR camera?

What kind of camera do you mean? Can you give
examples?

[mosha]

thermal camera

see this link:

http://www.x20.org/_thermforum/000000fd.htm

[Dirk]

Ok. It seems that these are all thermal cameras. They are
all based on the principle of detecting radiation in the far
infrared band. On the display you will see the temperature
distribution in the field of view. But the displayed temperature
will depend on two parameters. The temperature itself and
the Emissions coefficient of the material which differs from
1 for a ideal black radiator to 0.03 for blank materials.
I think in threasure hunting it can only been used to find
spots on the ground where the thermal capacity is different.
E.g. soil and soil plus metal.
At sun rise the ground has a common temperature. Then it
is heated up and at the spot with higher thermal capacity
the temperature is rising slower than the rest. So you might
see a temperatur difference. But i don´t know if someone is
able to make this visible in practice. I have not tried it yet.

Best regards

[Largesarge]

Actually I think you'd be better of in the late afternoon or early evening when the ground has started to cool. Anything buried in the ground will have absorbed heat during the day and will give it off slower than just normal ground. This would show up as a hot spot and give it's self away.

[mosha]

thank you

Dirk & Largesarge

thank you for the explanation.

[Geo]

Hi. I have a thermal camera but i can not see anything inside the ground. I hear a lot of things about thermal camera useful at treasures hunting but for me is unable to see inside the ground.

[mosha]

Geo

the thermal cmera is not suited to see beneath the ground, it is only give the Differentials of the tempreture by color, the metal usually heat up and keep temperature more than the surrounded soil, so it could be noticeable by thermal camera.

[Geo]

Hi.
Regulating the focus we see the object with relative precision. Simply where they is hotter it shows with other colour. If a object is in the soil and alters the temperature of soil up to the surface then we would see the object with different colour from the earth doubly in the object. Simply this i cannot achieve with my thermocamera. If you know some way i would want him to learn.

[mosha]

Hi Geo

well I don't have Thermal camera and I never used before, what I mentioned is just a theory, I don't know how much % it work.

[Dirk]

@Geo
You are right, you "can not see something inside the ground".
You only see the temperature differences at the surface.
And than you have to decide if it is a treasure or not what
causes the differences in temperature.
What type of camera do you use and what are the technical
specifications. What ranges and resolutions in temperature
and area.
It might be, that you have to do some tests under controlled
conditions to get a feeling for the limitations. I could imagine
that you look for a metal plate e.g. 30*30*5 cm. It should be
a metal with high thermal capacity. Bury it 2cm in the earth.
Water it to get good thermal contact and let it there over night.
Next day make measurement before, at and after sun rise and
before, at and after sun set. Vary the deep in the next days.
May be you post a short report.
Have a look at this http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Hydro/landmin...02_thermal.pdf
They tried too detect mines with a thermal camera.

Best regards

[Geo]

Hi. My Thermal Camera is manufactured by Agema. This time i have send camera for service (once every year i send the camera for calibration). When i will take it i will try to make a test and send the results to forum.

[J_Player]

I have worked with people who use thermal imaging cameras like those to locate water intrusion in homes. They photograph walls where they suspect water is leaking into a house. The image of a drywall surface will show patterns of wet studs behind it in dark colors. You actually see the studs behind the wall where the studs are wet, like an x-ray. The same is true of wet insulation. This is because these wet materials behind the wall are cooler, and they cause the drywall surface to become cooler than the surrounding drywall. And the camera is imaging the drywall surface tempurature.

If objects under the soil that lose heat at a different rate than the surrounding soil, then you may see patterns on the surface that show these objects beneath. I would expect you can find the most pronounced patterns shortly arter the air temperature changes, and the soil is either gaining or losing heat (shortly after the sun rises or sets, or after a shadow is cast over the site). If there is a buried object that gains of loses its heat at a different rate than the surrounding soil, you might see its outline on the surface at as color in the camera screen for a different temperature.

The cameras I have seen used cost a minimum of $10,000 for a model that performed adequately. The camera needs to be sensative, and it should have a high enough resolution for your application. However, much of the cost was associated with software and firmware to link the data to a computer into a database. I doubt if this is needed in a treasure hunting scenario. I would think it is used more as a hand-held tool to determine which direction to excavate, much like a metal detector. Also, You probably don't need more than 1 megapixel resolution for a field tool that you use only to view a 2-inch screen. Even without special database software, the basic camera usually has a usb cable to link into a notebook PC if you need to see it on a larger screen.

For treasure hunting, it would seem that the only critical characteristic is the temperature sensitivity, and the ability to operate in a wide range of ambient temperatures and lighting conditions. There may be quality models lower resolution models available for a low cost that don't have the data-linking software/firmware.

[amber]

Looking for a good quality cam

I'm looking to but a thermal imaging camerafor treasure hunting,Does any one have a good reference?

[Geo]

I'm looking to but a thermal imaging camerafor treasure hunting,Does any one have a good reference?

Hi. I believe that the thermal camera is not good for treasure hunting. I have a very good and expensive thermal camera (about 40.000$ before 5 years by Agema ) and i made a test with it.
I placed in-depth a sheet-metal roughly 30 x 40 cm from in the soil 30 cm her outline he became perceptible for roughly 12 hours. Afterwards the byway of one day and after became balance of temperatures between soil and sheet-metal the thermal camera did not show difference of colours in the point that I placed the sheet-metal
Of course I do not know what will show if some object is in ground for a lot of years. If it had the possibility of detecting objects in the ground then they would be a horrible solution because it has the possibility of searching a big extent with one only photograph and afterwards in the computer we locate precisely the point with the different temperature.