The FLIR TG167 and Fluke VT04 are both small, handheld infrared tools which can help you “see the heat” when troubleshooting issues in your home, on a jobsite, or when working on a vehicle. An important distinction to make about these tools is that they are spot thermal imaging cameras (also called visual IR thermometers) and are not fully-featured IR cameras. The IR images produced by these tools are not radiometric – this means that the thermal heat map is really just for show, as the actual displayed temperature reading is taken by a built-in IR thermometer. That’s why you will often hear these tools called “visual IR thermometers”.

If you need fully radiometric IR images where you can see exact temperature data for any part of the scene, you will need a higher-end camera. From FLIR, the E4, C3, and FLIR ONE Pro will all be a step-up. Fluke’s next step up would be the TiS10 thermal camera, another more capable alternative to these visual IR thermometers.

That said, for the price these tools perform well for their intended uses. Each camera has a similar form factor – both are small “gun” style cameras. To capture images, simply point and pull the trigger to shoot. Each camera has a 2-inch screen with several buttons for navigating the menus.