Gadget Review: Topdon TS004 Thermal Monocular
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/gadget-review-topdon-ts004-thermal-monocular/
I love thermal imaging cameras. They're great for spotting leaking pipes, inefficient appliances, and showing how full a septic tank is. The good folks at Topdon have sent me their latest thermal camera to review - it is specifically designed for spotting wildlife.
This is the TS004 Thermal Monocular:
Let's put it through its paces!
Hardware
This is a chunky bit of kit and fits nicely in the hand. It's well weighted and feels sturdy.
The rubber seal fits tightly around your eye and is excellent at keeping light out. The screen is set a little way back, so is easy to focus on. Taking a photo of the screen itself was a little tricky - here's what you can expect to see when using the settings menu:
The focus knob near the viewfinder is a little stiff, but it turns silently.
There's a rubber lens cover which is attached and can be easily tucked away next to the standard tripod mount. It comes with a lanyard strap, so you're unlikely to drop it. The buttons are well spaced and respond quickly.
The USB-C port has a rubber flap to keep out moisture.
OK, let's take some snaps!
Photos
Photo quality is pretty good - although limited by the technology behind the thermal sensor. The TS004 has a thermal resolution of 256x192 and images are upscaled to 640x480.
One thing to note, the user-interface is burned in to the photos. So if you want the battery display on screen, it will also appear on the photo. Similarly, things like the range-finder appear in the image.
There's a reasonable AI built in. It is designed to tell you what sort of wildlife you've spotted. In some cases, it is pretty accurate! A woman walked by me while I was looking for wildlife - here's her photo:
Nifty!
Here's a photo of a fox:
There are remarkably few wild boars in London!
Video
Video is also 640x480. It is a very smooth 42.187 FPS and a rather chunky 2,162 Kbps - leading to a file size of around 20MB per minute. With around 30GB of in-built storage, that shouldn't be a problem though. There's no audio available and, just like the photos, the UI is burned into the picture.
Here are a couple of sample videos I shot. In them, I cycle through the colour modes and zoom levels.
First, an urban fox foraging in London:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/fox.mp4 Second, some parakeets flapping around a tree:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Birds-In-Flight.mp4 I'm impressed with the smoothness of the video and how well it picks up heat even from relatively far away.
Linux
Bizarrely, on Linux it shows up as 1d6b:0101 Linux Foundation Audio Gadget. It presents as a standard USB drive and you can easily copy files to and from it. 100% compatibility!
You can't use it as a WebCam - for anything more complicated than copying files, you need to use the official app.
App
The TopInfrared App for Android is reasonably good. It connects to the camera via WiFi and offers some useful features. Most impressively, it live-streams the camera's view to your phone.
From there you can take photos or videos and have them saved straight onto your device. Handy if you've set the camera up outside and want to view it from somewhere warmer.
Frustratingly, it isn't possible to set all the options on the camera using the app. For that you need to go back to the menu on the camera - which is slightly laborious.
The app isn't mandatory for most operations - thankfully - but it is the only way to set the time and date on the monocular. You will also need it if there are any firmware updates.
If you don't need the app, you can turn off the WiFi to save some battery life.
Drawbacks
The device works - and is great for wildlife spotting - but there are a few little niggles. I've fed these back to the manufacturer and have included their responses.
There's no EXIF in the photos, or any way to get thermal data out of the images.
- "These products focus on image clarity, high sensitivity, and low latency. For example, temperature-measurement thermal cameras typically run at 25 Hz, while the TS004 operates at 50 Hz for smoother viewing. Devices that include EXIF temperature data, raw thermal export, and analytical tools are measurement-focused thermal cameras, which are based on a different design and use case."
As mentioned, having the UI burned into the photos and videos is slightly annoying.
- You can turn off the UI elements on screen which stops them appearing in the photo.
The range-finder only works in yards and, while seemingly accurate, isn't overly helpful to those of us who think in metric!
- "Unit switching will be available in the March firmware update"
Once you sync the time with the monocular, all the filenames are timestamped like 2026_02_09_12345678 but it appears to be hardwired to Hong Kong Time (UTC+8) - so your dates and times might be a little out.
- "We will investigate it and see if it can be implemented in a future update"
The AI detection feature doesn't seem particularly tuned for the UK.
- "Due to hardware limitations, the current recognition is relatively basic, so there is limited room for significant improvement"
In terms of hardware limitations, there's no GPS. I would expect a device in this price-range to have basic GPS functionality to allow you to easily tag photos.
None of these are show-stoppers, but for a device this expensive they are an annoyance.
Price
OK, so you want to spot birds in trees and wild boars foraging in the forest - what'll this cost you?
Close to £400 - you can use code TERENCE15 for a 15% discount until 16 February 2026.
The price of thermal imaging equipment is high and this is a fairly niche form-factor. It is easy to use, has a great range, and the rubber eyepiece is much nicer than staring at a bright phone screen. The battery life is excellent and you certainly can't complain about the generous storage space.
There are some minor irritations as discussed above, but it is an exceptional bit of kit if you like to explore the environment. Are you going to spot any cryptids with it? Who knows! But you'll have lots of fun discovering the natural world around you.
#camera #gadget #infrared #review #thermal
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