I'm going to apologize up front for two things right off the bat:  Super new to thermal, and I'm still learning... secondly, imgur file hosing has not historically worked great for me when imbedding photos at ARFCOM.  So I'm sorry if they come through as clickable links, versus immediately visible.  On to my question:

I have a new FLIR Breach PTQ136
SW Version 2305
Bosun SW Version 2.0.14233

Everything appears to be working.  Powers up/down, Compass and incline seem accurate.  All the color palettes, adjustments, pictures, and video.  All working.

I'm curious about image quality.  Fully aware this is a 320 core, and image quality won's be the same as some of the finer resolution cores out there.  But even compared to other pics I've seen from other FLIR Breach devices*, I have some questions/concerns.

Specifically, I'm seeing a series of vertical and horizontal lines in the image display.  The best description I can give is like looking through a sheer cheesecloth (you can see through them, but the horizontal/vertical pattern is definitely apparent & a little distracting).  The lines are not fixed, and with fade in/out in different areas, but always pretty much remain.  Also, not visible on the startup screen, so something clearly in the lens/processor.

-Curious what could be causing this and is this a 'normal' effect.

-Also, any suggested settings or adjustments that would minimize the effect?  I notice that the 'Sky/Sea' preset the effect is WAY more apparent then, say 'Indoors'.  Particularly when 'white hot', and looking into cold/dark areas.  The adjustment differences seem to be in the 'Sharpness', 'Smart Scene', and 'Gain'.

Here are some pics (hopefully):









*Correction from above: I HAVE now seen some of the FLIR Scout (320) pics that look very similar... just maybe a little more 'blurry'... but the horizontal/vertical pattern was apparent.  Really curious what causes it.

Fixed-pattern noise (aka row/column noise).  It's at the sensor level.  All units have it to a certain degree.  It will be much more apparent in low-contrast scenes.  Also more apparent if the system hasn't NUC'ed in a while.  You can try playing with the gain and contrast settings, but chances are you won't be able to completely get rid of it under all conditions.

THANK YOU!

I believe you’re exactly correct.

I was able to actually witness the same thing in my department’s Pulsar Helion, after changing the objective down to 28mm, and reducing the zoom to 1.6x.  Never seen it in that unit before, as the lowest zoom setting on the 58mm objective setting is something close to 6x.  When set ‘apples to apples’ (similar zoom, white hot), the displays looked pretty similar.

I really appreciate your reply.  I’ll rest a little easier.