IR IMAGING DEVICE on the cheap

I seriously desire to have an IR imaging device to use to observe circuitry when powered up so as to get hints of trouble spots. However, my desire to not spend $1K and up supersedes the former desire. I currently believe that an off the shelf $100 digital camera and the proper filters and a little hetrodyning could give me excellent results. Am I out of line here? A little overboard? Or can I construct a valuable tool for say $150?

 

Very interesting. My little Fuji digital may well be 10 years old. Not sure what you were considering old when you mentioned yours.A few years ago I took some shots of a lunar eclipse. For a hundred dollar camera, I found the results very impressive. Nowhere near quality for publishing but would even pick up crater images. When I had one of these lunar shots in an editor, I raised the exposure level, or maybe it was contrast, beyond any usefulness as far as the moon's image was concerned. But quite surprisingly, the stars came out. Millions. The camera had recorded the star images but was catering to my eyeball and the settings that I had programmed in. I believe I will not operate on my current camera but rather find a used camera or better yet buy a new low to mid range quality camera and experiment with it. I gather that any IR filter will be an independent piece. I wonder what the actual resolution of the photo chip or photo plate must be. Seems like it could be almost at an atomic level limited only by the size section that the electronics pull up as a pixel.

 

Good idea. I do have some spare security cameras on hand. Using them would solve the problem I have of getting a live feed from my camera to my computer as the camera goes to a transmit mode and live imaging stops when the communication cable is plugged into its port. Thx.