Thermal a game changer for finding Sasquatch

[Foxhill]

I've hung out with a group of guys that varmint hunted with them years ago, not really my cup of tea, but even then it was impressive tech. 

[Madison5716]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:15 PM, ShadowBorn said:

Thermal's have always been a game changer. You can catch them off guard with them. That's if they are around. If you can sneak up to them. Either way they can truly help you feel some what safe. But it does make you wonder if they can see you with the thermal.   Like let's say when you are pointing at them . They spot you with it at eye level. What do you think may be going through this creatures mind? " am I about to get shot ?". 

 

Well, when we were looking at the two looking back at us... they didn't realize that we could see them UNTIL NorthWind pointed at them. THEN the sank down into the salal bushes and brush and disappeared. They UNDERSTOOD that we could see them. There's no other way to interpret their actions. 

 

We returned a couple of weeks ago to the same place. We got multiple, clear knocks BUT NOT ONCE did we catch anything on the 2 FLIR's, and we were raising them and searching randomly for several hours. IF they were there, they understood what the FLIR's did. 

 

I truly think tech will make a difference. I did for us. We NEVER would have known that they were standing there, 50 yards from us, if we hadn't had the tech. While the video isn't great, the initial sighting that I had before we began recording, when I was leaning on the truck door, very steady, was quite clear and made obvious immediately what was out there in the dark watching us. 

 

And thank you all for the FLIR, again!  It's a great piece of tech and peace of mind.

[Celtic Raider]

5 hours ago, Madison5716 said:

 

Well, when we were looking at the two looking back at us... they didn't realize that we could see them UNTIL NorthWind pointed at them. THEN the sank down into the salal bushes and brush and disappeared. They UNDERSTOOD that we could see them. There's no other way to interpret their actions. 

 

We returned a couple of weeks ago to the same place. We got multiple, clear knocks BUT NOT ONCE did we catch anything on the 2 FLIR's, and we were raising them and searching randomly for several hours. IF they were there, they understood what the FLIR's did. 

 

I truly think tech will make a difference. I did for us. We NEVER would have known that they were standing there, 50 yards from us, if we hadn't had the tech. While the video isn't great, the initial sighting that I had before we began recording, when I was leaning on the truck door, very steady, was quite clear and made obvious immediately what was out there in the dark watching us. 

 

And thank you all for the FLIR, again!  It's a great piece of tech and peace of mind.

 

I think whilst the thermal is a great bit of kit in its own right, it'll never be able to provide definitive or unambiguous footage but I've been thinking what if it was used in conjuction with a drone for example to locate a suspected target like the ones you mentioned whilst a drone gets behind them and then get multiple cameras on them, maybe with night vision on the drone.......

[NathanFooter]

On 7/19/2021 at 8:10 PM, 7.62 said:

I remember watching a clip with Cliff Barackman saying when it first came out and was affordable for researchers it would become a game changer and proof is going to happen now.

 

It changed predator night hunting in ways unheard of but it really hasn't done a thing for Bigfoot research . 

So far has it really helped getting proof ?  It's crazy because it should have being   nothing warm blooded can hide from it except if it's behind something . There should be a lot of videos of these creatures being caught on thermal but there isn't . How can they hide so well in the darkness when we have all the advantages ?

 

We can't get them on game cameras , we can't get them on thermal ...does this make any sense to you at all?

 

just thinking out loud tonight  

 

 

  This is a great topic, I would like to point out that we do have four or five public thermal videos but not at the desired resolution. I am aware of two other videos that are fairly clear but not published.

 

 1 The Brown Footage of WA.

 2 The Brandenburg Footage of NM.

 3 The Brown Footage of FL.

 4 The Serrias Footage of CA.

 5 The Squeaky Footage of NC

 

I feel that the answer as to why we dont have that clear unambiguous thermal footage is primarily due to three reasons.

 

 Most sasquatch " researchers " do not have thermal cameras as most are not serious about field work and frankly spend maybe four weekends a year camping close to a few report locations. Most of these folks do not even break from a road or trail, they are glued to familar paths and do not bushwack.

 

 Thermal imagers have only in the last two or three years achieved even basic resolution standards ( 640x480 ) and cost about 4000$ on average. 

 

   I will also say ( in my opinion ) that there simpley very few of these creatures out there. I look into reports on a daily basis and maybe 5 -10 % within the internal database are legitimate. 

 

 I understand that people do not like to hear it but we have nothing that suggests they are doing great as a species or that we are even available/prepared enough as " researchers " to capture high quality video.

[hiflier]

The low end FLIR TK series ($500-$600) has a resolution of 640x480 but the frame rate per second (Hz) is only 9 which is okay for reasonably slow to medium speed panning.

[BlackRockBigfoot]

1 hour ago, NathanFooter said:

 

  This is a great topic, I would like to point out that we do have four or five public thermal videos but not at the desired resolution. I am aware of two other videos that are fairly clear but not published.

 

 1 The Brown Footage of WA.

 2 The Brandenburg Footage of NM.

 3 The Brown Footage of FL.

 4 The Serrias Footage of CA.

 5 The Squeaky Footage of NC

 

I feel that the answer as to why we dont have that clear unambiguous thermal footage is primarily due to three reasons.

 

 Most sasquatch " researchers " do not have thermal cameras as most are not serious about field work and frankly spend maybe four weekends a year camping close to a few report locations. Most of these folks do not even break from a road or trail, they are glued to familar paths and do not bushwack.

 

 Thermal imagers have only in the last two or three years achieved even basic resolution standards ( 640x480 ) and cost about 4000$ on average. 

 

   I will also say ( in my opinion ) that there simpley very few of these creatures out there. I look into reports on a daily basis and maybe 5 -10 % within the internal database are legitimate. 

 

 I understand that people do not like to hear it but we have nothing that suggests they are doing great as a species or that we are even available/prepared enough as " researchers " to capture high quality video.

 

1 hour ago, NathanFooter said:

 

  This is a great topic, I would like to point out that we do have four or five public thermal videos but not at the desired resolution. I am aware of two other videos that are fairly clear but not published.

 

 1 The Brown Footage of WA.

 2 The Brandenburg Footage of NM.

 3 The Brown Footage of FL.

 4 The Serrias Footage of CA.

 5 The Squeaky Footage of NC

 

I feel that the answer as to why we dont have that clear unambiguous thermal footage is primarily due to three reasons.

 

 Most sasquatch " researchers " do not have thermal cameras as most are not serious about field work and frankly spend maybe four weekends a year camping close to a few report locations. Most of these folks do not even break from a road or trail, they are glued to familar paths and do not bushwack.

 

 Thermal imagers have only in the last two or three years achieved even basic resolution standards ( 640x480 ) and cost about 4000$ on average. 

 

   I will also say ( in my opinion ) that there simpley very few of these creatures out there. I look into reports on a daily basis and maybe 5 -10 % within the internal database are legitimate. 

 

 I understand that people do not like to hear it but we have nothing that suggests they are doing great as a species or that we are even available/prepared enough as " researchers " to capture high quality video.

These are all really great points.  

[NathanFooter]

On 7/24/2021 at 9:32 AM, hiflier said:

The low end FLIR TK series ($500-$600) has a resolution of 640x480 but the frame rate per second (Hz) is only 9 which is okay for reasonably slow to medium speed panning.

 

 I am not aware of any model of the Scout TK at 640x480 resolution ( the viewing screen is 640x480 ) in the 500$ to 600$ range.

[wiiawiwb]

Correct, the 640x480 is the visual display resolution not the microbolometer resolution.

[wiiawiwb]

On 7/24/2021 at 12:32 PM, hiflier said:

The low end FLIR TK series ($500-$600) has a resolution of 640x480 but the frame rate per second (Hz) is only 9 which is okay for reasonably slow to medium speed panning.

 

I don't think the refresh rate is important for what we do.  Most of the time, we're panning and looking for that one thing that pops out. In white hot, everything on the screen is black or some shade of grey. Once we find something that is white, we immediately lock onto it.  At that point, it is a cat-and-mouse game of trying to capture a video of something peeking from behind a tree.  A high refresh rate may only slightly improve what is being seen, if at all.

 

Here is a person walking in the woods filmed at 7.5hz vs 30hz. This is exactly the type of scenario we hope to encounter. There is almost no difference.  If someone is using a thermal on a drone that is moving, I would opt for the faster refresh rate. Other than filming from a drone, or trying to film a sasquatch running through the forest at break-neck speed, I don't see any benefit.

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by wiiawiwb

[NorthWind]

59 minutes ago, wiiawiwb said:

 

I don't think the refresh rate is important for what we do.  Most of the time, we're panning and looking for that one thing that pops out. In white hot, everything on the screen is black or some shade of grey. Once we find something that is white, we immediately lock onto it.  At that point, it is a cat-and-mouse game of trying to capture a video of something peeking from behind a tree.  A high refresh rate may only slightly improve what is being seen, if at all.

 

Here is a person walking in the woods filmed at 7.5hz vs 30hz. This is exactly the type of scenario we hope to encounter. There is almost no difference.  If someone is using a thermal on a drone that is moving, I would opt for the faster refresh rate. Other than filming from a drone, or trying to film a sasquatch running through the forest at break-neck speed, I don't see any benefit.

 

 

 

Great post, @wiiawiwb!

[MarkGlasgow]

On 7/21/2021 at 2:41 AM, BlackRockBigfoot said:

I wonder how many people who are going out into the field are actually taking and using a decent quality thermal.

 

The big groups most definitely….NAWAC, the Olympic Project, some of the BFRO guys.  But, I wonder how many of the smaller groups and independents are using one?

This is a very valid point. 

 

Therms have already given us some interesting results but perhaps not in the volume or quality that we would hope. I guess it all comes down to who has them? Where are they using them? How often are they being used? Will any positive results be shared with the BF circus as it currently is?

 

Having a top grade thermal unit is one thing. The spec won't help you any if you are not using it where it is likely to yield results or its gathering dust in a drawer for 360 days of the year.

[Airdale]

I just found this today on Australia Yowie Research. The thermal video from the group is excellent but the final still from Angela Ashton, using a $30k FLIR T640 in Mississippi is amazing.

 

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Airdale
Error correction

[norseman]

6 minutes ago, Airdale said:

I just found this today on Australia Yowie Research. The thermal video from the group is excellent but the final still from Angela Ashton, using a $30k FLIR T640 in Mississippi is amazing.

 

 

Thats impressive!

[BlackRockBigfoot]

The image of the costume that is shown in this video lines up perfectly with the thermal image of the Bigfoot hugging the tree.  
 

It was a total buzzkill watching this…the original thermal image seemed very compelling.

[7.62]

Damn that had me going for a minute but I have to agree it's bear . The  legs match up to bears hind legs .