All of our cameras include software called ThermaCAM QuickReport. This easy-to-use software allows you to download the images from your camera, organise and analyse them, and quickly report your findings.

Once you connect the camera to the computer using a transfer cable (included in the kit), the software will automatically open up and ask you what you would like to do with the images it has found on the camera.

After the images are downloaded to your computer, they are then saved in a nonproprietary 'radiometric' JPEG file format. This means that they can be freely inserted into a Microsoft Word document, viewed on computers without the use of this software, etc.

Embedded in this image, though, is all of the temperature measurement data which was recorded by the camera. This allows us to perform any of the functions on the camera in the software after we've taken the image, along with a few additional features. So when you're out using the camera, you really only have to concentrate on focusing the lens and taking the right image.

On the analyse screen, there is a simple toolbar which lets us add additional spots (e.g. if we took an image of three fuses, we might like to add a spot on each fuse to measure the temperature), draw area boxes (for calculating the minimum, maximum and average temperatures), adjust the temperature level, change the colour palette or emissivity, create isotherms or use the built-in alarms designed for use in the building industry.

These are just a few examples of what we can do with an image, and all of the changes we make can be completely undone at any time (and 'objects', such as area boxes or spots, can be moved or resized at will). Once we're finished working with the image, we can then add a description of the image (or use this textbox to recommend a course of action, for example) and head to the report screen.

Reporting to colleagues or clients has never been easier. We simply select one of the pre-designed report templates and customise the information at the top by adding a company logo, some basic contact information, etc - all of which is remembered for future use. We are then ready to drag and drop our digital photographs or infrared images onto the report preview thumbnail. We can continue to add as many pages as needed to our report, and we can re-order or delete them at any point.

When we finally create the report, the software will open up a preview window displaying the report for us to approve. If we're happy, we can either save the report as a PDF file or print it out. By using Adobe's platform-independent PDF file format, you can be confident that your reports will display identically on any computer regardless of the hardware inside or software installed.

Analysing infrared images, and reporting the results of infrared inspections to colleagues or clients, are two important tasks for any thermographer. To help with this, Flir have introduced ThermaCAM Reporter 8. This software, which is available for almost all of our infrared cameras, allows you to easily create comprehensive and professional multi-page reports.

Having been completely reworked and rewritten from scratch, ThermaCAM Reporter 8 offers many advancements over previous versions. In addition to improved performance and stability, as well as a thorough refresh of the interface, a number of new features have also been added.

These include, for example, 'trending' (which helps to predict when a component may fail) and 'image fusion' (enabling the user to blend digital photographs and infrared images together, making interpretation even easier). Another of these new inclusions is a front-end called 'ThermaCAM Center'. When using ThermaCAM Reporter 8, you should consider this to be your starting point, as it provides access to common tasks at the click of a button.

Using 'ThermaCAM Center', we can create new reports or edit existing ones, customise report templates, download free software updates or view the accompanying help files and tutorials. To help make some of the these tasks as easy as possible, 'ThermaCAM Center' utilises a wizard-based system to guide the user from start to finish. We can also use this part of the software to collate together any digital photographs or infrared images found on the computer, which can then be used when creating reports using the wizard.

Once we've created our basic report (or, if you prefer, you can start with a blank page), Microsoft Word will open up and display our work-in-progress. At this point, the true flexibility of ThermaCAM Reporter 8 is realised since we can make full use of the popular features found in Microsoft Word (e.g. style and layout options, file and print features, built-in spell checker, etc).

We also have access (via drop-down and pop-up menus, floating toolbars and a handy task pane) to the tools we need to actually work with and analyse our infrared images directly from within Microsoft Word. For example: by simply click on an infrared image in our report, a toolbar appears which allows us to add additional spots, draw area boxes, create isotherms, etc - much like we can in ThermaCAM QuickReport.

ThermaCAM Reporter 8 also allows us to create markers on the infrared image (to indicate points of interest) and create tables populated with information extracted from the images or 'objects' (e.g. spots, area boxes, etc) we add. These tables can be position anywhere in the report, and the actual contents can be re-ordered and remembered for future use. Charts and graphs can also be added with a minimum of effort to visually display changes in temperature along a series of points.

When we're finished our report, we can then make use of Microsoft Word's extensive save and print options, incorporate our report into another document, e-mail or fax the report to a colleague (if your the is set-up accordingly) or convert the document into a PDF for sharing.

Should you have any questions, or if you would like to discuss any of this further, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.