TOPDON TC002C Duo Thermal Camera Review

Today I’m reviewing another infrared camera that plugs into your smartphone. This one is the TOPDON TC002C Duo Thermal Camera, but I’ll call it the TOPDON for short. They call it a Duo because it works with both Android and iOS USB-C devices.

The Basics

This camera is small, but not tiny. It’s the exact same width as my Pixel 10 phone. It’s a bit thicker though; this means if I set my phone down with the camera attached, there’s a small gap between the phone and the surface I’m setting it on; it’s approximately three credit cards high. Minor detail, but if you accidentally push down on the phone, you might damage the charging port.

As with most other mobile phone IR cameras, I can’t plug it into my phone with a case attached; the plug isn’t long enough. To get around this, they include a male-to-female USB cable. It also comes with a male Lightning-to-female USB-C cable. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with that cable, because their website says it’s only compatible with iOS devices with USB-C connections. As I’ve mentioned in past reviews of IR cameras, I don’t like the extension cable solution. I want my camera perfectly aligned with my phone, so my screen shows exactly what my phone is pointing at. To get that, I need to take my phone out of the case and plug this camera directly into my phone.

The TOPDON comes with a nice protective zippered case that also fits both USB cables.

Software

This runs off an app called TopInfrared. Installation was a piece of cake; there’s an NFC tag on the box that the phone came in, so all I had to do was touch my phone to the box and it took me to the page to download the app. The software worked flawlessly, and you can set it up to open the app automatically when you plug the camera into your mobile device. The only hiccup I had was figuring out how to change from Celsius to Fahrenheit. When you first launch the app, tap the “Learn More” button at the bottom right, then tap “Temperature Units”. If you’ve already allowed the camera to display infrared images, you can’t get back to this menu.

The software remembers your previous settings, which is great.

Resolution, temperature range

The camera captures 256×192 thermal images, and its “patented TISR™” technology enhances this to 512×384. The thermal sensitivity is <40mK, which seems to be the standard for entry-level IR cameras. To be clear, I’m not knocking this number; this is a far better rating than the IR cameras I was using a decade ago. Stuff keeps getting better and less expensive.

The temperature range is -4° F to 1,022° F, and it has a 25Hz frame rate, which means you get a smooth image on your screen when panning.

All of these specs are nearly identical to the Thermal Master P2, another mobile phone IR camera that I reviewed last year.

Drawbacks

While the carrying case is nice, it’s much larger than I’d like. The Thermal Master P2 is a much smaller camera with a much smaller case, and that alone means I’ll keep toting my P2 everywhere I go.

There’s no image blending capability, nor the ability to capture both an infrared image and optical image at the same time. It gives you the option for a picture-in-picture image, where it places a thumbnail optical image on top of the infrared image, but I don’t care for this feature.

The biggest drawback is that when you capture images in landscape mode, the text on the screen appears correctly, but the image is saved in portrait orientation. I had to manually rotate the image above. The original image looked like this:

If it’s smart enough to rotate the text on the screen, why can’t it save the image in the proper orientation?

Image comparisons

Since this camera has a similar price point and nearly identical specs as the Thermal Master P2, I’m going to compare these images head-to-head. TOPDON on the left, P2 on the right.

I’d call these images comparable.

Conclusion

This camera and the software worked flawlessly for me, and it produces images that are just as good as any other standalone handheld IR camera I own. It’s a good option for occasional users looking for an affordable solution. For Android users, the Thermal Master P2 offers better value, currently priced at $177.49 on Amazon. But if you’re an iOS user, this camera is a strong competitor to any other mobile device IR camera.

This camera has a list price of $299 on the TOPDON website, but you can get it for $249 on Amazon. And from 11/20/25 to 12/1/25, they’re dropping the price down to $236.55 on Amazon.