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The Argus 3 Image Colour Schemes




While Argus 3 camera core was simply a white-hot thermal image, by taking the digital data a false colour image could be provided. The LCD was a stand-alone video-in colour display, good for its' time but poor by modern standards, mainly compromised by using composite video input.
The 8 bit core data was post processed in the camera for video conversion to display and feed the analogue video out. An identical lookup was also avaialble via the the PC software to allow the colourisation of saved images. The images were saved as 8 bit data downloaded as bitmaps.
While a few of these have a use, for example in highlighting hot spots or to allow temperature comparisons, some are only there to allow marketing to claim there were 16 colour options.

A full description of the image download using the user software is on this page on the CD image linked here

Colour Schemes

The images below are the same street scene, taken in daytime, and given the various false colour schemes using the customer software.
Scheme Description Image in White Hot Image in Black Hot
Standard thermal
Red hot, setting the hottest parts of the scene to red. Useful for fire service use highlighting the hottest spots.
Soft Red hot, with a few data levels converted to yellow / orange before the hottest parts of the scene to red. Also useful for fire service use highlighting the hottest spots.
Green Scale, a pseudo image intensifier scheme that might be more familiar to search users.
Colour 1, a standard full spectrum 8 colour scheme running through to white hot. Suffers due to having extreme colour transitions that highlight noise.
Colour 2, a limited spectrum 5 colour scheme now popular under various names such as 'Iron' designed to avoid the extreme colour transitions that would highlight noise.
Colour 3, a limited spectrum 5 colour scheme finishing at red designed to avoid the extreme colour transitions that would highlight noise.


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Fire-TICs Argus3 Camera User Colours page 14 March 2025  All tradename © respective owners