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Comment by mwint | Hacker News Reader

Does ITAR present an impediment even if it’s manufactured and sold in the US?

You can't take it out of country without an export license- Someone else will have to comment on the process of doing that so they can take their camera on vacation or something

I've had to navigate that and make use of listed exemptions to that, for sending thermal cameras i bought from israel- BACK to israel for repair- because of ITAR.

Other than that, you can do what you want in-country with a high quality thermal-and the US can import others who make stuff that high quality, without issues

I brought a 640 x 480 ThermApp Pro with me on vacation to Buenos Aires recently. This might come as a surprise to you, but no one asked me about my camera's frame rate :P

Hey, wait... are you the person on the EEV Blog Forum who wrote about your saga of trying to figure out how to legally ship your camera to Israel for repair? That was also a ThermApp, no?

Yes, that was me -i did successfully send it to the manufacturer for repair , also!

Didn't think that was too notable, but i guess i'm the only person ever who did the process so it stands out when someone talks about it, huh? lol

I thought it was interesting, but I took particular note of your experience because I own a Therm App Pro. It’s an amazing device. I only wish there was an easy way of powering it directly.

Related, do you know of a source for other lenses? I have the standard (19mm?) and 35mm lenses, but I’d love to have some larger lenses that are compatible with the imager.

Seems highly unlikely anyone would stop to check the camera when coming back into the US with a personal phone. They would need to be checking millions of phones for a tiny number of hits.

If you get caught you could lose your professional license. I would assume stiff fines and would not be surprised if some cases might be punishable by incarceration.

That highlights the issue with the American approach to enforcement: staggeringly low levels of being detected but if you are, then it's eyewateringly harsh penalties to compensate.

Tends not to work because most people quite rightly realise there's a near zero chance of getting caught. More effective approaches reinforce that you will often get caught by being more proactive and the punishment can then be more proportionate.

It only is an impediment if it is made in the US. There are high frame rate sensors sold openly abroad.

Not made, but exported from the US. Nevertheless US manufacturer(s) are not willing to sell restricted versions of these miniature sensors.

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