The diagnostic of thermal plasmas is the main source of knowledge about technological applications like welding, cutting or thermal spray and is an enabling technology for the development and use of numerical simulation. Numerous analytical systems have been developed and applied to determine parameters like particle density, temperature or electrode behaviour. With the advent of new challenges especially due to advances in materials science innovative diagnostic systems are needed to determine phenomena like transient plasma behaviour or electrode phenomena especially in non-rotationally symmetric systems or during interaction with materials immersed inside the plasma. Fast system are introduced in this paper enabling the determination of temperatures, densities or plasma-conductor interaction involving the use of high-speed cameras employing spectrally resolved imaging to provide temporally resolved information about transient plasma processes.