Does anyone have any experience with the Swarovski range finder?? If so how does it compare to the Leica 1200 scan range finder??

Optically and ergonomically, the Swaro is way better than the Leica but ranging accuracy is the same. Price difference reflects that too... It's up to you whether you want the very best and are willing to pay for it.

Ditto Andre, The Swaro is optically a good bit better but is also a good bit more expensive........DJ

I just got my swaro range finder and have been playing with it a little I have two licas 800 yds hand have used the 1200 yd scan. What I have found so far is the swaro is so much better in fild of view and optics that there is no comparison there but the scan mode is much slower on the swaro as to the leica it takes about 1 to 1.5 seconds to update the yardage the leica updates much faster around .5 to .75 seconds.
the swaro I think is the better unit, and will be much better at finding your target do to the lager field od view. I have had some troble with this using the leica. Both units are a pin laser meaning the lazer beam dose not cone out like some other range finders, I range a tree @ 9yds and through the V in a branch that was about 8'' wide at the top could range a parked car @ 347yds this will come in very handy bow hunting in the timber.
They are both good units and will serve you well but I think if you want the best unit get the swaro.

quote:

Originally posted by PRDATOR:
I just got my swaro range finder and have been playing with it a little I have two licas 800 yds hand have used the 1200 yd scan. What I have found so far is the swaro is so much better in fild of view and optics that there is no comparison there but the scan mode is much slower on the swaro as to the leica it takes about 1 to 1.5 seconds to update the yardage the leica updates much faster around .5 to .75 seconds.
the swaro I think is the better unit, and will be much better at finding your target do to the lager field od view. I have had some troble with this using the leica. Both units are a pin laser meaning the lazer beam dose not cone out like some other range finders, I range a tree @ 9yds and through the V in a branch that was about 8'' wide at the top could range a parked car @ 347yds this will come in very handy bow hunting in the timber.
They are both good units and will serve you well but I think if you want the best unit get the swaro.

Pin laser? I may not know a lot about much, but one subject I am not afraid to talk about is laser rangefinders. To the best of my knowledge, all consumer LRs use a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) diode laser. These lasers all have excessive beam divergence (cone out, to use your vernacular). Natural beam divergence for a GaAs laser is 2x4 milliradians, meaning they are 2 meters by 4 meters at 1000 meters. Special techniques allow the laser to be focused to a narrower divergence; the orginal Geovid had a beam divergence of 1.5-.3 millirads if I remember correctly. The newer Geovid has a slightly wider divergence (2.5-.5mrad), which is slightly better than the 1200 model.

All GaAs lasers have an oval shape; I like the fact that Leica orients theirs so that the narrow dimension is vertically oriented. This reduces ground scatter (imagine shotgun pellets hitting the snow).

By the way, even YAG lasers (used by the military) have beam divergences of .5 mrads, meaning that the ability to range a deer with total accuracy at 2500 yards is just a pipe dream. Thank God.

I did not know the tecnical term for it I was just going off what I had learnd with these tow range finders compared to say a bushenll that I have. It will not range in betwen trees or other objects. I work on FAA's radars so I know all about ground scatter or clutter as we call it. I talked to a swaro tecnical guy and best that I recall is he said the lazer was 2 meters wide @ 1500yds he also said that this unit uses new tecnolgy but would not expand on that.
As I said they are both very good units and I almost bought the new Geovid but I have to many good binos.
I agre with you on the ranging deer @ 2500yds but hope to get accurate readings @ 700 yds with the swaro unit.

I find it extremely valuable to be able to range animals even much farther than I'd ever shoot at one. It can help you plan a stalk by knowing how much you need to close the distance, whether or not a certain approach will get you close enough, etc.

prdator:
You are right about the Bushnell devices: they have a beam divergence of 2x4 milrads. The vertical dimension is 4 mrads, kinda dissapointing.

Is the Swarovski unit a combined bino & range finder?

I have a Leica 1200 scan and it does everything I want it too...If I was being real picky, I would say it should be threaded so that it can be mounted on a tripod as its very difficult to hand hold it and range something relatively small 800m or 1000m away..

Regards,

Pete

Pete E,
The swaro unit is a monocular it is however the same size as the 8x30 slc binocular. It does have a 1/4-20 threded hole for your tripod.

Just an idea on the leica I have seen a guy use cable ties ( zip ties) to strap his range finder to the tripod and then just cut them off when you are done.

PRDATOR,

Thanks for that...I really like my Leica, and I was impressed by its optical quality, but I could never understand why they did not put a tripod adaptor on it...only a small point, and there are ways to work around it as you suggest, but its not something I would expect Leica to miss out on....


I have not seen the new Swarovski range finder yet, but I am a big Swarovski fan and I am glad to see them lift the bench mark on these things..That can only be good for all us consumers..

Regards,

Pete

Pete, Here are a few pics to compare the Leica Vs the Swaro:









The Swaro is a monocular, but the optics in it are noticably better than the Leica. It also feels much better in hand.
I just hope that I can get as lucky as Prdator and get the same deal on a Swaro he got, don't ask it will just make you jealous too.


The only thing the Swaro won't do is to help you count to three.
Prdator and I were pig hunting and we both had our sites on pigs, so I said:

"on the count of three, ready"
"yeah"
"one, two, BOOOOOM, (Prdators pig fall over dead)"

I had to make a running shot.......



Man we had fun.................DJ

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
Is the Swarovski unit a combined bino & range finder?

I have a Leica 1200 scan and it does everything I want it too...If I was being real picky, I would say it should be threaded so that it can be mounted on a tripod as its very difficult to hand hold it and range something relatively small 800m or 1000m away..

Regards,

Pete

Pete,

I sent my Leupold 12x40x60 spotting scope, Leica 1200 Range finder and a Monfrotto tripod over to my son in Iraq. I built a dual mounting plate to fit the tripod head that allows the scope and range finder to sit side by side and I bought the Leica tripod adaptor plate for the range finder. It’s a flat plate with a rubber strap that secures the finder really well. They use it in a fixed OP most of the time since the rig ain’t real practical for carrying around with you.

Having used these things allot I am not sure that the 1/4x20 threaded adapters by themselves would work all that well since the “flex†from the small single point connection would tend to move the unit allot when the button is pushed down.

DJpaintless:

Your pig count story reminds me of a guy I used to duck hunt with. His nick name was "Boom, boom, take "em." Need I say more?

DJ

the way I count that is like this, 1 is one 2 is two and boom is three!!!!!!! So you where laate.

The runing shot was Awsome!!! He droped that hog like it ws hit by the Hammer of Thor.

No just joking, but man that triger broke clean!

I saw more sign when I was turkey hunting ( got a big tom 11 1/4 beard 1'' spurs) We will have to go agin soon.

I will update on the range finder soon.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
I like the fact that Leica orients theirs so that the narrow dimension is vertically oriented. This reduces ground scatter (imagine shotgun pellets hitting the snow

They aren't the only ones:



Nice beam....

I also just got a Laser Guide from Swaro. Great peice of kit. They got the ergonomics perfect, as usual, and the optics are excellent. The only thing is it is a bit slow on measurements and I wish they would have incorporated the angle compensator like on the new Leupold. Otherwise I am happy with them.

Has anybody seen the NEW compact Leica 1200LRF's? I just came back from sportsmans warehouse and they had them in-stock. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes! size wise they are nice, but they still have bubble gum machine optics .

I also looked at some Geovids. I'll own a pair of these one day! The LRF is super easy to use and they use the same quality glass as the Trinovid BN's.

After seeing how much easier it is to use the LRF mounted in the bino's I'll never buy another dedicated LRF again. As soon as I'm in a better position to do something, I plan on selling my Pentax SP's and Leica 1200LRF and buying a pair.

quote:

Originally posted by TC1:
After seeing how much easier it is to use the LRF mounted in the bino's I'll never buy another dedicated LRF again. As soon as I'm in a better position to do something, I plan on selling my Pentax SP's and Leica 1200LRF and buying a pair.

Yeah, once you get spoiled with the LRF/Bino combo, you never want to go back....

The Leica Geovids are simply fantastic, great glass and so convenient. I had a pair of 10x42's and a mate convinced me to sell them to him!

Has anyone tried the new 15x56 Geovids?

Only problem apart from the bulk is the warranty, only 5 years.

I did recently a test for a magazine with some of the different rangefinders.
8x42 Geovid, Swarovski, leica 800, Buschnell yardage pro, and one cheap chinese.

The winner of those was simply the leica 800.
All rangefinders make funny wrong measurements from time to time, but the 800 was the one that had the least errors.
The reason for not having a 1200 in the test was that it wasent availible.

The geovid was in my eyes a dissapointment, clearly less good than the 800 and with optics less good than one can expect from Leica.

So I personally still uses a Leica ragnefinder and a Zeiss 7x50B binocular as that combinations was far better than any one else.

The Swarovski had the best optics in the test, aslo better than the geovid, but though the swarovski is so slow and and also had more funny readings than the leica 800 the choise is easy for me.

Regards StenGun

quote:

Originally posted by Blair D Calvin:
The Leica Geovids are simply fantastic, great glass and so convenient. I had a pair of 10x42's and a mate convinced me to sell them to him!

Has anyone tried the new 15x56 Geovids?

No but I'd love to look through a pair sometime. I'll bet the optics are quite impressive. For a dual purpose tool, I just can't see spending that much money on a rangefinder so limited in performance.

I'm in the market for a Range Finder. How does the Nikon 1200 Gold stack up????

Stengun,

Interesting results from your tests.

I didn't expect the Geovids to be as good as my old Trinovids but for me, they were as good or better. Everyone else who used them was ecstatic about them, to put it mildly. I have had a Leica 1200, but never used them, whereas the Geovids get used ALL the time as you are glassing with them.

Wish I'd never sold my pair

good excuse to try the 15x56 Geovid though!

The Swaro unit is so slow that by the time you get a reading on an animal, its gone. I have seen this happen more than once. Buy a Leica BRF or one of their LRFs and all of your ranging problems will be solved. As a hunter, I wouldn't give the Swaro a second look after observing the field performance.

quote:

Originally posted by Whiteeyetattoo:
The Swaro unit is so slow that by the time you get a reading on an animal, its gone. I have seen this happen more than once. Buy a Leica BRF or one of their LRFs and all of your ranging problems will be solved. As a hunter, I wouldn't give the Swaro a second look after observing the field performance.

Geez, just for that I'm not going to let you use my Swaro when we finally make our Antelope hunt......... ..........DJ

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Geez, just for that I'm not going to let you use my Swaro when we finally make our Antelope hunt......... ..........DJ

I have a Leica, I won't need it, but I may let you use my new VXIII with a boone and crocket reticle. If you have a pair, you better not let go of your 15X56 SLCs for long, they stick to my hands for some reason and I can't let go.

Hey did PRDATR get the 500 S&W too you? Hope you have a little fun with it...............DJ

I just got my swaro last nite, took it outside and tried it, very nice optics, ranging different items at 1000 yards no problem at all. It is a little slow though. I had thought about the Leica 1200 however when at the store was shown it has problems with dark backgrounds at 20 yards. Example: Sportsmans warehouse, black type mat hanging up, ranged with swaro 21yards, leica would not give me a reading. The salesman told me it was too dark for the leica, and the Goevids have the same problem. Anyone else experience that?

Wow.... Thats not very good. Anyone else have this problem?

I was looking at the Geovids when I was looking for a good LRF. I agree that the optics weren't as good as they should be in a 2K peice of gear. Also quite heavy. If I were going to get the Geo's I would have to sell my EL's. Decided that I would stick with my 10x42 EL's and get a light, high quality rangefinder to use kind of like a set of compact binos as well (read: Laser Guide). Also there is something about Swarovski optics that I really like. It seems they put more thought into ergonomics then the other big optic companies and IMO their glass is second to none. When I am glassing with my EL's I almost forget they are there sometimes because they are so comfortable to hold and view through. The Laser Guide is very comfortable as well.

If the optics on the Geos were better and they were a bit lighter as well I may have gone that route.... but they aren't.

Now if Swaro would make something like the Geo's with their trademark ergonomics and glass.......

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
Hey did PRDATR get the 500 S&W too you? Hope you have a little fun with it...............DJ

Yes he did, You don't want it back do you?

quote:

If the optics on the Geos were better and they were a bit lighter as well I may have gone that route.... but they aren't.

Now if Swaro would make something like the Geo's with their trademark ergonomics and glass.......

Bulldog, make sure you have plenty of time between ranging and your shot. The swaro and spooky animals don't go well together. I like the leica and think its optics to be better IMO, but I also have superior vision, for now.

13 years ago today I bought the first commercial laser rangefinder in the US - the original Geovid, which in my tests, has yet to be beat.

Get your hands on a Newcon LRB 7X40 3000 Pro and test the two. I think you'll have a new king to crown. Cheaper too.










Give one a try, I think you'll like it.

What is the difference of the LRF and the CRF models in the Leica 1200? Where is the best price to buy one? I have an 800 yard model and love it but my friend wants to buy it off me and of course with that it would give me a chance for a new one.
Thanks

The CRF is smaller and waterproof. It is $559.99 for a like new demo. We have the LRF 1200 Scan, new, in Tan and black (Safari Model) @ $459.99 or the all black, new, @ $469.99.

Jon A
Were did you get that range finder?
that looks cool.

I'll jump in here late in the game and say I have owned the Swarovski unit for a couple of years now. It works superbly and I wouldn't trade it off for anything else except maybe for a rifle scope that had the rangefinder built right in.

Am I correct in my understanding that Zeiss now offers a rifle scope that has a rangefinder built in?

Yes you are correct. Also Swaro built a similar scope a few years ago. I see them on ebay from time totime.

PRDATOR,

I was less than impressed with the customer service of the place I bought it from (in stock, ordered it with 2-day shipping and it didn't ship for a week) so I won't recommend them. The best price out there seems to be THIS PLACE but I have no experience with them.

I do have experience with other products from THESE GUYS and have been happy with their service.

Before buying, I'd check out the shipping charges of the vendor (some crank down the list price of things just to jack up stupid shipping charges). Also, have a good feel for their return policy. Especially with something this expensive, there's always a chance you'll get a dud and want to return/exchange it (it happens with all brands from time to time). So that's something you'll want to know going in.
HERE is my initial review of them if you want more details. I'll give them a real workout in Montana later this week and should have more to share after that.