Hi,
I was wondering what basic 2 sec total station would be up to par with the Leica tso2 I had in China, reflectorless to 1000 metres.
I got used to the operating logic, really really loved the optics in the dark low light conditions, do Nikon units have good optics, didnt like the laser plummet for the accuracey i wanted, sub 2mm, setting up online on mickey pins, maybe thats me.
I think lots of people DON'T buy Leica because they cant afford it, is this true.
I do the construction work as you know, I sold my unit there because it was a Leica, which was a plus.
Cheers
David
My opinion is, if the work you do requires reliable accuracy, then spend whatever it takes to get gear you can absolutely rely on and are comfortable with.
Stuff ups cost money, and if you can minimise the opportunities for error, then spending a bit more on equipment is probably not a bad investment.
Also, Leica 1201+ and 1202+ models are cheap now they're superceded by the TS15.
I don't see that Leica prices are any higher than any equivalent instrument. Their prices are competitive now.
I agree the optics are pretty nice but the software sucked. I don't know how it is now but back in the early 2000's it wasn't very natural to use. I could change from a TI collector to HP, changed from Retriever to Civil Soft to Eagle Point to Carlson drafting software and went from Sokkia to TDS to Carlson data collection software and didn't have much problem. The problem was the Leica software. It wasn't very intuitive and when I talked to our rep. (excellent service on his part) he said some of the changes I asked about were pretty reasonable and he'd pass them down the line. A couple of months later I had my answer which was basically "that's just an American concern, he'll get used to the way we do it". I need a better reason than that so I just took the money our company gave us for up grades and moved on down the line. What I found was that everyone has their +/-'s. Just got to keep looking till you find the couple the suit you and deal with it.
I have never been happy with their 34.4mm prism constant, which they refer to as 0.
And then you need to use other offsets, depending which other prisms you may be using, +17mm for the mini-prism, etc (which is really what if 0 is really 34.4mm).
Unless you're doing something that requires some sort of super-amazing-accuracy, more than a boundary survey, most of the name brand total stations can do what you want.
I like Nikons, and always use 0 prism constant - which is really 0.
