leica disto D8

I have the D8, the top model, I brought it to this large project in China, thinking I could use it somewhere, I did think of the vertical control, setting the benchmarks up the building, especially in cold weather.
Jim Frame is correct, you need a steady hand or a bracket of sorts or it is practically useless.
Whilst the specs are impressive, most of what it does can be done with a t.s. and even though mine has the zoom lens to see the object point, you cant clearly see that much anyway.
Who can see something 100 metres, I did think it would come in handy for floor grid set out without setting up the jigger, or again, more accurate than the tapes in cold weather, but with the floor undulations, again it was useless.
The beam is only 1 cm or so from the face of the unit, so where the concrete is uneven, you cant get an end to end measure.Even with offset brackets off the floor, like a square etc., but then you have vert. issues from the points you are measuring, so a tape becomes as accurate.
Also for long shots, you have to stay perpendicular or square, and even a steady hand is not enough.
If I were to use it for repetitive special purposes, I would have some sort of bracket made to clamp to whatever I need, like the flange on an I beam. Square columns would be an issue, unless you had a magnetic clamp, then the laser would need to be some distance to save possible magnetic interference.
So it has stayed in the drawer for months, I guess for certifying rooms,non critical measurements etc , they are fine, but its been an expensive toy.

I have lived without one, and will again, short internal fixture measurements maybe, I came off a 500 mill court project in Australia, lots of contractors had them, but rarely used them.

The same with the Leica Sprinter, i took it back and got the na2, i could focus and read faster than the digital level, but they are good for certain things.
Hope this helps