Paul in PA, post: 399259, member: 236 wrote: Glad you remember that the older transit bases had more screw adjustment. Most also had 4 screws, the point of which was to keep the instrument centered over the point that you set up on. Remember that the older instrument to tripod connections did not allow you to slide the head horizontally.
Four screws were very difficult for rookies who could not learn to screw the opposite two at the same time. They would either have the instrument rocking or the screws jammed solid tight.
rfc, did you ever turn sets on a transit plate?
Jim from what I recall, the earliest tripod legs were square. We hve become spoiled with steady improvements.
Paul in PA
I can move my four screw transit horizontally, not on the tripod but the screws slide on the part that screws on the tripod.
Jim Frame, post: 399337, member: 10 wrote: I guess it depends on which one you get and how you define "that much." I paid a little over $6k for the DNA03 in 2006.
You bought a top of the line instrument. Digital levels can be had, new, for under $1k. If you are regularly running levels along several miles of highway or several thousand of feet of runway it doesn't take many jobs to get your investment back.
The real advantage of these is not the precision, but the elimination of transcription errors, the electronic recording and transfer of the data and the increase in productivity. Oh, and the precision is always there nevertheless.