Pentax Total Stations

These guys ,at least, must be famous for optics :), they have been making cameras since forewer.

Its been a few years, but I had a Pentax.

Very good gun.

Randy

I have no experience with Pentax other than my awesome K-5 DSLR camera, but I would expect excellent optics. Have you considered Nikon also? I have used a Nikon TS and thought it was better than Topcon. It also had excellent optics and the price is right, for what it is.

> I was wondering if you tried any of Pentax Total Stations.... They look beautiful : http://www.pentaxsurveying.com/en/
> If you have any experience with these ones - please share.
>
> I am still looking for mid-range reflectorless non expensive instruments from a RELIABLE manufacturer. Topcon's Cygnus does not seem like very reliable one.
> Thank you.

I have a Pentax PTS II-05 from the late 1980's sitting as a showpiece in my office at this very moment. That thing is a workhorse. A very good gun for its time, but very, very slow measuring and a little quirky. You were best to hit the "fine measure" button instead of coarse because you could easily get a blown distance in the averages that it read. If using with a data collector, it was best to initiate the measurement on the gun, and then hit the data collector (on EVERY shot) so as to bypass the same problem.

That's just my $0.02. They used to be a pretty big player in the market, and now I just don't think so as much for some reason.

Carl

We had one and I think it was the best total station we ever had. It is also retired now just from being wore out from so much usage.

Also had a PTS-II. It was a very good instrument for its day, I knew quite a few surveyors using Pentax in the late 80's and 90's.

I don't know anyone using Pentax now. I wonder why? In my case it's because I went robotic in 2001.

Thank you!
These guys have not sold themselves to any big manufacturer - this deserves respect 🙂 Looks like not very rich to affort development of robors.

I used to use a PCS-315 until a fall in a creek removed it from service. The optics were great and it was a very reliable gun. I do wish I still had it.

i used a px10d on one of my first jobs. this one had glass circles but a built in edm. the keys did not always 'press' for reducing trig shots, so i quickly got used to doing it with hp calculator

i later got a ptsvIII, and used that for about five years. that one was also very good

The last time I used a Pentax which was about 8 years I found the reflectorless to be poor compared to other models but other than that a good reliable instrument. The reflectorless may be better on their newer models.