One of the guys I work for gave me one of these that he has an option to buy and I just set it up in the yard to try it out. He told me it has Prismless Option, but based on the manual, (and playing around with the instrument), it does NOT. Anybody know for sure?
I tried to keep an open mind about South, but it appears to be sort of crudely made. But I supposed; based on the price, they may do the job. The manual is certainly amusing to read.
He has an option to buy it for $1700 and it includes legs, prism & bipod. It is 1 year old and only used for one job.
If it is reflectorless, on the side of the instrument the model tag should have an R at the end of the model No. You can also hit the star key, the top line should read "Reflector[Prism ]", if you hit the menu button (has arrow right above it) it will change options. This is all based on a NTS-355R model.
In regards to the quality, I have used many instruments under many different brands and the South has been as good or better. The only complaint I have is the optics are not as good as a Nikon. South makes the same instruments for Sokkia and many others, they are just re-branded.
A new South starts close to $3000, so the price seems good for $1700.
thanks, No "R" on the model number.
I guess the only quality issues I saw is when you press one key, the other keys all seem to move (like the whole circuit board is bending). Also, when you loosen the vertical motion locking screw, the unit swings up so the telescope is pointing straight up.
GARBAGE!
I wrote a thorough review of one on the other board a few years ago. You may be able to search and find it.
Stay away. They are terrible. And used must be worse. I got a little help from my dealer and they ended up taking it back.
Snoop
> GARBAGE!
>
> I wrote a thorough review of one on the other board a few years ago. You may be able to search and find it.
>
> Stay away. They are terrible. And used must be worse. I got a little help from my dealer and they ended up taking it back.
It's not me who is considering buying it. It's one of the guys I work for who essentially wants to buy it to use when I (and my Nikon NPL-350) are unavailable.
Made in China.
:coffee:
> Made in China.
>
> :coffee:
Yes, but so is the iPad. What does that mean?
Yeah...so is everything else....
Some funny quotes from the manual
... slide the instrument by loosing the screw...
... objective lens toward the tribranch.
... to meat the requirements.
Don't dispose the battery at fire. Get it recycled.
Funny stuff. I can find a couple mistakes on about every page, and that's not counting confusing sentence structure.
Some funny quotes from the manual
Sounds like it was intelligently written by someone who knew what they were talking about, but whose English was a second language. Better than any second language for me.
I've seen much worse - stuff written or translated by someone whose English was not that good and also did not understand what they were translating.
Some funny quotes from the manual
from engrish.com . it's funny stuff, but the ones i want to post would certainry get me in hot miso with harness technorogy
Some funny quotes from the manual
You can find lots of GOOD used intruments of similiar capability in the $1500 - $2000 range. To buy that instrument would be a waste of money - my opinion. He should be able to find a good used Nikon for that $$.
I just used search tempest for out in your area. Theres a nice little Zeiss Elta R50 out by your for $1500. I had one for about 4 years.. it was a great little gun!! I'd say that would be a much better investment than the South instrument.
well, it depends of what the prospect buyer intends to do with the equipment. Maybe the person just need something to shoot angles and distances for "rough and dirty" surveying.
Just print the comments that you received, give him a copy, tell him to offer $500-600 with a 90 days return.
Servicing would be the big question. Made in China, but serviced where?
Goerges
He would mostly be shooting up Septic Designs and Wetlands Permitting stuff, so I'm sure the gun would be adequate for that; but he wants Prismless and onboard DC. He already has an old Topcon, so it's probably not worth it to him just to get the onboard DC.
