Total Station, what's your favorite?

Topcon 3003LW

light, long battery life, accurate, priced right.

Leica TCR 1103, reflectorless, and the best on the market... except now they are no longer made or supported...

the previous leica 101 was a good one, too....anything wild/leica;

the optics are the best...

I traded my Geodimeter 4400 robot I got in 1996 for a Trimble 5603 robot in 2002. I wish I had the Geodimeter back. That gun was incredibly awesome!!

Looked at the Topcon stuff, but the Trimble was cheaper. Never went Leica, they were always too much $$$

Leica 1200 series is simply the best.

I own a Topcon GPT3005LW which is passable. Certainly easy on the wallet, reasonable results and lightweight.

I agree with the Leica 1200, however the new Viva robot is slowly gaining an advantage with my crews.

I would take the low end Leica total station over the best Topcon, Sokkia out there today. Nothing compares in optics and precision.

My favorite is the Nikon DTM-500 series, still own two of them. But they don't get used much anymore. Most of our TS work now is done with a Sokkia SET4 130R3 Reflectorless.

The Sokkia is a great gun, but a little awkward to get used to. Don't expect to keep a real close tally on elevations with it. Keep lots of BM checks around. But it's a workhorse..you can run a battery right down to the nub in it.

The Nikons have always kept up good "z" data. And Nikon's optics kick everybody else's junk in the dirt.

Topcon GPT-7003i. reflectorless, imaging, online data collector, easy to learn, support software ...pretty good.

A bit heavy though.

Started with the company using the Leica TC1100L and a Husky data collector. Upgraded the data collector to SMI on HP48 (still using today). Then bought a Nikon NPL-362. The Leica is far superior in optics and speed. Took longer to turn then to get the shot. But the downside was it is big in size and tough to carry around. The Nikon is great in size and weight. Optics is good, but the worst is the speed. Even in broad open spaces, sometimes it takes several seconds to get the shot. So tough call here. Maybe someday find something small and reliable with great optics and fast shots.

One thing I have learned which helps with vertical results is to cycle the instrument off then on again after it is fine leveled and over the point.

My GPT3005LW gives great vertical results if I do this procedure.

Speaking of heavy..

Here's an old favorite. The case had two handles 'cause it took two people to carry it. These were the cat's meow when they came out.

The data collectors were cheap, too. Most of them were yellow, brown or orange and you could get different grid lines on the pages if you wished.

It's always been Topcon at work but I inherited a really nice little Pentax PCS-2s that is light, accurate and fast. The optics are way better than Topcon.

Nikon 500 Series has very quick shot return, a clear shot returns in about a second or two......

Speaking of heavy..

Ah... the momories...Eliot State Forest(everything is either up or down)...The HP 3800, when you could get it.

Speaking of heavy..

Not really a total station, did convert slope to horizontal, still needed the T-2 for the Horizontal angle, carrying both plus a tripod was good for the girlish figure. My preference was the AGA 76 for traverse work and I had a HP 35 to reduce to horizontal distance if needed in the field but we usually slope chained and used the 35 to correct to horizontal in the field for setting monuments. The first total station I used was a T 16 with the Wild DI 3, had 5, two way, toggle switches used for the zenith angle entry. Still two cases but for radial work was the cats meow, think it would measure out to about 900 feet.
jud

Speaking of heavy..

Dang...should have said "Not that Heavy"....:)

The company I work for hasn't bought anything but Pentax for the past 17 years. We've had three and we got good service out of them. We have the 325N now and it's about 6years old and still going strong.

Speaking of heavy..

"It's all flat on the map!" -Jerry Klopotek LS4301

Well I guess this really dosen't count, but a double 90, couple of plumb bobs, and a steel tape have built many a road around here. I'm not old enough to have needed to do it that way, but I'm glad I worked for a chief who showed me how to do it. Leica is the best I've used recently.

Speaking of heavy..

My pop had one of those....