How much range? (1 Viewer)

[Ignatius]

I'm looking into rangefinders. How much range do you think is useful in western and central Europe? Is 2600 m overkill and anything below 1 click a waste of time?

(And no, I have not taken up golf. I'm firmly with Churchill on that.)

 

[MiddleRiver]

Depends on what you are using it for…
I never range birds - Is that a thing?
Hunters might need as much as 500yd.
Snipers are probably best researched in a different forum.

 

[Ignatius]

I have never 'hunted' hunted an animal in my life. I want to use it mainly for learning to gauge distances for wildlife photography. So resting birds, and quadrupeds.

 

[Mono]

Most consumer range finders top out at around 1000m, above that the lasers stop being eye safe.

 

[Ignatius]

Ok. I'll have to read up on that because the Leicas go up to 2600 m and even the Maven RF1 does 2400 according to specs.

From the manual of the Leica CRF Pro which measues from 10 m to 2600 m.

TECHNICAL DATA (LASER)
Laser class - IEC/EN Class 1
Wavelength (nm) - 905
Pulse duration (ns) - 57
Output (mW) - PRO: 1,7
Beam divergence (mrad) - PRO: Vertical 0,96, horizontal 1,21

With the exception of the characteristics permitted under Variance
Number IEC 60825-1 Ed. 3, effective May 8, 2019, this product com-
plies with the performance standards for laser products under 21
CFR 1040.10 and 1040.11.

I can only assume that Leica do not sell equipment which is unsafe to use or breaks EU laws.