SUUNTO PM-5 Clinometer

This is a solid, well designed, and nicely manufactured product. And at a fair price. What more can one ask for?I've tried this to estimate the (known) height of several objects and structures. The calculations are very straight forward and easy to perform. The calculated results were closer than I would have expected. I think I'm going to love this!

I bought this inclinometer because I needed an optical device I could fit in my tool pouch to measure heights in a refinery. This type of environment requires equipment be intrinsically-safe, i.e., unable to provide enough current to cause a fire. This pretty much rules out GPS, etc. Besides, as I explained to a friend once, GPS tells you where you are not how high something is in front of you.From my field tests I've found this instrument to be accurate to within +/- 1-ft. This is not as good as you would get with a theodolite (transit), which involves a tripod. A single measurement this way would be highly accurate, perhaps to an inch or so but would take a half-hour or so to set up, if you knew what you were doing. If you can live with the accuracy the PM-5 is great for fast measurements.The Clinometer works best on days when it is partially cloudy. Frequent use, say more than an hour, in bright sunshine, may cause modest headache and eyestrain.Here's how it work:1. Measure the horizontal distance first (D). Keep the tape straight.2. Measure the height of the instrument as you hold it (Ho).3. Hold the instrument by the brass handle and find the black eyepiece.4. Choose the best eye that sees close up.5. Close the other eye.6. Look for the horizontal hairline.7. To the right, is % slope (or height in ft at 100-ft); to the left is degrees.8. Zero with the horizon.9. Move the instrument to the desired elevation.10. Open the second eye using it to see the object for which you want the elevation.11. An optical illusion will bring the hairline in focus in front of the second eye.12. Adjust the instrument elevation and read the measurement.13. The best accuracy is with the degrees.14. Do the math: H = Ho + DTan(angle).If this review was helpful, please add your vote.

Palm sized Clinometer for measuring angle or elevation of slopes. Easy to read & lightweight. Comes with a lanyard so you can wear it around your neck when in the field & it has a pouch & belt loop to keep it safe from scratches & secured on your body when navigating through woodsy areas or when working near machinery. Great product!

I just bought a second one (first one grew legs and I have not seen it since). I have used it in all kinds of weather in some pretty obnoxious environments when scouting for hiking trails and never has any problem with it. I found it easy to read. I mostly work with the low end of the % scale and have found the resolution meets my needs. I keep it in it's pouch and usually in my pack when not in use. I don't know how it would stand up to rougher handling.

This clinometer is high quality and easy to use. I use it for measuring the height of cell phone towers, and once you get the hang of it, it's easy to do.If you're unfamiliar this the device, it simply measures the angle at which you are looking. So if you know how far away you are from something, and the angle you look at to see the top of your target, you can get the height.I've "calibrated" it to known heights of structures, and I usually get within +/- 5 feet. There are a lot of factors at play when doing this: sun, distance from target (as affected by terrain - if hilly, the distance you would measure walking is not the same as a straight line distance), skill of use (it take some practice to get your eyes use to looking through this).

Hard to be a fanboy of inclinometers. Does what it's supposed to. What more?

I bought this to determine topographical slopes for drainfield design rough-in. I used it on a recent large commercial project before I had the topo survey. In checking the ground slopes from the survey vs. the clinometer, the clinometer was within a degree of the survey. Accurate enough for preliminary design, and in some cases, even accurate enough for design.

This is a high quality product--nice workmanship, nice feel, appears to be very precise, and comes with a nice case. Unfortunately Suunto has not provided sufficient information to purchase this product from Amazon.Here is an excerpt from the Amazon product description:"There is a large selection of scales to choose from. These include normal linear angle scales, i.e. degrees, gons and mils as well as per cent scales, topographic scales, metric or American and special secant scales."What the description doesn't say is that different models provide different measurements and different units. There is no way to tell from the product description what your model will measure or what its units will be. Those are spelled out in the user guide, which you get when you order the product.Here's what the user guide says:-Models with a 15, 20, or 66 in the name will measure height with a fixed distance scale (15m, 20m, or 66 feet).-Models with PC in the name measure height from a variable distance using percentage scale.-Models with S in the name measure horizontal distance with secant scale.I received the PM-5/360 PC Clinometer, which uses the percentage scale. If you take the measurement from 100 feet, the percent angle translates directly into feet which simplifies the math, so it works out ok. The only other clinometer I've used provided for measurements at both 66 and 100 feet, which would have been a little more versatile for my purposes.Amazon and Suunto need to clearly spell out what the different models measure, or make clear that they are only selling one model and explain what that model measures, and in what units.