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| Traser Night Navigator IRIS 50 Compass |
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| Written by Tony Bristow | |
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This is a bit of a weird compass. Now don’t get me wrong, weird is not necessarily bad, just a bit different. The compass is chunky; tough; waterproof; and very readable in the dark, thanks to the fitted traser lights. I found it a dream to use and had no concerns when it came to trusting it to find my way, although I did need to know where I wanted to go, so after I had worked out my bearing it was plain sailing. The compass is waterproof to 50m, which I must admit I did not put to the test, although I can vouch for it being as waterproof as you could ever need. I also stuck it in the freezer at -16ºC for 21 hours and 10 minutes to see how it would survive the bubble test. It came out with a bubble of about 6mm diameter, which shrunk to nothing over about 3 hours, if I had kept this close to my body it would have disappeared much quicker due to the extra heat. I have to say though, that even with a fairly substantial bubble it made no difference to the compass which still performed very well.  ConclusionA great compass, but, too much for bushcraft. For us it really is a bit of an overkill. If it was not £59.99 I would consider it because it does its job very well and it really is cool to show it off to your mates. For the military I can see the attraction, for anyone else Silva, Suunto and such companies do very adequate directional appliances for half the price or less. Quality 9/10 Suitability 5/10 Usability 6/10 Value 5/10 Total 6.5/10 Provided by traser UK Copyright ©2003-2007 BushcraftUk.com Comments
(3)
Someone knows the manufacturer site? I wanna know more about technical specifications.
Thanks.
Great review Tony,
I recently came across these at £39-99 at USMCPRO. and was thinking of getting one to take my navigation skills up a notch, but your score of 6.5/10 is making me think twice. I'll chat to you in person about it sometime before I commit to the purchase. Cheers Ogri the trog You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
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I first came across this compass in its marine form. In those days the colour choices where yellow and blue. I opted for the yellow (relatively) high visibility option as the compass was to be used as a back-up to my boats main compass and on jaunts in the dinghy. I found it really easy to use under those conditions and it spent much of its life in the boats grab bag. Its rubber outer makes it really robust and totally suitable for any use in and around water. I haven't got the boat now and it's sitting in a box with a lot of other gear so it has not been tested in the hills around where we now live but your review makes me want to.
I'd expect it to be easy to use (for sighting etc.) and the abilility to read it at night or in low light conditions should be a boon. It may be a little bulky but it's quite comfortable to hold, the outer being quite tactile.
You review also makes me think that I may have some other boating gear that might do a job in the great outdoors.