DETUCK(TM Liquid Field Compass Professional Map Compass Navigation Compass

It is a very basic clear acrylic baseboard map compass at a budget price with nice features like 360 degree double bezels that can be used for magnetic declination. Does not have the needle balance quality of a Silva (see Poor Needle Balance) but works OK if the compass is held PERFECTLY level. Has inconsistent quality and you need to very carefully inspect the compass for possible flaws.Details:The two distance scales along the edges are in KM, 1:5000 and 1:2500. Has two 360 degree marked bezels, a fixed Direction Pointer outer bezel attached to the baseboard and an inner compass direction bezel on the rotating fluid filled needle casing. The see-through casing has orienteering guide lines for using "Silva 1-2-3 System". Does not have glow-in-the-dark illuminated needle or ordinal markings. Does not have a dedicated magnetic declination adjustment mechanism or dedicated declination scale. However the fixed outer bezel can be used as a declination adjustment scale and the inner case can be rotated accordingly to get true-north direction on the outer bezel and baseboard Direction Pointer. Unfortunately you have to re-calibrate this declination adjustment each time you take a "Silva 1-2-3 System" map reading.Poor Needle Balance (see photo):The first unit I received did not have proper horizontal needle balance. The needle did not float level and was off by almost 5 degrees from the horizontal (see photo). Fortunately the fluid filled case allows for about 7 degrees of floating variance and the needle did not touch the top or bottom inside case surfaces when the compass is PERFECTLY level. Given the low cost for the compass, I assume they do not have adequate QA to catch these types of problems at the factory.I hoped it was a one-off problem and exchanged it (I am an optimist and exchanges are easy with Prime). The second unit has a much more acceptable needle balance of less than 2 degrees from horizontal.Summary:I would have given 5 stars at the $7 price but the uncertainty of needle quality makes it a questionable buy. You get what you pay for.

I am very pleases with my compass. It works great and the price was very good.Several people had more expensive compasses in our group but they were NOTBetter. You can spend more but WHY?

buy it