Advice on which compass to buy

[Ann]

Suunto SK7 with bungees. It's the best i think

[huxley]

SK-7 is a great compass for orientation, you can pretty much hold it up side down and read, ok 30 degree but that's the best I've seen so far. Negative is they are fragile for what they cost. my lense cracked due to age I guess. compass flooded with water and I got a nice water oil mix with the result that the compass hangs and is not usable anymore. if you shake it it looks cool and you cant read anything. Well it happened while surveying and a bought one of those cheap ones for surveying, might replace the sk7 with a new insert if i find one, don't want to spent another 70 bucks or so on it.

[Skorpiov]

SK-7 is a great compass for orientation,... Negative is they are fragile for what they cost.

You guys must really be hard on your gear. I have over 1000 dives on my first one (wrist mounted bunge mount from DSS) and a backup still in the box I bought for my daughter who hardly ever dives anymore. They go on your wrist, get wet, then back in the dive case. I treat them just as I do a dive computer. How do you break one?

+1 for SK7, but I dont do any surveying yet so I cant comment on that particular use.

[Mart]

Uwatec F2 with bungee mount for diving. As good as the Suunto, much less fragile.

[Merlin Rhoda]

Purely based on personal experience: 10 years ago it seemed the SK7's were bullet proof, then they got fragile for a few years, then they improved somewhat. I plan on replacing one every couple of years between the four the misses and I have (wrists + scooters).

The SK7 is by far my favorite.

[huxley]

How do you break one?

if you look straight down on the compass the plastic lense has several cracks in it from the center, this is where they molded it and there is a little plastic nipple from where the cracks start. Appears to me like aging and exposure to the elements. I take fairly good care of my equipment and store it in a bag with computers and so on, so nothing heavy.

[Jax]

$4.88 locally.

Interesting you say that. I always wondered why people buy expensive compasses,when they orienteering compasses are fairly inexpensive,and work very well.

I like one's that have glowy markings on the bezel and on the arrows. Sludge's $4.88 compass doesn't have them. But otherwise it's a fine compass. I have to pay a little over $20 for the orienteering compass with the glowy bits.

When you folks are discussing the orienteering compasses - are they oil filled? I just received my Suunto A-30, and it is air-filled.

Is that a problem?

[jj1987]

My SK7 leaked all the oil out and no longer orients. It's been kept in the side of my gear bag since I've owned it, no cracks, not even a scratch. Not sure what happened, but hopefully they warranty it.