Leica Disto D5

Focusing with wide angle lenses on an Alpa is normally an easy thing, as the depth of field is very large.

But new digital backs with small pixels require larger apertures. Or what to do if you want to work with longer lenses? For these occasions a groundglass or live view with a tethered laptop are the best methods to get the focus where you want it to be. An alternative can be a laser distance meter (see ALPA Knowledge Base). Well, they work fine when used indoor and/or on static targets. But in bright sunlight the laser dot is sometimes very hard to see, the same goes for moving targets like flags or small items like flag posts.

A solution to these problems is the latest distance meter from Leica, the Disto D5 (and its brother D8). It has a built in camera and screen, which allows to see exactly what you are going to measure. You can even zoom 4 times to get a better reading. Additionally there is a built in digital spirit-level. It's definitively a big step up from the conventional meters, much faster and also a lot safer to use when people are walking around.

Is it perfect? Almost. The screen is not very bright and it's reflecting, which degrades the readability. But that is only a minor issue, the speed and precision gain outweigh that by far. Being one the top models of the Disto line it comes at a price, but it's the only device I know that offers this kind of functionality.

Images l caption:
01 - Size comparison between D2 and D5
02 - Screen sample
03 - The stop unit
04 - Usage of the stop unit
05 - The screen in bright light
06 - Sample image where distance reading with a conventional laser would be hard to get

Stephan Meier / July 2009

For more details, see...

Leica Geosystems product page D5
Leica Geosystems Produktseite D5