Brunton 8099 Eclipse

Review Date
June 11, 2005

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Reviewed by: thorstenhackl ,  Backpacker

Price Paid:  $100.00 at bever zwerfsport

Summary:
This is like the roll royce in compass land. It is great to use, after reading the brochure though. After that nothing can go wrong. It is strong, well protected en still easy to use.

Customer Service:
dont know

Similar Products Used:
none

Review Date
October 13, 2003

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Reviewed by: Peter Ferdinand(Unregistered User) ,  Day Hiker

Price Paid:  $140.00 at Australian Geographi

Summary:
I have used this compass for rogaining in the Australian bush. Temperatures have ranged from around 5 to 20 degrees Celcius and I haven't seen any sign of a bubble developing in the vial. I bought this compass specifically for its robust design, accuracy and data cards although I have yet to use them in the field.

In practice, I have found the compass very easy to use and have found the circle in circle concept easy to work with, particularly at night when I use a small light to illuminate the compass.

It's big and bulky, but it's also very robust. The rubber casing gives it the ability to take a lot of knocks without damaging the compass itself. This is important when you are scrambling through heavy forest and climbing over rocks. I attach the lanyard to the sternum strap on my backpack and don't worry about all day.

The accuracy of the compass is probably far better than my own navigation skills, but I am getting better. I can now navigate on a bearing and pace counting through heavy forest to find a checkpoint over a distance of six hundred metres without any problems. I would recommend this compass to anyone doing any navigation work in heavy or rough conditions.

Customer Service:
So far I haven't had to call for help

Review Date
July 18, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by: OutdoorNut (Unregistered User) ,  Backpacker , from Seattle

Price Paid:  $79.00 at REI

Summary:
I had to find some way to spend my REI co-op refund credits so thought I'd get another compass. I like the info card included. The unit is too bulky & heavy though. They should have made the forward heading numbers large & green and the back bearing numbers smaller & black. Duh ! This shows dumb design or its likely someone screwed up in quality control before it went to manufacturing. For this kind of money you'd think theyd get it right. - - Glad I didn't fork out cash for it.

Customer Service:
Havent called them.

Similar Products Used:
Silva Ranger - - - still my go to compass. Cheaper, lighter - even though it may not look as 'cool'. - -

Review Date
April 15, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by: Rich (Unregistered User) ,  Backpacker

Price Paid:  $70.00 at Campmor

Summary:
I bought this because I lost my regular compass and thought I'd try out a top of the line model. I like this compass because it is designed to keep you from making common navagation mistakes and has a lot of neat features like a 1 degree scale. It is a little difficult for older eyes to read that scale inspite of the magnifier. The documentation is also first class. However, it should be noted that I am a compass nut. For general use, it is a bit on the over kill side and heavy. When I backpack, I use a Silva Ranger (the one I lost and then found a day after buying this one). But for day hikes and teaching scout skills, this is a fun unit to use.

Customer Service:
Never had to use them.

Similar Products Used:
Silva Ranger

Review Date
January 13, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Reviewed by: Fred Johnson(Unregistered User) ,  Backpacker , from Aurora, CO

Price Paid:  $80.00 at Nature Company

Summary:
This is a very good compass particularly if you want to make accurate position triangulations. I also like the reference card stuff. On the down side I too have problems with a bubble. If it didn't have this problem I'd give it 5 stars. For a top of the line compass you would think they could eliminate this problem. I have also used it for an orienteering meet but it is slow to use for that purpose.