RZD-60 60-meter laser distance meter: small but mighty.

In my work, I sometimes need to measure distances.
Mostly, this means calculating how much cable I need for an installation or measuring rooms for drawings, but sometimes it’s also to convince clients whose sense of distance isn’t quite up to scratch.
We used to make do with a tape measure, or pace it out if the distance was long. It was rough, but it worked—we’d just get extra cable. I got tired of that, so I decided to add a laser distance meter to my toolkit.
If you’re interested, read on.

Before ordering, I checked prices for distance meters locally, but couldn’t find any good alternatives in this price range.
Anyway, I ordered it. It arrived, and didn’t suffer much in transit.

As usual, I’ll start with how it arrived. I’ll hide some of the photos behind a spoiler.

And here’s what comes with the device.
The device itself
A case with a belt loop (the device fits quite snugly inside)
Wrist strap
Manual


The device is fairly compact.
My first impression when I picked it up was that it felt like a solid block.
It’s so solidly built that nothing inside rattles—and the batteries fit so tightly that you have to give the device a good shake to get them out.
So, five out of five for build quality.


The same warning symbols are on the back as on the box.


As I mentioned above, the batteries fit very snugly, and the latch is also quite stiff, but feels sturdy enough. The batteries are held securely in place.


The battery polarity is marked.
But in my opinion, the markings could be interpreted in two ways.


To avoid any confusion, I took a photo showing the correct battery polarity.


First time turning the device on. The digits are actually clear; they just came out this way in the photo.
Let me take a moment to explain what the buttons do.
Center button — measurement. When switched on, the device turns on the laser and waits for the button to be pressed.
There are several possible measurement outcomes and device responses.
1. The measurement is successful: the device beeps twice, turns off the laser, and displays the reading.
2. The measurement is taken, but the device's processor isn't sure of the result: the device beeps three times and displays the measurement, but leaves the laser on.
3. The measurement fails, or the measured value is outside the measurement range: the device beeps three times and displays either 0000 or four dashes.
Pressing and holding the button switches the device to continuous measurement mode. Pressing it once switches back to single-measurement mode.

Left column of buttons.
Top — adds the measured result to the previous one; press and hold to turn off the sound (the setting is saved).
Middle — switches the device to area or volume measurement mode.
Bottom — turns on the backlight; press and hold to choose whether measurements are taken from the back or front of the device.

Right column of buttons.
Top — subtracts the measured result from the previous one; press and hold to switch the device to memory mode.
Middle — switches the device to calculate the height of vertical surfaces (first measure the distance to the top point, then the distance to the object), or horizontal surfaces (first the left diagonal, then the distance to the object, then the right diagonal). On-screen prompts guide you through all the measurements.
Bottom — deletes a measurement result (each press deletes one result); press and hold to turn off the device.


The backlight is a pleasant white with a slight blue tint. It's bright enough to work with, but doesn't dazzle you.


The lens is recessed quite deeply. In my opinion, that's a good thing: there's less chance of damaging it.
The housing is also designed to protect the device: you can set it down on a table without worrying about accidentally pressing any buttons or scratching the screen. A raised lip around the edge of the housing helps prevent that.


The case is made to fit the device exactly. The fabric around the edges stretches a little; the rest of the case is quite rigid. It closes with a hook-and-loop fastener, and there's an extra strip of fabric sewn onto the back that makes it easy to attach the case to your belt.



I couldn't resist taking the device apart. I took apart a genuine Leica a few years ago, but unfortunately I didn't keep the photos.

Next, I moved on to trying out the device.
First, I just took it for a walk outside, but I couldn't get a reading beyond 42 meters. I can't figure out why, since I couldn't see the laser dot (the sun was quite bright).
So it's unclear whether sunlight glare was the problem or whether I simply missed the target.


That evening, I tried measuring the distance to a neighboring building. In the dark, the laser spot was easy to see (even with my poor eyesight), and I was able to determine the maximum range of the device. Judging by the clear cutoff at 65 meters, I suspect there's a software limit. I slowly swept the device at an angle across the nearby building, taking consecutive measurements.
Here's how it turned out.


After that, I checked the consistency of consecutive measurements. I held the device firmly on the table and took several measurements in a row at an angle to the surface, which was far from ideal.
The readings are quite stable and don't “wander,” which is great.


After all these preliminary caresses trials with the device, I moved on to testing its measurement accuracy.
At first, I planned to check it against my old tape measure, but when I looked at it, I felt ashamed—it looked absolutely terrifying. So I went to the store and bought a new 5 m tape measure.
It's rated Class II accuracy, which according to European standards means:
0.5 m — ± 0.5 mm
1.0 m — ± 0.5 mm
2.0 m — ± 0.7 mm
3.0 m — ± 0.9 mm
5.0 m — ± 1.3 mm
8.0 m — ± 1.9 mm
10.0 m — ± 2.3 mm

But that wasn't good enough for me, so I got organized, took the new tape measure, and went to see a friend who knows a lot more about metrology than I do (fortunately, our city has a metrology institute). At first, I wanted to ask him to mark precise intervals every meter,
but things turned out a little differently—and much more simply. The tape measure's error turned out to be linear, amounting to 0.5 mm over 5 m (it read 0.5 mm too high). I simply accounted for this error in the subsequent measurements.


So, here's how I took the measurements.
For measurements up to and including 300 mm, I used a steel ruler.
For 400 mm to 1100 mm, I used a tape measure and took the measurements at home.
I took the 20000 mm and 30000 mm measurements at work. Getting an accurate measurement was trickier here, since measuring that length with a 5 m tape measure is very difficult, but there was a long corridor.
Measurements up to and including 100 mm were taken from the front of the device; all the others were taken from the back.
To position the device more accurately against the marks on the tape measure, I used a carpenter's square.
The device doesn't display measurements below 50 mm.
At first, I tried measuring to slightly glossy white and black surfaces, but saw no difference, so all subsequent measurements were taken against the black surface.

And here are the results.
50 — 54
100 — 104
200 — 202
300 — 301
400 — 401
500 — 501
600 — 601
1000 — 1000
1500 — 1500
2000 — 2000
3000 — 3001
4000 — 4001
5000 — 5001
7000 — 7000
10000 — 10000
11000 — 10999
20000 — 20001
30000 — 30002

The last result is questionable, since I measured it with a 5 m tape measure in six passes, but I tried to mark it as accurately as possible.

The result was pleasantly surprising, but at distances under 300 mm the rangefinder noticeably starts to overread, and at distances under 200 mm it falls outside the stated accuracy. But as far as I know, many rangefinders have this issue.

After the checks and measurements, I decided it would be useful to measure the current consumption for the review. The device description said it could take around 5,000–8,000 measurements on one set of batteries.
I'll try to work out the actual number.

And finally, here's the device ready for use.


And a photo of it in my hand :)


Summary.
Pros
Well-made, thoughtfully designed housing
High accuracy.
Powered by just two batteries (though this can be both a pro and a con, depending on your point of view)
Compact size
Neat packaging.

Cons
Slightly high readings at distances under 200 mm.

My take: I was pleasantly surprised by this device. It's small and accurate, and has all the functions you need. In my opinion, it would be nice to have a rechargeable battery instead of disposable batteries, though that depends on your needs. Sometimes you can just grab a couple of batteries from the TV remote and finish the job rather than look for a charger. I would also love to see special glasses included or available separately to make it easier to work in bright light.
Overall, nothing unnecessary.

The distance meter for this review was provided by the eachbuyer store.

I hope you found my review interesting and useful. If you asked me whether I would buy one of these, I'd say yes. I don't actually need millimeter-level accuracy, though. But measuring with a tape measure is harder, while an ultrasonic distance meter can be problematic and cumbersome over long distances. There's also a nice little effect when a customer says, “That's 20 m, but you charged me for 30.” You pull this out, click a couple of times, and show them the result.
It can also be handy when installing cameras—not just for measuring cable runs, but also the distance from the camera to the subject.

As far as I remember, the NEWORDER8 coupon for 8% off should still be valid, bringing the price to around 43.8