Leica Disto D5 Update

[Tom Woolford]

How about shooting to the the gutters on the first two, (and adding 4" and 6" for the distance to the end of the wall), and on the third shooting the back of the building to the block wall, then using the "+" feature and shooting the front wall to the block wall and adding? You would still have the third wall measured before you could roll up a tape.

99% of the time, there is something to shoot, and on the other 1% I get the measurement from the inside. I've never had to use a clipboard or sticky as a target, and never have to drag a tape around.

That wasn't the point of the pix. Couch said he had never seen an exterior wall with no openings. I expanded his education. All of those walls I measured with no problems. Plenty of targets.

 

[Couch Potato]

That wasn't the point of the pix. Couch said he had never seen an exterior wall with no openings. I expanded his education. All of those walls I measured with no problems. Plenty of targets.

I said I hadn't seen a blank wall with nothing on it. Your middle photo is close, but even it has a gutter, fence, and landscaping border to use as targets.

 

[Couch Potato]

I have to admit I am not clear on what you're talking about. What does a door or window do, are you shooting 3 measurements along a wall when using one window edge from one end of a wall, the opposite window edge from the other end of the wall and subtracting the window width? Targets next door and across the street? You shoot to a long distance target from a far end of a wall then subtract the distance from the near end of the wall? I hadn't thought of that.

Before buying I researched demonstration videos and talked to a Leica rep, but couldn't find any demos to measure a house. You're talking about things I hadn't considered that can make it easier to measure with a laser. I just use nearby fences and gates when available. Thanks for the info.

Yes, that is a procedure I regularly use. Of course the window width is the middle of the three measurements. Targets are everywhere once you broaden your view beyond the corners of the walls.

 

[Tom Woolford]

I said I hadn't seen a blank wall with nothing on it. Your middle photo is close, but even it has a gutter, fence, and landscaping border to use as targets.

We were not talking about targets. You said you had never seen a wall with no openings. Now you have.

 

[Lisle]

deleted....

 

[Lisle]

This is false in my opinion. Tremendous time savings? I don't see any time savings. Like I said, it saves time on some measurements in the process of measuring a home then takes longer on others. Sometimes there is no side fence to shoot into to get a front or rear wall of the home. Sometimes I walk to the end of the wall and stand my clipboard off the end of the wall at ground level then walk back to shoot the measurement. Other times it takes me a minute to figure out how to get a measurement. If you have to walk a wall twice to place a sticky or clipboard or you have to stop and think about how to get a measurement you are losing time, which is made up on the easier measurements. I don't have someone in the field with me, otherwise using another person would be an easy solution. If someone really is saving a lot of time measuring with a Disto, I have to believe they were very slow measuring with a wheel or tape.

Like I said, over time you will pick up some tricks. But overall, if you're not saving loads of time your not using the Disto effectively. Also, there is nothing stopping you from using both the Disto (on the hip) and a wheel or tape (in hand).

It is also worth mentioning that the Disto allows for safer measuring when working with the following hazards:

(1) The long icy deck (I really feal like I've cheated death every time I use the Disto to measure one of these).
(2) Bees in the hedges (they don't like it when you swing the wheel at them).
(3) Thorns (the savings on shirts alone should pay for the Disto)
(4) Poison Ivy (the worst of all hazards).
(5) 4 foot snow drifts along the walls (the ones with the 1/2 inch thick ice glaze coating are especially fun).
(6) mud (lost a boot once)
(7) measuring across an attic with iffy flooring (no need to perform a classic Chevy Chase routine for the homeowner).

 

[Mr Rex]

I never realized how much time I saved with the Disto until the batteries corroded inside the compartment and I had to send it off for repair. During the +/-10 days it was gone, I encountered several cut up houses with numerous angles and dormers on the second floor and several multisided bays on the first floor. What would normally take 10-15 minutes total turned into almost 30 minutes on a second floor with a tape, trying to find something to attach the tape to etc etc and another 20 minutes or so on the first floor. With a Disto its just about as fast as I can walk from point to point and shooting while writing down the measurements. And I usually double shoot every measurement as a check for accuracy. For the very, very few occasions with no target? I lean my clipboard at the corner and go back to the other end and shoot, still as fast or faster than hooking a tape, pulling it around various obstacles, getting the measurement and winding the tape back in.

Like someone else has said, if you aren't saving time, you ain't doing it right.

 

[rijman]

I never realized how much time I saved with the Disto until the batteries corroded inside the compartment and I had to send it off for repair. During the +/-10 days it was gone, I encountered several cut up houses with numerous angles and dormers on the second floor and several multisided bays on the first floor. What would normally take 10-15 minutes total turned into almost 30 minutes on a second floor with a tape, trying to find something to attach the tape to etc etc and another 20 minutes or so on the first floor. With a Disto its just about as fast as I can walk from point to point and shooting while writing down the measurements. And I usually double shoot every measurement as a check for accuracy. For the very, very few occasions with no target? I lean my clipboard at the corner and go back to the other end and shoot, still as fast or faster than hooking a tape, pulling it around various obstacles, getting the measurement and winding the tape back in.

Like someone else has said, if you aren't saving time, you ain't doing it right.

I used a wheel before, so it was a lot quicker than you're talking about with a tape. No need to hook anything and as for bushes and trees around the home I would often roll the wheel outside of them.

One post mentioned 3 minutes savings in one example measuring a home, which I think we can agree would vary from home to home depending on obstacles and targets, so a standard home could be more or less 3 minutes difference in measuring. That is not a lot of time savings, certainly not the significant time savings commonly touted. I'm sure I have no time savings yet, but with time and learning some of the tricks I'm confident my time may improve. I use the + - function often, but I was using it only on targets close to the home such as fences, gates, large tree trunks. It sounds like some are using much more distant targets, which is what I hadn't considered doing. For example, when shooting the side of a house with no targets while facing the rear yard I have not thought to shoot to the rear fence 40+ feet beyond the home. If measuring that same wall but facing the street, I hadn't thought to shoot to a parked car or home across the street. 2 days ago I did a home in an older neighborhood with a short side chain link fence and had trouble getting the rear wall. I could have shot the neighboring house, which was close by and properly positioned. As for shooting into window and door trim, it's not as easy as it sounds because you have to keep the laser very steady to hit a small target, which becomes more challenging the longer the distance.

It sounds like there are some tricks to using the laser measurer. Too bad there isn't a demo for these measuring tips, it would be very helpful for beginners.

 

[CigarDad]

I bought a Disto Classic in 2001. About the size of a brick and weighed as much. It cost $250 just to add the external magnetic scope back then. Now the scope is built in.

I carried a tape measure for about a year after purchasing the Disto but finally took that out of the car and haven't looked back.

Here on the left coast people must think their house will appraise for more if everything if freshly watered. More often than not arriving at a house everything is wet. Now I never have to step into a freshly watered flower bed in order to hook my tape measure to a house to measure.

My legal size clip board has custom a-frame stand with legs that extend a little bit past the bottom of the clip board. The back of the clip board is spray painted white (light colors provide faster results). I have a row of super strong magnets that holds the stand closed or it will hold the entire clip board if I stick it onto something metallic such as galvanized downspouts. I can set down the clip board and extend the legs out to act as a target. I can wedge it behind a downspout at a building corner or I can stick it into the ground.

I carry Post-it Notes (Super Sticky) version. These I can stick on a corner of a building to use as a target. They stick to wood, stucco, etc. I don't even bother to remove them.

One of these days a Disto will probably be about the size and weight of a large fountain pen. I know in 10 years of use my current Disto is half the size/weight of my first one.

Leica Disto Stick-on Target