Leica Pinmaster Review – Top of the range laser rangefinder
Over the last few days I’ve been checking out the pros and cons of using a laser range finder. I’ve always wondered just how much a range finder can help your game so I wanted to find out for myself.
I probably fit squarely into the category of ‘average Golfer.’ I know a fair bit about golf and my handicap is currently at 14.2. So, I’m not the best golfer but I’m just getting to the stage where I really need to focus on distances to help get me nearer to the pin.
As I’m hitting the ball more consistently every day now, I have a good idea of how far I can hit each of my clubs…or so I thought.
After unpacking a brand new Leica Pinmaster, the first job was to see how far away the picture on the wall was across the office…it was 14 yards exactly. The second job was to pace that out on foot, (an error free way of checking the accuracy…ahem), it was still about 14 yards. So far so good then.
We then undertook a series of clever tests to see if the Pinmaster really worked. It turns out, the edge of the office car park is exactly 86 yards away, my car is usually parked 42 yards away and the girl in the office opposite is 134 yards away depending on the day.
As much as we enjoyed finding out exactly how far away everything was from us, we thought we had better test it properly so we headed to the range. A quick trip up the road and we started checking it against the 100/150/200/250 yardage boards. They were showing distances that were 5 or 6 yards out either way which is enough to cause a problem.
We quickly realised the only real way to test the device was to get a really long tape measure which we duly stole from my dad’s shed. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that the Leica was absolutely dead-on and that the range boards were up to seven yards out.
Accuracy proven, we moved our efforts on to the golf course which is peppered with 150 and 200 yard markers. All of which are apparently measured to the centre of the green. This created a slight problem as the pins of course were not dead in the centre of the greens.
We had to get someone to run ahead and hold the pin in the centre of the green to check the distances. As predicted, almost every green was wrong. One was out by 25 yards, that’s two whole clubs out!
Measuring your exact distance to the pin is just a great tool to have in your bag. It really helps with every shot and takes just one moment to use. I thought it might hinder progress of the game but that isn’t the case at all.
In fact, the only thing I didn’t like was holding the damn thing in- between shots. It comes with a lanyard to put around your neck but the Pinmaster swings from side to side as you walk which gets really annoying I can tell you. Then, when you go to take your shot you have to put the Pinmaster down so that it doesn’t interfere with your swing.
The question is though – where do you put it? You don’t want to put it on the ground for obvious reasons. You don’t want to put it on your golf bag as it’ll probably fall off and get damaged. You definitely don’t want to put it in the provided pouch that attaches to your belt as you’d look like a complete plonker.
I didn’t come up with an answer for this problem unfortunately and it’s very annoying. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just the Pinmaster that suffers from this problem, it’s all these devices. The best solution would be something that clips to your golf bag and or golf trolley that you can access very quickly and easily. Otherwise it adds time to the whole thing which you get fed-up with by the end of the round.
The Leica Pinmaster is a whopping £469 which is a lot of money. I considered that you can buy a top of the range colour screen GPS device for that kind of dosh and that it would tell you how far away you are anyway and provide you with other information.
With some more thought though I realised that I was wrong. With GPS, you can see how far away you are from the front or centre of the green but not to the actual pin. Yes, you can work it out but we all know how deceptive greens are, from a distance. The fact is you won’t know where the pin really is until you actually get to the green, unless you use a rangefinder.
I think it really depends on you as a golfer. If you’re really serious about golf and you’re playing to a level where you need to be absolutely dead accurate then no doubt this is the tool for you. Then, you’d need to be serious about it or you’d never spend £469 on a rangefinder otherwise.
The Leica Pinmaster is absolutely at top of the range, both in its construction and use. It’s a really nice thing to own and I’d love to have one. It’s so simple, a two-year old could use it. All you do is click the button once to turn it on and once to measure.
The display shows a little illuminated box which you simply aim at the target and voila – the exact yardage pops up on the screen. You can also hold the button down and scan around to get distances of bunkers and anything you point it at instantly.
The Pinmaster measures up to 820 yards which is plenty and also has a bit of technology which allows it to pick out the first thing in its path which is very handy when you’re aiming at a pin with a lot of trees behind. We had no problem using it, it was a dream. It also offers a 7x magnification and a large field of view of 347 feet at a distance of 1,000 yards.
The eye-piece features a dioptre adjustment, which enables the user to select the best setting for their eyesight, and is suitable for people who wear glasses. The LED display also automatically adjusts its brightness to suit the ambient lighting conditions of the day, being bright in strong sunlight whilst dimming down in low light, so as to be visible and user-friendly at all times.
I must admit, I’m quite gutted now. I started out thinking that range finders would be a waste of money and that I’d never use one but I’ve totally changed my mind over the last week. Now, I really do want one as I can see how it would help my game. Unfortunately though, I now have to pack it back up and send it back to Leica, just when I was getting used to having it in the bag! Damn it…
You can see the full technical spec and find out more on the company’s website at www.leica-camera.co.uk. The Pinmaster will soon be stocked in American Golf, Harrods and Selfridges.
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