Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leica range finder.

I have a Leica lrf 800 that won't range out past 100 yards. Several years ago I contacted Leica about a repair and all they wanted to do was knock a few bucks off a new one. What are the new ones like. Will they last longer than 5 years? Will Leica service these? What's another option on a good range finder out to 1000 yards?

my lrf 1200 is very old now, whenever they came out i bought it that week

must be 7 years old now i would guess?

still flawless

I went through 5-6 Leica CRF 1200s back when they first hit the market. I finally gave up. Can't say if they fixed the electronic issues or not but, last I was told, they do not service them. They'll only sell you a new one.


I bought a Swaro all those years ago (6?) that has not had a hiccup -- and Swaro will in fact service them if the needs arises.

I have a Leica CRF 900 that's also worked flawlessly for about four years but if it goes belly up I won't buy another Leica based on the horrible reports of poor or no customer service.

same here i hav the crf1000-r sorta wished ida just bought a vortex but i got it at a deal. as long as it keeps workin fine tho im good

I've got a really old Leica, so old I don't remember which model. It's heading to New Zealand with hunt pard. Great rig.

Only tried two CRF 1200's and they both sucked. It was a little embarrassing when I had to borrow a hunters freaking Brunton RF to get a 275 yard range, something the 2nd Leica wouldn't do.

Leica refused to warranty or repair at my expense a LRF 1000 rangefinder several years ago. I got a Vortex Ranger 1000 a couple of years ago for a lot less money, and have been well satisfied with it. Get the Vortex, and don't look back.

Guess I got lucky....bought my Leica 1200 in 2002....has worked great all those years.....better knock on wood.....when it does die...Vortex will be my replacement...

Don't bother with the Vortex, Leupold, or other low end units. Some of them range very well, but all of them have crap optics. Not much fun to be trying to range an animal early in the morning or late evening and not even be able to see it through your rangefinder, but you can see it through your binocs and with the naked eye, then nothing but dark smudgy looking things through the RF. I've been pretty happy with Leica. I had a CRF 1200 that worked well, wanted the angle comp, so I sold it and eventually went with the 1600B. I first tried the Leupold RX 1000i and just couldn't settle for those optics. Not a bad unit if that is what your price range dictates, but if you can afford something better, I'd do it.

You need to either get your eyes checked or clean the eyepiece on that 1000i. I been using one for over two years and short of dense fog there's not a situation I've had yet in which it will not range. I will grant you though, that the max effective range on game has been up to 750-800yds max though.

I've had a LRF 1200 since they first came out and it has worked great except one time in a snow storm, I just could not get a reading, not sure what I would replace it with if it ever goes south!

Don't confuse the older, rock-solid, no-longer-for-sale LRFs with the newer, [bleep] CRFs.

They really are quite different.

UL....I hear ya, not sure what changes Leica made that would cause so many disappointments!

ranger1--It is obvious you have never looked through a Vortex Ranger 1000. I have both a Leica CRF1200 and a Vortex Ranger 1000, and the Vortex rangefinder glass is every bit as clear and sharp as the Leica.

I've compared the Vortex Ranger 1000 to my Leica 1600B in low light on the prairie and the optics on the Vortex sucked. Some of you fellas are very lacking in objectivity and seem to just want to say whatever unit you have is great. I actually tried them under the conditions I hunt in and in the same area and found the cheaper units to be lacking optically. I went so far as to buy the Leupold RX1000i, thinking that I would get over the poor optics because it otherwise seemed to be a good unit. I sold it after a year of use. I'd love to spend half the money and have a great rangefinder, I found that it isn't possible, however. Low light image quality is terrible in the cheaper units.

I've owned two crf 1200's, the Swaro 8x30, Bushnell Elite 1500, and the RX1000i. several of them at the same time. The two crf's sucked so bad none of my others were even close to sucking so bad. Plus, Leica keep's their heads in their collective azzzes when it comes to CS and warranty service, so screw Leica. The Swaro had the best glass, but the huge circle reticle made it next to impossible to get reliable readings in the uber-flat antelope country we hunt...horribly inconsistent in that country, or no reading at all. The Elite had the most range in the rf of any of them, and the RX is the best compromise of excellent glass, reliable ranging that I've personally used.

So, I tried them and used them too, hunting, in the field, and my results are drastically different than yours, and that's fine, but you're not the only one who knows how to test and use optics bro.

Just curious, have you ever had a positive experience with a Leica product ?

I hunted with a 10x42 Trinovid for 15 years and it was a fantastic binocular. I can't think of one negative thing to say about it, and is probably one of the top 3 best built bins I've every handled or used, along with the Meopta and Steiner Peregrine XP.. I like several of Leica's products to this day, but won't buy one.

You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Leica is a fantastic company with fantastic products.

If there is any complaint that I have, and I've owned scores of their optics of all varieties, is that there CS can be all over the map with service procedure/costs.
My experiences have been 100% stellar, I've never paid a dime for warranty or service work of any kind, but I know some others have paid and their costs weren't acceptable.