I agree that the Chrony has its faults. I learned long ago that overcast days were my friend. But it really put an affordable chronograph in the hands of shooters back in the day, though most have upgraded to more reliable equipment. I used my Chrony for a physical science lab where the students fired a Styrofoam dart from a dart gun and measured velocity, then used the dart's mass and velocity to do KE and momentum calculations. Had to play with the lighting then too to make it work well.
I've had their very basic F1 Chrony for maybe 30 years now and it's been fine as far as I know. I check it regularly with subsonic Eley .22 RF ammo for measured consistency. Never any surprises so far. If it wasn't for the F1 Chrony being so affordable, I probably wouldn't have one. ( I never shoot it, never understood the need to do that). As far as lighting, you almost have to use an incandescent bulb to have any luck, fluorescent lamps with their 60 HZ flicker confuses the timing screens into thinking they are shadows of bullets passing thru the screens. This has been my observation anyway for the last thirty years. I think I gave $60 for it from Midway and that's not a bad return for 30 years of service.
