Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics EL range or Geovid hd r /b reliability?

For you guys that have had these for a while. How long have you had
them ? Have you had any trouble with them ? If so how much did the repairs cost ?

I have had my EL range for close to 10 years. last year the button went bad, well I never knew what it was, but it was something to do with the activation. repair was free, Swaro replaced the entire rubber armor on them turn around was about 5 weeks. with the exception of some scuffs on the split bridge paint they looked like new coming back. I had some geovids before that, those had the RF not calibrated and had to be sent back to leica. They wanted to charge me $125 to fix them because they knew they were demo models. Fortunately doug found my receipt and I was a couple weeks inside my 1 year warranty, that was about a 4 week turn around. dropped another pair of geovids and jacked up the focus wheel, They charged $125 again about a 4 week turn around. while its been quite a while since I have dealt with leica service. If I am guessing swaro will probably be better and more lenient on what they cover. Leica will be more stingy. Also consider leica has been updated models quite a bit. They discount the old models pretty heavily, this could impact resale. Swaro isn't the newest kid on the block with their EL range. but they do maintain brand value better. IMO the worst that can happen is you will probably have a $150-200 repair bill. considering how much you are spending, I say know it and be prepared to deal with it.

I have had a pair of Leica hd b s for about 5 years. Mine have been rock solid. I hunt and use them hard. They are in the truck with me almost every day. I have had absolutely no problems. The range finder is very strong, much stronger than the earlier geovids I had. The glass is very good. I have not owned a pair of swaros, but a friend had a pair, and I was able to compare them a bit. The main take away , was that the glass on both was very good, but Leica s range finder was stronger at longer distance. You would probably be happy with either one, but I am going to stick with leica.

I've had both units and still have and enjoy my Geovid HD-R's.I liked the EL Ranges but they didn't work for me as being very right eye dominant I couldn't see very well the yardage readout.
I've had 3 generations of Geovids and have never had any issues.

$150 - 200 for repairs out of warranty is reasonable in my opinion.
The $600 - $700 repairs you hear of , not so much.

Bought Leica 8X42 BRF in 2004. Actually came with a life time warranty back then. Have had them replaced twice with current models. Once for a fogged lens and once for the range finder not working. Last was about 7 or 8 years ago. Sorry, do not know the model number on current set. Anyone know how to identify?

I haven’t heard of that happening