I'm considering the Silva Ranger 515 CL and the Brunton 15TDCL - they have a lot of the same features for roughly the same price but also have some slight differences. What are your thoughts on advantages/disadvantages of each? What's your preference and reasoning?

I've got a "real" Silva Ranger from Sweden, and didn't realize until a month ago that they're not the same anymore.

Below is a cut and paste from an REI review. I think it answers your question.

Silva is the original Swedish company that makes the Silva compasses, including the standard Ranger sold outside the US. They also own Brunton in the US. For some reason the "Silva" brand name is owned by Johnson Outdoors in the US, and this company sells the "Silva Ranger" here, a poor quality product made in the far east. (The one I returned had an eyelash floating in the needle capsule, among other things.) The real Silva Ranger made by Silva of Sweden (in Sweden) is sold under the name Brunton 15TDCL, which is a great product.
You probably don't need to know all this trivia to buy a compass, but when somebody older than you says "buy Silva Ranger, I've used it for a long time" they really mean Brunton 15TDCL.

Silva...

Ditto on the Brunton 15TDCL. When you're talking about buying a new Silva Ranger, this is it. I've got the Brunton and it is very good quality.

well, I have both the older Swedish Ranger and the current iteration of it, the Brunton 15DCL. That's the one you want, not the cheapo imitation that has the word "silva" on it.

All I've ever used were Suunto

I think you'll find Sunnto are now owned by (Swedish) Silva now as well..

Correction, its Recta that are now owned by Suunto..

Brunton 15TDCL but I also like the Cammenga because I've used it a lot. A lot of people have seen the really cheap knockoffs and disregard it as a compass but the Cammenga's are the real deal. I have the one with Tritium.

The Brunton is 3 oz and the Cammenga is 8 oz so the Brunton is a good option. If it was my main navigational tool I'd use the Cammenga myself.

http://www.cammenga.com/cammenga-products.php?category=1

How do you know which one you have, when did the change over take place?

1998.

Silva AB of Sweden was sued by Johnson Outdoors (a Johnson Wax Company) in 1997 re: marketing rights of the trade name "Silva" in the US.

Johnson won.

Silva AB of Sweden had purchased the Brunton label in 1996 and began marketing it's Swedish products under both the Brunton and Nexus labels in the US by 1998.

I also found a link stating Gerber (A Fiskars company) signed an agreement to purchase Silva AB of Sweden (and it's Brunton subsidiary) dated 2006.

gerber buys brunton

wiki on silva

Fiskars on owning silva AB of sweden

see? simple, right?

I honestly don't know. I've had mine since '92, so I know it's an original. I just checked, and it doesn't say Sweden on it, but it looks different than the current models.

I've also got a Brunton type 12NL seen here:
http://www.rei.com/outlet/product/793400
I bought it three years ago IIRC, after a buddy who'd had one for years showed me how handy it was. His was a Silva, and I wore out the 'net looking for one, only to find that it's now a Brunton, and still made in Sweden. So the advice others have given about getting Brunton TDCL rather than Silva makes sense I me.

Well I guess that explains why I lost all the fluid in mine at 10,000 feet. They were nice enough to send me a new one, but I was kind of surprised that a company known for compasses would have the top of their line crap out at 10K

Son of a beach

Do you know what the difference is between the 15TDCL and the 15TDCLQ?

Never mind, I finally found it, degrees or qauds.

thank you for the help, I found one for $40 no tax, free shipping.

the "Q" has a 0-90* quadrant scale on the bezel instead of the 0-360* azimuth scale on the "non-Q". all else is equal between the two.

so saith this product description