Re: Need a range finder
If your not holding it steady it's easier to get your reading back with a larger beam. The problem with a larger beam is if your ranging through something like brush or tree limbs your more likely to have it hit off one and come back. That said I had a PRF for a fews months and the beam size never gave me a problem, in fact I've never had a problem with beam size with any of the LRF's I've used. What I've found is if you have a big enough hole to put you bullet through by time you factor in the arch for elevation and side to side to wind then you won't run into any problems with the beam fitting through the same hole.
How I judge a rangefinder is quality, performance, and glass quality last. I've never taken beam divergence in consideration because it's never give me a problem in any way. I care about how reliable it is as far as working every time and ranging consistently/accurately, and how far and fast it ranges.
I had no problem hitting non reflective targets with the PRF to 1200 yards and reflective ones to 1500. My Swaro on the other hand reliably ranged non reflection targets to 2K.
I had a Leica 1200 (the old one) and a CRF 1600 for a short time and I wasn't too impressed with either. The 1200 was slow and really didn't range that far (couldn't hit deer passed about 400 yards) and the 1600 seemed to do better and would range well to its claimed distances (but not much further like the Zeiss and Swaro) but I dumped it because a lot of people who got them right after they came out like me were having issues so I sold it before I had issues.