Laser Rangefinder Review

Cumulative Reveiw Score: 94(43)

The common themes among user reviews for the Nikon Monarch 1200 rangefinder were as follows.
1) This was often a replacement rangefinder after the user returned another brand of rangefinder that they were unsatisfied with.
2) Users liked the simplicity of the unit and almost everyone found it easy to use.
3) The unit can be hard to hold still when ranging extremely long distant targets off hand, which is a common complaint with vertically held range finders, it is the tradeoff for being a small compact design.
4) Many who purchased the Nikon Monarch rangefinder had compared it against Leica’s high end rangefinders, most conceded that Leica’s optics were better or at least as good as Nikon’s; however, some reviewers found the Nikon was easier to get readings with and that combined with it costing a couple hundred dollars less than the Leica led them to try the Monarch Gold 1200.  With a Cumulative review score of 94 out of 100 based on 43 useful reviews it is safe to say that most of the people that bought the Nikon 1200 rangefinder were happy with their purchase.

Owner’s manual highlights:
When reading the Nikon 1200 manual you see what the users are talking about being simple and easy to use, while it would pay to read the manual to understand how the features work you could probably get it figured out pretty quickly without them.  Basically you use the mode and power buttons to select target priority (first or distant), to select yards or meters, and to activate the backlight.  That’s pretty much it as far as operation of the Nikon 1200 rangefinder. The other somewhat noteworthy fact found in the owner’s manual was that unit measures with +/- .5yard accuracy out to 1000 yards and then with +/- 1 yard accuracy over 1000 yards.

LRR Thoughts:
For a rangefinder that cost around $350 (black model) you get a quality long distant, not too many frills, rangefinder.  The Nikon Monarch Gold Laser 1200 rangefinder would make a good rifle hunting rangefinder, while not as compact as most vertical rangefinders the Nikon Monarch 1200 is light enough to pack with you and powerful enough to range most anything you might want to take a shot at.  However, there are other rangefinders in the rifle hunting category that are probably more suitable for the application.  Take a look at how the Nikon 1200 measures up to other rangefinders in the rifle hunting rangefinder class.

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