Cammenga 27CS Lensatic Compass, Phosphorescent, Clam Pack

Man it's tough to shop American made sometimes. Either it's great and really expensive (Gibson guitars), terribly overrated and overpriced (Fender- AND I AM A FENDER AMERICAN TELE PLAYER, they play great if you find the one in 1000 that is manufactured well and pay through the nose for it), or it's cheap and sucky.I went searching for a good sighting compass, and at REI the USA made Brunton 7 caught my eye. Mirror sight, declination adjustment, Global needle (as if I'll need that...), what more could you want? Well HOW ABOUT A COMPASS THAT DOESN'T SUCK? Man what a dog. Sticky needle (it's a "global needle," shouldn't it be freer than most?) crappy declination sticker put on 2 degrees off, nothing lined up perfectly, an overpriced toy really. I returned it the day after I bought it. I've read reviews of similarly priced suunto compasses, they seem to be about the same, so maybe the factory workers in Finland are miserable minimum wage employees too, who knows. No pride in their work is all you can say, it's not THAT hard to carefully put on a sticker, and quality control is obviously not important to those companies for the lower priced tools.So I dug around Amazon a little more, and stumbled upon this lensatic army lookin' compass. I thought I was going to have to spring at least $60 for a high-end Suunto compass to meet my "unreasonable" requirement of a compass that will give you the same reading twice from the same spot. When I saw this Cammenga compass for $45, with great reviews, I figured I had to give it a shot, and I'm glad I did. For the kind of "not super deep woods" hiking and fishing I do, I don't really need a map compass (because I don't often use a map), I need a sighting compass, so that's what was attractive to me about the mirror compasses. I had never used a lensatic before, they always seemed too complicated, but I was dead wrong. A couple YouTube videos later and now I'm an expert with a lensatic. Joking of course, but really, for general direction finding and occasional map use, how can you beat this? Would I have died in the woods on one of my wimpy trips less than 2 miles from my campsite it car with the crappy Brunton? No. But I LIKE precision tools. I like that I can take crazy accurate readings if I need to, and I like that the sighting wire, lens sight, and index line actually line up. And you know what? Mils are pretty awesome. As you might have noticed from earlier in this review I'm a musician, so I think in 4s quite naturally, degrees are all 3s and 9s, baby. I also did quite a bit of math so degrees weren't exactly a nightmare (radian compass anyone? I'll buy it... Or maybe not), but I like Mils and this compass is designed for that if you want precision.So let me wrap up this very silly review by saying, this is a very good compass. While it's not the easiest tool to use for map work, it will certainly do the job perfectly if needed. But for the "bearing from a landmark" or general direction type of orienteering I do, there's really nothing better. And everything lines up, and it's under $50, and its American made. Heck yeah.

Is it sturdy? Absolutely. Is it easy to read? Definitely. Is it accurate? 100%. Is it a bit over-kill if you're not using it to measure the distance and trajectory for firing mortars, shells, and other ammunition into an enemy base at night? Of course. Do I love it? Damn right I do.Ok, I realize that this is way over-kill for the average outdoorsman and camper, and unless you're in active-duty military and currently serving in a war-zone or hostile territory, you're not going to be able to fully utilize everything this compass is capable of helping you to accomplish. Silva compasses are fantastic tools and work just fine, those are the kinds I've had and used for most of my life and I do endorse them. I still have my first one from over 20 years ago and it works without any problems. However, I just couldn't help myself with this one, they're just so...cool. These are the perfect tool for when you're hiking. Now, since I am not active military, I do not have any night-time engagements planned (It can be incredibly dangerous to hike through the woods at night, so I avoid it where possible), so this is why I went for the phosphorescent as opposed to the H3 luminescence. H3 has a half-life of about 12.3 years, so it's brightness will fade in about 10 years or so (same as this one). Since I don't need it to always be glowing (and you can't have the H3 replaced or anything), I decided to go for the cheaper option. If you're looking at buying one of these for a loved one currently serving in the military, go for the H3, I'm sure they will get more use out of it than a weekend warrior, such as myself. Oh, and as of writing this, these compasses are made in Dearborn, MI. Cheers.

You can go buy a $20 compass or you can spend a bit more and get this. You should spend more.This thing is very cool. It is very accurate, dampens quickly and lets you shoot accurate bearings very quickly once you get the hang of how to use it. Yes, it isn't the lightest compass out there, but that is because it is built like a tank. The whole thing is just extremely high quality. Given that I am just a hiker and backpacker - I expect it will last me the rest of my life, easily. Given what a vital piece of kit a compass is - I am perfectly ok with the weight/size/quality trade-off.I agree with the other reviewers that there is really no need to spend more for tritium. If you are thinking this will work like the luminescent hands of your wristwatch - glow very dimly for a few minutes and then go out, you are in for a nice surprise.I hit it with nothing more powerful than a hiking headlamp at close range for a few seconds. It glowed so brightly you could read the entire dial. It stayed that way for several minutes. Eventually the glow lowered down so you can only see the glowing bits - but that includes everything you need to use the compass, including being able to read bearing numbers off the dial and even shoot new bearings. It stays like that for 20-30 minutes at least. And that is after just a few seconds of light.I also checked it using the red LEDs on the headlamp. They will not make the compass light up like a Christmas tree the way a strong white light will, but you can even charge the glowing bits with a red LED to avoid ruining your dark adaption.I can understand why the military would need a tritium one - it means you can use the compass without showing any light at all. But I am struggling to imagine any realistic civilian situation where this one wouldn't work at least as well. So I think you can get this safely and save the extra cost of the tritium one.

Tut, was er soll: schnell auf Norden einpendeln, taugt als Marschkompass auch zur Kartenarbeit.Habe auch seit Jahrzehnten einen Recta DP10, aber die Neuauflage des 1947 in Dienst gestellten M1950 der US-Armee enttäuscht auch heute nicht. Robust und sogar spülmaschinensicher (sic). Die Tritium-Version ist hier leider illegal wegen des Strahlenschutzes, aber die braucht niemand in der zivilen Nutzung. Cammenga ist immer noch Zulieferer des US-Militärs, ganz nüchtern betrachtet ist das gute Qualität zum fairen Preis. Muss man aber mögen.Wer auf Gewicht achten muss ist mit einem Suunto oder Silva vielleicht besser bedient. Mir hat dieser kleine Klotz aber schon gute Dienste in der Eifel, Westerwald, Taunus und in den Ardennen geleistet.

Great item , tough and rugged quality

Great compass! I was looking for a solid reliable compass to use while backpacking. I have used this compass frequently during the summer of 2016 on various trips and adventures. It is rugged and accurate. I rarely used my GPS since. It does weigh 5 ounces versus my Suunto at 1.3 ounces (also a great compass) but I feel the trade off in ruggedness is worth the extra weight. The aluminum Cammenga won't break if you stumble and fall on it but my plastic Suunto would be utterly destroyed.Well worth the money.

This is a pretty sweet compass... built extremely well and is VERY accurate. Definitely worth the investment!

Very well built compass....I like the design and concept behind it....you need to do some calculations though, which is what I like about it because you get a better understanding of things