1+2. The Meridian Pro and the rest of your "copy sources" are using a prism. That's an obvious flaw in my opinion. Copies removed the prism and all of its mechanics completely. It does not matter that it looks bullet proof (it's definitely not, as it's not a solid piece of metal, but parts held with screws, actually). Surely nothing is unbreakable, only the time it will be able to withstand abuse matters. However if it's absent - it cannot break. I didn't find obvious "low standards" my $5 was built upon. Everything works smoothly, everything is aligned, good adequate materials used. If you've got a defective specimen - just return it and get a normal one. I'm looking at the "not impressive results" now - looks like a perfect copy to me, except that the prismatic engineering nonsense is effectively removed. What's wrong with that copy exactly what makes it less capable than the original?

3. I have explained that extensively already but again. Leveling. If the compass is not level, your measurements have an error. Are you agree with that? Yes. Have you ever tried to use a disk compass? Not just a classic needle one? They are different in handling. Looking from the top at the disk you cannot immediately say if it's perfectly level or not. 10 deg angle and you are off by 2 degrees (and that's if your disc has no significant buoyancy). There is no problem centering the bubble first and then taking a quick bearing looking from the top. Compared to guessing if it's level or not. But that's a bad method with such an advanced compass - just look through the eyepiece and at your target, you will be able to do all that at once - target, level, measure. A dozen of tricky skills polished with years of use of classic or even mirror compass are not needed anymore.

4. I have used the prismatic compass of the same kind many years ago, it was larger, but the same principle. So the images you provided tell me enough to judge. Construction flaws have nothing to do with the manufacturing quality. They are the drawbacks of that particular engineering design. The ideal engineering design is when you obtain a feature without adding a separate feature. Simple examples of the ideal design: a half serrated knife; a firesteel with a lanyard hole instead of a handle.


So, I must carry 5 different compasses @20-50 each, and a theodolite with a tripod on a trail? Merchandisers will love you! Sure thing, I'll take an universal device capable of many functions from a single package instead, adding only a bulk of knowledge how to use it for any of these tasks and limitations to expect (plus my Smart Phone, to keep that knowledge sharp at hand).

Chinese nonames are getting better with every day to come. That's actually should be obvious if you just think about the long term life cycle of the outsourced US (and the world's) manufacturing. When the Automatic Assembly Line (AAL) installed, lets say, in China is at the end of its life span, Mass production brands would just invest some small amount of their multi-billion revenue to order a new AAL (the other option - they can replace failing AAL's stages to a new ones), often switching to a new version of the product as well (e.g. a drastic change to a mould shape or a press form configuration could be cheaper if done from scratch along with the new process stage integration instead of modifying the old stage). But what then happen to the old AAL or/and its semi-functioning components? Right, they became an asset off some noname but very smart and highly entrepreneurial China businessmen. They buy them cheap, fix, modify, reassemble in their own AAL (nobody else but USA, EU, and Japan manufacture and service true AALs and components to them). So, basically there is very often no much difference in the mass produced copies of brand products other than a higher percentage of defective items passing the QC/QA (ask for a replacement), but as a compensation you can see some truly genius improvements to the old brand products sometimes and obviously an extremely competitive price (again, we are talking about simple produce such as a compass, which is nothing more than a magnetized piece of metal on a post in a box, stay away from Chinese iPhones ).