Silva Compass Compass Ranger SL - Multi-Colour, One Size

Small light and handy, perfect for most users if weight and size is more important than features and pin point accuracy for detailed Nav. I carried mine in a shirt pocket for a month in Borneo and hardly noticed it until required. Accurate enough for my needs and easy to use for quick point to point navigation, bearings and even checking my facial growth!!. The scale is in 5 degree increments and the markings are robust even with Mosquito repellent splashed all over it and subjected to abnormal Jungle abuse and wet conditions. Would be good as a backup in a medium sized survival kit or for use and permanant carriage on your person.

I’ve been after the SL (or survival compass as it used to be known) for about 35 years and finally remembered to buy one! Ideal reserve compass for use in the hills and good to have in the jacket pocket for when your rucsac goes off the cornice. Wouldn’t use it for orienteering or multi-resection exercises, but for what it was designed for, glad I’ve finally got one. A lot of people via Amazon post criticism of it (notably the bubble in the dish) but I don’t have this and it can be cured anyway. My compass came from Inglesport in Ingleton who are a reputable UK supplier I know anyway

I bought the Silva Ranger SL compass three separate times, returning the compass to Amazon each time. Each of the three compasses that I was sent had the same two defects: 1. an air bubble in the compass fluid big enough to interfere with the movement of the needle 2. The "start" arrow printed in white on the base of the compass points 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Defect 2 is obviously a major issue because you do not want to be sent in directly the opposite direction from the direction in which you are trying to go. I am an experienced mountaineer and have happily used a standard Silva baseplate compass (without a mirror) for many decades for mountain navigation. I bought the Silva Ranger SL mirror compass because I wanted to experiment with a mirror compass and though this admirably compact model would be good as a back up compass for walking in less challenging conditions. I can only speculate that Silva had a batch of Ranger SL compasses which were mistakenly manufactured with these defects. Instead of disposing of them as defective, the compasses got onto a "grey market" for defective goods and were sold on by Amazon's supplier as if they were correctly made. The compass can be used with these defects as long as you know what they are and are prepared to tolerate an annoying air bubble and a direction of travel arrow pointing 180 degrees in the wrong direction when navigating. But I would not recommend buying this compass if you can find a non-defective version. If it was not defective I would have given this compass model 5 stars.

On delivery I was required to give my date of birth to the delivery man. This was totally unnecessary as this item is not dangerous in any way. I wish I had had the gumption to give an incorrect date. Now my dob is on Amazon's database and they are so big these day, it is almost impossible to speak to a human being.

Good little compass. A lot smaller than I had expected, but then thats not a bad thing. Seems to be accurate enough. Has a clear bottom so can be used on a map.

It took me a while to find the right general purpose compass, and this seemed like the perfect choice. Its small, accurate and comes from a reputable brand. Unfortunately mine came with flakes of paint floating in the liquid, the needle looking a little worn, the general feeling of quality I was expecting from Silva was lacking. I would have given it two stars, however, it's actually the only one that fitted for what I was looking for, and other than the quality being disappointing, it's exactly what I wanted!

Excellent product , highly recommended

The glow in the dark pointers have been put in the center of the needle with no indication of north or south which renders is a bit usless in the dark. What a silly design! Why do this?

lightweight, functional, and durable. Not for serious navigation but great to keep in your pack for basic/moderate level use.

Stor luftbubbla i kompassen. Syntes tydligt och vem som helst som packade ner kompassen borde förstått att den var defekt. Ändå skickas den ut till kund.

いっちゃって〜

Wer einen Backup-/EDC-Kompass sucht, der nicht herumnervt, leicht ist und trotzdem noch alles kann, was ein Kompass können muss, sollte bei dem hier zugreifen. Das Gewicht (oder eigentlich eher die Abwesenheit desselben) ist der absolute Knaller. Die Sicherheitsnadel zum Befestigen des Kompasses an der Kleidung finde ich eine super "hacky" Idee, die auch hervorragend funktioniert. (Hände frei beim Laufen ist ein Vorteil.) Ähnlich ist es mit der eingebauten Sonnenuhr. (Hier hätte allerdings eine Anleitung gut getan.) Die Kompass-Dose kommt in gewohnter Silva-Qualität daher. Der Preis ist für das, was Silva da abliefert, auch mehr als in Ordnung. Der Wermutstropfen - wie schon angedeutet - ist die Anleitung: Die gibt es nur online (was an sich noch nicht so schlimm wäre) und die ist dann eigentlich nur noch peinlich: Erstens passt sie nicht genau zu dem Kompass, zweitens ist die Sonnenuhr nicht erklärt und es stimmen noch ein paar andere Dinge damit nicht. Da würde ich mir Nachbesserung seitens Silva wünschen. Das soll aber niemand vom Kauf abschrecken, denn über genau diesen Kompass gibt's im Netz so viele Videos, dass da kein Auge trocken, äh... keine Frage unbeantwortet bleibt.

Compass is spot on and is super compact. If you want a really small reliable compass I'd go with this one having the mirror is great