I owe the team a review of the Bosch one I bought:
It's a green, GLL 2-15-G, which in future I shall simply call "Norman" (Bosch evidently haven't got the hang of product naming).
Caveat: I've only really used it indoors, in a very confined space. That said, it did what I needed, pretty much.I paid £134 as an Amazon Warehouse deal, and I am not sure it was a bargain, even though it was about £40 off the then list price.
"Scope of delivery" (wot???)
It comes in a cardboard box, with a rather absurd carrying pouch inside (with a belt loop - really???). Included in the box are:
- The Norman itself (yup, made in China),
- A right-angled magnetic bracket,
- A green target plate, also magnetic, and with a collapsible rear foot to make it free standing,
- The aforementioned pouch - only big enough for the actual laser and no accessories, not even cells,
- Four AA cells of uncertain origin (not a big name brand)*,
- Some "Rosetta Stone" instructions in a variety of languages (cuneiform also available for download).
The first thing that struck me was the physical size of the thing: 2.5" x 5" x 4.5" (60 x 120 x 125 mm). It's got lots of moulded-in rubber, but I haven't dropped it to see if that upsets the calibration. It probably needs to be big, but this has proven awkward in the small space I have been working in recently.
ControlsThere's a big on-off slider switch, on one side and one 'membrane' button to switch modes (I wonder how long that will survive!).
These are both annoying: If you have carefully set the thing on a lightweight tripod to an exact position (see below), the on-off switch is rigid enough to knock it out of position,
even if you are using both hands in an effort to prevent this happening.
In passing, I think they have the switch ergonomics wrong, as "off" is to the front, which feels wrong. It's quite stiff, as it's also the anti-shock clamp for the mechanism. They also have a silly diagonal ridge on the switch, so that wet fingers slip off it - a triumph of form over function. You'll need the anti-shock clamp, as you may well knock the entire thing over (including the tripod) if you reach for it one-handed without looking. Don't ask me how I know this.
And you do have to switch it off between uses, as it eats batteries. I would guess you get <10 hours from a supermarket set of AAs. Leica units have a nice, low-power feature, for when extremely bright light isn't needed. Norman doesn't. The instructions don't prohibit rechargeable batteries, but they don't recommend them either.
The button (level / plumb-line / both, & auto-off cancel) has to be pressed every time the unit is turned on because it doesn't remember what the setting was previously. At least this one is almost over the tripod bush. Next to it is a 3-bar battery-remaining indicator, which is worth keeping an eye on (see above).
The beamThe actual laser lines are bright and strong, and visible outdoors in dull daylight over 30ft. The green target works, too: it's translucent and graduated, and one half has a reflector behind the plastic, which makes the beam more visible, possibly at the expense of some accuracy. As I said I haven't used this as I've not needed it for real outdoors, but it's possibly the best thought-out part of the unit in terms of its usability.
It's worth mentioning here that the beam spread, horizontally for the level line, and vertically for the plumbline, is very impressive. For setting out indoors (in my case for a small amount of remedial tiling) it seems to be really good. The plumb-line hits the ceiling almost directly above the unit, and the level line is close to 180 degrees left-right. This explains the poor battery life, incidentally: there's no magic available, so if you want a line over a wide arc, that's inevitably going to mean a powerful laser to start with.
There's a limited amount of pendulum action available, which is understandable: if you tilt Norman out of true in any axis beyond four degrees the lines will flash manaically. In order to prevent this, it is handy to have a small bubble level balanced on top when setting up...
Mounting Norman***
The tripod bush is a real PITA: It's evident that Bosch intend Norman's outer shell to be used for a variety of products, as the bush is surrounded by a screwed-on, recessed, plastic quick-release plate (which doesn't fit the supplied bracket, nor any other accessory, as far as I can see!). This reduces the surface area around the threaded hole itself, meaning that, unless a wide auxiliary plate is used, it is hard to make the mounting rigid enough.
The bottom of the unit is not the flat surface you'd expect on, say, a camera. It's got inexplicable recesses of various depths, and the only bit forming a useful plane is the set of rubber corners & edges. The mounting bush is recessed from those by about 1.5mm - enough to break something if overtightened.
I have a few Manfrotto/Bogen** quick release plates for photography, and these work extremely well with this unit - they are wide enough to grip the base securely, and don't come loose. With just a cheap tripod and a small contact area, you probably won't be so lucky.
The bush is also a long way back from the axis of the laser - about 2 1/4" (55mm). This means alignment errors are difficult to fix in small spaces (grrr!), as the unit describes an arc of about 3" altogether (6" diameter).
I suppose I should mention the supplied L-bracket. It has a keyhole to take a screw at the top, and very strong magnets, (in case you drop a screwdriver down a drain, or something?). It's not a correct right angle, and it's not useful to me, as I rarely work over drains. Duly mentioned, however.
Hope all that is useful.
I think it will serve for a good while - the last one did about 15 years, and this one is more sensible, probably. Value for money? Probably poor, unless I have an in-warranty issue with it, although the actual beam spread seems excellent for indoor use, which is mostly what I want it for.
If I wanted something for outdoors, I would probably look for a much narrower spread (so it carries further), or buy a receiver, or hire a Leica, or just go old school and use a water level and/or a plumbline. The manufacturers ought to be more open about this and guide people to the right tool for each purpose. That said, if I was, for example, just trying to get a good fall on guttering, this would be fine.
E.
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*I bought Norman as an "Amazon Warehouse" item - returned or repacked at a reasonable discount (with "professional" warranty). This might have meant the original batteries were replaced - the ones supplied were evidently brand new and shrink-wrapped, just not big-brand.
**This link is to a shameless knock-off of the original Manfrotto/Bogen ones, but I have bought several and found them to be very good, with one slight exception - the female thread on the receiver plate is not as deep (or as strong!) as the ones on the original Manfrotto units
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D5ZF2TT. The receiver thread on both original and copy is 3/8 Whit/UNC (European microphone stand and large-format camera size), which means you need the supplied adapter for almost all cheap tripods.
***Just stop it, OK?