I needed a new compass, and since my primary use for a compass are adventure races and orienteering events, this looked like the perfect compass. I would have liked to see a 1:10,000 scale UTM on it as well, since we are fortunate to have many areas mapped to that detail. However after using, I found that the needle doesn't settle to north very quickly, if at all. I had a few occasions when i traveled in the wrong direction because what the compass said was north, wasn't north at all,... easily 20-40 degrees off.

After only a few uses I have retired this compass, because what good is a compass if it doesn't point north?

While I don't claim to be an expert at orienteering, this compass has served me quite well. I have participated in several adventure races with this compass and the plotting tool is a huge improvement over the plotting grids with no pen hole that many organizers provide. While you do have to keep the compass level for the needle to find north I didn't notice any unusual lag. This is also the most expensive compass I have owned so maybe pricier models will track to north quicker. Overall I am very pleased with it.