Leica….the pinnacle of sport optics and cameras. I was so pumped to finally drop the money on a new rangefinder. After carrying the most basic of all rangefinders for years, I purchased the CRF2800.com. The glass is insane and I managed to even pick up an extra 1X of magnification. Then I downloaded the Leica app and the heartbreak soon set in.
How can this beautifully wonderful work of art be limited to such an incredibly quirky application that manages to handicap the rangefinder in so many ways. There is such a long list of shortfalls it’s hard to know where to start so I’ll just list them in hopes that someone at Leica in their app development team agrees and finds a way to address them.
1. The tutorial is 4 bullet points with nowhere to go for help if you don’t find a way to work around the issues. The written manual with my device uses such brevity that it barely covers the fundamentals. The Leica support section, where is it? Who do I speak to about my questions?
2. I load settings from the IOS application, run them for days, then reconnect the application to the device and it says the settings are completely different than what I was running all week. For example, I have a custom ballistic profile loaded for the 6mm ARC round (which by the way isn’t a round you’ll find in the list of ballistics they provide), which I’ve loaded to the CRF. I connect a week later and the iOS app thinks I have the ballistic profile turned off? Why doesn’t it talk to the device and understand what settings I last used and know that it’s running this ballistic curve.
3. The EHR (equivalent horizontal range) feature is limited to running only when you’ve selected a ballistic profile. For bow hunters this leaves you second guessing your choice in rangefinder. According to the owners manual it says it adjusts for incline, line of sight, and the ballistic profile I’ve loaded to display EHR vs line of sight. How is this impacting me if I’m shooting my bow at a deer from 20’ up in the air that is 35 yards horizontally from me? I don’t want it to apply anything related to my ballistics profile and loading a custom profile for an arrow at 275 feet per second seems to an impossible proposition. Why can’t I use EHR without my ballistic profile? Isn’t the “rifleman’s rule” the same for any bullet? It’s where you shoot the horizontal distance and ignore the LOS distance right? Your application and the user manual (because it says it accounts for the ballistics profile) has me second guessing everything I’ve ever learned about shooting both firearms and bows.
4. That brings me to custom ballistic profiles. There is a high probability you won’t be able to create one. And if you’re shooting one of the more common long range rounds Leica will pigeon hole you into one of a handful of profiles. And when you do get stuck, it doesn’t explain what the issue is. A good example of a big bug is when you get to BC data. You have the option of entering the BC, or if you don’t know the BC you can enter chronograph results at different distances. I know my ballistic coefficient of my bullet and enter it, yet it wouldn’t accept it. Finally after trying for over an hour and searching the Leica site I somehow managed to get the app to accept the data yet I didn’t do anything different. Actually I think I ended up scouring the Internet for FPS results on a 16” barrel for my bullet at different distances and entered both the BC and that data. The process was maddening.
5. Minor but annoying just the same. While I’m working for hours on entering a custom profile that for some reason won’t work with your application I constantly have to reconnect my device. I’m sure this is a battery saving feature but it’s a nuisance. I can’t be using that much battery while not taking a range with the laser. Offer a setting where it can stay connected while configuring the device.
6. Last but not least, add more ballistic profiles please. I held off on the Leica in 2017 because my buddy said it was lacking all of the mainstream bullets that are being shot today. I use a 450 bushmaster where knowing ballistic data is critical because it’s like throwing a watermelon through the air. It wasn’t there 4 years ago and it’s still nowhere to be found today. Your product is marketed towards the U.S. hunters. Nearly 40-50% of the people in the Midwest are in limited rifle zones and have to shoot a shotgun or straight wall cartridge under a certain length. In Michigan that means the 450 bushmaster is used by nearly everyone I hunt with and know south of the 45th parallel. I get that you can’t account for nearly every round developed today. But you’re not even trying to keep up with the trends. Where is the 6.5 creedmoor? Where is the 2 year old 6mm ARC that Hornady developed with the U.S. military that was awarded cartridge of the year in 2019? I can tell you one thing for certain, it’s not on the Leica app apparently. And it looks like this application hasn’t even been touched by Leica’s developers for almost a year?!?!? Is this product not supported anymore? Has it gone end of life without Leica announcing it? Update your app please.
Bottom line, this is frustrating for your customers and inexcusable. The reviews you have on the App Store are a direct reflection of the shortfalls of the program.
Leica is a leader in technology and development. I shouldn’t feel like my $750 rangefinder is crippled by the application that makes it do what it’s supposed to do. I’m seriously considering returning this for a Vortex or a Sig BDX because so far I can’t work with what you’ve sold me.
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