Sun Company Altimeter 202M - Battery-Free Altimeter and Barometer | Weather-Trend Indicator with Soft Leather Case | Reads Altitude from 0 to 5,000 Meters

Poor instructions but this is how it works. You need to know your elevation of course and set the black needle to the correct elevation and any phone app for barometer should have your current elevation. You need to remember the zero position. For example the altitude is 2100 ft. I remember the zero barometer to be 29.9. So if you travel and it moves you can always zero it back to the original to tell the current altitude. Then you can read the barometric pressure under the "0" orange line with correct altitude. I find the barometric pressure to be accurate for mechanical device. You cannot read the barometric pressure when you have it set to weather change of course because the needle will show if weather changing from normal, middle of fine and rainy, which you need to be in. If you are in middle of a storm or inclement weather, the needle change may not be correct as normal is rainy, etc, so it is only normal when the weather is good and can see change if it gets better or worse. If weather does get better it could still ready rainy but trending toward fine area. I wanted a portable unit that doesn't require batteries and this appears to be the most expensive portable analog meter on the market due to being made in Japan and not China. The outside ring cannot be locked so can accidentally change if put in pocket or backpack, poor design for sure without locking ring. Also good it comes with case and lanyard so less chance of accidentally turning ring as long as you don't accidentally turn it when putting it in the case. This is good just for relative readings and not meant to be accurate as digital types, but no batteries required.

I think this is an excellent altimeter. I evaluated it by setting it to the known elevation of my house, 5820 ft and then taking it to other know elevations. I used an aircraft altimeter which was set at the airport to get the reading at my house. I then took it to a friends house where the elevation had also been determined with an aircraft altimeter. He then took it to the airport where he keeps his plane, checked it there, then took it with him flying and checked it at different altitudes against the one in his aircraft.There were excellent results at all points checked. This only tests it over a narrow range, 5194 ft to about 6000 ft but is the best I could easily do. It is very easy to read and set. Not as happy about the case. It is very difficult to put the altimeter in the case without changing the setting but can be done. Also the case hides about 1/2 of the dial altitude numbers. Not usually a problem as can tip the unit to see the numbers. I don't care about the Barometer but seems it would be difficult to read.

I recently made a long road trip through parts of the Intermountain West, going over high mountain passes, as well as visiting several towns and cities whose elevations are higher than snowy mountain passes in the Pacific Northwest for example. Unfortunately, I did not have an altimeter. I bought this item to correct that oversight. During the little bit that I have used it, it seems to work fine. I am looking forward to testing it more thoroughly in the future. My primary complaint is that the dial can be difficult to read. Or course I would prefer an accurate altimeter that has a very visible digital readout that I could easily read while driving. This is not that instrument.

Great piece to use while traveling.

We took a road trip through several mountain ranges in the U.S. and found that this is a wonderful altimeter for traveling. We kept comparing the shown altitude with signs by the road, and the altimeter was very accurate. We attributed small differences to barometric air pressure changes. We kept the altimeter in its case, and in the open center console of our car, for convenient viewing. It's nice to be able to view the altitude when we are climbing or descending steep grades. Also, flat plateaus out west are sometimes deceiving, looking flat and not high, but sometimes are at a high altitude. Nice product, appearing to be precision made. Highly recommended.