Ian

I have used hand held units before, my prehistoric friends use them all the
time, but I found they are not a great deal of use for my purposes. I
usually know where the site is and basically want to survey it. For that
purpose even on a large site like a spread out homestead or large hill they
are fairly useless. A sub metre system like Trimble as you said  is way too
dear to hire and the others give too much distortion, 40- 50 m is  too much
within a site. When it is more accurate to pace distances then you know it
is not worth using the system. The one time it was useful was in plotting
features along a railway line but the accuracy was real suspect and there
are very few times when 40-50 metres (or more) is acceptable in the sort of
work I do. What we need is something in-between which gives to within say
four or five metres. Perhaps we should pester the people who make them to
make an affordable model which is of more use to us.

Cheers  Gaye