Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists

Hi sorbus crew,

Im in the market for a clinometer, I need one rapid (PTI in march) and am going to by the cheap one off you shortly, but I am also looking for a little info (here as it may also help others) on a more technical model at a later date.

I want to be able to measure stem diameter (upper and lower) hieght, crown spread/dimensions without having to get a tape out!

Obviously budget is a concern so what advice would you offer?

as im a total newbie

I'd be interested to hear the answer to this. I have never liked the idea of using a clinometer or laserace type thing to measure stem diameters as I can't see how it would be accurate unless the tree is a perfect cylinder?

The best I have used for tree height only is the Haglof clinometer - nice and small and light...

There are some great cheap software products out there these days that allow you to measure dimensions with a digital camera or even a mobile phone. My mate showed me one on his phone just today. I am going to look into it in the near future.
I have a suunto clinometer. It is a nice little piece of engineered gadgetry but I can't quite take to it. I have climbed trees, measured them with rope and then tried my clino on them and never got a totally accurate match.
We were told we needed to get heights within 10% accuracy on our tech cert. I bought the clino for that purpose and only used it once due to time constraints.
I reckon you could walk the PTI with your eyes closed. Not that I have done it yet, but I know .

True - when I did it I don't think I bothered using the clinometer I took with me.

I was gonna suggest looking at the Howbig link on the special offer link but it seems to have been disabled.

I am increasingly confidant!

Hi Hama
Ive got a Haglof electronic clinometer, it works ok, sometimes a bit fiddly with the 'one button does all'. You have to press and hold for it to fix on things, sometimes it has switched to some other setting and once or twice it has switched off. More human error than the device imho. Again I didnt need it for the PTI. Tempted to upgrade to the truepulse at some point. Dave Dowson gave me a demo at Tree Life HQ, it measures distance from the tree automatically rather than the H E C which you have to input manually.
Cheers Nick

If you have an iPhone, I can recommend one of these two clinometer apps, that use the camera for aiming:

App Store - seeLevel - visual clinometer

How High or Far for iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G on the iTunes App Store

The "seelevel" app is the one that most resembles a traditional clinometer and gives you the most options. But why not just get both?
They are both very accurate.

I suspect similar apps exist for Android phones.

Good Morning

We note your request for information on measurement devices posted on the ArbTalk site – thankyou!

As you know we can supply a number of devices for height/distance measurement but if you want to carry out lateral measurements as well (ie crown spread etc) then the choice is limited (and considerably more expensive). The basic devices are the Haglof Electronic Clinometer (HEC) or the Suunto Clinometer but both these devices rely on you knowing the distance you are from the tree or whatever else you are measuring. They use simple geometry to calculate height to a good degree of accuracy and are very popular – particularly the HEC because it does all the calculations for you.

The next step up are the laser devices such as the TruPulse 200 or Leica Disto D8 which measure heights & distances (the D8 does a lot more too). However, if you want to measure crown spreads etc then you need a device with an integral electronic compass in it and the only viable one is the TruPulse 360. Regarding tree diameters, please bear in mind that the perfectly round tree does not exist so any measurement device relying on viewing the stem in 2D (either by eye or laser) will be prone to error – a diameter tape will be more accurate (and cheaper!).

If you have a look at the following link on our website you can see the different options Digital Survey Equipment - Sorbus International Ltd

Please contact us should you want any further information or to discuss anything in detail.

Best regards, Phil

2 metre blocks up the tree all the time, there will be jobs where you need absolute accuracy, but thats quite a particular aspect, and for crown spreads, get your legs out, dbh, whack a tape around it, 3 and half minutes per tree. lol. Infact tech cert you do it in 1and half minutes.