I don't know why no one ever mentions other uses for the resolution other than watching a battery discharge, but the 500k counts mode sees regular use on my BM857. For once, it provides µV resolution on the mV range, and it worked great for monitoring the output of Wheatstone bridges for example. I also use the meter fairly often to match resistors, although it's only 50k counts in that mode. I have never had a need for the crest/peak function though. So I guess we can agree that different people want different features from their DMM.
The reason why no one ever mentions other uses is because resolution is not accuracy. The accuracy is specced at 0.02% +-2 digits, the digits referring to the 50.000 count reading. Example: you're measuring a 5.00000V precision reference. The 869s could be displaying anywhere from 4.99880 to 5.00120. Those extra digits are nothing more than a gimmick.
So? That's why I listed using it for
relative measurements, such as matching components or watching change in the output of a Wheatstone bridge, which is a great real world use, because it both needs measurement down to the µV-s, and high resolution, because the few µVs change may ride on an offset that's two orders of magnitude larger. I don't care if it's 1% out compared to a NIST standard, I just want my ADC to be linear. Resolution not being accuracy is exactly why they make you press a button to go between 50k and 500k modes and it's not 500k by default.
And matching resistors? Seriously? Let's say the contact resistance of the probes will introduce an error of 100 milliohms (which would be a very good value). That's 0.1% on a 10k resistor and 1% on a 1k resistor. A handheld multimeter is the wrong tool for the job. You need a bench multimeter or an LCR meter that allows for 4-wire measurements. Unless you don't care about a 0.1-1% error ... but then you might as well buy 0.1% or 1% resistors.
100 milliohm (0.1 Ohm) is about what shorting my probes together gives, most of that is the cabling, I'd guess the contact resistance part of that is way under 10 milliohm if I make good contact. I'm not talking about those cheap 5$ ebay probes though. I would say that that's more than fine for 100 ohms or bigger resistors as 10 milliohm results in a 0.01% error on 100 ohms, 0.001% on 1k, 0.0001% on 10k etc...
Exactly. The whole 500k count mode is a gimmick. They Brymen engineers knew it wouldn't matter if they implemented it properly or not - they could've simply left it off.
Can we agree now, that different people want different features from their DMM, and there are valid uses for the Brymen's high resolution?