But regardless of my rant, those cheap meters still can be very usefull. Most times an idication is more as good enough and then it does not matter even if it would be 10 % off.
I did not tell you to buy an Agilent. I not even mentioned it. ( I have an IET DE-5000, a bunch of GR and HP bridges and some home made ESR meters)
I think we are in the measurement department going the same way as the consumer electronics, price over function, bang for bucks, and if the bucks are little the bang is allowed to be little too.
Fine if you watch television. It orks or it does not and if you do not have much cash you buy. Cheap one and in a few years a new one. We used to save for things, buy a good one that lasted a long time, now we do not want to save, we buy cheap and do not care if it does not last long ( or at least we tell ourselves to justify buying crap and enlarge the waistpiles)
( OK smartphones, tablets ect people still spend a lot to exchange it in two years by the newest gadget but a 350 dollar meter you use 10 or more years is to expensive)
When you buy an intrument you can buy that for two reasons
- to measure something with a degree of accuracy, repeatability, tracability, safety ect, ect
Your demands decide how much it will cost you. So if it is to expenive you can lower your demands or you have to wait and enlarge your budget. Buying something that does not fit your demands is stupid and a waist of money. To bad mny people do know their demands but seem not to be ble to translate them to the specs of a product. They do not know the instrument they buy does nit fit their demand.
For hobby no problem, professional that can cost you real money
- you only need an indication/indicator without any demands regarding tracability, repeatability, safetyect ect. So if 10 pF is the reading it does not matter if it is 5 or 15 pF in real and also not the if the reading next time is again 10 pF or when it is 5 degrees warmer, or tht a CAT rating or other specs are fake ect, ect.
In that case, just look for something what you like and gives the best bang for buck ( however measuring some things with a not to safe meter can result in a real bang for bucks ;-) )
If you need to transport 30000 kilo you need a big truck, a pinto will give you a much better bang for buck, is much cheaper, has a motor, less fuell ect, so why not buy it ? Because every idiot will know you can not transport 30K kilo in it ( in one time
)
But when it comes to instruments many people think a pinto meter does the same as a Mack-meter and you only pay for the name.