HP 54201A/D scope

[stj]

what is one worth these days?
i may add one to my collection of old scopes if they are cheap enough. 

[nikodem]

I am fully aware, that this post is old, but the scope in the topic is much older. I have a chance to buy this scope (54201A) for approx 150 EUR, which seems like a bargain..? or does it?

[precaud]

Seems pricey to me for a slow, 6-bit DSO with a clumsy user interface. The 545xx series were much improved.

[merox]

I have a chance to buy this scope (54201A) for approx 150 EUR, which seems like a bargain..?

Holy crap, that's way too expensive for that scope. I wouldn't pay more than like 50 € or sth. for that thing. And I have to say that as an owner of a 54200A.
It works fine for me, but as mentioned by precaud it uses a 6-bit ADC so I wouldn't really recommend it for "serious" analog stuff. For working on mostly digital circuits it works fine though as soon as you get used to the user interface since there are no knobs to turn, only arrows and numberpad to enter values like trigger levels etc. But really: 150€ is waaaaay tooo much.

The 545xx series were much improved.

That's true and they should be in the same price range as the 54201A. The usability is greatly improved due to the "scroll wheel" thingy it has, it makes usage much nicer. But at all cost avoid the 54501A. It has a sample rate of miserable 10 Megasamples per second which makes it usable to about 1 MHz on non repetitive signals which is the most common use case.

In this case the 54201A is way better since it has a sample rate of 200 Megasamples per second which makes it usable to about 20 MHz on non repetitive signals (HP says 50 MHz in their datasheet). So if you would have to choose between both of them at the same price, I'd go for the 54201A.