A colleague emailed me this week asking if Leica’s BLK360 was a good scanner option for recon, and it reminded me, while I’ve done extensive testing with the machine, I’ve never published the results.

Snapshot of the test data...

​Ben Molnar and I delivered a presentation at IPTM’s Symposium on Traffic Safety in 2022 titled, 3D Scanning: Finding the Right Tool and Utilizing the Data. In preparation for the event, we compared data from the FARO S350, Leica RTC360, Leica BLK360, Trimble X7, and Recon-3D. Note: If I was going to run that test today, I’d include FARO’s new offering, the Focus Premium, Trimble's X9, and Riegl’s VZ-600i, which seems like a top-notch machine. Updated testing may indeed be performed in 2024.

In any case, the S350, RTC360, and X7 are all high-end scanners and generate beautiful data…with the RTC360 coming out on top, with respect to quality. If you'd like to see a detailed comparison of those three beasts, this is the spot. However, the BLK360 is clearly not a scanner suitable for recons…if you intend to scan vehicles, anyway. The video below is a direct comparison between the RTC360 and BLK360. Gnarly.

While the BLK360 might handle sites okay, it’s not something you want to use to scan vehicles. If you're looking for something in the $15k price range, I'd try to pick up a used FARO M70 instead. Big bang for the buck. Alternatively, you can hang tight for a new lower-budget option that FARO's said to be releasing before long.

Hope that helps those in the market. Have a great weekend!

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom​