Oscilloscope Buying questions

[wraper]

Good luck getting that keysight scope for less than $5000 if you are located in Brazil. As of Rigol, even during the first weeks of warranty period I had very piss poor service from them. And this is in EU. In Brazil you already should be thankful that support exists as such.

You think Spain is any better? 

(well, ok, at least we're European so I can order my stuff from Germany)

In Spain you don't have 60% import tax by itself (This is even not including their VAT equivalent).

[Fungus]

Good luck getting that keysight scope for less than $5000 if you are located in Brazil. As of Rigol, even during the first weeks of warranty period I had very piss poor service from them. And this is in EU. In Brazil you already should be thankful that support exists as such.

You think Spain is any better? 

(well, ok, at least we're European so I can order my stuff from Germany)

In Spain you don't have 60% import tax by itself (This is even not including their VAT equivalent).

True, but we do have all the piss-poor service and the ridiculous markup by the authorised "dealers" who are only interested in lucrative corporate accounts.

[tautech]

Especially that huge BNC connector with plastic molded on top of metal. EDIT, after examining photos of keysight probe, that box actually seems maybe a little bit bigger than my instek probe on the photo. Nothing like that Rigol box.

That seems to be the way many probes are going these days and IMO it's to provide the user with additional insulation for safety reasons.
But as has been pointed out unless some thought has been given to front panel layout they can be a PITA to use.

Those users that for whatever reasons that use isolation transformers or float their scopes can some additional safety with these heavily insulated BNC connectors.

AFAIK all the Asian OEM manufacturers supply them with their new DSO's.

[wraper]

That seems to be the way many probes are going these days and IMO it's to provide the user with additional insulation for safety reasons.
But as has been pointed out unless some thought has been given to front panel layout they can be a PITA to use.

If you need them insulated, you already violate safety measures. After all, there is trigger input BNC sticking out nearby which is completely uninsulated even if the both probes are attached. Float the DUT if you really need that, not the scope. The fun fact is, those Rigol probes are easy to attach to GDS-2000E scope and don't obstruct any controls, but are pain to attach to Rigol DS2000, and obstruct accessing the scale knobs.

[tautech]

That seems to be the way many probes are going these days and IMO it's to provide the user with additional insulation for safety reasons.
But as has been pointed out unless some thought has been given to front panel layout they can be a PITA to use.

If you need them insulated, you already violate safety measures. After all, there is trigger input BNC sticking out nearby which is completely uninsulated even if the both probes are attached. Float the DUT if you really need that, not the scope. The fun fact is, those Rigol probes are easy to attach to GDS-2000E scope and don't obstruct any controls, but are pain to attach to Rigol DS2000, and obstruct accessing the scale knobs.

I hear you loud and clear on all points. 

[wraper]

BTW, I just compared the probes, and cannot say that Instek probes are significantly less insulated than Rigols. Insulation is done much smarter, therefore does not take so much space.

[nctnico]

Still you need to ask yourself whether you really want to use the probes supplied with a scope in the first place. I already have a whole bunch of identical oscilloscope probes so the probes which came with the last two scopes I bought are still in their original packaging.