My Radio Shack multimeter bit the dust (again) and I'm shopping for
something I won't have to replace for a while. I've seen a ton of
praise in this group for the Fluke 8060A multimeter., but I found an
8050A for sale locally for what I thought was a reasonable price (maybe
I can get one cheaper on Ebay and take a risk on it working).

Anybody know the differences between the 8050A and the 8060A? The
obvious thing is that they're shaped differently: The 8060A is
handheld and presumably battery powered while the 8050A is like a
miniature benchtop meter with an IEC mains jack (but maybe an internal
battery available?). Other than that they look fairly similar. What's
the straight skinny on these guys? Is the 8050A as accurate and
reliable and useful as the 8060A? I'm not too worried about the
batteries Vs. AC power, since I never seem to use my good meter
anywhere there isn't mains power, and i've got cheap junk to measure
the car (which would be a great place to fry the good one). If
anything, it'll prevent me from accidentally leaving the meter on for a
week at a time and draining the batteries ahead of schedule.

ulysses