It's hard to suggest what you need without knowing just what you need it for! If you need to take an accurate bearing from your position to a particular object, you should probably go for a sighting compass (
for example at Silva here). They have a mirror to allow you to sight horizontally while reading the compass dial vertically. This will allow you to take bearings to within a couple of degrees or less, once it is calibrated appropriately. Test your compass by triangulating a known location using a map, also by repeating observations - do all the bearings converge on your location? I have used a similar model to the Silva Ranger CL for fifteen years, using it for geological mapping, geomorphological mapping and navigation on misty mountains in several places in the world. My compass was quite accurate enough to keep me on mountain ridges in mist and snow, or to triangulate outcrops/features of interest onto a 1:25000 map. I can't imagine what you would need to do that would require greater accuracy?
Mine's a Northern Hemisphere model and accurate sighting is more difficult (but not impossible) in the southern hemisphere as you end up having to tilt the housing to allow the needle to swing freely. Tilting the compass back to sight correctly introduces potential error. You shouldn't have such a problem if you're going from the US to the Middle East, using a NH compass - the change in needle tilt will be much less than travelling to the SH. Cairo and Kuwait are roughly the same latitude as Jacksonville FL and New Orleans, so you should have few significant needle tilt problems in much of the Middle East. Hope this helps!
).....3m
