I have an esi I bought mainly for the tach. It is autoranging but I don't care for that really.
It was like $200 off the tool truck and I seldom use it, only once in a great while for the tach, or when I need two meters.
Day to day I use a cheaper craftsman, think I paid $30 for it several years ago when the fluke I had died.
Its not autoranging or anything special but it works fine even though somebody managed to hit the screen and bend it back into the case leaving a 1/4" gap at the bottom.
I also have a couple of the cheap hf ones in my vehicles in case of emergency. They seem to work ok, but I very seldom actually use one.
I also have a $20 or so (I think?) one from hf that has the current clamp on it. Handy for around the house. I keep it in my 5 gallon bucket (with bucket organizer) of tools for home repair.
Have a powerprobe at work as well. Its pretty handy except for the cord.
If its something quick I go for the cheap craftsman, if I think its going to take more than a couple minutes I grab the power probe.
If this is somebody younger who shows some interest, I think I'd get the $50 ish craftsman or equivalent, not auto ranging, a logic probe, and a good book on basic electrical testing and theory.
Autoranging is fine if you understand how to use a meter in the first place, but scaling is something you need to understand to get very far in the electrical/electronic world.
We get new guys in the shop and they say they know electrical, but I hand them a standard meter and they are lost. Not good.
A logic probe is basically a test light, but hooks to both power and ground and uses an led instead of a bulb.
You need to know if something is grounded almost as often as hot so being able to do either without swapping is great.
The led doesn't burn out or get broken like regular bulbs tend to, and can test things a regular bulb can't, or not easily. Like injector pulse for example.
The book is the most important of the three item in my opinion. With knowledge you can figure out where a problem is with a variety of tools. Without knowledge and a meter you can look at numbers.
I would look for one with basic theory, Circuits/Series/Parallel, Voltage/Current/Resistance, Load, Current drop, Ohm's Law and that sort of thing. Plus how to read a meter, where and why to test, etc....
EDIT: Ideally not a huge book, or an overly complicated one, something basic and easy that one could keep in a tool box or bucket for quick reference.
Should be able to get all 3 items for around $100.
I don't know of any particularly good books right off hand, but I bet others here on the forum do.
