The authors present the results of longtime research on the development and improvement of a passive geodetic rangefinder based on the inbasis method of distance measurement. Actually, active laser range finders are not always effective at field works. An original compact optical scheme of a passive rangefinder based on a theodolite telescope and a mould photo receiver with application of digital methods for coordinate calculation is proposed. The distance and dimensions of the object are defined. The former is identified by the shift between the images on the horizontal axis. The merit of such a system is the absence of mechanical displacements. Its main advantage is an extremely simple optical path. The technical result is reduction in overall dimensions and weight, while maintaining an acceptable error in the passive range measurement. The use of Kovalev passive rangefinder is promising at performing geodetic measurements with total stations. There is also a description of the rangefinder sample as well as the calculations results according to the distance measurement accuracy.