A leveling device having a sighting device that defines an alignment axis, an imaging system, spatially separated from the sighting device, having an imaging lens to which a lens primary plane is allocated and a detector having a recording surface lying in an image plane and an evaluation device that is connected to the detector. A visual field of the imaging system is defined by the imaging lens and the detector as the maximum angle range within which points can be registered by the imaging lens by means of the recording surface of the detector. The imaging lens and the detector are designed and arranged relative to one another and to a lens plane comprising the alignment axis such that all points of the lens plane within the visual field are simultaneously imaged in focus on the recording surface of the detector.