A big thank to John for all his kind comments. In spite of the humble Chinese way of thinking, I am proudly taking Johns wow, Wow, WOW on SeawiscopeEY. These were also my own feeling when I tried the first prototype. We are not alone on this. I was in Cebu (Philippines) last week and two buddies tried on the device. Very much in the same way, as soon as they exited water, they shouted out HD !! . (High Definition TV was recently introduced in Hong Kong.)
John commented that the device will be great for biologist and zoologist divers. I could not agree more on these. I however believe that most, if not all, divers are some sorts of biologists, keen to see creatures in actions in their natural environments. After all, the device was designed primarily for fun divers like me, not only for specialists of any kinds.
In the development of SeawiscopeEY, other than the optics, I spent considerable time on the mechanics to accommodate most masks. I believe this final version fits most modern masks. It is a bit of challenges for masks that have highly curved tops and rubbery sides for mask straps (buckles arising from the mask skirt).
Even for these, as shown in the images, they work OK. In fact, I have yet found a mask that it fails to fit. I am a bit concerned when John failed to fit the device to some of his older masks. (John, it will be great if you could send me images of those masks. There is a little trick that I do not have room to write on the instruction.)
SeawiscopeEY is for near vision, the original mask window is for distance vision, both distance and near vision are important for the fun and safety of scuba diving. Please do put your distance prescription on the mask, but bifocals will be a redundant.
John said that people will need to adapt to. I felt this may be a bit too heavy when one can get so much out of it in the first dive. As with any new stuff, one may need to get acquainted with its operation.
I am not saying SeawiscopeEY is perfect, and nothing is anyway. My major obstacle in marketing the device is actually its looks, the four-eyed monster issue. I have to live with it. I am not a product design expert and I am not well off enough to get professional assistance. I have been reminded again and again (by my wife and some dive shop operators) that I have invested too much (in hard cash) for so few (presbyopic divers). While I am not seeing the possibility to recover the costs in the near future, the biggest return is to have someone sharing my joy.
Please PM me if you want to give it a try.
SeawiscopeEY,
I was able to fit the SeawiscopeEY onto a very old mask from the 1970s, a VistaVision with a metal lens retainer and screw on top. The screw helped retain it. I was not able to fit it onto a very old (1980s) Dacor Vista-VU as it has a sloped plastic lens retainer. I have not tried it on a few other masks I have, which date back to the 1980s.
I am a vintage diver (see the Vintage Diver forum here), and collect old diving equipment. I dive a lot with the older double hose regulators. When I tested the SeawiscopeEY, I did it on the longer 64 minute dive in 67 degree water (19.4 degrees C) using a double hose regulator. The second dive the next day was with a single hose regulator. I found the SeawiscopeEY worked extremely well with both regulators, but that the small fish feeding in mid-water seemed to shy away from me when I exhaled using the single hose regulator. This did not happen with the double hose regulator. This is probably because of the closeness of the focal length, and the nearness of the bubbles. Have you used the SeawiscopeEY with either a double hose regulator or a rebreather?
Concerning the adaptation, this is normal and occurs quickly. Any new piece of equipment requires a bit of getting used to. I have learned this over the years, that even new fins require a period of adaptation. So don't be hung up on that statement.
What the SeawiscopeEY does is to open up a new world to the diver, where very interesting plants and animals can be seen very close-up, but with ease and no eye strain. While it can be used with a bifocal, corrected vision mask (which is what I did), it can also become your bifocals too. You mentioned some divers saying it was "HD" for "High Definition." It is more than that, as it is also 3D in color. The perspective is unique, and it provides a wonderful visual experience.
SeaRat
