We just came back from a week in St. Lucia (stayed in an all-inclusive resort, but diving 2 tanks every day), and soon we will be spending a week in Scuba Club Cozumel in February.
My main question: Should we buy two of everything (most likely entry-level for both), or should we try to "stagger" (i.e. buy a basic model and a more advanced model, so if we were ever going to upgrade, we can upgrade the basic model and wait a bit longer to upgrade the more advanced one)?
We just got back from our 7-day trip to Scuba Club Cozumel (red-eye flight landing only 8 hours ago), but I just want to post a follow-up.
First of all,
many thanks to all who took the time to respond. My wife and I considered every single suggestion made (we even made an Excel spreadsheet of who said what) before making our purchasing decisions.
We also visited 2 different local dive shops, as well as emailed Scuba Club Cozumel several times to ask specific questions.
In the end, we decided on the following:
In case you are wondering, here are the models we are looking at:
1. Computer: Since the Gekko is no longer available, Mares Puck seems to be the cheapest computer that offers Nitrox. (Stupid question: We should each have a computer, right? We will be doing all the dives together, and we vowed to stay closer together after reading the "how far should you be from your buddy" thread....)
Dive Computers: Suunto Zoop x 2
- Since we may not get to dive for a year or more after this, we decided to buy only one Zoop, and rent the 2nd one while at SCC. (We emailed them and found out that was the model they rent.)
- We figured if we ended up liking it, we can buy a second one later. On the other hand, if we hated it or if we wanted to move up to a higher-end model, this "staggering" would allow us more flexibility.
- In the end, we really liked the Zoop, but also our decision to buy-one-rent-one. It allowed us to study the manual and get to know it before the trip. During the trip, there was still a learning curve (good thing the boat rides were so long -- I had lots of time to re-read sections of the manual), but I could set/read my wife's computer without additional task-loading.
- Of course, we each used the same unit everyday -- it was not hard telling them apart. We've cut the strap of the purchased unit to my wrist size, while the rental one was marked "Cozumel 1B" and had a full-length strap (which was very annoying because the tail-end would cover up part of the face, so eventually I folded it back and secured it with a twist-tie).
- The 3-button design did make setting (and checking log) much easier. In retrospect, I can't imagine trying to operate a computer with only one button (e.g. Mares Puck, which we also considered).
2. Dive light: I've heard good things about the Princeton Tec Torrent and the BigBlue CF-250.
- Princeton Tec has the combo pack (one "laser gun" and one Torrent), and is available from within Canada (not having to worry about shipping across the border is a
big plus):
Light Packs Ultimate Dive Set: Amazon.ca: Electronics
- BigBlue CF-250 is available from B&H, a NYC camera store which I've dealt with many times in the past and trust 100%.
I know people suggest carrying minimum of two lights, but since we will be staying
very close (my wife is still a bit nervous about doing a night dive), and we will only be doing a few night dives, do you think we can get away with me carrying the big "radar gun" light and her carrying the Torrent (or vice versa) and be each other's back-up light?
For what it is worth, I'm also considering getting the FIX Mini BuB Light Saber to put on my Canon S95/WP-DC38 housing, so there will be
some redundancy:
FIX Mini BuB Light Saber with YS Mount and Rotary Hotshoe Base [fix.bub.set] - $128.00 : Reef Photo & Video!, The Underwater Photo Pros
We considered all the advice (and they were many, not to mentioned widely varied), and in the end, decided to have two lights each (a decision my wife really appreciated, even though we were never separated on night dives, nor did any of them malfunction).
We are both budding UW photographers (but we knew to put safety first, "no damaging coral nor disturb creatures" second, and photography third), so we each had a main light (Liquid Image 5.5W 60-degree wide-angle Side Light) mounted under the Canon camera housing:
Shop Liquid Image Products - XSC 5.5W WIDE SIDE TORCH
Our secondary lights are Intova products. She had the Intova Wide-Angle Torch (IFL WA) while I used the Intova Technical LED Torch (ITAC):
Intova Nova Wide-Angle Waterproof Torch IFL WA B&H Photo Video
Intova Tactical LED Torch ITAC B&H Photo Video
Our main considerations were:
- portability/compactness: we thought the popular radar-gun style ones were too bulky, particularly given airline luggage restrictions
- brightness: the Liquid Image offers 300 lumens while both Intova lights produces 220 lumens)
- wide-angle coverage (to better assist photography): Liquid Image had a 60-degree coverage; IFL WA and ITAC both 43 degrees
- rechargeable battery if possible (to save on battery cost but also bulk of spares): Liquid Image uses rechargeable Li-ion batteries, which is great -- we didn't hesitate taking them down even on day-dives, since we can top them up easily
For night dives, I usually use just the camera-mounted Liquid Image to see/scan (plenty bright and certainly plenty wide). However, when I need to take a photo, I can turn on the Intova (handheld in left hand) and point at the same spot for added brightness. With the 2 lights, things were so bright that the camera rarely had to fire its built-in flash.
[to be continued]