It's one of the half truths of the BP/wing. It's proponents tell you that it is convertible and you can swap parts around for a wide variety of diving, all of which is true however, they neglect to tell you the rest of the story. The wings are the most expensive part and swapping the parts around is a PITA, as is changing it's adjustments. Pretty much no one that swaps around much at all owns just one, they end up with one set up for each diving style so in the end it's irrelevant that they are configurable since most people end up with 2 or more of them, each set up for a particular dive style. Ask anyone who rejects this idea how many they own.
It's a BC, it's job is to compensate for buoyancy changes, it's not a surface float. I weight properly so I am at worst 2 lbs heavy at the beginning of a dive and end up 2 lbs underweighted at the end of the dive. The total amount of "compensation" I have any need for over the entire dive is 4 lbs - actually from -2 to +2 and dead on neutral at 1500psi, an amount I can easily handle with lung volume alone. I have no need for the BC to keep me or my gear floating because I am no more than 2 lbs overweighed at the start of the dive ( and 2 underweighted at the end), a very easy amount for me to keep floating with lung volume alone and in the unlikely event I need more floatation I simply drop weight and/or the gear itself. This is old school diving the way it was done before divers got loaded down with a ton of extra gear. It's not necessarily something I recommend for a new diver or one who has no clue of what proper weighting is but for a skilled properly weighted diver, its a very liberating way to dive. To be honest I really dont buy the post on the other thread about side mount with one tank. That amount of imbalance would roll me like crazy, the only way I see around it is to offset my weights (which may well require more than I normally need) or to keep air in the bladder which will require me to be overweighed. And even then, there is no way around being off balance at least at some point in the dive as the tank swings from around 2 lbs negative at the beginning to around 2 lbs positive at the end of the dive, that 4 lbs of swing has to go somewhere.
My camera is also weighted so its just slightly negative (I hate a floaty camera ) so it has no impact on my weighting.
Actually, both BCs are very popular.
---------- Post added April 17th, 2012 at 10:45 PM ----------
Forgot to add, I dive mine with just a skin or Tshirt all the time with no real discomfort although I would not want to do a long hike that way.
