I have a dive computer and I like it. I also haul along a watch, depth gauge, and tables. Either 'system' can fail. It is highly unlikely that both will fail on the same dive.
Annoying anecdote:
My dive buddy bought a computer before I did. He wanted the newest and most impressive unit he could find, regardless of cost. I must admit that he achieved his goal. His new computer was air integrated, had three different data screens and provided all the information a diver could ever hope to want.
We went diving for shrimp in Puget Sound. It was night, deep, and cold. Somewhat narced, we both looked at his computer and the only thing that made sense to us (at the time) was the tank pressure reading. As I said, we were narced.
Two weeks later, I bought a dive computer. I bought the simplest one I could find with color coded graphs. Even narced, I can read a pressure gauge and can remember that green is good, yellow is not so good, and red is bad.
On our next shrimp dive, it became apparent that only one of us had made an appropriate choice. He kept looking at my computer to make sure we were still in the green. He had paid four times what I had and there was no question about it, his computer provided far more information than mine. However, for that type of diving, I had the better unit.
I'm not knocking the fancy dive computers. I'm just saying that the most expensive or most complex might not always be the very best choice for a particular person's diving. In my opinion, buying a dive computer is more an exercise in procuring the proper tool for the task at hand. It would be foolish to expect my little cheapie to serve someone on trimix. On the other hand, when I am narced I want a computer that is childishly simple and reliable.
My only concern with new divers is that they don't become complascent and expect a computer to do their thinking for them.
Bill.
