Would like some opinions...

[Jeandre]

Hello everyone,

I'm Jeandre from Durban(South Africa).

I'm currently working at a dive Shop named Calypso Dive and Adventures at Ushaka Marine World.
I'm working towards my instructors and currently finished my Advanced, I'm really keen on getting a computer then hard gear soon.
I'm currently not interested in tec diving at all. Just not that keen to go that deep yet. I don't really have a price range.

I would like to get a wrist computer that will last for a couple of years.
I will be diving multiple times on some days, it will be cool if it can help me calculate getting the best time out of my dives without decompression. I will be diving on nitrox soon. I'm really in to underwater photography if that would effect my options anyhow. I would like to get as much out of my computer as possible knowing that if I dive with it, it adds more safety and reliability.

I would like the SB community to help me with a few suggestions and personal experiences with there own dive computers.

Final question : is there maybe any dive computer coming out soon that I should rather wait for before making my decision?


Thanks

 

[diversteve]

Suunto's have a more conservative algorithm than others so I might shy away from them as it could be awkward to have to call a dive when your students still have time left.

I didn't see any gear listed on your shop's website so what brands do they sell?

If you're working there - i.e. an employee and not just taking classes - you might be able to get a discount also - in the U.S. it's called a Keyman discount and is often offered by manufacturers to shop employees to help promote their gear.

 

[Jeandre]

We don't really keep hard gear in stock and computers. Mostly work around doing dive than sales. There's a few Suunto DC and a lot more soft gear. Will most likely order all my hard gear when that comes.

 

[dmaziuk]

I don't know what the prices are down in .za, here in murkia there's three kinds of computer:

1. Approx. $1000 USD: 'tek' computers with large colour screen, usually with air integration. E.g. $800 pertel2. Or that German wassisname one. They will of course work for 'non-technical' diving and there is an argument for buying the best equipment you can afford up front. In addition, if you factor in the cost of PC uplink, built-in compass, and whatever else's included in the price, it's not that far from 'lite tek' prices.

2. < $200 bargain basement: dive only, air only, don't go below 40m, send back to the factory to replace the battery, use pen and paper to get the dive log off it.

3. $250..400: air+nitrox, gauge mode, user-replaceable battery, PC uplink (usually around $100 extra). E.g. Suunto Zoop. Higher end ones have 'lite tek' features like deco on 100% oxygen, allow dives deeper than rec. limit. E.g. Cressi Giotto. Over here these can be bought at a substantial discount -- the other 2 categories usually don't go on sale. But as I said, at the upper end a $350 Giotto plus $80 PC interface plus $100 compass gets you within 30% of the petrel's $800. (PS: actually, "that German one" is called OSTC Sport and dep. on the exchange rate comes within $50 of the Giotto plus extras.)

Everyone seems to agree that Suunto and Cressi RGBM implementations tend to be conservative on shallow repetitive dives so I'd echo diversteve's comment about calling a dive.

 

[Craig66]

Jeandre

Min dae tot jy n gesertifiseerde instructeur is. Ek will een day miskien met jy Suid Afrika in duik. So lekker daar by Durbs !!!!

Really for a basic nitro capable dive computer you should be able to get something more than capable for around $250 - 300 in the US. I think a Suunto Zoop would be reasonable but as pointed out might be a little too conservative for an instructor. Something like the oceanic veo or geo range ran in the 200-$350 range and would allow you to dive a more or less conservative setting depending on the circumstances.

Tot siens

Craig