This page contains reviews of equipment that I have either personally used or that people I have respect for have used and rated. The rating system is totally subjective and consists of from one to five stars. One star is lame, five stars is outstanding, IMO.
Sherwood Oasis+ regulatorI bought my Sherwood Oasis+ regulator in March of 1991 and have used it exclusively since. I have taken it into various Caribbean destinations, lake diving in Texas and spring diving in Florida as well as in the Florida Keys. The regulator has been fairly good for my purposes as a recreational diver. I did have some problems caused by user error, to wit, on a trip to Cozumel, I did not check the regulator after the people on one of the dive boats changed tanks and it got salt water into the first stage. After sitting in my closet for a couple of months, it required a complete rebuild. The only other minor glitch I've had with this regulator concerns inverted diving, which I do sometimes for photo opportunities. In that position, water leaks into the secondary and you need to pop the purge button to clear it out. Rated: ***
Sherwood Genesis BC
OK, it should be obvious that I bought a Sherwood package. The Genesis BC is a full BC, now about five years old. My sister also bought the same model of BC. Neither of us were especially impressed with the BC, in her case she traded hers in in about a year. I also want to trade BCs but need to investigate more fully the available options. The problems I've had with the Genesis BC involve general fit and bulkiness. It's very difficult to wrestle into this BC for me as I have limited movement in my shoulders due to injuries. The combination of bladder placement, which wraps around the side and front of the abdomen, and the small area of arm holes means that I have a difficult time getting into the BC in tight situations. The other problems revolve around how the pocket closures work. They have poorly designed and implemented velcro closures and that makes it very difficult to close them underwater by feel. Finally, the hose router/keepers do not really work all that well. The basic function of the BC works OK, but it's not outstanding. Rated: * Note: some features I like on BCs that I've checked out include low profile, large openings, zipped pockets, plastic hose router/keeper mechanisms and functional shoulder dump valves.
Sherwood Shadow Octopus
The Shadow integrates the spare regulator with the BC inflator...neat concept, or so I thought. In practice, this combination mostly gets in the way. This was part of my original package and it was one of the early versions of the Shadow. The newer ones look less bulky and generally sleeker. The construction is very heavy duty and this presents part of the problem. One must halfway fasten the octopus to the BC exhaust/manual filler tube with a strip of velcro. When it comes time to dump air from the BC on descent, the Shadow becomes very unwieldy. Rated: **.
Nikonos V w 50mm lense
I borrowed a Nikonos V on my ill-fated honeymoon trip to Cozumel and instantly felt comfortable with it. I have decades of experience as a land-based photographer and I believe that helped. After that trip, I ordered one of my own...exact same setup....the Nikonos V body, the standard 50mm lense, and the SB103 strobe along with a Tundra case which was easily customized for the setup. I have resisted the temptation of getting more than the basics because I've seen so many underwater macro-photographers damage the marine environment trying to get in close for one of those "once in a lifetime" shots. So, I just set the thing on about four feet and stay backed off from my subjects. I've had very good success, especially with the new Kodak Underwater slide film. The SB103 strobe matches well with the Nikonos V and standard lense for my purposes. This camera is very high quality both in body construction and optics. I've never had a problem with mine, no flooding, good battery life, good photographs. Rated: ****
Uwatec Aladin Air X Dive Computer
The Aladin AirX implements a hoseless, air-integrated dive computer design. The system consists of a transmitter that attaches to a High Pressure port on the first stage of the regulator and a wrist unit that receives air consumption data every few seconds from the transmitter. Other than the tank data, this unit acts much like a regular dive computer. The system also optionally includes PC options consisting of a cable and two DOS programs that allow changing of certain parameters on the computer and downloading of dive data for logbook functions and analysis of various dive profile parameters. The dive computer readout includes current depth, deepest point in a dive, tank pressure, number of minutes in the dive and number of minutes left for non-decompression diving profiles. In addition, a number of alarm conditions will cause audible and icon alarms to sound/appear including too fast or slow breathing, to rapid of an ascent and transmission errors. The breathing alarm seems extremely inconsistently sensitive on my unit and I will turn it off before the next dives. Now, after about thirty dives on this system I would have to say I'd like to see some added features for the money(this makes for an expensive toy folks). First, I'd like to see a display of current temperature updated every few seconds. Second, in logbook mode on the computer for each dive, I'd like to see a course granularity dive profile display and a minimum and maximum temperature display. My general impression is that this is a fairly well-built unit, but the implementation of the logic seems, from a software engineering perspective, a bit primitive and limited. The choice of DOS as a runtime environment for the PC based download logbook function and the lack of reliable printout capabilities on this system reveal much about the lack of sophistication in terms of software. Still, it's a good first step at a slick concept. Rates: ***
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