John Bantin has been a full-time professional diving writer and underwater photographer since 1990. He makes around 300 dives each year testing diving equipment.

Subtronic underwater lamps and flashguns are made in Germany and make no concession to lightness or portability when it comes to their rugged design.
     The Subtronic Mega Color is a massive 2.3kg out of the water. It measures 250mm by 115mm and is probably the most powerful underwater flashgun available, with a claimed underwater guide number of 37m for 100 ISO film.
     That means you can get correct exposure using f/16 with a subject 2m from the light source. That's more than twice as bright as the very powerful Nikon SB104. It has a similar wide-angle circular coverage of 112°.
     As well as a number of manual power settings, the Subtronic Mega Color gives fully automatic through-the-lens exposure control that works with all the popular modern electronic 35mm SLR cameras such as those in the Canon, Pentax and Nikon range, and it can be made to work with Minolta, Rollei and Nikon F3 too. It has an indicator light and audible warning to tell you if the flash needed to use full power, so there might be a risk of under-exposure if that was insufficient.
     The built-in ni-cad battery pack can be recharged in as little as two hours. This will provide about 110 flashes at full power with a re-cycling time of just over two seconds.
     A built-in modelling light proves useful for macro shots and night dives, and a laser aiming light will help you to determine that the flash is aimed at the optimum angle for wide-angle shots.
     In common with most other top-range flashguns, the Subtronic Mega Color can be switched to repeat flashing mode so that it can be used as an emergency signal strobe.
     The further from the surface you get, the bluer the daylight becomes, as light at the red end of the spectrum is absorbed by water. This is the case for any light that passes through water, so having a flashgun more powerful than any other is not the simple solution to getting more "range" to the light it produces.
     Remember that the light has to pass from the flashgun to the subject and then back to the camera. If you want to use big outputs to punch more light over a longer distance, you need to warm up the colour temperature of that light, or you will simply get a cold-looking result.
     The Subtronic Mega Color has an adjustment knob which lets the user set an alternative "warmer" colour temperature.
     Most surface flashguns (and some underwater ones) are designed to fire off at 5500ūK, the colour of sunlight. These are perfect for macro photography when there is not much water to pass through. Some are designed to be a little warmer, at around 5200ūK, which is much better for general use under water, with subjects in the 0.5-1.5m range.
     The Mega Color allows you to adjust the colour of its output from 5200ūK right down to 4300ūK. This "warm" setting is ideal for the "long" shot with lots of water in the path of the light. It is not necessarily more penetrative in this mode, but what light gets through arrives back at the camera with a less cool quality, and I successfully used this for any subject 2-3m away.
     The comprehensive German instruction manual was obviously translated into English using a computer program, so is full of interesting anomalies. However, it suggests that the lower colour temperature setting will give light of 5100ūK with a subject 1m from the lens, which should be a little warm.
     I found the "warm" setting usually preferable to "cold", which seemed a little colder than I like even when only a couple of feet from the subject.
     If it is still not bright enough for you, there is the option of synching more than one unit by means of the built-in photo-cell slave. The unit has two synch-plug connectors (one for the charger), so you could cable two together, though it is not clear if you would retain the TTL feature. I was not provided with two units, so cannot tell you if you can get true TTL control as you can with two Sea & Sea 120 Duo or two Nikon SB104 flashguns.
     The synch-plugs are an improvement on the normal Nikonos design. They have two O-rings plus a locking ring to prevent them getting twisted at any time during use.
     One last point. Steve Warren, from Ocean Optics, the importer, tells me that he did have some difficulties with airport security while carrying his Subtronic flashgun in his hand luggage.
     I'm not surprised. Such a bundle of unexplained electronics must have given the X-ray machine operator a heart attack! I packed the unit carefully in my checked-baggage along with all my other electronics and had no problems whatsoever.
     The Subtronic Mega Color is the most expensive flashgun in the Subtronic range. It costs £1499 including charger and synch lead, but not including any mounting arm.

Tough enough
A winder-reel is so simple, you could make one for yourself. Not so long ago, the first part of learning to use one the British Sub-Aqua Club way included the use of a jig-saw and drill!
     Then some clever-clogs invented a ready-made winder-reel and British divers had to find some other project with which to while away long winter evenings between diving seasons. Now many models are on the market, yet visit your local dive-store and you will probably be offered a choice of one.
     So winder-reels still occupy that twilight zone between home-made and proprietary kit. You can buy a ready-made one, but if you want one like the one you saw that geezer using last week, you should have asked him where he got it from or else be prepared to do some detective work.
     This reel from Kent Tooling & Components is a case in point. It must use materials and manufacturing so labour-intensive that there is no way the company can afford to build a proper marketing budget into its costings, so it relies on word-of-mouth to get noticed.
     It is solidly constructed from marine-grade 316 stainless steel in a heavy gauge (2mm). It comes with 50m of fluorescent plaited line on a 9cm drum, with an adjustable friction device on its spindle and a handy-size crank. An L-shaped handle or bracket is bolted on to its chassis, which might not be very nice to hold in an ungloved hand but allows it to integrate with other bits of kit.
     There is nothing as exotically complex as a ratchet mechanism. A heavyweight stainless-steel bolt-snap completes the picture.
     The reel is constructed using locking nuts and bolts rather than any welding. The Mechanical Millennium did not exactly dawn the day it was conceived, but it does appear to be very strong. The handle proved exceedingly uncomfortable to grip while winding in the line, however, and I tended to knock my knuckles on the centre knob in the process.
     Many years ago I tried another reel for Diver Tests. I took it as far afield as the Solomon Islands and reported it as being extremely rugged. After the test was published, I was packing it to send back to its manufacturer when I dropped it on the office floor.
     To my horror, one end parted from its spool and 50m of neatly wound line turned itself into a pile of unravellable spaghetti before my eyes.
     So I made a point of bouncing Kent's model, and did so hard enough to bend it rather than break it. I can report that, if you buy one, it should last you longer than your stainless-steel kitchen sink.
     The 50m Wreck Reel is one of a number of similar products available and costs £55.

There's simple - and there's simple
When it comes to buoyancy control, an inverted plastic carrier bag (choose a strong one) with one arm passed through the handles up to the shoulder works very well. You can easily add exhaled air to the open end, and when it comes to dumping air during an ascent you simply squeeze the bag at the top with your free hand. Try it. It really is simple and inexpensive.
     The carrier bag works very well, but a properly constructed BC adds benefits such as the convenience of holding your tank on your back and keeping most of your kit in one convenient package, and it can give you essential support at the surface.
     This idea probably would not please the Doing It Right brigade, which seeks to promote the products of one small (and expensive) diving supplier in Florida against competition from the giants of the diving trade, but then, no DIR diver would bother reading a heretical magazine like this one. So let's look at a very good conventional BC, the Cressi S111.
     Antonio Cressi runs the business his father and uncle started just after WW2. Like them, he loves to go diving. Not long ago the staff came up with the design of BC he said he wanted to use, the S-102. But Mr Cressi keeps spotting ways of making it better, which explains why we are now looking at the Cressi S111!
     The last one I tried was the S-109 but the S111 seems to have been simplified somewhat (including the loss of its hyphen) and given more maximum buoyancy. It has 19.5kg of lift in size M - that's about 4.5kg more than the S-109 in the same size.
     Adopting the wide-weave fabric of the fold-up Aqualight BC and doing away with the double-pull cords that go to the upper-right and lower-right dump valves makes this a BC with ostensibly fewer features. In fact Mr Cressi seems to have opted for only those features he found strictly necessary.
     The S111 comprises a harness threaded through a hard backpack that has a curved lumbar support and a separate conventional T-shaped buoyancy bag. This is attached to the backpack and has the harness threaded through it. By adjusting the position of the curved lumbar support and the length of the cummerbund where it meets it, the S111 can be tailored precisely to fit the user.
     The buoyancy bag concertinas out when fully inflated at the surface, giving masses of lift low down where you need it, and lifting your head high out of the water, with no hint of torso squeeze. Two adjustable elasticated straps stop it flapping on the dive.
     A single tank camband is provided with two alternative sets of slots so that you can rig it conveniently to either a steel tank or higher up on an aluminium tank.
     There are four large stainless-steel D-rings at the shoulders and two more along the lower edge of the jacket. Two smaller D-rings mid-way proved perfect for attaching my favourite implement, the reef hook. The not overly large self-draining pockets are equipped with zips and proved easy to get into.
     The pull-dump positioned at the top of the corrugated hose of the direct-feed and the pull-dump with front toggle at the opposite shoulder are both designed so that when force is applied they get positioned at the top of the buoyancy bag, so no air gets trapped.
     There is also a bottom dump with a toggle located so that you can easily find it if descending head-down. I found it convenient to tuck the direct-feed hose out of the way under the sternum strap and use the right shoulder dump.
     What makes this BC interesting is its integrated-weights system. We get so many letters from people who have experienced an inadvertent loss of their weights with dramatic consequences. I cannot think that this would happen with the Cressi system.
     The weight pockets are secured by both a press-stud and opposing layers of velcro, and from an upright position you have to lift the weights vertically upwards to pull the weight packets from where they are stowed. Even when swimming horizontally, the weight of the leads bears down on to a permanently fixed part of the pocket rather than velcro.
     Trim-weight pockets at the rear are closed by both velcro flaps and a press-stud, and they prove useful for counteracting the buoyancy encountered with the aluminium cylinders that are standard issue at most dive centres abroad.
     I used the S111 with a 15 litre steel tank and 4kg of lead, a 15 litre aluminium tank with 10kg of lead, and a 12 litre aluminium tank with 9kg of lead. In every case I found my trim was perfect. I was exceedingly comfortable, and there was never any danger of a sudden unwanted weight loss!
     So the Cressi S111 is a simple, efficient, well-made item that might not be too exciting to read about but does its job admirably. In my book Cressi has "done it right".
     The S111 comes in sizes XS-XL and costs £388.

Both the weight pockets and the trim-weight pockets at the rear are secured by press studs and velcro. They are designed to avoid the weights putting pressure on velcro

Plastics bring size down in the mouth
Regulators are getting smaller. However, the last one I tried relied on a servo design that blew your tonsils down your oesophagus and at depth juddered like a pre-war Austin doing a handbrake start on Porlock Hill.
     The new, toy-like Proton XL has been designed without the need for any servo. In the tradition of all the other regulators bearing the Mares brand, it has no knobs or switches either. You just put it in your mouth and breathe without fiddling.
     Many Mares second stages have all the coldwater advantages of metal construction (the metal acts as a heat sink) but tend to be a little substantial, especially when balanced with the inadequate mouthpiece that comes with them.
     The new Proton XL uses an all-technopolymer design. "Technopolymer" is what my mother used to call "plastic". Foregoing the coldwater aspect, it makes the Proton XL very lightweight in the mouth, and this has been married to a proper "orthodontic" mouthpiece.
     "Orthodontic" is what my mother would have called "OK for sticking in your mouth". "XL" presumably stands for "extra light".
     It has the ever-effective Mares venturi bypass tube, though this is now tucked away by being integrated with the whole design. Its effect is to feed air direct from the second-stage valve to your mouth, without causing the vacuum-cleaner effect that tends to suck in the front diaphragm. That can lead to those exponential free-flows you might experience with some other regulators, especially if they are not in your mouth, when you first hit the water.
     So where does the name Proton come from? Well, in a world in which marketing giants such as Toyota can decide to call a car the MR2 (which, of course, is pronounced merde in France), you can't complain if your regulator seems to be named after an inauspicious car from Korea. A proton is an elementary particle of positive charge and uniform atomic mass. It's what my mother would have called "very small".
     In its top-of-the-range form, this little gem has been married to the new V32 first stage, which is reminiscent of that impressive hunk of chrome-plated brass, the MR22 (not to be confused with the MR2 from Toyota) supplied with the Mares Ruby and Abyss.
     Like the MR22, the V32 has its six ports positioned so that hose routes are just where you want them. Impressively substantial as the MR22 might be, it's weighty enough to make you have second thoughts about packing it when weight might matter, especially if you have to carry more than one.
     The V32 has been made lighter simply by trimming away unwanted metal from around the block but it is still heavy compared to some other regulators available. It has also been given an attractive coating of rubber to help it withstand rough treatment.
     So what was it like to dive with? I got a little flak from some hairy-arsed French divers who thought such a small regulator couldn't possibly be any good but I found it performed remarkably well.
     One criticism was that at 50m, while breathing hard working my way against a current, it tended to feel as if it was getting a little out of control. It appeared to be giving a little positive pressure, just as a servo-type regulator might do, but then some people must like that, or such servo-type regulators would not be so popular with one particular group of deep divers.
     Another problem with this regulator was that it felt as if it projected a long way in front of my face, but direct comparisons with other models proved this not to be so. I think that, because the exhaust port is so small, it puts the bubbles up close to your eyes when you are not moving forwards through the water.
     The V32/Proton XL combination costs £270. The Proton also fills the gap left by the now discontinued V16/Epos and is available with the less expensive MR12 first stage at £200.