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.

I RECENTLY USED A BC THAT WAS SO LOADED down with value-added features that I was seen on the dive boat as something of an object of ridicule. The Scubapro Glide Tek is not like that. It's quite basic, a simple wing design with or without the option of an integrated-weight system, according to the harness with which it is supplied.
     I used it with a typical aluminium tank and was disappointed to find that there was no provision for any trim-weights at the back.
     This would have countered the tendency for the tank to become floaty at the end of the dive and would also have served to reduce the amount of weight I had to install in the front quick-release system.
     As it was, I had to squeeze 9kg into them (there is room for more) and the effect, though comfortable from the point of view of needing no restricting weightbelt, was a little like swimming with heavily loaded saddle-bags.
     The good side was that the weights were securely retained in their pouches by several overlapping layers of Velcro, and the pouches themselves securely retained in their pockets by large Fastex buckles, so there was no danger of dropping them by accident. You must undo the buckles to release the weights.
     I can't think why manufacturers have not come up with this simple solution before. However, I suppose the diving world has been so transfixed by the idea that weights must be easily jettisoned, that it has only just woken up to the fact that inadvertently dropped weights actually cause more accidents - to those who suddenly find themselves unrestrainedly buoyant, and to those on whom the weights are dropped.
     So goodbye to Velcro alone for securing weight-pouches, and good riddance.
     The Glide Tek has a big 840 denier material buoyancy bag that is prevented from flapping by four adjustable elasticated straps threaded through the backpack. There are no obvious cords to worry those concerned with snagging.
     There is a slim cushion for comfort and the cummerbund can be adjusted for fit at the backpack, too.
     The positioning of the shoulder straps is quite narrow either side of the chest but rotating buckle connections allow them to divert to quite a wide cut at the lower part of the chest.
     The whole effect gives a very snug fit. As usual there is a sternum strap and a strap and pinch-clip over the cummerbund.
     Air is supplied through a conventional direct-feed and corrugated hose and can be dumped by pulling either on the hose to operate a shoulder dump or on a toggle at the opposite shoulder-strap facing to operate a quick dump there. A dump is also supplied at the lower back of the buoyancy bag.
     Wing manufacturers have taken to calling their products back flotation jackets, presumably to avoid any legal confrontation with the Sopwith family, but you read it right when I tell you that this is a wing.
     I liked the way the direct-feed hose clipped securely to the corrugated hose and I liked the fact that the Glide Tek has just the right number of stainless-steel D-rings - four. Two are at the shoulders and two at the lower edge of the harness. If you buy the version without the integrated-weight system, you get only the two upper ones.
     One enormous improvement over previous Scubapro BCs that I have tried is the camband. Scubapro cambands with their patented metal locking lever were always great to use when swapping between identically sized tanks but a complete pain in the neck when you need to readjust to differing sizes.
     This new one has retained all the advantages of the metal locking lever but is much easier to readjust between tanks. My congratulations to Scubapro for implementing this long-awaited solution.
     One disappointment was the virtual absence of pockets on the BC. Yes, there are zipped sections, but these were so small that I was unable to store anything useful in them. I would have loved to have stuffed away my pressure gauge, or even the long hose to my octopus rig, but that was not to be. Otherwise, the Scubapro Glide Tek is the sort of kit you can use without giving it a second thought.
The Scubapro Glide Tek with optional Integrated Weight system is available in sizes S, M and L and costs £349.

Scubapro UK 01256 812636, www.scubapro.co.uk

+ Simply effective + Sensible solution to weight retention + Adaptable camband design

- Integrated-weight system cannot be simply added later - Limited weight capacity - Lack of pockets

Warm and rotation-free
When I am trying to take photographs, I tend to leave the real world behind and start living the dive through the eyepiece of my camera. Because good photographs under water demand that you get your camera as close as possible to your subject, I view this world in the steep perspective of the close-up at a wide angle.
     Things reproduced as an image in the viewfinder are very much further away from me than they look. This can give me a very disconnected view of what I'm doing.
     So what does all this have to do with diving suits? Quite a lot.
     The problem I have found with diving in a drysuit is that although I can be quite precise about my buoyancy and hover with my camera at exactly one point in the water column, the fact that my body, like that of most divers, is of a rather complex shape causes small amounts of air to migrate gently around within the suit.
     This is because we have to do a balancing act under water with one of the heavier parts of our kit, the tank, positioned high up on our back, and the weights below. Legs may be a bit floaty, arms continually being repositioned.
     So although I might be able to control my depth precisely by varying my lung volume, I can't stop myself pitching and yawing, or gently rotating.
     Drysuit diving with a camera therefore usually means hanging onto some structure while trying to get the picture, and this can be a bit inconvenient. In some places, such as the silty bottoms of freshwater lakes or over ecologically fragile terrain, to do this either destroys the visibility or is simply a political no-no. The solution? Wear a wetsuit!
     Brrrrrrr! The whole idea of entering an inland quarry in a wetsuit fills me with horror, though I know that people do it.
     I first encountered the problem of the rotating drysuit more than 10 years ago, while making a diving video off Devon. I soon gave up on the Viking drysuit I was using and went over to a very thick Beaver semi-dry instead.
     The only rotating I did then was between the wet one I had used and a dry one I kept in reserve for the next dive.
     People in Europe dive in cold lakes too and Camaro, Austrian manufacturer of all manner of diving suits, knows it. The Camaro Stingray is a semi-dry suit designed for use in the coldest water.
     The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was its weight. There's an awful lot of neoprene in a 7mm one-piece semi-dry suit with attached hood and a second 7mm jacket that goes over it. It is beautifully made and looks good enough to last a lifetime. Apart from the fact that you will need to wear a lot of lead to counteract its natural buoyancy, it looks to be the answer to staying warm when not wearing a drysuit.
     It has Metallite double cuff seals covered by zippered wrist sections, front zippers for easy access but asymmetrical to avoiding flushing, a smoothskin seal around the inside of the hood, comfortable titanium alloy plush lining, and ergonomically shaped rubber knee pads. This is a good old-fashioned suit for use in cold waters. It's not rocket science, but it works!
The Camaro Stingray suit costs £304 and is available in a wide range of stock sizes.

Camaro in Austria. www.camaro.at

+ Cold water answer for those who don't want a drysuit

- Not at all glamorous to wear

Time for rehousing
I didn't choose to buy a Nexus camera housing. My Aquatica finally wore out and the Sea & Sea housing I had kindly been loaned endured more than two years' hard work and a couple of dozen trips abroad before it had to go back for a service. I reckoned it was time to possess my own housing again.
     The problem was that I didn't want the expense of trading-in my cameras for later models, and the now-obsolete Nikon N(F)90s that I use are perfectly adequate for my needs.
     So I had to phone around to see who still had a housing for an N(F)90 in stock, and Ocean Optics came up with the Japanese-made Anthias Nexus. I have seen many people happily using them throughout the world and know that they are popular, especially on the Pacific rim, so why shouldn't one work for me?
     On first inspection I had reservations. Ocean Optics, at the time, could supply only a 17cm diameter dome port, so I had to add a plus-2 dioptre close-up lens to my 20mm wide-angle Nikkor optics to get a full range of focus. Nikon's lens designers never intended that!
     In the swimming pool, I tested the 2.5cm tile pattern at different lens apertures and could detect only slight softening of the focus at the corners of the frame when the lens was stopped down past f/8.
     However, it did mean that the autofocus spent more time hunting than it would have done without the close-up lens.
     Also, the port screws on rather than using a bayonet, which always leaves a nagging doubt as to whether it has been tightened sufficiently. The unit is of the fit-like-a-glove type - nice and compact, but the O-ring sealing the two halves of the clamshell takes a tortuous route and no doubt will not be seated properly one day, with the inevitable flood. If any water does get in, there is nowhere for it to go but to cause problems. Symmetrically positioned camlocks keep everything clam-tight.
     All the controls are mechanically linked and the camera stand-by and shutter release seem very sensitive. There is a focus-lock lever near the shutter-release lever and also a control to activate auto and manual focus modes.
     It does seem that if you fit a focus gear to your lens there is no way to disengage it should you choose to use auto-focus, which might impose a load on the drive mechanism of the lens.
     This doesn't really affect me, as I can never distinguish perfect focus through the camera's reflex viewfinder. I tend to stick with auto and, even if I want to pre-focus, I use auto and then switch it off by going to the manual setting, but with no lens gear in place. The aperture control, linked via a geared lens ring, is comfortably rubber-covered in the same way as the focus knob.
     The controls are all very precise. They are of a type which screw down to activate a chosen option, and then one simply twiddles the command-dial to suit, unscrewing the selected feature knob once done. This allows you to do all this with one hand, handy under water when you are busy supporting the whole rig with the other.
     The on/off control can be disengaged when not needed and it is one of the most effective I have come across. No more cursing as I struggle to switch on a camera under water because I forgot to do it before taking the plunge.
     On the minus side, there are only two controls, for operating mode and metering method, available on the left side of the camera. This means no choosing a different flash synch method or film speed while on the fly. You must be sure that everything is set the way you want it before closing the clamshell.
     There are three synch sockets, two of them wired for action. The synch-connector to the hot-shoe of the camera has both a ready light and a TTL light and these are visible clearly through a second window above the eyepiece of the housing.
     The eyepiece itself is nothing special. It is optical and gives a clear view of both the screen and the information display below it, but for those who might be used to the amazing viewing facilities of the RS or N(F)5 sportsfinder, it will seem puny.
     As with any housing, a window allows you to see the camera's function display window and there is an effective button that operates its display illumination.
     A nice postscript to this report was the fact that, two months after I first received the housing, Ocean Optics was kind enough to exchange the small dome port originally supplied for a larger 23cm-diameter port.
     That meant that I could do away with the hated auxiliary dioptre lens and get back to using my wide-angle as its Nikon designer had intended.
The Nexus housing is available for F100, D100 and F80 and costs around £1500, depending on the port chosen. Nexus housings for some popular up-to-date Nikons are also available.

Ocean Optics 0207 930 8408, www.oceanoptics.co.uk

+ Nicely made + Precise controls + Possible twin-flash TTL synch

- Tortuous O-ring route might invite a flood - Screw-down port

Valve gives CCR-users a free hand
Louise tells me I am not "a proper diver". I use an AP Inspiration closed-circuit rebreather for the long durations possible at depths in the 40-50m range rather than to dive deep wrecks, as she does. However, it works for me! I may not be "proper" but some of the conditions in which I dive are quite arduous, especially when it's necessary to descend quickly through the current to avoid missing the site.
     I like to keep the counter-lungs at minimum volume so that, as I inhale, they go flat. Of course, as one goes deeper you have to add diluent to make up for the increasing ambient pressure, and I used to have to do this by injecting small squirts by way of the diluent feed on the left side.
     However, with a camera outfit in one hand and perhaps the need to hold a downline with the other, things can get fraught. So how nice it was for me to use a unit equipped with an Auto Diluent Valve, or ADV, which sits in-line in the loop next to the left-side T-junction and fed from the diluent cylinder.
     I admit to having had a very unhappy time with an early prototype ADV. It kept leaking diluent into the loop when I didn't want it to, causing a severe case of hamster-cheeks, clearing all my nasal passages, and using 100 bar of diluent on a typical dive.
     I resorted to turning off the diluent tank until each time I needed it, entirely losing the point of it. It was a character-building experience. So I am pleased to say that the production model I used was as sweet as a nut.
     I was able to plunge headfirst off the boat at Cocos Island, and head down through the current with two hands free to hold on to anything I needed to. I simply had to heave a littleextra on the inhalation to pull open the ADV and let a little more diluent into the loop on descent. Lovely!
    
     I used the ADV fitted to a little CCR unit which bore the name "Evolution". I am told that this was only an early bench-test model which will be nothing like the final product. It was made for demonstration at the last DEMA show in America.
     However, Inspiration owners will note that this unit uses a standard-style BC with integrated weights, and comes with a smaller scrubber unit and two 2 litre cylinders. I found that I used less than 40 bar of gas from each cylinder during a one-hour dive to 40m.
     It has a beautifully shaped case which makes installation of the scrubber and cylinders a dream and, under water, it requires less weight on the belt because it displaces less water, doing away with that diving-with-a-wardrobe-on-your-back feeling.
     What about extra open-circuit bail-out? Well, as someone said, the trouble with carrying bail-out cylinders is that you will need to empty them before you get them tested each year, because you "ain't ever going to use them!"
     The boys at Ambient Pressure Diving told me not to write about it because the final production version of the Evolution would be vastly different and even better. It will be bound to appeal to those of us who are not "proper divers".
The ADV adds £159 to the price of an Inspiration from the factory. It can also be bought separately for £199 to fit yourself (said to be simple) or, for £10, by Ambient Pressure.

Ambient Pressure Diving 01326 561040, www.ambientpressurediving.com

+ Evolution less cumbersome than an Inspiration

- Evolution not available in this form

DIVER this month  |  Latest News  |  Holiday Offers  |  Competitions  |  Travel  |  Equipment  |  Forums  |  Learn to dive  |  Wrecks  |  UK Boat Spaces  |  Centres Overseas  |  Centres UK  |  Personal ads  |  Weather  |  Careers  |  U/W Photography  |  Marine life  |  Dive Shows  |  Dive Wear  |  Sharks  |  Diving know how  |  Opinion & more  |  Subscribe  |  Books & DVDs  |  Links  |  Contact us  |  About DIVER group  |  Divermart