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 WAS SLIGHTLY DISAPPOINTED when I received the Seacsub Pro Tech BC for test. I remembered my good experiences with the Seacsub Pro 2000, a product which made it Diver readers' Innovation of the Year 2001, but this BC seemed a little less highly finished, a little less unbustable.
     I would go so far as to say that this is a BC for the wannabe tekkie rather than for anyone likely to jump into the water with more than two tanks.
     It has the same sort of separate harness as the Pro 2000, but threaded through a conventional T-shaped buoyancy bag. Both are then sandwiched between two layers of hard backpack.
     Four chunky D-rings are curved to make it easy to clip items on to them. Two similar-sized D-rings are very strongly affixed to the lower edge of the jacket at the front, and a smaller one lies above the right-hand pocket - I clipped my current hook to it whenever I needed to deploy it.
     The harness and cummerbund are totally adjustable, so I was able to tailor the BC to fit me exactly before diving. When it was fully inflated at the surface, it raised me high out of the water without crushing me in its embrace.
     The corrugated hose has a dump at the upper shoulder and there is another at the right shoulder, operated by a pull-cord that is routed to its toggle rather than threaded through the right shoulder-strap facing. When donning this BC in a small boat, I often found I got the exposed cord entangled with the buckle of the computer I wore on my right arm.
     There is a lower dump at the back of the BC which would have been useful when descending head-first and quickly down to a reef or wreck in a strong current. The toggle for this was similarly routed but not threaded through to the front. I could rarely find it when I wanted it.
     However, once I got hold of the toggles, the dump valves proved to be perfectly positioned for getting rid of every last vestige of air from the buoyancy bag, just as the angle of the zipped side-pockets was perfect for access. These were capacious enough to be useful, and the zips are heavy-duty grade.
     Above and to the left of these pockets is an elasticated lanyard and clip which retracts nicely away when not in use. It proved ideal for use with a slate or a small torch.
     Above this is a clip which looks as if should take either a high-pressure hose or an octopus hose, but proved too tight to fit either. In any case, the octopus is otherwise taken care of by means of a tube of elasticated webbing mounted high at the back of the right shoulder. You simply pull the doubled-up hose of your octopus rig through this, and it is neatly stowed yet instantly accessible.
     This is probably the first device for this purpose I have come across that really works, with no danger of the second stage slipping out and getting dragged across wreck or reef. With my extra-long hose I often pulled it through quadrupled, too, and it made a neat job of it.
     I only wished there had been a matching sleeve of elasticated webbing on the left side, because I prefer to rig my octopus there. It removes any confusion or complication for a buddy in an emergency, though it would be difficult for me to breathe off it.
     On one side of the BC an additional pocket concertinas out to take a spare mask or DSMB. This is kept closed with a strap and pinch-clip.
     The single-tank camband supplied can be threaded through a choice of slots in the backpack to suit your needs.
     The big flaw, I felt, was the design of the integrated weights system, two pouches which slip into slots in the BC and are held there by flaps of overlapping velcro.
     In the harsh environment of the Red Sea liveaboard, where a freshwater rinse for the BC is something that happens once a week rather than after every dive, this velcro tends to get curly and lose its total area of adhesion.
     With 4kg of lead in each pouch, I felt ill at ease when jumping into the water from any height, especially when tilting to descend head-down. I know a lot of divers out there will be tempted to put in a lot more lead than I used. I suggest they stick to a weightbelt. It might save disappointment later.
     In the event, I didn't lost a weight-pouch during 14 dives, but I believe this was more down to my own care in installing the weights and accessing the water than to any triumph of design.
The Seacsub Pro Tech BC costs £329.

A tube of elasticated webbing can be used to stow an octopus hose neatly


an additional pocket secured by a pinch clip can hold spare gear


the integrated weight system consists of pouches under the pockets either side of the BC - the release is visible

Graphic simplicity
I am amazed that there are still divers who rely on watch and depth gauge or even their buddy's computer. Computers are so inexpensive now that many people would not dream of travelling without a backup instrument, let alone their primary computer.
     After all, if your one and only computer goes wrong on a week-long dive trip for any reason, you would have to wait 24 hours before diving again with a borrowed one, and that's an expensive day of diving lost.
     Of course, there is one group of divers for whom the ordinary diving computer is of no use - those who breathe gases other than air or nitrox.
     They tend to plan their dives with a proprietary dive planner package on a PC and then need to stick closely to that plan once they are in the water.
     But they still have to record time and depth accurately to carry out that plan, and it is well established that divers are no good at reading the time.
     They can still do with the accuracy afforded by the microchip and electronic pressure sensor, and this is where the Suunto D3 comes in.
     The Suunto D3 is a dive-timer and it's a depth gauge. Menu-driven like its computer brethren, it has four push-buttons that allow you to change it from timepiece to free-diver's stop-watch, or to reveal a PC-downloadable log of the dives it has done.
     Water-activated, it times the dive and displays actual depth. The surface interval is timed in both minutes and seconds.
     The D3 has an audible alarm which can be set to beep at regular time intervals. You can change the battery yourself when necessary, and select from a range of sampling rates too, which might be of interest to free-divers wishing to scrutinise their underwater achievements later on.
     It's as clear to read as a Stinger or Mosquito, with its own independent illumination, but if you don't want a computer, it's that much cheaper. But then, confusingly, it isn't, because the Suunto Favor S computer is £75 less expensive.
     The D3 looks very snazzy with its black and orange finish, and a velcro strap that will adjust between the slimmest wrist and the bulkiest drysuit, but the other snag I can foresee is that, with a maximum depth of 99m, it won't go deep enough for some tekkies.
     So with its once-a-second sampling rate that will prove useful to free-divers as its only real unique selling proposition, I can't see a lot of Diver readers wanting one.
The Suunto D3 costs £220.

There's simple - and there's simple
Double flash of inspiration
Some will, some won't. It all depends on how they are wired. But I found that the two synchro sockets on the Sea & Sea camera housing for my Nikon allowed me to plug in two Nikon SB104 flashguns and get perfect through-the-lens (TTL) exposure combined with something approaching natural-looking lighting while under water.
     Of course, two Nikon SB104 flashguns set me back a lot of money and produced enough light to use successfully with ultra-wide-angle lenses and subjects more than 2m from the camera. Most people prefer to shoot macro (close-up) subjects, so I wanted to see what results I would get a macro that configuration. Sea & Sea kindly loaned me a compact flat macro port to go with my 100mm macro lens.
     This port comes in two parts. A wide collar fits to the housing and steps down to a narrow cylinder which screws in and fits snugly round the barrel of the lens.
     It is not sensible to jump into the water with such heavyweight gear as the two Nikon flashguns just for macro work. I certainly didn't need the amount of light they give out on full power. So I asked Sea & Sea to lend me two YS TTL Duo flashguns too. These were the dinky YS-30 TTL Duo and the slightly larger YS-90.
     All Sea & Sea TTL Duo flashguns will work together to give proper through-the-lens-exposure control, but you need a housing with two appropriately wired synchro-sockets or a suitable separate dual synchro-lead.
     One could mount the two flashguns easily on the opposing handles of the Sea & Sea housing using the usual articulated Sea arms. Instead, for macro work, I found that the Sea & Sea multi-strobe ring that fitted snugly over the macro port barrel allowed me to conveniently mount, using the right accessories, the smaller YS-30 flash as fill-in together with an aiming light (a UK Mini Q40).
     I could have mounted the YS-90 this way too. In fact you could use this mounting-ring to fit a collection of little YS-30 TTL Duos round the lens and get a perfectly even ring-flash effect if you wanted to.
     Like the YS-90, the YS-30 will synch with a primary flashgun by means of its in-built slave cell and it is claimed that it still gives true TTL exposure control. I confess to not really understanding how it can do this. In that case, I guess you could use as many as you could fit round the ring. The slave has its own on/off switch.
     Ring-flashes were invented for use by medical photographers, who would encounter problems getting both a lighting set-up and their lenses into body cavities during surgical operations. Later, in the Ô80s, there was a brief fad among fashion photographers to use this unflattering lighting on their models.
     Now the buzz among underwater photographers is to use ring-flash set-ups for macro shots. I find it rather uninteresting, as the light is so frontal, and prefer to keep my main light on an articulated Sea arm to give me a bit more creative control. I prefer the reliability of two synchro-leads too.
     So away I went, into the water, with this pre-selected studio-style lighting set-up.
     The Sea & Sea YS flashguns have optional diffusers that clip to their fronts and soften the light a little. The diffuser of the YS-30 looked decidedly warm in colour and served to warm up an otherwise decidedly cool flash output.
     The flashes recycled ready for use in a maximum of six seconds after each shot, using standard alkaline AA batteries. I got at least 200 exposures per set of batteries per flashgun. (The YS-30 uses two batteries and the YS-90 four.) This recycling time is a little slower than I am used to but I had to learn to be patient. Both flashguns can be used in manual mode and the larger YS-90 can be set to half-power.
     I took the easy route. I used the TTL automatic setting and let the electronic wizardry of the flashguns and the computer of the camera sort it out.
     I then just set my lens to f/22 and obtained 36 perfectly exposed, beautifully lit pictures on every roll of ISO100 film.
     Now I've told you how to do it, anyone with the money to spend can go out and get their pictures just as easily. Of course, you still need an eye for a subject.
     These YS TTL Duo flashguns work with Nikonos, Sea & Sea and most housed 35mm cameras but you must specify the correct synchro-lead connections at the time of purchase.
The costs are: YS-30 TTL Duo £306. YS-90 TTL Duo £417. Synchro-leads £72 each. Sea & Sea compact macro port (complete) £378. Shoe arm mounting £42. Focus light-holder £41. Multi-strobe mounting ring £82. Articulated Sea arm, £176. Sea & Sea NX-80 housing for a Nikon, £1400-£4000. Nikon F80 with 105mm Sigma macro lens £750. UK Mini Q40 underwater torch extra.

Bullet-proof on long-haul flights
I confess to needing a well constructed dive bag more than most and I have made no secret in the past of my predilection for the products of Stahlsac. They are made in the USA, or more recently in a new factory in Mexico, but with a German name that translates to "steel bag".
     Unlike cheaper bags made in the Far East, Stahlsac bags will last as long as the gear you carry in them. Each is made from the material used to clad bullet-proof jackets (1050 denier 15oz ballistic cloth) and, though initially expensive, they have proved themselves bullet-proof for my purposes.
     I have used the Cargo Pack, big enough to take two divers' kit, and the slightly less capacious Cargo Duffel. In a world in which you can check in two pieces of baggage up to 32kg each, either one complements my heavily loaded Pelican camera case quite effectively.
     If I have a gripe, it is that when I arrive at my destination my clothes are in the same bag as my diving kit, which often means unpacking it in public. One part of the contents needs to go to the dive centre or aft deck of the boat while the other is needed in my accommodation.
     Splitting the load into separate bags makes extra pieces, and while 32kg seems to be perfectly acceptable in one lump, airline check-in staff blench at the idea of an extra item.
     Jim Stahl's solution is the Diver's Transport System. The W415-B Diver's Gear Transporter is a semi-rigid, soft-top bag with wheels and an extending handle. The W426-B Diver's Travel Duffel is a soft hold-all with zipped end pockets and a side pocket.
     All zips are heavyweight and corrosion-resistant, with effective methods of locking. The two bags cunningly interlock by means of strategically placed D-rings and straps with pinch-clips, so that they effectively make a single item to check in.
     Completing the Diver's Transport System is the single carry-on item that is all one is now allowed. The Calypso Carry-on M504B Bag is more than its name implies. With strong handles and a clip-on shoulder strap, it is a capacious bag with two main sections and three additional zipped pockets. Put this trio together and you get so many sub-sections that you can start to forget where you put things.
     The extra-clever bit about this third bag is that it will temporarily interlock with the other two, so you can march out of the airport without the aid of a trolley or doing an impression of Frank Spencer or Norman Wisdom.
     When it came to packing my gear, I found the biggest bag slightly on the small side and only just managed to squeeze in my long XL-size fins, BC, mask, regulator, wetsuit and boots. On the other hand, the second bag was big enough for me to take a lot more than the minimum amount of clothes I am used to.
     A helpful BA check-in person pointed out that my one-piece composed of two bags clipped together was vulnerable to theft, because as only one carried a baggage tag the other could be unclipped by a thief and go missing. She checked it in as two pieces with two baggage tags, so defeating the object of the exercise. I was grateful that she still counted it as one under airline regulations; others might be less accommodating.
     As for the carry-on bag, I was stumped for ways of filling it beyond the couple of cameras, lenses and all the film I normally carry, so I packed changes of clothing that might come in useful if my checked-in baggage failed to arrive.
     Checked-in bags can go missing, but that rarely happens if you are holding a baggage receipt marked with the same airport as your intended destination.
     There are those who fail to clear their bags through customs when transiting through the USA, in which case the bags will be merrily circling the carousel in the airport where they changed planes, rather than waiting to greet them at their destination. That's what the airline calls "passenger error".
     The Calypso Carry-on M504B Bag is so big that it will take all those items you might insist on dragging through the departure lounge with ever lengthening arms. Just don't drop it on my head when you try to stow it in the overhead bin.
The Stahlsac Transporter System tested costs £370, but you can use the components individually; as suitcase, overnight bag and the biggest bag you ever want to take to the gym.