(Part 2) Top products from r/scuba

Ebay and craigslist are both good points to start.

Scuba gear is pretty rugged. So if people just look out a little bit for it, it will last for years without failing.

Honestly the wetsuit I'd buy new in a shop. Those things really need to fit and even with a size chart nothing beats just trying them on preferably with someone more knowledgeable looking over your shoulder.

SPGs are usually sold with the regulator. Tanks and weights are the very last thing you'll need. Computers are probably the easiest things to buy. I'll paste an old comment of mine below.

BCD is a different risk since you don't really know what you'll like so the chances are not bad you'll buy at least twice. If you ask on this subreddit here everyone and their dog will tell you to go "bp/w". Which is honestly a good recommendation but it can be a bit overwhelming to get into that topic.

Here's how I would (and did ) aproach this: Just check ebay every now and then. If you see something that might look like something do your homework. Google that shit. Read reviews. Look at the images of the listing and compare to the images that you'll find when googling it. Youtube is actually a pretty good source of gear reviews. So is scubaboard.

Happy hunting!

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Regarding computers:

The good, first dive computers that are generally thrown around for little money are

• Cressi Leonardo or Giotto
  
• Mares Puck Pro+
  
• AquaLung i300
  
• Suunto Zoop Novo
  
  The differences are VERY small. You can't really go wrong with any of those. Just look for a good offer or buy one used.

I sometimes dive with a GoPro Hero 3 Black with LCD backpack and a red filter. It works well and is a great little camera for a lot of things. I'd highly recommend getting both the red filter and the LCD backpack as it makes for a better overall experience. You'll also want to make a stick or buy a Go Pole (more about that later). Finally, you'll want to pick up extra batteries. A battery lasts almost exactly 1 hour - so if you're doing a 3 tank dive, you'll want three batteries. By the time you put all that together you're looking about $550.

That's a lot of dole for a camera which, while it work everywhere, is really just kinda mediocre. I'm happy with it, but there's no zoom, you can't really choose your focus, and it has a really wide field of view. This means you're going to need to get REALLY close to get photos. Hence why you'll want a Go Pole (or a hunk of PVC like I use) so you can get REALLY close and actually capture the critter you're looking at.

However, if I were to do it again, I'd spend an extra $100 and get an Olympus TG-3 instead. This is a proper camera with autofocus, optical zoom, and a flash (although you'll want a bigger strobe for underwater). Plus, by itself it's waterpoof to 15m. The camera alone sells for $299 on Amazon and then you can pick up a enclosure for another $299 that will let you take it deeper and protect it better (plus, if the enclosure leaks a little bit you're not going to wreck your camera). You'll get better pictures from a more versatile camera that can grow with you.

And then there's all the blather that someone else will probably write about perfecting your buoyancy. Also, don't take the camera on every dive.

I rather like wearing a watch, and decided to add a dive watch when I started diving. The first thing to decide is movement - battery, solar, or mechanical. For diving... I honestly think Solar is a great choice. No battery to replace, but also doesn't need service like mechanical. Citizen uses the "Eco-Drive" name for their solar, while Seiko just calls them "Seiko Solar". Seiko Kinetic is a similar thing - quartz watch with a movement based charging system - but they have a reputation for crapping out. The solar ones are basically bulletproof.

As you may know, if you want to dive a watch, simply getting something that says '200m water resist' isn't really enough. Watches that meet ISO6425 standards (which are specs for dive watches) will show 'Diver's 200m'. The proofing and testing is different, and the '200m/20atm' watches aren't necessarily dive ready. Wikipedia has a reasonable explanation of the testing differences. At the very least, you need a screw-down crown. Anything that says "Diver's 200m" on it will have that and be sufficiently reliable for diving work. Anything that says '300m' should be sufficient for at least basic diving... anything lower you're just going to have to ask the watch community about that particular watch specifically.

So - all that aside. Recommendations based on the digging I did while I was shopping. I ended up with an Orange Seiko Solar Diver. The Citizen Promaster divers are nice as well.

The 'Entry Level' seems to be this Casio. It's battery powered, but should last a long long time. It doesn't say Divers 200, but they have a reputation for lasting.

Cheap end of mechanical, the Vostok Amphibia. It's a completely different concept than the more traditional dive watch - uses soft seals and pressure to seal itself, rather than a hardened case. 'Automatic' or 'Self-Winding' mechanical, but it has a bi-directional bezel, meaning you can't really use the bezel for timing like you can on a true 'Dive Watch'. You can get em with a little scuba man on them, though. There's a bunch of different style Vostoks, but they're all functionally the same. Good watches.

Moving up in price a bit, Seiko makes some very nice mechanical dive watches. There's the SKX007, the SKX009, the 'Monster' watches (Available in Black, White and Orange), and some of my favorite looks - the Blue Lagoon and Turtle.

If you want to throw stupid money at the problem, my buddy has one of these Marathon watches which he loves dearly. They're one of the few divers you can get with actual radioactive tubes, so you don't have to charge the lume hands up in the sun.

Software wise, Subsurface is a fantastic open source dive logger. It runs on mobile and Mac/Windows. Both sync to the cloud so you can access the same data on either. You can also use it to publish your logbook to https://www.divelogs.de/.

For books, at least for the west coast, I'd highly recommend:

Coastal Fish Identification: California to Alaska (the same author has published excellent guides for other regions as well)

A Guide to the Rockfishes, Thornyheads, and Scorpionfishes of the Northeast Pacific (Milton Love's other fish books are also well worthwhile, and downright hilarious. He's a marine biologist at UC Santa Barbara, and if you ever get a chance to hear him talk, don't miss out.)

Most of the cenotes available to dive for recreational divers have areas that are completely dark and a little bottle-necked in spots. Unfortunately, that's just how caverns are. Albeit, they are the easiest to experience cave diving and navigate without getting into really super tight areas, and to have a semi-controlled atmosphere.

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That being said my only recommendation is to get perhaps a small beacon light - like these -that you can both hang from your BCDs to keep visual contact. That may help with the fear. Usually all dive operators out there are fantastic and will do their best to make you comfortable and explain the dive conditions. Have a wonderful time!

Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures, and Extended Range with Bernie Chowdhury

Full cave with Jill Heinerth

Basic Trimix with John Chatterton

Edit- Filling in more of the details:

Dives with Bernie were all done in the northeast. Bernie is awesome but has a very very busy schedule so scheduling with him can be a pain.

Dives with Jill were done in High Springs Florida (Ginnie Springs, etc.). Jill could not have been nicer or more accommodating- I had a short window in which I could do my full cave course and Jill made time for me and found another student for the course.

Dives with John were done in Florida. John is an awesome guy with great stories and a wealth of knowledge. He can be a little hard to schedule- but absolutely worth it.

I was in your situation a few weeks ago and would listen to what others have already posted.

I would strongly recommend picking up a retractable pole. It helps for a number of reasons, e.g. getting close to reefs/fishes without running into them, taking self/group shots, etc. I found this one from Amazon to be quite affordable and useful.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VA4CK8/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You'll also need a GoPro tripod mount.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RCLYXG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, depending on the depth, a red filter may improve the colors coming off the GoPro. Something like this one.

http://snakeriverprototyping.com/shopblurfix3so.html

When I was using a GoPro (prior to getting a camera+housing) I used a monopod called X-Shot 2. I liked that it wasn't too expensive and how short it is when folded. It is probably somewhat shorter than some other monopods and (therefore) less sturdy, but once you're underwater it's fine.

The only problem is that since it's not solely designed for GoPro, so you need the GoPro tripod mount and you need to take care when screwing that on to the monopod so it is secure. As an extra precaution I also a string from the camera to the monopod.

As for durability, I used it for some tens of dives and it's still as good as when I bought it, just made sure to rinse it afterwards and sometimes put a little WD-40 on it.

Thank you! I used this mount I found on amazon. It allowed me to flood the handle so it could be more or less neutrally buoyant. I only used the small handle part so the footage was actually pretty shaky originally. I used Adobe Premiere's "warp stabilizer" effect to help steady things up in post. Next time I will make sure to attach the arm as well to steady it more.

I've seen people have special masks with the GoPro mount on it, I've seen people wear a chesty harness under their BCD, I've seen people wear a wrist strap, most people (including myself) just simply hold their camera on a floating handle. It truly depends on what you're doing on a dive, where you're diving and your experience with diving.

Hope this helps. :)


Edit: Here's the mask

There is a documentary by Jill Heinerth about this case in particular called Ben's Vortex. It is an interesting watch and outside of actually finding him, it covers all the points of the case pretty well.


I bought it a few years ago and had a movie night at my dive club and showed this film. It was very well received.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. Its the best underwater photo book ive found.

Very well. Try this one for the Hero6. As you can see in the link from my original comment, the filters are depth rated and get redder and redder the deeper you go;ideally you would switch between them. Realistically, I used the 20-55 ft one on the drawstring, 100% of the time, and popped it off for surface recording and night dives. Also highly recommend some type of handle/rod so you can curl the camera around some formations or get into crevices.

I used the

Olympus Tough TG-3 (Amazon Link)

Case (Amazon link)

If you don't go below 15m, you don't need the case for that camera.

Thanks for the compliments, it was my first time with that camera!

I’m all about starting cheap to find what I like and then upgrading to better stuff later once I master what I have. No sense spending lots of money on something to figure out you hate it. That said I just picked up this rig on amazon super cheap. It fits gopro and many other cameras.


Movo GB-U70 Underwater Diving Rig... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0734772HY?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

amazon

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^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

I use this one for all my adventuring:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005JVP0LE/ref=pd_aw_lpo_241_tr_img_2/144-3244649-6942935?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QHVJQH89CHDMZNCJ8ZNB

It did fine at 120', and it is inexpensive.

Sorry, the current watch is an analog style Citizen Eco-Drive. Here's a link to it on Amazon.

Over the years, I've had (& killed) a half dozen Casio's. Some were digital, some were analog ... none were G-Shocks.

If I were to buy a cheap Casio dive watch today, I'd probably check out this one or this one and of these two, I'd probably choose the latter, as it has a 200m rating instead of 100m and its been my impression that Casio's depth ratings have gotten less robust over the years.

EDIT: the lady's version of the Citizen that I'm using now can be found here


-hh

Olympus TG-4 with the Olympus PT-056 UW Housing and a GoPro Hero 4

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UKV5D4C?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K91DFY8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

Ah, a scuba themed wrist watch. In particular with a rotating bezel.

Not a dive computer or something that gives me data. More like the name of a "dive watch" that used to have a purpose before dive computers, but have fallen out of use. Purely for aesthetics and the fun rotating bezel that reminds me of diving and the history of dive watches

Some examples:
https://www.amazon.com/Invicta-8926OB-Stainless-Automatic-Bracelet/dp/B000JQFX1G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PXVU3GM/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B00PXVU3GM&pd_rd_wg=rZ1Tb&pd_rd_r=3MR93SSRD37AMT1RX6XY&pd_rd_w=JmBOX

nah, they're common and inexpensive:

https://www.amazon.com/AudioFlood-Waterproof-Apple-Shuffle-Headphones/dp/B0087RPKHG

I've listened to mine at around 160fsw. Makes deco a lot more pleasant.

Oh, so this one is pretty poor?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O12F210/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What do you recommend?

what you guys think of this

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JS97Q7S/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_qNERCbSB3SCJK

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or if I work out my adapters will fit it:

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https://www.amazon.com/SecurityIng-Photography-Flashlight-Underwater-Included/dp/B01JRET4WE/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_4?keywords=securitying+wide+120+degree+beam&qid=1554942336&s=gateway&sr=8-4-fkmrnull

I got a similar light made by the same OEM (Brinyte). This one has multiple beam intensity settings, push button activation, a red led setting, and a ball attachment arm to attach to a lighting tray. It also takes both 18650 and 26650 batteries. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JS97Q7S/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_qNERCbSB3SCJK

> https://www.amazon.com/AudioFlood-Waterproof-Apple-Shuffle-Headphones/dp/B0087RPKHG

Aren't those headphones stopping you from equalising?

I've been considering this one, it seems to be very positivity reviewed, though some complain about getting ones with dead batteries.

Mares Puck Wrist Dive Computer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00106GVLA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_EpTlxb0DMHJ7V

$150 free shipping or ($155 prime shipping)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/044808936X/ref=dp_otherviews_0?ie=UTF8&img=0&s=books

My current favourite books:

Six skills and other Discussions

Staying Alive

Deco for Divers

Mares Puck.

http://www.amazon.com/Mares-Puck-Wrist-Dive-Computer/dp/B00106GVLA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463593209&sr=8-1&keywords=mares+puck

Red light gets absorbed by the water. You need to get a red filter to compensate for this. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Kupton-Underwater-Waterproof-Correction-Housing/dp/B075WR3ZTQ?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4

My girlfriend has used this for a year and has had no issues. Even at 130-140 ft. I've gone through about 4 poles / sticks which all seem to break or shatter around 60-70 feet at depth.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015X8ETG4

1. Be neutral as second nature before attempting. This takes everyone different amounts of time.
   
   
2. You don't really need to be taught this. In fact, I recommend not taking a photography class but there are a few great books on Amazon about it, I cannot recommend all three of these enough, but if you had to get one get Martin Edge's book, "The Underwater Photographer."
   
   The Underwater Photographer
   
   Underwater Photography
   
   Winning Images with Any Underwater Camera
   
   
3. Most cameras will also take video.
   
   
4. Yes, my housing for my a6000 takes a lot of maintenance to keep working correctly and protecting the camera/lens. The strobe takes maintenance too.
   
   
5. The tint is from a red filter. The red filter causes the camera's WB settings to compensate for the loss of red at depth. I hate filters and use lights.
   
   
6. I prefer photographs. Framing, lighting, exposure, timing... and you get details that I prefer over movement. If I had a decent stabilizing program I'd take more vids maybe.
   
   Red Sea Fish
   
   I shoot a Sony a6000 in an Ikelite case using a manually slaved Sea and Sea strobe. It gives me RAW photos and does just about anything a DSLR will give me in a much smaller package. I shoot single strobe for the hard shadows and contrasts. I started with a GoPro but it sucked at photos. Then I upped my game to a little Canon point-and-shoot in an Ikelite case that had a diffuser card for the flash. It would have served me just fine for a long, LONG time but RAW is really necessary for effective post.