Eye to eye with your dive computer...
So I’ve been diving with the new Oceanic Datamask since May now, and I have to say, I love this thing, especially as an underwater shooter. Not having to take your hands off your camera to check your stats just rocks and makes diving, and working much easier and enjoyable.
The mask itself is one of the best fitting masks I’ve had, though due to my “laugh lines” (or wrinkles, as my wife likes to call them) it still leaks a bit, but nothing a bit of mask clearing can’t fix. The readout is is easy to see and easy to read, the only downer is if you don’t add a bit of defogger to the readout’s glass, then you have to deal with some fogging. You can adjust it’s brightenness to suit you and it works really well, except when you hit the surface…then you need to put a hand over the right eye in order to be able to read the computer. No big deal, right?
What’s my biggest concern? Um…losing it! Considering I’ve lost a number of masks through the years, it’s my one real worry, so wearing it through heavy surf on beach dives might not happen. I figure I can always go back to a standard mask for those dives, I wear an analog pressure gauge as a back up, and still carry my Sunntto Vytec in my dive bag, just in case. Just don’t know how I would explain to my wife that “..well, I got tumbled in the surf..and, well, the mask got stripped off by a wave and we weren’t able to find it…um, yeah, it did cost $1500…” Think I might be living in my truck if that were to happen!
Overall, if you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket, you love new toys, and you’ve been thinking of buying a dive computer, I would say; take a look at the Oceanic Datamask, you won’t be sorry.
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The Wandering Waterman 