1st Dive

Milosherman said:

Yes, I could start an apnea dive AND remember to set the pool mode every morning, otherwise I get the swim as an apnea dive in my log....

Why not just use the Pool Swim or Open Water Swim activities? That's what you are doing, aren't you?

Since I simply copy 2-3 bits of into to a MS word log, it's more a fun curiosity for me.

I know it's fun to have but realistically other than a couple very unique dives how often do you go back and look. In my case the answer is never but that is just me.

Now pictures I look at all the time :)

I thought I'd weigh in. I also had my first dive with the mk2i (also no receiver so I guess just an expensive mk2?). 

Dive wise - vis was about 5m, total depth was 10.7m, time was 50min and like Hulk was using analogue gauge (single gas, shore dive).

I found the display to be really easily readable. Normally I use a Suunto D6i - it was streets ahead in that regard (never used the D5 though). 

I also liked the option to scroll between the screens without timeout - namely I managed to stay on the compass screen for the majority of the dive. Compared to the D6i, which seems to time out every time you look up, the ability to keep the compass up was great. After the dive I also played around with the custom faces - great you can add a load of details (including sunset time which will be nice for the next night dive).

We had a trouble with weight at the beginning of the dive and spent some time on the surface to sort out weights - this meant the watch recorded two dives (the first one being 51 seconds!). I know there are settings to change the end dive delay (and I wasn't check the watch to see if it was prompting an auto end or not). 

One thing I noticed after the fact was that I didn't notice the safety stop. Reading the manual after I noticed it doesn't trigger a safety stop until you hit 11m (once again configurable) - so I guess I just didn't get deep enough, or we cleared the SS on our ascent and didn't notice.

I did find the ascent gauge very easy user friendly, easy to read, easy to hear.

I'll also say I set up a 30min time alert in advance of the dive as a reminder to ensure turnaround point. Once that went off I noticed the dive time was flashing - I can't recall if it flashed until the end of dive or not (will check next time), but if it does then it could get irritating if you have a couple of alerts set up. I would be very keen to have a 120 bar alert (our usual turnaround point for shore dives) - will see if that works after the transmitter gets here- although if there are continual big flashing red lights when it goes off it will not be a feature for long!

Finally, I moved the watch from sitting on my wetsuit to my wrist about 40 min into the dive, it picked up my heartrate straight away and it was a nice addition - not sure I'll be using it too much in Aus as I get cold easily, but nice to have more metrics. Maybe it'll help underwater to be consciously aware if HR is high - or it could add to the stress levels! 

I may add some details/update post a night dive later this week.

As a watch/dive computer - very happy with it. I think the only gripe is that when I ordered, I didn't understand the mk2i didn't come with the transmitter (I know - read fully before you buy). I think the price point for the mk2i v mk2 isn't really justified when it's c. extra $1,000 RRP in Aus to get AI (T1 + Mk2i extra over).

Peter.Bomberg said:

I know it's fun to have but realistically other than a couple very unique dives how often do you go back and look. In my case the answer is never but that is just me.

Very regularly!  I keep detailed logs of what I saw (and didn't see) which is why I have my own dive log app so that I can put in it exactly what I want.