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TEST SPEARFISHING BUOY TORPEDO BALISE BY ESCLAPEZ
The modern spearo lives in a constant stream of innovation that has permanently affected his way to dive through the countless new materials and processing techniques. Often, spearfishing equipment manufacturers introduce on the market fascinating brand new products with unique and innovative features and lead us to believe that they are indeed useful and necessary, but in most of the cases that is only marketing.
However, sometimes small artisans or companies managed by true sea lovers, produce some articles that make the difference as they are designed to solve a real problem. We have often heard that the most effective solution to a problem can sometimes be the simplest one and this is the case of the buoy "Balise" by Esclapez.
Everyone knows that the diving buoy is an essential instrument at sea and it can save our life, despite that, manufacturers have done nothing to improve its visibility. As a consequence, if you search for the visibility data on the technical sheets of the main buoys on the market, you will see, with disappointment, there is none.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
It's made of 201D nylon with TPU reinforcements and it is only available in orange colour. It does not have any air chamber inside and it can be inflated through an high quality valve (similar to the life vests ones) which facilitates and speeds up the operation. In the lower portion, right in the middle there is a pocket in which you can put a 2kg lead to stabilize the buoy balance when you use it in the torpedo mode. Whenever you want rear it up you simply need to remove the lead from the pocket and hook it on the front end. It is equipped with two elastic straps for carrying guns and two comfortable handles for transportation out of the water. Its weight is derisory (only 350gr) and in the package it is also included a 45cm flagstick that place the flag at:
120cm above the surface (vertical mode)
I'm really excited about this article because it is light to carry, easy to inflate and really more visible in the water. A lazy user might suggest to implement a pivoting system allowing to always keep the flagstick in the proper position when you switch from a mode to another in order to avoid user to remove the stick from a hole and place it into another one.
Anyway if we are using the buoy in the vertical mode, we don’t need to switch to the horizontal one to move from a spot to another while speafishing. You just need to pull it as usual and it will keep its vertical position.
Just try it and you’ll see it yourself!
MIDLAND XTC 280: SPEARFISHING POV CAM TEST AND COMPARISON WAITING FOR THE XTC 400
A few months ago MIDLAND introduced on the market the brand new XTC 280 replacing the XTC 300 and 200 but the revolution is not over yet as a new top model camera is about to come: the XTC 400 (we will soon publish a test article).
The XTC 280 is sold in an attractive package that is an high-tech product itself as you can even find on its back the unpacking instructions! Inside the box you can find the camera submergible case, the lithium battery, the usb cable and the helmet adhesive mount, let's see them in detail.
The battery pack is the same as the model 200 XTC, that is a 900mah battery which can last up to three hours recording, which in our case means about 90 2-minutes dives.
In opposition to the XTC 200 in the 280 box we cannot find neither the adapter for microSD’s nor the power adapter to recharge the battery through the sockets in our own house. However, both operations may be carried out with the supplied USB cable. A very negative aspect of this product is the absence of the goggle mount, replaced helmet one which is absolutely useless for our activity. Never mind, you can buy it separately, a small sacrifice for a high quality product you will be satisfied of.
In regards to video instead, the XTC 280 records in FULLHD with a 1920x1080 resolution at 30 fps and has a 130° degrees wide angle (not 110 as you can read in other sites), finally it is equipped with a 5.2Megapixel CCD sensor. So go through these technical terms in order to understand them better. The higher the wide-angle value is, the farther objects will appear in our films, as a consequence the lower that value is the closer the objects will appear. The main advantage for all spearos is that fishes will look bigger and closer in our spearfishing action films.
UNDERSTANDING THE TECHNICAL TERMS
The resolution is nothing more than the size of the rectangle in which the images are captured, in other words if you think the movie is a collection of many pictures taken in rapid sequence by the cam, the FullHD resolution makes each picture measuring 1920 pixels (points) width and 1080 pixels height. The advantage is that the greater the number of dots (pixels) is, the higher the sharpness of the image will be. An important contribution is provided by the number of "snapshots" taken per time unit (fps = frame per second), so the higher this value is, the better the quality of the output video will be.
The XTC 280 can also record in "low mode" with a 1280x720 resolution and 90° angle and in opposition to what happened with the XTC 200 both the LOW and the HIGH mode keeps the 16:9 format. Finally, the CCD is an integrated circuit whose task is to interpret and transform light into digital information. Its sensitivity is measured in megapixels and, in principle, the higher its value is, the better the image definition will be.
The functioning is basically identical to the previous models one, everything is driven by a single button and three LEDs (accompanied by a beep) help user to understand what is happenning. The mimetic variant called XTC 285 instead, only differs for the absence of sound signals . Find below some comparative examples of filming with the two cams this article is about and a summary of the technical features.
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IMERSION ESKWAD SAFE SPEARFISHING BUOY
Summer has finally arrived and our favourite off coast spearfishing spots are waiting for us to come. The lethargy is however also finished for those pirates who, equipped with anything able to float in the water, start to pass by at high speed. Why can’t we get ready to face all this?
Imersion is just presenting its latest product, the Eskwad buoy. Its exclusive design (which reminds a small dinghy) and its orange colour make it particularly visible in the water and turn it into an indispensable tool. Further to the increased visibility at sea, it is an essential support for our safety because it allows us to get our entire torso out of the water when we get tired. The "hull" in fact measures 65cm X 90cm (overall) while the area between the tubes housing our chest measures 30cm X 65cm. Despite its large size and the double 0.35 PVC covering, the weight is only 2.3kg, much less than other plastic models.
If you are worried about any friction that it might develop in the water then you need to pay attention to those specific devices designed to facilitate the navigation. First of all, the bow is raised and the hook for towing is fixed to a low point of the "hull" in order to avoid traction to lower the bow towards the waterline, creating friction. Furthermore the tubes were particularly shaped in order to get some sort of drop keels on the bottom. Finally some hard rubber mounts for spearguns have been placed upon the tubes in order to keep them out of the water and avoid the friction that they would create if submerged.
Between the tubes there is a pocket with double velcro closure to carry small items and close to the bow there is a large compartment in which anything useful can be placed and that will be held in place by a series of adjustable bands. Right there we also find two elastic loops for securing the flag, one on the right and one on the left hand side. Another aspect that might discourage the use of this type of buoys is the time that must be used for the inflation. Well, thanks to the included pump, in less than 3 minutes the "hull" is ready for navigation!
Here is a video demonstration of the air chambers positioning in the various compartments.
SIGALSUB SPEARFISHING ACCESSORIES: 2014 CATALOGUE CARBON SPEARGUNS, PULLEYS, CAMERA MOUNTS, ROLLER MUZZLE
Sigalsub, the famous italian spearfishing equipment manufacturer will officially present the 2014 catalogue at the MEDISHOW in Palermo this weekend. This new catalogue will features exciting products to make our passion a state of art, lets take a look at these wonders:
This kit represents an easy solution to make your own roller speargun and it is available in three versions: with stoppers in stainless steel, in anticorodal aluminium or in carbon. All of them can be ordered with simple pulleys, roller pulleys or pulleys with bearings.
The kit includes a complete roller muzzle, two stainless steel hooks for the bands, a ring to pass the line in and all the necessary screws. It also includes a step by step instruction booklet to help you out while assembling.
The new roller muzzle can be mounted on almost any speargun thanks to two adaptors. The standard one has a 26mm diameter (suitable for SEAC, PATHOS, SALVI, CRESSI, ETC) while the other one has a 25.4mm diameter (suitable for SEATEC and OMER). The muzzle is available in three versions with stoppers in stainless steel, in anticorodal aluminium or in carbon. The main body of the muzzle is made of plastic material and fibreglass to enhance its mechanical robustness. All of them can be ordered with simple pulleys, roller pulleys or pulleys with bearings. The muzzle weight is: 94gr (stoppers in stainless steel), 76gr (stoppers in aluminium), 72gr (stoppers in carbon) adaptor 13gr.
Pulleys are available in three models: Simple: diameter 26mm, throat 20mm, thickness 16.5mm, hole for the axe 6mm. They are made of black Delrin, a high mechanical performance and self-lubricating material. With roller: diameter 26mm, throat 20mm, thickness 16.5mm, hole for the axe 6mm. It is made of black delrin and the core roller is made of white pom. With bearings: diameter 26mm, throat 20mm, thickness 16.5mm, hole for the axe 6mm. It is made of black delrin and every single pulley has two bearings with pom balls (also available in stainless steel).
Mounts The sigalsub mounts for cameras with the well known A+B system today are suitable for any commercial speargun (both railgun or pneumatic) and can be ordered in three different versions: stainless steel, anticorodal aluminium or carbon. Among the several models available I would like to highlight the one for midland XTC cameras which allows you to exploit the side binaries rather than the lower mount (that as we know has some limitations during the shot).
Bands The success of the sigal extreme (violet ones) with 1mm inner hole led the Italian firm to introduce such a characteristic into the production of the brown reactive band (brown one). In other words both the models will only be available with 1mm inner hole. Furthermore both bands will also be available in the version with plastic threads.
Sigalsub will introduce three brand new release mechanisms called Jako, Easy and Smart and a very excellent carbon speargun. All its accessories will be 100% sigalsub, release mechanism, bands, roller muzzle and shaft.
The manufacturer informs that at least at the beginning it will be fully customizable (in terms of accessories) but mainly available on demand (20 days). So what are you waiting for? Visit the MEDISHOW and touch with your hands these great wonders by SIGALSUB!
105 CARBONTECH 3 BANDS BY GRANDA SUB
As the summer comes by, Granda presents a new speargun ideal for fishing our beloved snappers: The Carbontech 105 x 3.
It has a greater mass able to adequately support even the thrust of three 17.5mm bands. The standard set up includes a 80mt reel, a 140cm X 7.25mm finned shaft with tricuspid tip and three 16mm bands. This setting allows you to hit a target placed 6m away without affecting the precision and the side movement fluidity.
The gun is designed for the waiting technique even if its use is also suitable for the deep ambush and falling technique with big preys in average visibility conditions. Here are the measures: maximum height 38mm, half barrel height 34mm, muzzle height 32mm.
Find below the photos of this Croatian wonder:
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