I thought that it would be worthwhile and appropriate for those of us who recently had a chance to use the F1 at the Telegraph cove expedition to comment for the benefit of other freedivers. I think 6 of us or so used the production F1 for the first time on this trip. I had the opportunity to use the computer on a 9 hour dive day and have a tutorial with it's creator on some of the finer details at the end of the session.
Ok, first off the display is crazy good. Even in direct sunlight at the end of a dive to evaluate this thing is nicely readable. It doesn't get washed out like every other computer. The deeper and darker your environment, the brighter this thing seems to get. I know my d3 in dark places becomes difficult to read, this is not the case with the F1.
Also, the display is a widescreen format (16:9 like). I am not sure if this was done on purpose, but it is kind of cool. For those of you that are electronic freaks and can't stand to even look at a display of any kind unless it 16:9, this feature of the F1 will turn you on.
The size of the unit is nicely compact, more so than I thought when seeing pictures before.
No buttons when in dive mode, which means so fussing around or screwing things up when out at sea.
Lithium ion rechargeable of some kind, which according to E. Fattah it will last as long as the user. This is really nice because you don't have the option of destroying your computer when you replace a battery and jack the seal up like on other units.
When adjusting settings with the buttons attached, it is surprisingly easy and simple to use, in spite of the complex data sets that await you in the brain of this thing.
About the data. The basic stuff, depth and time is big and bold staring right at you when you need it. There is a lot more data that can be evaluated like ascent, descent rates, temp, etc. This kind of info will be a tantalizing feast for those wanting to evaluate diving performance and peak their abilities. I didn't have time to assess or fully appreciate this info in the day that I used the computer. I was also quite occupied slaying the denizens of the deep as well. I will mention one other thing on the display though, pointed out to me be E. Fattah. On the side of the display is a graphical bar depicting the ascent or descent rate. This bar can be easily glanced at mid dive to give the user a sense of their progress. For example, if I had known it was there it may have helped me when I had a downdraft current pushing me down and had me wondering if I was making any progress in reaching the surface.
At the end of dives the profiles can be evaluated, including a graphical depiction of the whole dive in a depth/time format.
The software is supposedly flexible in that in the future there may be particular or custom features added to accommodate the needs of the user. This leaves the functions of the F1 with even more potential down the road.
One thing that I would like to see in the software would be date and time added to the dive logs, which would help when going back to old dives to reference them easier.
A downside to the computer is that it costs some decent coin. I guess you get what you pay for though. It is definitely the top dog of freedive computers. I plan on getting one when my finances permit.
Thanks to Eric Fattah for designing the F1 and for generously allowing all of us on the trip to demo it.
Lee Brewerton
Ok, first off the display is crazy good. Even in direct sunlight at the end of a dive to evaluate this thing is nicely readable. It doesn't get washed out like every other computer. The deeper and darker your environment, the brighter this thing seems to get. I know my d3 in dark places becomes difficult to read, this is not the case with the F1.
Also, the display is a widescreen format (16:9 like). I am not sure if this was done on purpose, but it is kind of cool. For those of you that are electronic freaks and can't stand to even look at a display of any kind unless it 16:9, this feature of the F1 will turn you on.
The size of the unit is nicely compact, more so than I thought when seeing pictures before.
No buttons when in dive mode, which means so fussing around or screwing things up when out at sea.
Lithium ion rechargeable of some kind, which according to E. Fattah it will last as long as the user. This is really nice because you don't have the option of destroying your computer when you replace a battery and jack the seal up like on other units.
When adjusting settings with the buttons attached, it is surprisingly easy and simple to use, in spite of the complex data sets that await you in the brain of this thing.
About the data. The basic stuff, depth and time is big and bold staring right at you when you need it. There is a lot more data that can be evaluated like ascent, descent rates, temp, etc. This kind of info will be a tantalizing feast for those wanting to evaluate diving performance and peak their abilities. I didn't have time to assess or fully appreciate this info in the day that I used the computer. I was also quite occupied slaying the denizens of the deep as well. I will mention one other thing on the display though, pointed out to me be E. Fattah. On the side of the display is a graphical bar depicting the ascent or descent rate. This bar can be easily glanced at mid dive to give the user a sense of their progress. For example, if I had known it was there it may have helped me when I had a downdraft current pushing me down and had me wondering if I was making any progress in reaching the surface.
At the end of dives the profiles can be evaluated, including a graphical depiction of the whole dive in a depth/time format.
The software is supposedly flexible in that in the future there may be particular or custom features added to accommodate the needs of the user. This leaves the functions of the F1 with even more potential down the road.
One thing that I would like to see in the software would be date and time added to the dive logs, which would help when going back to old dives to reference them easier.
A downside to the computer is that it costs some decent coin. I guess you get what you pay for though. It is definitely the top dog of freedive computers. I plan on getting one when my finances permit.
Thanks to Eric Fattah for designing the F1 and for generously allowing all of us on the trip to demo it.
Lee Brewerton