The black
silicone skirt is
very supple. The
Scope is made to
collapse virtually
flat for packing, or
to fit into a dive-
pocket as a back-up
mask. There’s the usual
double seal and nose-pocket.
The strap supplied is a ski-
goggles type and it’s slackened or tightened
by pulling on sliders on the strap itself, rather
than by adjusting buckles. A loop is built in for
your snorkel.In Use
The soft silicone, which is what allows the
mask to collapse for storage, is extremely
supple and makes for a very comfortable fit.
It also makes for a great seal. I tested the
Scope with two weeks’ beard growth to see
how well it would seal over a moustache and,
despite the fuzz and wrinkles, it never leaked.
When I completely flooded it on purpose,However, the Mono actually has an excellent
field of view out to the sides. Downward vision
is also very good, which can help you to locate
sternum-strap buckles or see to connect or
disconnect a drysuit direct-feed.
The Scope is a frameless design, meaning
that the glass is inset directly into the front of
the mask-skirt, not locked into place with a
metal or polycarbonate band. This reduces
weight a little.adds to the quality feel, and the big plastic top-
plate is well-profiled, so when it’s closed the lip
to pull it open is very tight.
This means that you’re not likely to catch it
and open the housing by accident. I struggled
to open it at all in gloves, which is good.
The latch closes with a satisfyingly tight snap,
also good, and the camera lens is very well
shielded by the port. Even when provoked with
edge lighting I got no flare, which is an issue
with some action cameras I’ve used.
There are four metal buttons on the housing,
covering the same buttons on the camera itself.
The front button is on/off, the top buttonI liked that, it’s
lo-tec, useful
and works.
Also in the
box are two
batteries and
a charging
cradle. Genius!
I’ve always had
to buy a
second battery
whenever I’ve
bought a new
digital camera
so that I could
have one
battery in the
camera and
other charging
ready for the next dive,
but Akaso has recognised
this and included the extra battery in the box.
Claimed battery-life is 90 minutes, which
measures about right, though the screen does
switch off after a pre-set period to conserve
battery life as the camera keeps on recording.
This is disconcerting the first time it happens.
The charging unit is as tiny as the batteries,
and you’ll need a USB plug to use it. Akaso
doesn’t supply one, but you do get the cable to
connect the charging unit to the plug you find.
I used my phone-charger, as you probably will.
Popping open the housing reveals that the
over-centre latch uses some metal parts, whichdivEr 72 divErNEt.com
ACTION CAMERAS ARE A DARN GOOD
THING. They’re small, lightweight, inexpensive
and the quality of the images and movie
footage they produce can be surprisingly
good, though I believe that watching some of
that footage might constitute a cruel and
unusual punishment under the terms of the
Geneva Convention.
That aside, I was recently sent an Akaso
EK7000 Pro 4K for review. Akaso was a new
name to me, but a quick online search revealed
its claim to be one of the world’s leading action
camera producers, with sales of more than half
a million units annually.
It also demonstrated that the one
characteristic its cameras share is affordability.
The EK7000, for example, will cost you less than
a day’s diving.The Design
Open the box and you find the camera with a
30m-rated housing, plus the usual assortment
of mounts and sticky pads that you can use to
attach the camera to pretty much anything.
The actual mounting system is the well-nigh
universal GoPro-style clip-in foot on the
housing, or open skeleton housing, that slides
into a shoe you’ve previously attached
wherever you want it.
Thoughtfully, the housing foot has a neat
rubber bung attached. This can be pushed into
the forks of the mount to prevent the camera
being dislodged from the shoe by accident.DIVER TESTS
ACTION CAMERA
AKASO EK7000 PRO
TESTER 8 Steve Warren
PRICE 8 £60
LENS 8 Mono
COLOURS 8 Strap/skirt black, blue, red, yellow.
CONTACT 8 zeagle.com
DIVER GUIDE★★★★★★★★★★SPECS
I found that I could fully clear it hands-free. It’s
easy to pinch or block your nose while wearing
5mm coldwater gloves, as I was. The Scope’s
strap was also easy to adjust under water.
For photographers, the low volume means
that this mask will work well with any decent
viewfinder. The opaque skirt should block
extraneous light coming in from the sides.
When worn by a model, there’s good eye
contact and the lens doesn’t throw a green tint
across the face either.Conclusion
A really nice mask – extremely comfortable and
a great field of view. Highly recommended. ■