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which rig? (I am about to buy an SMS75 is this a mistake)
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Texasguy
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Based on reviews and amount of used katanas for sale shortly after they started to sell. I don't see that this model has became popular.
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ever dove one? I have a very open dislike of Hollis as a company, but it's been my primary sidemount rig since a prototype was sent to me a few years ago. It works shockingly well and better than any Dive Rite system I've dove, including the LS. I say that as someone who very much likes Dive Rite and if they came out with one that worked as well, I'd buy one in a heart beat.
Texasguy
Contributor
Nope, the amount of lukewarm reviews has turned me away from it to LS. After SMS100 I was careful not to buy another Hollis without much research.
bamafan
Contributor
Hollis really has issues. They are currently pushing a new can light that is 1200 lumens as the last light you will have to buy. The light is manufactured by Light Monkey so I am sure it is okay but there are other better performing lights out there for less than 1/2 what they are charging. It seemed to me they only cared about meeting a sub $1000 price point and nothing else. For anyone to advertise their light as essentially bulletproof is in my opinion bad marketing in the long run. It seems to me that they don't really invent anything they just copy something and shoot for a price point with little care given to the actual quality of their products. I will never buy another Hollis product.
I don’t know about any other Hollis products, but I know a number of people who dive the SMS75 locally who have no issues with it and really like it.
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I haven't actually bought anything from them. I did raise a lot of questions about that light though. They claimed that it was the most durable light on the market period. I simply asked them what made it more durable than the LM lights that they clearly copied and their only response was "go dive it, but we don't have any demo lights, so you have to go to your dealer and buy one". I laughed....
my Katana is one of the final prototypes though, so unsure what has been done in production since then.
Diver-Drex
Contributor
I can only speak to the SMS100 that the instructor and two other students in my SM class were in. The shop pushed the 100 as their preferred rig and pushed that I get one, I had already purchased a DR LTZ. During the class the instructor, a full trimix level instructor, struggled for two days to help the other students get squared away. With a little help from the inter web I was comfortably enjoying my LTZ.
While this may be more of a reflection on the instructor and the shop, I was left with a bad impression of the SMS100.
That said there are also some things about the DR rigs that are unusual. The ring bungees in particular. My bottles sit low. This weekend I spent some time with some very good cave divers. Compared to what I saw my cylinders are not up in my armpits. My valves are just under my nipple line and the valves are nose down a little. I don’t see that as an issue as the higher bottles seemed like they would interfere with arm movement and would be uncomfortable for me.
The LTZ may not be text book but it works for me. In a whole bunch of boat dives I have come to value being clipped in to the ring bungee.
While this may be more of a reflection on the instructor and the shop, I was left with a bad impression of the SMS100.
That said there are also some things about the DR rigs that are unusual. The ring bungees in particular. My bottles sit low. This weekend I spent some time with some very good cave divers. Compared to what I saw my cylinders are not up in my armpits. My valves are just under my nipple line and the valves are nose down a little. I don’t see that as an issue as the higher bottles seemed like they would interfere with arm movement and would be uncomfortable for me.
The LTZ may not be text book but it works for me. In a whole bunch of boat dives I have come to value being clipped in to the ring bungee.
Teknadv3x
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