what do you think of the ranger by zeagle, looking at it as my first and last?
Nothing wrong with the Ranger IF that is what you need in a BC. It is tough, dependable and will last a long time. That said, most people do not need 44lbs of lift or the double thick bladder or the heavy duty harness unless you are diving cold water with large tanks. It's a poor choice as a travel BC being over 9 lbs dry and it takes up a lot of room in a suit case. With todays weight and luggage restrictions, that makes it very undesireable for travel use.
Forget the BS about owning only 1 BC, it's not really pratical for most divers if they travel and their diving ranges widely. I dive everything from 90 deg water with just a swim suit to 50 deg water in a dry suit, sure I could press a BC like the Ranger (and did for several years) into doing all those dives but bottom line is, it is not optimal to do so.
If you dive large tanks in cold water, the Ranger is a good choice. If you intend to dive in cold and warm water, something in the mid range is a better choice and if you just dive warm water then a ligher BC is in order. If you go from one extreme to the other, the best option is 2 BCs, one optimized at each end of the specturm and use the one best suited to the dive for the ones on the middle.......and NO one BP/wing will not do it all either for the same reasons that any other BC will not do it all.
Is there much difference between the 24" and 35" bladder in terms of size, comfort and packing away for travel?
I'll mainly dive in warm waters, I'm 170cm tall and weigh 70kg.
I can't choose between the two bladders. I think I read somewhere that you'll notice a big difference for the better, with diving a smaller bladder.
The difference is not huge but if you do not need the larger bladder why buy it? Every gram (ounce) counts in air travel and every mm (inch) of extra material creates unneeded drag and waste energy. In warm water, properly weighted you should need very little lift. Remember it is a buoyancy COMPENSATAOR, not a hold up a bunch of extra weight and other unneeded crap compensator. The buoyancy shift during the dive is all that you need to compensate for. With no wetsuit that amount is just the air used from your tank or about 1.8kg (4 lbs) for a standard 80 cf tank, so even a 11kg (25 lb) bladder is way more than you need. The BC does need to be able to keep your gear afloat if you intergrated the weights into the BC but in warm water there is no reason you should need 11 kg of weight....I don't use that much in a dry suit.