The diving mask is one of the most personal items of your diving team and that most affect your comfort during the dive, being able to ruin your dive if the mask is constantly fog up, flood or do not allow you to see clearly around you. As we have already commented in other articles about diving masks, there are a number of features we have to check to know if a diving mask is good for us ir not and will feel comfortable during all the dive. At the end of this article you have some tips on how to try on your mask that will help you not to make mistakes when buying the next one.
The following diving masks have been tested by the team in different dives and all of them passed the test with good results, considering aspects such as overall comfort, quality of its adjusts, sealing, robustness, design, field of view or inner air volume.
Single window masks
Aqualung Reveal X1
Un aspect that stands out of the Aqualung Reveal X1 is its silicone skirt, soft and pleasant, able to adapt to faces of very different sizes and shapes. It has a very good field of view although it is possible that some divers feel somewhat annoying the fact that you can see the frame, especially being a single window mask. One of its strengths are the buckles of the mask, very easy and quick to adjust, with a large adjustment button and very easy to find during the dive. This mask also stands out for its look, aggressive, attractive and striking, available in black, yellow and orange colors. It can be found online and in specialized stores for about USD 89.
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Beuchat Maxlux S
This mask is one of single window masks that had better overall comfort, achieved thanks to its extra flexible silicone skirt that allowed little water into the mask during the tests and it was simple and fast to clear the mask. Its horizontal field of view is a bit narrow, and the adjustments of the strap are somewhat complicated to use if you dive with gloves. Still, a great diving mask at a very reasonable price, around USD 51.
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Mares Juno
If your face fits well into the Mares Juno mask, you will find a very good quality mask on it. It is comfortable, lightweight, with great buckles adjustments and easy to manipulate under water, soft skirts, large field of vertical view, both up and down… but it is a big mask that, if you have narrow face, it may not fit perfectly and it probably will get filled. As we always recommend, you can order it online and try it gt home or go to a store that has it to check if it fits your face. Another mask with a super competitive price, around USD 60.
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OMS Tattoo
OMS is perhaps a not very well known brand among recreational divers, and less so in the segment of diving masks, but they make high products. The OMS Tatoo is an exceptional mask, with an excellent field of view, perfect sealing and is amazing how easy it is to equalize with it. It has a minimum inner volume to be a single crystal diving mask. Both the strap and buckles are very easy to use underwater and comes in two sizes, small and large, to adapt to different types of faces. Indeed, being better than your competitors also means a higher price, USD 75.
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| Amazon | Simply Scuba | House of Scuba |
Scubapro Steel Pro
This is a great diving and apnea mask. Super hydrodynamic, has a small size so is perfect for travelling and fits smaller faces. It has very little inner volume, which ensures a wide field of view and fast clearing in case of filling with water. The adjustments of the buckles allow to tightening and releasing quickly thanks to some funny rotating buckles. Good mask with a but, its silicone skirt maybe not as comfortable and thin as other competitors. Its price is in line with the rest of the great masks of this review: excellent, between USD 80 and USD 90.
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| Leisure Pro | Amazon | House of Scuba |
TUSA M1003 Freedom Elite
The Tusa M1003 Freedom Elite is a curious diving mask, outstanding in several aspects but that can leave you feeling cold in others. On the one hand, it fits the face like a glove thanks to its silicone skirt of different thicknesses. It is super flexible and the TUSA team has added a series of slits and dots that make it stick to areas of the face more prone to filling. Although it fits well to the narrower faces is a large mask, with great inner volume and the field of view is reduced a little. This fact means that, if water fills in, it could be a little bit more complicated to clear it. A very good mask if it fits properly and you have a big face, but it can be very uncomfortable if it does not fit.
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Zeagle Scope Mono
This is the mask of the single window segment with the best field of view, and that in a diving mask is a huge pro point. It is super easy to clear underwater, its adjustment is extraordinary, also very easy to perform underwater. Zeagle has included the option of incorporating an adjustable size buckle through an elastic strap, providing a simple and accurate adjustment. It is an optimal mask for slightly wider faces and with a breakthrough aesthetic. An excellent mask with a high price, close to USD 100, but very well invested.
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| Leisure Pro | Amazon | House of Scuba |
Two window diving masks
Aqualung Reveal X2
These Aqualung two-window masks are also exceptional for diving trips due to its lightness, comfort, low inner volume and its wide field of view. Very interesting is its skirt, with an accordion shape near the face, for a perfect fit and seal. The adjustment and misalignment provided by the buckles is comfortable, fast and easy to use even while diving. Little more to add to an excellent diving mask at a great price, around USD 89.
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Cressi Calibro
The Cressi Calibro diving mask has a very special feature compared to the rest of the masks in this review: it has been designed with the objective to avoid fogging. At all costs. So if you never get rid of the annoying fog of your diving masks, not even following our advices, this mask can be a good option because it has a slight extension of the skirt of the mask under the eyes that prevents humid air from touching the glass of the mask and thus preventing fogging. This mask fits perfect for small faces, also having a small inner air volume and some standard Cressi adjustments, with an online price of around USD 50.
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Mares Sealhouette
If what you are looking for is a really small diving mask and one of the best masks of the year, here you have it. The Mares Sealhouette mask is super tight, with an excellent field of view and a maximum seal, although if you have a wider face or nose doesn’t even try this mask on, it is possible that the frame of the mask will hurt you. The buttons on the buckle are small, rubber, but easily accessible. A perfect mask for small faces that freediving fans will find very interesting. It is available in many colors, with a very reasonable price, between USD 55 and USD 60.
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Oceanic OceanVu
Oceanic mask with crystals of good size but, curiously and thanks to its good fit, super comfortable despite its large size. This mask provides a wide field of view and an extremely small inner volume, so clear it is simple. A remarkable feature is the skirt of the mask on the forehead, which fits perfectly, thanks to a super thin silicone preventing the entry of water while diving. It has a retail price of about USD 100.
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| Leisure Pro | Amazon | House of Scuba |
Scubapro Zoom Evo
This mask has a very strong point in its favor: you can order and change yourself, very simply, the windows of the mask if you need prescription lenses. Believe me, there are not many diving masks that allow this kind of customization. It is a comfortable mask, fits perfectly in the face, is simple to clear and has a large field of view. If you are tired of diving with contact lenses, the Scubapro Zoom Evo mask can be a great option from USD 80.
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TUSA M-211 Freedom One
The TUSA diving mask has an amazing design create for you to feel like you have no mask on due to its great comfort and tightness. Its surprising design along the entire skirt, super thin, where they have placed small hollows both on the cheekbones and in the forehead makes it stick to the face like a stamp. It has a soft and pleasant touch to the face and can certainly be one of those options that will make you completely forget about your underwater mask. It has also a very competitive price of around USD 80.
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What do you have to check when buying a diving mask?
There are several aspects that you have to take into account when trying on a diving mask so that you feel comfortable with it underwater. First, it has to be easy and fast to clear when filled with water. Precisely so that we do not get water in during the dive, it is vital that it has a good seal both on the forehead and on the cheekbones. So, the thinner the silicone skirt of our mask, the better.
Other important aspects are that it does not squeeze and hurt you the bridge of the nose when you press the mask it against the face. Both the strap and the buckles have to be strong and durable, but at the same time flexible, easy to put on and find during the dive. There are divers who usually forget to perform the Valsalva maneuver with the mask on when they are trying on the mask in the store before buying it. If you can’t pinch your nose correctly with your mask, you will have many problems underwater.
A circumstance to which we also pay little attention when we try on a diving mask is our field of view. We have to check specially if it is easy see well downwards. Why? Because that way we can see our gauge, accessories and even the diving computer while diving.
What are the benefits of single window diving masks?
The masks of a single window provide a greater field of view as they are bigger and have the frame farther from the eyes, which avoids the feeling of porthole or tunnel view that double window masks could give. They are also preferred by divers with the wider face to feel more comfortable with them, less tight, as two-window masks are super compact and not suitable for those with bigger faces.
Another benefit provided by these masks is that as the crystals are not separated, you will not have the blind spot that the two-window masks have over the nose. On the other hand, they have a little more inner volume compared to double window masks and are somewhat more cumbersome to clear for this same reason.
In which aspects are the two-window masks better than single window diving masks?
Two-window diving masks are becoming more common and are gaining popularity among divers, mainly because as are more compact, they fit better on the face, especially small faces, preventing them from flooding. Those who have smallest faces have found in the two-window masks the solution to those problems of flooded mask.
Another benefit is that they are very comfortable for diving trips or snorkeling, as they need little space on your bag, being also great as a backup mask in our jacket. There are many divers who also consider that these masks provide a greater field of view than the single window masks by having less inner volume and the crystals are closer to the eyes.
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