Books by Jack Jackson are rarely out of the SCUBA Travel Bestseller list: two of them appeared in our 2003 round up! We talked to Jack and asked him about these two books, and other aspects of his work.

The Dive Atlas of the World and the earlier Top Dive Sites of the World seem to cover similar ground. How does someone choose between the two?

"The Dive Atlas covers more areas but is also more expensive so I think price would be the deciding factor."

A feature of Jack's books is his excellent photography. He told us that as long as the current is not too strong, on every dive he carries 2 Subal housings for Nikon F90x, one with a 55 mm micro lens and macro port and the other with a 14 mm rectilinear lens and dedicated wide-angle port. The Nikon 55 mm micro is sharper than the newer 60 mm lens. If very large animals are possible he also carries a Nikonos V camera with 15 mm lens. On night dives he might use a Nikonos V with 2 8mm lens plus close up lens and a home-made 2-sided framer. He uses a single wide-angle flash with the wide angle lens and 2 flash guns, one set for twice as much output than the other for macro. Flash guns are either Subtronic 3000 pro, Sea + Sea 300, Sea + Sea 350 pro, Sea + Sea YS-30 or one of 2 Nikon SB-24's in a Subal flash Housing.

For strong currents he has 2 Nikonos V and one Nikonos 3 cameras. For land he also uses medium format Bronica.

In the 30 years Jack Jackson has been diving he has noticed many changes including:

"The jacket style BC, the more safety-conscious (ie shallower) depth limits on air (continental divers considered 70 m and Brits 50m as normal in the 1970s). Nitrox and recreational technical diving"

"Also we did not have to consider terrorism for our destinations, I have dived at many places in the Southern Philippines that could not be considered at present."

Along with Sudan, Philippines is his favourite diving destination. One place he hasn't dived but would like to is at the recent find of Great Whites off Mexico (Guadalupe Island).

Jack Jackson has written many different types of books: dive guides, coffee table books, travel books, photography guides, etc. The two he most enjoyed writing were the Off Road 4-Wheel Drive Book and Scuba Diving - the essential guide to equipment and techniques. The latter book has proved popular due to easy reading and has just been updated and expanded for release at the end of the year.

"The main thing about these two books is that I did not have to do any research, the knowledge was already in my head from lots of practical experience."

Most of Jack Jackson's books are available from Amazon, including:

Top Dive Sites of the World
Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Scuba Diving - the essential guide to equipment and techniques
Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Buy from Amazon.com

Off Road 4-Wheel Drive Book
Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Buy from Amazon.com