DEMA 2008: Ultima Digital, Housings for Hasselblad
It's not often that new companies enter the underwater photography market with products that are very unique, so I gravitated immediately to the Ultima Digital booth. The new Hungarian based company is focusing exclusively on developing a housing package for the Hasselblad H3D. The housing will be sold as a package, including a dome port for the 28 and 80 mm lenses and a macro port for the 120mm lens. The package will be about $7,500 - a mere drop in the bucket and quite surprising, compared to the price of a Hasselblad H3 and digital back.
I have seen a two photographers shooting underwater with Hasselblads over the years (I think Subal used to make Hasselblad housings). However, we assume that majority of Hasselblads taken underwater would be by fashion photographers shooting in pools. The additional quality of the Hasselblad medium format has made it the choice of commercial photographers worldwide, but I wonder how many will end up underwater. We'll apparently soon find out.
The Ultima Digital with the 120mm macro port resembles some sort of mortar launcher. The ball heads on the handles are not the standard size, nor does the housing currently accommodate strobe connections. However, since they are all custom made orders, they can easily add a shoe connection for any type of underwater of studio strobes that may be attached to this unit.
