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Our World Underwater 2009 Coverage

By Jason Heller, March 4, 2009 @ 07:00 PM (EST)

If you didn't catch our preliminary Our World Underwater intro coverage and international underwater photo & video competition announcements, including the film festival video presentations from both nights, you can do so here, and here.

Over 15,000 people braved the cold to attend the 39th annual Our World Underwater show in Chicago over the weekend of Feb 20th - 22nd.

Since Our World Underwater is the first large scale scuba diving show of the year, often we have a chance to get our hands on some of the new underwater photography & video equipment that we have been reporting on for the couple of months prior, and this year was no different.

The quiet calm of pre-show opening hours at the DivePhotoGuide booth

The not so quiet show floor as the doors open to the public

Before we get into the underwater photo & video goodies, take a minute to watch our quick video montage of day 2...

Aquatica had their Nikon D700, Nikon D90 and Canon5D Mk II Housings on display. Additionally, they are producing port ring adapters for Subal (new & old type ports), Sea&Sea, Seacam and even Light & Motion. What a smart move. This will make it easy for anyone to switch to Aquatica while still maintaining the port system that you used previously. Why did it take some long for the industry to do this? Will we see other manufacturers following suit? We shall see...

Keri Wilk (a field editor for DPG), took first place in the supermacro category in the 4th annual international competition. He did so using a macro adapter that was formally on display for the first time, called the SubSee Adapter, which is made by his company ReefNet.

Keri Wilk and his winning shot

Also on hand to pose next to his winning shot, Peter Riekstins (also a member of NYUPS
and part of the Beneath The Sea Photo Competition committee)

Ikelite always has a large booth with a stock pile of housings and strobes for people to try out. New at Our World Underwater was the WD4, a wide angle wet lens for the Canon G10 housing. Basically, the refraction of a flat port effectively narrows the coverage of the lens and the WD4 restores the 28mm range that the camera has on land. They also have released an affordable video light (for under $300), the Pro-V8. I'll take this time to note that Ikelite also has housings available for most of the popular new SLR's, including the Nikon D90 & D700 and the Canon 5D Mk II.

Light & Motion released two new affordable universal video housings, the FIT and the FIT Plus. Both fit dozens of popular video camera models. Both housings have electronic controls and a high resolution rear monitor. The FIT comes with only a standard flat port, while the FIT Plus has a wide angle zoom through optic port/lens, retractable color correcting filter, and other features.

Reef Photo, who always has something new to check out, had two goodies that I was eager to see. First was the Zen Underwater 8 1/2" glass dome port. This port can be used on Sea&Sea or Subal housings, with more adaptation for others to come, I'm sure. The glass is supposed to provide superior optical quality. It has an optical coating on the outside that allows water to sheet off and eliminates external reflections. I am eager to get this in the water!

Next is the new line of high-end point & shoot housings from FIX (apparently a division of Fisheye). They had a Canon G10 and Nikon P6000 housing on display. These are high quality aluminum housings, for high quality compact cameras - and speaking of compact, these housings are by far the smallest and most snug and convenient metal housings out there. The G10 is already on its way to becoming as popular as its predecessor the G9. This camera is perfect for the photographer looking to keep their profile streamlined but still shoot with a high quality system.

Another recent entrant into the market is Watershot Housings. Steve, formerly of INON America, was on hand and happy to publicly debut the housing for the Canon EOS 450D/XSi.

Although Equinox didn't have their own booth, their local dealer, Helix Camera, had a couple on display. These are really affordable universal-type housings, with limited manual controls. So if you're looking for a housing for your video camera but have been putting it off due to cost, you can nab one of these babies for under $1,000.

Seems like the economy is on everyone's mind, and Helix also had a special deal that almost seemed too good to be true. They were selling a Coolpix L18 camera, with a Fantasea housing, tray and arms, nano strobe, and the nano focus light, for under $500. This seems like a great entry level system.

Also in the entry level category, the relatively new SeaLife DC1000

Throughout the weekend attendees could sign up for workshops and seminars on underwater
photography, digital workflow and editing by Larry Tackett, Jack & Sue Drafahl, Danielle
Alary & Michel Gilbert, Jim & Pay Stayer, Annie Crawley and yours truly Jason Heller.

Larry & Denise Tackett stop y the DPG booth

Jonathan Bird drops by back stage during the film festival in response
to my updated Facebook status. Oh the wonderful connected world we live in

Sue Drafahl, Stan Waterman & Jim Strayer

Our good friend Peter Symes from X-Ray Mag, with his newest team member
Ken English in the background

Carlos Hiller paints an Orca scene, which he donated to Our World Underwater for their raffle

Carlos had commenced a piece for us during DEMA, and I was honored to finally
pick up the finished product. It will soon be hanging over the couch in my living room.

See the birth of this painting here.

Alberto from Dive Damai,a boutique live aboard in Indonesia.

A sneak peek back stage prior to the film festival

The film festival after party at the Hyatt Regency is always fun...

Pat & Sherry Hammer, the organizers and driving force behind Our World Underwater.

Rogest & Annie Crawley

Nancy Boucha & Michel Gilbert

Richie Kohler & Tracy. Richie prioving that deep divers get the chicks

All in all it was a great weekend, people came out despite the cold (as they always do for this show), and despite the odd economic times we live in, divers and underwater photographers still need their fix. These shows always give us a chance to catch up with industry friends who we may only see a few times a year at the shows, and maybe once in a while underwater somewhere. It was great to spend time with so many of our Chicago and Midwest readers (and really great to meet so many new faces!). Hopefully the next time we meet will literally be in our world underwater.

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