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Editor's Note: This is the second day's coverage of the three day Beneath the Sea expo. You can also view the opening night's coverage and from the last day.
Well folks, our Beneath the Sea coverage began yesterday with a preview of some of the booths and activities, but we have saved the stuff you have been waiting for, for today- underwater photo/video gear.
Amidst the sea of people swimming through the narrow booth aisles at the expo, I managed to circulate all of the photo/video booths on the floor, searching for the coolest new gear. My first stop was at the Equinox housing booth, where I found the new housing for the Canon 5D mark II.



After spending some time with the Equinox guys, I moved on to my good friend Jean Bruneau at the Aquatica booth, who had a few new product designs to flaunt as well. One of the new designs includes changes in the base locking system inside the AD7000 housing –a housing the subject of a DPG review by Keri Wilk- as well as a newly machined macro port.



In addition to the already released equipment on display at the Aquatica booth, Jean has informed me of a pole cam in the design process, as well as a new focus light, which will max out at 800 lumens.
Packed into the crowd like sardines in a can, I was able to swim my way over to the Backscatter booth. While displaying the same set of equipment as at Our World Underwater a month earlier (the coverage can be found here), the booth was still packed, as divers checked out the coolest gear- including an enormous housing for the Panasonic AG 3D-A1!


The next booth on my list was Ikelite’s, which had their new housing for the entry-level Canon DSLR, T3i, on display. Although this model includes all of the features that have made Ikelite successful, including the polycarbonate material and integrated TTL, the company had used the new housing to introduce a new set of tray/handles.

Another popular booth was that of Olympus, which focused its display on its four recently released products and housings for the Stylus To ugh 610, Tough 810, XZ-1, and EPL2 (Pen 2). The tough 610 is a 14MP tough, compact camera ($299) that is shockproof, and waterproof (16ft), and will also shoot 720 HD video, displayed on its 3 inch LCD.


Other booths included Ultralight, which in addition to its usual array of arms and tray systems, had on display its new mount for the GoPro camera.


One of my favorite new gadgets at the show was the new tripod introduced by XIT 404, on display at both their table and at Backscatter’s. The new tripod includes common features like machined aluminum, but is perhaps most unique by its “twist clamp,” which unlike most control systems only requires a single twist to loosen or tighten the clamp.


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