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Underwater photography accessories were numerous at DEMA 2009. It seems as if every accessory company is making their own arm system and wet lenses. I think the influx of wet lenses has to do with the fact that we are seeing compact cameras rise in popularity as more advanced models come out, especially the Canon G-series. DSLR's have more adapters and accessories than ever as well. One of the highlights for us were  he unique  accessories from a wide range of brands this year at the Reef Photo and Video booth. It was enough to make you feel like a kid in a candy shop.

Fantasea

Fantasea again had a booth packed with accessories, most noteably, their line of Bigeye wet lenses, especially the wide-angle air lens. The Bigeye wide angle has various thread sizes and can attach onto Canon’s housing for the G10/G11 cameras.

The showcased item (although not new) was the Remora strobe, which Fujifilm announced just before DEMA that it would be using as part of their new underwater package. The Remora strobe is designed for point and shoot cameras and features adjustable power output and short recycle time. A cool feature of the Remora is that has a built in Y-S mount for attaching a focus light, something you don’t often see in strobes for compact cameras.

Fantasea’s Howard Rosenstein was very excited about their new 9-watt LED light that has 6 functions including a SOS signal. It also features a sensor set-off so you can use it to focus, but it will automatically shut off when it senses a flash.

BS Kinetics

BS Kinetics is known for their unique line of carbon fiber. underwater photo and video housings and accessories. Carbon fiber is very lightweight, making it attractive to the gear laden underwater photographer. They were displaying some unique accessories at DEMA. as well Bodo Sutterer was at the booth and told me that customers were indicating to them they wanted more TTL options, so that was part of BS Kinetics' focus this year.

One product was a Heinrichs-based TTL flash converter. The converter can accommodate two flashes and is compabtile with Canon, Nikon and Olympus cameras when using Sea & Sea, Inon, Subtronic or Ikelite strobes (these are just the ones that have been tested, it may work with other models as well).

Another option they were showcasing in response to the demand for more TTL options was a housing for the Metz 58-AF-1 flash, which offers TTL capabilities for Olympus, Nikon, Sony and Canon cameras. You can use the same flash with all the different models by just using a different hot shoe for connecting to the camera.

Dyron

The French accessory company Dyron visited DEMA for the first time. They were showcasing their full line of accessories including strobe arms, lenses, lights, trays, filters and viewfinders.

New to their lineup of products were a new set of carbon-fiber arms that have a smaller diameter than previous arms.

i-Divesite

A company at the photo pavilion that I was not very familiar with was i-Divesite, which had some interesting accessories. Kelvin Lee showed us his line of UAL air lenses. The wet lenses fit the housing with 24 mm, somewhat odd shaped, threads. This fits the Sony point and shoot housings as well as the popular Canon G10 and Canon G11 housings. Providing the Canon G11 with a wide angle lens seems to be a priority for many accessory manufactures. They also have an array of other wet lenses with 67mm thread sizes

They also had a lightweight aluminum arm system that comes in different lengths.

Reefnet

ReefNet was back in attendance and once again their featured product was the SubSee Magnifier, which debuted last year. The SubSea has in fact seen an upgrade since last year. This year the SubSee is much larger, with a 52mm diameter, multi-element lens and 67mm mounting thread. There are two options, a +5 or +10 diopter, both with anti-reflective coatings on all surfaces.

Reef Photo & Video

A product that was at last years DEMA but is still creating a lot of buzz was the Micro Semi Fisheye Lens. Known as the “Insect Eye” the very long endoscope like lens can focus right up to the end of the port and shoot 1:1 macro images with a 130 degree field of view. This obviously can create very interesting images, which will be unlike anything else.

The lens was mounted on an Inon housing for the Canon 50D/40D. Strobes can also be mounted onto the lens in a number of ways. The problem with the lens is that it is very difficult to get a hold of in the US, and I have seen very few images shot with it. Jason should have his hands on one soon, so stay tuned.

Another problem is connecting the lens to housings other than the INON. The Spanish company Saga realized this issue and made a port adapter that can be used for the Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens that fits onto Subal, Sea & Sea and Seacam housings. The port allows you to use the lens with the Canon or Nikon 60mm lens on any of those mainstream housings, but only limited testing has been done to date.

Saga also created an innovative telescoping universal macro port. The flat port can be threaded out to be used for various lenses. In other words, you can adjust the length of the port to fit either a 60mm, 60mm +diopter, 100mm or 105mm + lens. The port also fits Sea & Sea, Subal and Seacam housings. Both ports are prototypes and have not been fully tested.

Also at the Reef Photo booth were three new high quality dome ports made by ZEN. They had three dome ports on display, a 230mm, 200mm and 100mm. The dome ports are all AR coated on the inside.