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Our World Underwater 2010 Show Coverage
By Matt J. Weiss, February 23, 2010 @ 01:51 PM (EST)
This year The Our World Underwater SCUBA diving show in Chicago was celebrating it's 40th aniversary and DPG was there to celebrate it with them.
OWU is a special show for us because we, together with our friends at Wetpixel, host the annual Our World Underwater international underwater photography & video competition, now in its 5th year.
Because of this, our booth is more of a gallery, displaying this years set of winning images. If you missed our coverage of the winning images, check it out as they are truly stunning.
OWU is a special show for us because we, together with our friends at Wetpixel, host the annual Our World Underwater international underwater photography & video competition, now in its 5th year.
Because of this, our booth is more of a gallery, displaying this years set of winning images. If you missed our coverage of the winning images, check it out as they are truly stunning.
Visitors were able walk through a display of the winning prints an drool over this amazing collection of underwater photography. We drew the crowds for our 5' o'clock DPG special -- free hits on Keri Wilk who placed 6 times in the contest.
Keri next to three of his winning images
There was more at the show than just the DPG booth so I took some time to cruise the floor in order to provide the DPG faithful with some show coverage.
The show drew in a pretty big crowd. the aisles were crowded and there was a constant flow of people buying tickets.
The show drew in a pretty big crowd. the aisles were crowded and there was a constant flow of people buying tickets.
The first thing I did was book it for the underwater photography and videography booths.
We heard news of a new SeaLife camera, the DC1200, which added piano keys and a new lever for better ergonomics. The easy set-up mode, which I thought was one of the top underwater photography innovations of 2009, will be included in the DC1200 and most likely future SeaLife models as well.
We heard news of a new SeaLife camera, the DC1200, which added piano keys and a new lever for better ergonomics. The easy set-up mode, which I thought was one of the top underwater photography innovations of 2009, will be included in the DC1200 and most likely future SeaLife models as well.
The SeaLife DC1200 - Not the lever in the upper left for easier menu scrolling
The DC1200 will be an excellent choice for a first foray into underwater photography. Jason went over to the SeaLife booth to shoot some video of the new camera and give DPG readers a first look at the SeaLife DC1200.
Across the way from SeaLife were the Ikelite, Equinox and Fantasea booths but not much was new since DEMA. All three of these companies make nice products for beginner photographers, or less expensive alternatives for higher end stuff.
Equinox video housing booths
The perpetually busy Ikelite booth
My next stop was to the Olympus booth to check out the new E-PL1 and PT-EP01. This will be the first mainstream housing for a Micro-Four Thirds camera and the first for the PEN series. The housing is very compact and looks solid, but it would really benefit from a external third party dome port, since Olympus will not be making their own. Grumblings amongst the halls indicated that there will be at least one of these third party dome ports.
At the other end of the show floor were a few more underwater photo and video booths. Reef Photo and Video and Backscatter always have bunch of underwater photo and video goodies.
Nauticam continues to be a hot product and both the Backscatter and Reef Photo Video booths had the new Canon 7D Nauticam housing on display. The housing is fairly similar to the rest of the Nauticam line-up but now has piano keys of the right side of the housing for super ergonomics, since the Nauticam was already one of the most ergonomic housings out.
Nauticam NA-7D with piano keys - do I smell a 2010 trend?
The ReefPhoto video booth had the Nauticam NA-7D housing set up with the Inon "insect eye" lens with the Saga port for extreme macro wide angle shots. Sad story -- the Inon insect eye is really only compatible with the Canon 60mm, sorry Nikon users.
Jean from Aquatica was at the Backscatter booth showing off the Aquatica Canon 7D housing. The Aquatica 7D housing is everything you would expect from an Aquatica housing -- the compact size is very appealing and the ergonomics are top notch.
Light and Motion had a booth with a new prototype of the Sola light, which I think will be popular when released. The colors look slick!
On my way from booth to booth I ran into the some familiar faces, sometimes in some weird places
Keri inside the inflatable life size humpback whale
Our friends from Sunset House had a booth
Is a dive show really a dive show if it doesn't have the giant Wakatobi balloon?
A great show all in all, I look forward to next year. Enjoy the video summary of DPG at Our World Underwater 2010. Also check out our complete coverage of the Film Festival
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