News

Text & Photos by Keri Wilk

Editor's Note: Although DivePhotoGuide and Wetpixel were the organizers of the joint competition last year at Scuba Show, due to timing and other projects, this year DPG didn't have a booth at Scuba Show, so we had the newest member of ouir extended team, Keri Wilk from ReefNet, cover the event for us. We will be back at the show in 2009.

While exhibiting at Scuba Show 2008, I was able to excuse myself from the ReefNet booth long enough to check out the new underwater photography and video gear being showcased. The convention center was full – we were sandwiched between an amazing car show and a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was tempted to walk around with a stack of pamphlets, trying to recruit some of the JW’s into the brotherhood of underwater photographers, but then figured that probably wasn’t the best idea. Joking aside, this year’s show had record breaking attendance and brought together hundreds of familiar faces in the industry. If all of the great exhibits and new gear weren’t enough to keep you busy, there was also a constant video show setup playing impressive short pieces all day long. Here are some of the highlights of the show:

Nancy and Ran Vered from Fantasea Line show off a pair of new housings for the Canon PowerShot SD1100 and Nikon Coolpix S600. These should be released within the month, and include one year of D.E.P.P. flood insurance (like all Fantasea housings).

Also new from Fantasea is their 4-set of Nano lights (Nano Torch, Nano Focus Light, Nano Spotter, and Nano LED Pro Set). Each light is designed for a specific purpose, but the LED Pro Set is an excellent all-purpose light. As you can see above, the 8 LED 3-Watt light beam is very clean and crisp.

Mike Luzansky, from H2O Photo Pros proudly displayed the mouth-watering Gates housing for the Sony EX1 full HD camcorder. H2O Photo Pros recently opened a new store in Newport Beach, CA and has become a major player in the high end photo & video housing market.

Jean Bruneau from Aquatica was happy to show off their Nikon D3 and Canon 1DS mark III housings. All of Aqautica’s 2008 housings/ports have wider bores to accommodate larger lenses (like Nikon’s 14-24mm). They’ve also incorporated a port locking mechanism on their new housings, which prevents unwanted port rotation.

Aquatica’s Bouyancy Compensating Float (BCF) can be mounted on your system in various ways to help neutralize your setup underwater.

Ultralight Control Systems were displaying their new 2” diameter buoyancy arms. These offer 2.5X more lift than their previous buoyancy arms. Pictured is a 10” arm which gives 8oz of buoyancy underwater.

Jolene and Steve Philbrook from INON showed me the latest revisions to the popular D-2000 and Z-240 strobes. They’ve replaced the halogen modeling light with a powerful 3 watt LED, greatly reducing power consumption. Also, pictured is a neoprene sleeve which provides protection and buoyancy to the strobe.

Jim Decker from Backscatter showed me the optional 3.5” active matrix color Monitorback on their Top Dawg video housings.

Additionally, Jim explained that the Top Dawg housing now uses Sony’s 10-pin AV cable to control camera functions, which is available on all Sony cameras. This means that as long as your Sony video camera will fit in the housing, it can be controlled.

Dan Emerson from Light & Motion overlooked the new SR12 and HC9. Infrared thumb controls make using these housings a breeze. These should begin shipping very shortly.

Ikelite has started producing housings for many “ultra-compact” digital cameras (pictured is a Nikon Coolpix L18). This should further open the underwater photography door to ‘joe divers’ that don’t want to dish out 6 months salary on a DSLR housing package.

An enthusiastic Jim Lee from Olympus gave a sneak peek of the new E-520 DSLR scheduled to be released in July. They also plan on releasing the PT-E05 housing, specifically designed for the E-520.

Underwater videopgrapher Walter Marti came by to show off his huge custom made external monitor for his Amphibico housing. You can probably see what he’s filming from Google Earth…nice work!

Ryan Canon from Reef Photo & Video had several new products to show off. Here are a few of them:

 Fathom Imaging's 90 degree wide angle lens for Light & Motion/Ikelite video housings. It has optically coated glass with partial zoom through ability, and is nitrogen purged/vacuum sealed to eliminate internal fogging.

Fisheye’s new 3 inch .23MP external monitor is available for all popular video housings. This uses the same high resolution LCD screen found on popular Sony camcorders. The gap has been filled that was left by Light & Motion when they discontinued production of their compact external monitor.

Athena’s new port for the Nikon 105mm VR lens. This port is 7oz lighter than it’s Sea & Sea counterpart, and includes a 67mm threaded front, allowing screw-on wet diopters to be used for super macro photography.

Seatool’s extremely compact Olympus E3 housing. It is available with Inon’s 45degree or straight magnifying viewfinders, optical fiber connectors supporting Inon S-TTL, and port converters for Olympus, Subal, Nexus, Aquatica, Inon and Sea & Sea NX Ports.

It was a great show, and I can’t wait for next year’s…any reason to go to California. Come check it out next year if you’re in the area!