Friday, February 19th, 2010

60p camcorders

Panasonic has introduced the world’s first camcorder to record 1080p @ 50/60 fps, the HDC-HS700 and HDC-TM700. These cameras have 3x CMOS sensors which record 1080p at 28mbps H.264 (VBR) and a 43mm f1.5 Leica Dicomar lens, giving the camera good lowlight capabilities. The HS700 has a built-in 240GB HDD and SDHC/XC slot, while the TM700 has 32GB built-in with the slot. The HS700 goes for US$1399 and the TM700 US$999.95 are will be available soon.

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Seatool releases housing for Panasonic DMC-GF1

Photos of Seatool’s tiny underwater housing for the Panasonic DMC-GF1 micro four thirds camera are now available on Seatool’s website. Head over to Seatool’s website (in Japanese) to see just how small a housed GF1 can be! A compact dome port complements the GF1 and is a perfect match for Panasonic’s 7-14mm wide-angle lens.

An active discussion is underway regarding the use of the GF1 (and micro four thirds cameras) in the forums. No word of when distributors in the USA might see this housing.

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Free ticket to the San Francisco Bay Area Dive Show 2010

The Bay Area Dive Show will be on April 30 and May 1, 2010, at the Santa Clara Convention Center about 45 minutes south of San Francisco, California.

If you act before Monday afternoon (Feb 22), you can get a free ticket to the exhibition floor (a $15 value) by providing your email address and mailing address. To get your free ticket, head on over to the Bay Area Dive Show website and click on the free ticket link.

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Wetpixel Alaska Expedition 2011 now open for booking

Join Eric Cheng and Alex Mustard in an underwater photography expedition to Alaska in June 11-23, 2011. We’ll be aboard the liveaboard dive vessel, the Nautilus Explorer, for 13 days of exploration between Sitka and Ketchikan.

Photographic subjects will likely include beautiful Alaskan topside scenery, kelp forests, white plume anemone forests, Steller’s sea lions, rockfish, anemones, crabs, shrimp, amphipods, ratfish, and much more. Reef walls are nearly 100% covered in bright orange, red and yellow invertebrates! I can’t wait to go back.

Click through for full details! (and be sure to check out the Wetpixel expeditions page for all of our trips)

Friday, February 19th, 2010

ReefNet’s May 2010 Indonesia documentation expedition

On the heels of ReefNet’s first public documentation expedition, marine life specialist and underwater videographer Kris Wilk leads a 16-day follow-up expedition to Indonesia’s Banda Sea this May. Participants will work as a team to intensively search for—and photograph—rare and undescribed marine species. Photos and videos contributed to ReefNet will be included in upcoming field guides jointly published by ReefNet & New World Publications (Humann & DeLoach).

Wetpixel is excited to co-sponsor this unique project: it’s a great opportunity to encounter new marine life, to learn from the experts, and to have your work published!

Keen photographers, videographers, and marine life enthusiasts of any experience level should check out the details. Space is limited!

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Sundive Underwater Photo Competition

With the annual Underwater Festival departing from Australia’s Byron Bay, local dive operator Sundive has picked up the slack and is this year hosting its first in-house photo shoot-out in May 2010. All underwater photo enthusiasts are invited to join in a week of great diving, great company, a little healthy competition and mostly heaps of fun.

With major prizes including a liveaboard trip with Rodney Fox Great White Shark Expeditions, dive gear and other dive trips, this is looking to be a great event for underwater photographers in the region.

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Repost: Review of Canon 7D / Aquatica underwater housing

Last month, we posted a news item highlighting Berkley White’s review of Aquatica’s underwater housing for the Canon 7D. We neglected to properly title the post, which made it look like we were simply pointing to another 7D review and not a full-blown review of the 7D as used in Aquatica’s Canon 7D housing.

If you are interested in reading about using the Canon 7D underwater in an Aquatica underwater housing (for both photo and video) click on over to Berkley’s comprehensive review.

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

On tiny dome ports: Seacam and Zen

Over the past couple of months, there has been quite a lot of activity in the forum discussing small dome ports. Seacam has released its 105mm Fisheye Macro port, and Zen, its 100mm dome (both about 4”, for the conversion challenged). Both little dome ports are perfect for fisheye lenses, although crop sensor SLR users have more flexibility due to the availability of the Tokina 10-17 fisheye zoom, one of the most popular underwater wide-angle lenses.

If you’ve felt limited by the large size of your wide-angle dome port, you’ll appreciate the discussion, which includes sample images and in-depth discussion of pros and cons. Discuss: [Seacam fisheye macro] [Zen 100mm]

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Video workshop at Sam’s Tours in Palau this coming April

Nick Martorano over at Ocean Wonders Productions has 3 spots left for his underwater video workshop in Palau this coming April 5-11, 2010. Nick is offering a $400 discount to anyone who signs up for one of the final spots.

The workshop is being hosted by Sam’s Tours in Palau, and is a great opportunity to learn underwater video techniques while getting in some fantastic diving. Nick is the resident video pro at Sam’s Tours, and is an internationally-known and multi-awarded High Definition cameraman, filmmaker and digital media producer, whose credits include National Geographic, “Survivor”, GEO, and others.

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Carol Grant wins Nature Conservancy’s 4th annual photo contest

Congratulations to Wetpixel member Carol Grant (seagrant), who won the grand prize in the Nature Conservancy’s 4th annual photo contest!

Grant’s stunning photo of endangered Florida manatees warming themselves at the Three Sisters Spring wintering site in Crystal River, Florida received the highest marks from the 19,000 supporters that logged onto our voting site to rank their favorite images.

See all the 2009 winners at the Nature Conservancy’s website.

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