DEMA 2009, Day 2: Page 5 of 5 (page controls at bottom of this post)

XIT 404, LLC #977

XIT 404 is a new company by Mike and Jody Elliot, started to provide ergonomic accessories for underwater photographers. They produce larger control knobs, tripods, fiber optic sync accessories, and much more. Because it is a custom design shop, you never know what new products they have up their sleeves. Best of all Jody and Mike are fun to chat with about new product ideas; if you want something built, get in touch with them!

Their camera and video accessories are distributed exclusively by Backscatter, but their dive products (like improved dive slates and pencils) are available to dive shops and other distributors.

UltraLight Control Systems #661

The success of UltraLight Control Systems comes not only from the ubiquitousness of their products, but also from their constant innovation and variation on an accepted design. New for this year’s DEMA was the TR-V video tray, designed to support flip-out LCD camcorder housings for the Canon WP-VI and Epoque and Patima Sanyo Xacti housings. The tray has an integrated tripod socket, converts to a double handle tray, and has versatile mounting slots to allow mounting of smaller SLR housings if desired.

ULCS is also happy to introduce a new adapter for the Ikelite Pro-V8 LED video light, now with a longer extension to move the light farther above the top of the housing (if in use as a focus light).

X-Ray Magazine #1071

X-Ray, an excellent (and free) online magazine oriented towards diving and underwater photography was promoting a new underwater/diving related discount card Underwater Card. Underwater Card retails for $30, but offers over 300 dive discounts in Australia and Asia (pays for itself after the first trip!), and discounts up to 50% for a variety of books, DVDs, T-shirts, and more.

X-Ray is proud to announce an upgraded website and is always searching for diverse, new content to feature in the publication, and people to act as sales representatives and interns to help expand North American coverage.

Pelican #1635

There aren’t too many divers who haven’t heard of Pelican’s waterproof equipment cases for camera and other gear, and their booth this year was staffed by Nora Wainwright, Director of Diving Products. A recent development is that the ‘standby’ underwater photographer’s size case, the Pelican 1650, is now 6 pounds lighter thanks to new plastic formulations (the acquisition of Stormcase may have been a contributing factor, as well). They are also introducing the 1170, a new smaller case size, alongside water and impact-resistant cases for CF and SD memory cards. Perhaps less well known to divers is Pelican’s Nemo series of dive lights, including the new Nemo 2410 which takes four AA batteries and emits 85 lumens.

Liquid Image #462

Kent and Melanie Pearson at Liquid Image introduced their new “Scuba Series” of digital camera masks this year, launching the HD320. The mask takes AAA batteries, comes with a 2 GB microSD card, and can use either a standard or larger silicone skirt to fit a wide range of faces. It shoots 720p video and stills at the flick of a switch. Unlike earlier offerings, which were primarily intended for snorkeling depths, this series of masks is rated to 35m (115ft) depths for diving applications.

Princeton Tec #1733

Kalen Pascal at the Princeton Tec booth discussed new initiatives for 2009, including the ‘Island Pack’ of two dive lights and a tank marker for the retailer, and the “Dive Pink” initiative. The Dive Pink package contains three of the most commonly purchased dive lights in a new pink color, and a portion of the sales proceeds goes towards breast cancer research.

Seashell (Zear Corporation Limited) #568

Seashell is a new entrant to the underwater housing market, but their generic housing is reputed to accommodate over 500 compact camera models. Utilizing a semi-contoured design, the Seashell housing provides two button actions (power and shutter) and ships with multiple rubber spacing blocks to be placed inside and conform to the exact dimensions of the compact camera (Intova style and similarly sized) in use. Expected to retail around $130, the housing should be very convenient for the casual vacation shooter - generic, inexpensive housing that works with over 500 compact camera models - configurable cushions for customized housing placement

The Manta Network #367

The Executive Director of The Manta Network - a nonprofit, global species conservancy effort - has spun off a side operation named Ocean Presence Technologies (OPT). OPT is producing the OceanCam OPT-10, the world’s first underwater-housed, 720p HD, remotely pan-tilt-zoomable internet camera. The unit can be placed on the ocean floor to monitor a wide area and uploads H.264-compressed 30 fps video. A portion of the proceeds received from selling these emplacements is fed directly back to The Manta Network. Interested parties are invited to register at http://www.oceanpresence.net/ to receive updates as additional live feed webcams are placed in various locations around the world’s oceans.

Still reading? Come to our party on Friday night!