DEMA 2009, Days 3-4: Page 3 of 4 (page controls at bottom of this post)

Ultima Digital #1078

Peter Lorber showed off the booth, which featured huge prints from a housed Hasselblad H3D II camera and camera back. The Hasselblad camera housing cast from aluminum and CNC machined, featuring a 200 ft depth rating. It is 6.4Kg topside without the camera, and is slightly positive underwater. Ultima has a single 9.25” optical glass dome, which accomodates 35/50/80mm wide lenses, and also has diopter/correction lenses to match underwater lens FOV to topside FOV. A strange aluminum port cover blocks the parts of the dome port that are not useful to a given lens. This is an interesting way to fight flare, but it does require that a port cover actually touch the dome, which some folks may not be comfortable with (within the dozens that might be interested in a Hasselblad housing to begin with).

The housing features access to everything on the camera except for program mode, and is priced at $12,800 for the housing alone.

SeaLife #761

As always, the SeaLife booth was constructed for a large amount of DEMA attendee traffic. Director of Sales Joseph Ifi was showcasing the DC1000, the current top-of-the-line SeaLife camera and associated strobes and accessories.

SeaBotix #2004

Jeff Conger had one of the more interesting jobs at DEMA this year: letting people play with and drive the SeaBotix mini-rover “LBV” or Little Benthic Vehicle tethered ROV. The rover was deployed in the DEMA scuba demo pool, while participants were trying out gear. A nearby booth displayed information on configuring additional control and sensor packages for the LBV family including video, scanning and multibeam sonar, and various grabber and claw attachments. No word yet on whether the guest operators got carried away with the claws on any of the divers…

HydroAcoustics Inc #2112

Tim Bibens of HydroAcoustics was on hand to discuss their Proteus 500 ROV. While above the range of the ‘casual’ videographer, the Proteus is a battery-powered, small-tether mobile ROV that can be controlled by a single operator. It is fitted with one camera in a tilt mount and can be fitted with up to three additional fixed cameras, for up to four lights total, and achieves nearly 1.6 kts out of its 13 lb thrust propellers, all in a package weight less than 70 lbs above water.

Intova SnapSights #1569

For the casual underwater crowd, Intova has a new “Snapsights” underwater camera, where the camera electronics is directly mounted in a polycarbonate shell, ensuring a slim design. This housing package ships with batteries and memory pre-installed (but can be upgraded with larger memory cards) and are currently available in a 1.5 MP version without flash and a newer 3 MP version with flash. Intova’s products can generally be found for sale in the resort and vacation market.

Tektite Tekna Moray Sartek #2433

The Tektite booth was crowded with lighting products, from Tektite’s own line to a new “Powered by Tektite” selection built to specification for Trevor Theriault of Moray Dive Gear. The Powered- lights incorporate a rattle into a flash for the Diver’s Communication Torch or DCT. Sharing booth space with them was Carl Saieva of Sartek Industries, which (with the help of some machining from Tektite) constructs a range of powerful LED video lights and fittings that can be used on housing mounts or with cannister batteries.