DEMA show 2010: Coverage
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Day 2 booth visits. More visits with suppliers and discussions about new products.
Day 2 Wetpixel/DivePhotoGuide Cocktail Party. Let’s get this party started.
Day 2 Special Report on the KISS GEM Rebreather
Day 3 booth visits and anti-shark finning protest
Slideshow of people and places at DEMA
DEMA 2010 Wrap-up
The Image Resource Center was once again a successful way to bring the underwater photography and videography community together in a dedicated section of the DEMA show. The profusion of new equipment was striking, and it was good to get our hands on gear that we had only seen through press releases, but had yet to have the chance to play with in person.
A couple of themes emerged as we covered the show floor. The first is the rise of mirrorless cameras. A variety of manufacturers are now supporting micro 4/3 cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, and additional companies have expressed interest in this platform. A number of housing makers who had previously only supported SLRs, quickly jumped on board with the exciting Sony NEX-5, released just a few short months ago. It looks like mirrorless is here to stay, and with good reason. As airlines continue to tighten restrictions on checked baggage, the advantages of smaller cameras and housings are obvious. Mirrorless cameras offer significant size reductions without sacrificing too much in terms of performance and image quality, and the housings made for them are not much larger than those made for high-end compact cameras. This will be an interesting segment of the market to watch in 2011.
Another trend is the amount of companies now offering video lighting. With the explosion of DSLR video in the last couple of years, and the incredible efficiencies afforded by LED technology, the lighting market has become just too attractive to resist. A huge number of companies showed LED video lights, and there were some very appealing options for both professionals and enthusiasts. An equivalent lighting system that would have required surface supplied power and been astronomically expensive just a few years ago, can now be had for under $5000 in a compact form factor with integrated power, no cabling required. These are certainly exciting times to be shooting video.
Finally, it is striking to observe just how quickly products are being brought to market. It used to be that photographers would need to wait the better part of a year for the release of a housing after the launch of a camera. Today, that wait has been reduced to a few short months. Underwater photographers looking to house exciting cameras shipped in the second half of 2010 such as the Sony NEX-5, Canon S95 and G12, and Nikon D7000 had several options to choose from. The speed at which the industry is now moving is quite impressive.
We had a fantastic time covering DEMA 2010, and would like to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us, show us new products and grant us interviews. We’d also like to thank all of our readers for the kind words of encouragement. We had a great time compiling this coverage, even when it took us late into the night, and your feedback really kept us going. We had big shoes to fill since Eric was busy leading Wetpixel Expeditions in Indonesia, but hopefully we lived up to the challenge. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year in Orlando.