Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Improvements on Ikelite strobes

Ikelite has recently announced the new DS51 to replace their popular DS50:

The Ikelite DS51 Substrobe replaces the DS50, which has been a favorite of underwater photographers the world over. In addition to incorporating all the same great features of the DS50, the DS51 provides a Manual Exposure Mode with six (6) manual power settings in one-half f-stop increments for precise illumination of subjects underwater.

In addition, their DS125 now comes with a NIMH battery pack, yielding an extra 100 full power flashes per charge. That’s excellent news!

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition

The deadline to the 2006 San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition is approaching. Films must be submited before August 15th. Each film must be no more than 5 minutes long, with at least 50% of the footage taken underwater. The exhibition is scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings, October 20 & 21, 2006 at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. Here is your chance to see your work in a large-format, state-of-the art, digital theater, and to share your adventures with others. Please visit the SDUFEX website to sign up and get more information.

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

Amphibico Phenom HDV Housing Review

It is quite possible that I have spent more time under the water with this housing than anybody in any other ocean! I was one of the first in Australia to receive my HDV housing back in 2005. Since then I have filmed subjects from tiny Nudibranchs right up to massive Manta Rays and Whale Sharks for professional documentary TV crews including the BBC and National Geographic. Even though the housing is a ‘lump’ on land, once in the water it is well balanced and easy to use. The housing (like most new products) had a few annoying problems (such as slight vignetting), however I am happy to report that Amphibico listened to their customers concerns and applied themselves to come up with solutions. The result of this committment is a wonderful underwater housing.

Click here for the full review.

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

Wanted: Images of Seahorses from Papua New Guinea

A new research project has just commenced in Papua New Guinea that is investigating seahorse diversity and distribution throughout the waters of PNG. This project is specially examining the species of seahorses that are found in PNG waters as there has been no research conducted on the species diversity and their distribution.

The project is being conducted by the Motupore Island Research Centre (MIRC) and they are now seeking assistance from scuba divers. MIRC is seeking assistance from divers that have visited Papua New Guinea in the past or plan to in the near future. MIRC requests any sighting information of seahorses and in particular any photos that divers have taken of seahorses in Papua New Guinea waters. If you have any information or photos that can be used please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

If you want further information, click here to download a PDF article about it.

Monday, July 10th, 2006

UWP Magazine 31 Available

Issue 31 of Underwater Photography Magazine (UWP) has just been published. As usual there is plenty of input from Wetpixel members, including a review of the Sea & Sea D200 by JP Trenque (frogmansub), a review of the Olympus E330 in 10 Bar housing by Jeff Mullins (reefwalker) and article on “Getting the blues” by me (Alex_Mustard), a final frame article by Tim Priest (Tim_Priest) and a report on the recent UWP Red Sea Workshop with images from Ralph Mortimore (Ralphy), Paul Carre (PRC), Timo Ahomaki (timoma) and Anders Petersen (apete). UWP Magazine is a free PDF magazine, published every two months.

Friday, July 7th, 2006

Nikon Releases Trial Version of Capture NX Software

Nikon has today made available a trial version of its all new image workflow software,Capture NX. According to Nikon:

Professional and advanced photographers will appreciate the time they can save using U Point technology to make edits to their images, as well as fully utilize over 25 new tools in the software, including powerful batch processing capabilities, advanced color management features, Distortion Correction enhancement and the ability to make every edit non-destructively (when a JPEG, TIFF or NEF image is saved in NEF format).

The 30 day trial version of Capture NX software is available for download at http://www.nikonusa.com, in the Software Download section. The software is expected to be available for purchase in July at an estimated selling price of $149.95. A special limited-time upgrade price of $89.95 will be offered to current owners of Nikon Capture 4 software in the U.S. market.

Friday, July 7th, 2006

Guadalupe great white shark expedition, August 25-30, 2006

Great White Adventures (GWA), acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Norbert Wu, and Wetpixel editor Eric Cheng have announce a second trip for great white sharks in August 2006. Due to overwhelming demand for Norbert Wu and Eric Cheng’s GWA trip from August 18-25, 2006 (sold out), Norb and Eric will be joining Great White Adventures as guests and informal presenters during a second GWA 5-day trip to see great white sharks at Guadalupe Island, Mexico. The trip dates are August 25 to August 30, 2006. Trip cost for the five day trip is $2895.00. The trip will be aboard the Solmar V, a 112’ luxury vessel that comfortably holds 22 divers when full, but the trip will be limited to a maximum of 16 divers.

For a description of the 7-day trip that is sold out—but is similar to this new trip except that it is a 5-day trip—see the Wetpixel Guadalupe Expedition page.

For more information and to reserve a space, contact Great White Adventures directly at:

Great White Adventures (875A Island Drive #338, Alameda, CA 94502) | 510-814-8256
web: http://www.greatwhiteadventures.com/ | email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

Canon EOS 5D and EOS-1D II N firmware updates

Canon has today released new firmware for the EOS 5D and EOS-1D Mark II N digital SLRs. The EOS 5D firmware corrects communication errors between the 5D and EOS Capture after a certain number of shots; allows the use of E-TTL flash metering mode using the ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter in conjunction with the 580EX Speedlite; and ‘enhances’ direct printing to two Canon PIXMA Pro printers. The EOS-1D Mark II N firmware update includes only the direct printing improvement with no other bug fixes.

Canon EOS 5D firmware update

Canon EOS-1D Mark II N firmware update

Tuesday, July 4th, 2006

Hugyfot introduces new viewfinder

Wetpixel member Udo van Dongen has received photos of a new 45 degrees viewfinder from Hugyfot. The viewfinder is similar to that offered by Inon and can be rotated 360 degrees. Check out the discussion about the viewfinder with more photos in the forums area.

Friday, June 30th, 2006

Brad and Susan Brown to give seminar at NCUPS

The Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) next July 14 will host a seminar with award-winning underwater photographers and NCUPS members, Brad and Susan Brown of MontereyDiving.com. Brad and Susan have won many First Place Awards in international photography contests including the Malaysian Underwater Photo Festival, the Asian Diver Shootout, the Monterey Shootout and the Monterey Beach Dive Photo Competition and have had their above and below water shots published in Sunset, Skin Diver and Asian Diver Magazines. Avid underwater photographers and videographers, they have extensively traveled the world to exotic destinations including Honduras, Malaysia, Indonesia, Fiji, Hawaii, Mexico, and countless California coastal destinations in order to hone their craft.

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