Sunday, February 5th, 2006

X-Ray Magazine Issue #9 available for download

Our friends over at X-Ray Magazine have released issue #9, which is available for download (free!) in PDF format. As usual, you can download either the entire magazine or individual sections separately. I highly recommend the download; as usual, the issue is filled with fantastic underwater images.

Issue #9 blurb: “FOCUS: PHILIPPINES: Dumaguate - Ligpo Island - Malapascua - Dauin - Profile: Phil Nyutten :: Guadalupe Sharks :: Worlds Deepest Wreck Dive :: Portfolio: Ray Troll : Valentines Gifts :: The First Frogmen, part 2 :: Nova Scotia :: Photography and Travelling”

Saturday, February 4th, 2006

The Stress Relief Button

Travel is a very stressful adventure for the underwater photographer. Many of the world’s best dive locations are remote, situated far from mankind’s influence. The lack of civilisation that makes these spots so desirable environmentally also ensures that there is not a handy camera shop on the corner waiting to fix any problems.

Our worries get a lot worse when we start to take pictures. Before shooting digital, I spent almost 20 years exposing film underwater, and whenever I was away I would have no real idea how I was doing. Certainly experience reassures us we are doing fine, but we can only remember what it looked like through the viewfinder and hope that our black box of mechanics and electronics is working properly…

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

Aquatica bundles Henrichs Weikamp iTTL converters

Aquatica is making available on all of its housings the Heinrichs Weikamp ittl converter. This small unobtrusive adaptor connects discretely inside the housing between the bulkhead and hot shoe adaptor allowing full ittl capability with many different strobes. Although it is currently incorporating the converter into only its Nikon-base housings, it will soon add this board to its Canon line as well. Aquatica will also retrofit this board into all of their older housings on request.

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006

UnderwaterPhotography.com announces contest winners

UnderwaterPhotography.com has announced the winners of its 2005 photo contest. Winners include Wetpixel members Rand McMeins, Luiz Rocha, Todd Mintz, Karl Dietz, Mr. Stratoudakis, and more. Congratulations! Head over there to check them all out.

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Deep Sea 3D to debut on March 3rd

Los Angeles, California, January 23, 2006—Dive in beginning March 3rd when Deep Sea 3D debuts at select IMAX, IMAX 3D and IMAX Dome theatres. Through the magic of IMAX 3D technology, audiences will be transported below the ocean surface to swim with some of the planet’s most unique, dangerous and colorful creatures, from the unusual Wolf Eel to the Giant Pacific Octopus.

Deep Sea 3D brings moviegoers face to face with these underwater inhabitants to witness their peculiar and amazing behavior as they rely on one another for survival. It is directed by world-renowned underwater cinematographer, Howard Hall, produced by Toni Myers and Michele Hall, executive produced by Graeme Ferguson and narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, with an original score by Danny Elfman…

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Wetpixel Google Toolbar Buttons

I’ve just created Wetpixel custom search buttons for the new version of the Google Toolbar. The buttons will allow you to access and search Wetpixel and the Wetpixel forums with a single click of your mouse! Eventually, one of the buttons will also read Wetpixel’s RSS feed, which will always show you the last articles posted on the front page. The new version of Google Toolbar is Windows/IE-only, but should trickle to Firefox soon.

Install now: [wetpixel main] [wetpixel forums]

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Nature’s Best Exhibit at the Smithsonian

Eric Cheng (that’s me!) has posted photos of the Nature’s Best Awards exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Many of the images shown at the exhibit are incredible, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the DC area and enjoy wildlife photography. [exhibit photos] [contest win announcement]

Monday, January 30th, 2006

Sea & Sea 350D Impressions and Photos

Jonas Vannar gives us his impressions of the Sea & Sea underwater housing for the Canon 350D/Digital Rebel XT (complete with detailed photos of the housing).

The first thing I noted was how easy it was to handle it underwater. The shutter was extremely smooth and it was very easy to feel when you had depressed the shutter release halfway down. The *button (AELock) was easily depressed simultaneously with the shutter…

Monday, January 30th, 2006

Wetpixel.com/DPG Photo Contest deadline

We’re just a few days away from the deadline for Wetpixel.com and DivePhotoGuide.com’s 2006 International Photo Competition! Compete for trips to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Socorros, Galapagos, Bora Bora, Solomon Islands, Palau, and the Bahamas, dive and photo and dive gear from Aquatica, Fantasea, Ikelite, Epoque, Nocturnal Lights, MCD, Ultralight, Backscatter, and Underwater Photo-Tech, and dive-related media from ScubaCore, Wyland, Takako Uno and Stephen Wong, Scott Tuason, Fathoms Magazine, Ocean Realm Journal, Dive Chronicles, and TheUnderwaterPhotographer.com.

Winners will be announced on stage at the 2006 Our World-Underwater festival in Chicago, Illinois (February 24-26, 2006). February 3rd is a hard deadline, so get your entries submitted!

Monday, January 30th, 2006

Boot 2006 Show Report

Here is a brief summary and a few pictures from the Boot Show 2006 in Düsseldorf Germany. It’s worth noting that all the metal housing builders will support two new exciting cameras: the Canon EOS 5D and the Nikon D200. Seacam, Sealux, Subal and UK-GERMANY have 5D housings on display. Subal was the only one to have at least a preview version of its future Nikon D200 housing. Two new strobe housings for the Canon 580EX have been introduced by Patima and Sealux. Mike-Dive (Michael Finger) presented a creative Olympus C7070 / Patima housing setup, including external monitor. UK-GERMANY introduced a new medium format housing for the digital Hasselblad D1H with 22 Megapixels. Subtronic’s recently announced interchangeable battery system was displayed as well. This is just a brief overview with pictures. There is a lot more to see on the Boot 2006 show floor.

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