Aquatica will make an underwater housing for the Canon 1Ds Mark III
We’ve received semi-official news that Aquatica has plans to make an underwater housing for the Canon 1D/1Ds Mark III. That is all.
Articles
Texas Dive Show Photo Events
The Texas Dive Show will be Jan 26 & 27 at the JW Marriott 5150 Westheimer Houston, Texas 77056. While not as large as in years past, there will still be some great events of interest to photographers including seminars: Focus on Sharks by Stan Waterman, The Macro World of Indonesia by Stan Waterman, Shark Sex, Eel Madness & Gay Turtles by Stan Waterman, and Intro To Digital Photography by Fred Dion. There will also be a print photo gallery by the Houston Underwater Photographic Society. As part of the Seaspace legacy, there will be a silent auction benefiting the SEASPACE Scholarship Fund.
Wetpixel down all morning
Wetpixel is back online after being down all morning. There was massive database key corruption; we’re nearly done running repairs. The forums will be very slow until the repair completes, so please be patient!
Berkley White tests Nikon D300 / Sea & Sea on sailfish
Berkley White has just returned from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, where he tested the Nikon D300 and Sea & Sea MDX-D300 underwater housing on sailfish and baitballs. Talk about a tough subject for a camera / housing test! I’ll skip to the summary here, but you should click over just to see the fantastic imagery:
In my humble opinion, the Nikon D300 offers the most significant advance in underwater digital photography since the Nikon D100. It’s beyond instant digital feedback and produces images on par and argubably better than results I’ve ever achieved with 35mm film. When considered at ISO 400, the results are clearly better than scanned slide film. The Sea & Sea MDX-D300 housing might not be perfected in highend ergonomics, but it is clearly a professional level housing at a great price…
Anti-whaling activists restrained, released by Japanese whaling vessel
After an Australian court issued an injunction to stop whaling in the country’s Antarctic whale sanctuary, two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) members boarded the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 to deliver a letter of the news. Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane were tied to a mast for some time and then held on board, but were released back to the Australian government this morning.
Both sides have traded barbs in the media, with the Japanese government denying that the men were restrained and alleging that the group had thrown bottles of acid at the whaling vessel, and the SSCS stating that the men were assaulted and that the Japanese boats are illegally poaching the whales. There’s an active discussion in the forums on the methods used by both sides - do you think the situation was handled appropriately?
LaCie Little Disk - 40GB, size of a (large) lighter
LaCie has announced the “Little Disk,” a small 30GB or 40GB USB 2.0 hard disk that measures 2.64x1.69x.67 in. / 67x43 x17 mm and weights 85g / 3oz. The unit uses 1.3” drives and has a captive USB cable for convenience.
I like my FW800 portable drives, but I’m starting to think about downsizing because of the recently-announced rules from the FAA about transporting Lithium batteries. A pair of Little Disks might be the perfect way to keep your photos backed up during dive trips to faraway places.
Stephen Frink tests the Canon 14mm II
Photographer and Wetpixel member Stephen Frink borrowed a copy of the new 14mm II from Canon Professional Services to examine both topside and underwater performance and compare against the other popular wide angle lenses: the 16-35 II and 15mm fisheye.
Frink finds that “the new Canon 14mm II is much, much better than the original 14mm lens…and offers better corner performance than the 16-35 II.” Continue reading for the full review, which looks at angle of view and corner sharpness, chromatic aberration and flare resistance, and depth-of-field considerations for the new high-ISO cameras, and is complete with sample images…
Wetpixel expeditions in 2008 and 2009
Hello, divers! Here’s a list of the photography expeditions we have planned so far in 2008 and 2009. We’ve got a busy year coming up…
Feb 02-10, 2008 Socorro and Revillagigedos Islands (SOLD OUT)
Mar 10-18, 2008 Bahamas sharks (SOLD OUT)
May 09-18 2008 Bahamas oceanic white-tips (SOLD OUT)
May 20-28 2008 Bahamas sharks and dolphins (SOLD OUT)
Jun 06-14 2008 Bonaire Digital Shootout
Jun/Jul 2008 South Africa ocean safari (tentative)
Jul 19-27 2008 Bahamas sharks and dolphins
Sep 03-17 2008 Manta Fest 2008, Yap, Micronesia
Mar/Apr 2009 Ultimate Indonesia
Hope you can join us on at least one of them!
Wetpixel Bahamas Sharks and Dolphins, July 19-27, 2008
Come photograph sharks and dolphins in the Bahamas with Wetpixel and award-winning photographer Alex Mustard aboard the M/V Shearwater! We managed to secure this exiting charter only after someone else canceled (they are hard to get). Expedition dates are July 19-27, 2008.
July is a fantastic time for both tiger sharks and dolphins (bottlenose and Atlantic spotted). We’ll definitely see tiger sharks, lemon sharks, and reef sharks, and will have a good chance of encounters with dolphins.
Our World-Underwater photo and video contest deadline tomorrow
Final reminder: the deadline for image and video submissions for the 3rd Annual Wetpixel and DivePhotoGuide International Photo & Video Competition (Our World-Underwater 2008) is tomorrow at 11:59pm Pacific time. We look forward to seeing your entries!
While you are getting your entries for OWU 2008 in, be sure to be thinking about what you would like to enter in DEEP Indonesia 2008, whose deadline is one month later, on February 15.