Splash into the world of underwater digital photography at the third annual underwater Digital Shootout in Fiji, May 6 - 15th, 2004! Far beyond a standard photo safari, the Digital Shootout is an in-depth learning experience. Meet fellow beginner and advanced shooters and rub elbows with our team of professional photographers and industry experts for a week long program that includes free digital demo gear with professional assistance and critiques, and hands-on workshops. Experts from Adobe will empower you with the essential skills of Photoshop image control and premiere video editing.

Wetpixel is proud to annouce our involvement in this year's event. We'll be giving a seminar on digital underwater photography, and will be doing a daily webcast of shootout events.

For more information, check out theshootout.org.

PRESS RELEASE: News in underwater photography this week is the announcement of the winners of the UnderwaterPhotography.com photo contest 2003. This annual contest is the longest running online digital photo contest, and gives underwater photographers a forum to show their work and gain recognition, and encouragement, from their peers. Underwater photographers from 50 countries entered digital images online in several categories: topside, over/under, macro, wrecks, natural light, fantasy, divers, and marine life. An international panel of judges has chosen the top three entries in each category entered during the previous year and awarded them gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively. This year a new award has been created – World Champion. This award goes to the underwater photographer who has entered the most consistent portfolio over the year.

The winners will be announced on UnderwaterPhotography.com's website at 12am EST on the 31 st January 2004.

Wetpixel member Peter Schulz got to test the new Ikelite circuitry which translates the camera's TTL metering system signal from an Olympus 5050 or 5060 and sends it to an Ikelite digital Substrobe. Peter dove with an Ikelite 5050 housing with the prototype conversion circuit installed.  To quote Peter:

"The results were outstanding. For the first time ever I got perfect lighting under almost every imaginable condition e.g. shooting under reefs, against the sand, against the sky, with cloudy skies, sunny skies, etc. without changing any camera settings during the dives! This TTL system really rocks!"