Belated news from Sea & Sea:

Sea & Sea Japan announced o­n December 10th that they would quit as distributor in the USA for financial reasons as of Dec. 23rd and that TUSA (Tabata USA) will pick up distributorship as of Jan. 1st 2004. Sea and Sea USA will continue to take dealer orders until the 17th of December and continue with fulfillment of these until December 19th. After that all orders will be taken at TUSA headquarters in Long Beach, CA after the Christmas and New Years holidays beginning o­n January 4th.

The transition is expected to be fairly seamless and under the guidance of TUSA President Stephen Ashmore operations will continue as they were with refinements being made to the program as needed.

The sales force will remain in place and continue to give all of our dealers the same level of professional support they have always given. We look forward to 2004 being a year of rebirth and with all of Sea and Sea's innovative and diverse product line will remain number o­ne in the underwater imaging marketplace.

More discussion in the forums.

Frequent contributor Rodger Klein has sent us a review of the Light & Motion Titan D100 housing.

Excerpt: As usual, Light & Motion has delivered a work of design art. Ergonomically efficient, it has both manual and electronic controls. The rear panel includes all available manual controls as well as the ROC ( Remote Optical Controller ) display. The ROC controls, as well as the Main Dial (Aperture) control, the Sub Dial (shutter), and Auto Focus control are located o­n the left and right handles (it’s possible to swap the Main and Sub dial functions if you choose). Unlike manually operated housings, the Titan D100 allows total control of shutter, aperture, auto focus, and strobe power remotely from these handles. For most situations, it is not necessary to move your hands from the controls. [read the review]

Aquatica has announced a new housing for the Canon Digital Rebel dSLR, available early 2004: The Aquatica A300 aluminum housing will accept the Canon Digital Rebel. This light and compact housing is only 9 x 6 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches and weighs only 6 1/2 pounds. It uses the standard Aquatica Bayonet mounting system, a positive system that leaves no doubt that your ports are securely in place and water tight. Aquatica's bayonet system of dome ports, macro ports, and extension rings offers the fastest access to lenses for rapid changing.

INON America will officially begin sales of the D-180S strobe from December 15, 2003.

The D-180S has the same power and basic high performance as the full-featured D-180 but with a LED focus/target light and reduced features for improved cost performance. The D-180S features the same lightweight, compact body design as the D-180 for optimum performance and usability with modern digital cameras. Settable aperture range for External Auto mode: f/1.8 – f/9.5 (10 steps) to manually fine tune exposure. Excellent choice as slave strobe using External Auto Mode, or as main strobe for shooting styles not requiring full manual mode settings.

For further D-180S Information, click here.

EPIC (Environmentally aware Photographic Image Competition) was the first underwater photo/video competition dedicated to the preservation of the marine environment by rewarding environmental awareness of the underwater world. EPIC proceeds are donated to the Marjorie L. Bank Scholarship, which sponsors an intern to pursue studies in environmental marine program. This scholarship is awarded yearly through the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society in Chicago, Il.

The deadline for entries is January 15th, 2004. There are two underwater digital categories, the newest being "Sharks". The winner in this category will be awarded a fantastic dive trip courtesy of Shark Diver Magazine. Please visit EPIC at www.epicphotocontest.org for all the details.