For the last couple of years Nikon photographers have looked across pretty jealously at the top of the range digital SLRs offered by Canon. In the prosumer DSLR category the Nikon D70 is a good alternative to Canon’s offerings, but at the high spec end the Canon 1DS and 1DS Mk2 have stood pretty much unchallenged by Nikon. That was until two weeks ago, when Nikon finally released the highly anticipated 12.4 Megapixel D2X.

Wetpixel Co-Admin, Alex Mustard has just returned from a week in the Red Sea shooting underwater with this camera. Here is his report.

Canon recently released a wideangle zoom lens for their 1.6x cropped sensor cameras with the EF-S lens mount. At this time, that includes the 300D, the 350D, and the 20D. The lens has a minimum f-stop of f3.5 at the wide end, and an excellent zoom range for underwater photography.

This review is broken up into two parts, the first part is about how the lens performs above water, and the second part is a review of the Ikelite implementation of an 8” dome port and how the 10-22 performs behind this dome, as compared to their standard 5” dome. A special thanks to Ikelite for sending Wetpixel the dome port for testing. 

Results from the Underwater Images Photo-Video Competition 2005 have been posted on their website.  I don’t see many Wetpixelians in the list of winners, but I’d like to congratulate Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards (a couple) for both receiving honorable mentions!  Winning photographs and the prize list will be posted on April 1.

Stephen Wong and Takako Uno recently sent me a preview of their new book, An Ocean Odyssey, which “documents their watery journey and quest to capture glimpses of the pelagic inhabitants of the sea, their special moments and their relationships with the Ocean that perpetually shapes our lives.” The images in the book are beautiful; As artists, Stephen and Takako have taken blue-water photography to its highest level. 

An Ocean Odyssey will be released at the end of April.  Continue reading for more information.

Congratulations to Wetpixel member, Luiz Rocha, for being selected as this week’s ScubaDiving.com Photographer of the Week!  Luiz is a marine biologist from Panama City.

Eco Divers and Asian Diver Magazine invite underwater photographers to pit their skills against each other, enjoy a wonderfully relaxing holiday in scenic North Sulawesi and have a chance to win one of 14 fantastic prizes from a panel of distinguished judges.

Shootouts will be at the Kungkungan Bay Resort and Tasik Ria Resort, and feature a specific category for digital images.

I’m looking for someone to help us cover Beneath the Sea this year.  If you are interested, please . BTS 2005 runs from March 18-20, and is located just outside of New York City.

SUBIOS is Seychelles’ annual underwater festival celebrating the underwater world, through a range of diving and snorkeling activities, and creating awareness with evening programs of film, video and slide presentations by acclaimed local and international guest speakers.

As part of the festival there are also underwater film and photography contests. the Photography and Videography contests run year round, and are open to entries from around the world…

Light & Motion announces the ultra compact Stingray III housing for the latest Sony MiniDV cameras HC21, HC32 and HC42.  Nearly half the size of the original Stingray the super compact Stingray III offers all of the same features of the full size model.

Our “Slave TTL for Digicams” article written by contributor Julian Scheunemann has elicited an official reply from INON Japan:

"Our latest D-2000 strobe employs dramatically advanced technology comparing to existing underwater strobes.  Please let us take this opportunity to show a part of our technology used to the D-2000 for deeper understanding of the product for D-2000 owner and better understanding for future D-2000 owner."

Continue reading for the full article.