The Sony Handycam HDR-FX1 and Sony HVR-Z1J HDV camcorders are causing huge waves in underwater digital video, and for the first time, moving images in high definition can be captured by a consumer camera in 1080i.  Here is a round-up of the underwater housings available for the HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1J.  Instead of consolidating specs and pricing, we’ve just linked to their respective sites.

Ikelite now offers a genuine Aquatica 8” dome port fitted with a special base plate for use with their housings. 

Advertisers: there are banner ads still available here at Wetpixel.  For more information, check out our advertising information page.  You may also purchase text ads through the web!

The Wetpixel calendar is a great place to find other digital underwater photographers.  If you have scheduled a dive trip somewhere, post your location and dates to see if someone here might want to join you!

Another great place to talk about destination diving is the Dive Destinations forum, where users can post trip reports and anecdotes about specific locations.

We also have a mailing list, which we will occasionally use to announce Wetpixel-related news.  Use the mailing list form in the right-hand area of this page to sign up.  By default, we do not add you to the mailing list.

Gizmodo has published a photo of the soon-to-be-released $30 iPod Camera Connector.  I hope it’s fast!  The old “innovative” Belkin Media Reader for iPod was so slow that it was unusable.

Of course, if you are using your iPod for what it was originally designed for, it may already be full.  Still, it could be a good backup in the event of notebook failure while travelling as a photographer.

As part of the new, improved Wetpixel, we plan to post news items about the hot topics in the discussion forums. We hope that these will make the forum content more accessible to a larger number of members.

A current hot topic at Wetpixel is Nikon’s new DSLR, the D2x. Released within the last week, this new 12.4MP camera has been the cause of much debate and excitement in the DSLR Forum. Threads vary from comparisons of this camera with existing models, to discussion of various housing options and even just general excitment of folks who have received or are waiting to get their hands on it!

Congratulations to Wetpixel member Doug Ebersole for being this week’s ScubaDiving.com Photographer of the Week!  I’ve been in the water with Doug and a bunch of sharks, and he’s great to dive with.

And, his teenaged daughter has over 200 dives! A father who takes his daughter on live-aboard shark trips?  Couldn’t ask for a cooler dad.

Stephen Frink has posted a thoughtful piece on the Photo Marketing Association Show 2005 (PMA). 

“A Kid in a Candy Store ... that was my first impression as I passed through the portals of the PMA show in Orlando, February 20 - 23. Cameras and photographic accessories were everywhere in the massive Orange County Convention Center. My job was to ferret out which of the myriad offerings have relevance to underwater imaging...”

Over the years there have been a number of classic discussions here on Wetpixel. The aim of this new Forum The Best Of Wetpixel is to centralize all these great threads in one place so that they are easy to find.

And we are looking to the membership to suggest which discussions they would like to see transfered to this new Forum. Please use the “Suggestions for Best Of” thread in the Feedback forum if there is a discussion that you find particularly helpful.

I was out in Hawaii last week and spent some time with Masa Ushioda, who has one of the best stock libraries of pelagic and blue-water animals around.  He has a beautiful spread of humpback whales in the latest issue of Nature’s Best Magazine, which you should check out the next time you’re in a bookstore.

All of the whale photos were taken with a Canon D60 in a Sea & Sea housing.  One of the 2-page spreads features two whales in it—one on each page.  Don’t let the layout fool you: although it looks like two separate photos because one whale fits perfectly into each opposing page, but it’s really one, amazing frame.