Today, Sony announced the HDR-HC1 HD camcorder, which is 1/2 the size and 1/3 the weight of the larger HDR-FX1 announced last year.  It weighs 680 grams without a battery, and is scheduled to ship in July for a retail price of roughly 180,000 yen ($1,684).  The HDR-HC1 uses a single CMOS sensor instead of using three, like the FX1 does.  Full press release follows. (Update: the professional version of this camera will be called the HVR-A1U; it includes an XLR audio module)

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has issued a report about the whereabouts of the captive young white shark released in March.

“It’s clear she survived and thrived after release,” said Dr. Randy Kochevar, a marine biologist with the aquarium and a principal investigator with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) project—a research collaboration that maps the migrations of many open-ocean species in the northern Pacific. “There’s no question that she was hunting and feeding on her own.”

I guess she recovered from having her nose rubbed off.

San Diego Shark Diving owner Paul “Doc” Anes writes in his blog:

“For many years the topside land of Isla Guadalupe has been designated as a bio preserve by the Mexican government. Now the waters surrounding the island have also been granted bio-preserve status. Just exactly what this means for the long range sportfishing boats and the white shark diving operators who utilize the island’s bountiful waters is not clear at this time. There may be a system similar to the one imposed on the Revillagigedos Islands (Socorro, San Benedicto, Roca Partida, and Clarion) where users must pay a per day fee to use the resource. I’ll be posting more as I acquire definitive information from my contacts.”

For those of you not familiar with Isla Guadalupe, it is the (relatively new) hotspot for cage time with great white sharks.

Nikon has released firmware 2.0 for its D70 digital SLR.  Additions and refinements include improved performance for the 5-area autofocus system’s Dynamic Area AF and Closest Subject Priority Dynamic Area AF modes, updated menus with a new design similar to that of the D70s, making them easier to view and quicker to recognize, in-camera page setup support for PictBridge compatible printers, and more…

Fantasea has announced CP-6 and CP-7 housings for Nikon Coolpix 4600, 5600, 5900 and 7900 cameras.  They will be available in June for $160, and will include one year of flood insurance.

See press releases at Steve’s Digicams: [CP-6] [CP-7]

There are still spots available in this year’s Digital Shootout!  Join Jim Watt, Berkley White, Eric Cheng, and Dan Baldocchi in Bonaire from July 23-30, 2005.  Book soon if you’re interested because flights may be difficult to get if you wait too long!

A reminder: SEASPACE 2005 runs from June 4-5, 2005 at the Reliant Center in Houston, TX.  Wetpixel’s Eric Cheng and James Wiseman will be there wandering the halls (James is there in official capacity; I’ll just be socializing), so please introduce yourselves if you see us!  Continue reading for the press release.

Our sponsors over at Marine Camera Distributors have sent us 17 images of the Nexus D2X housing from just about every angle you might want to see.  The housings are just reaching dealers, domestically.  Contact Marine Camera for more information.

Blue Sphere Pubs is running an interesting poll.  Would you rather dive (scuba dive) with Brian Skerry, a National Geographic Photographer, or two nubile nymphs?  Skerry tells me he’s never lost an election, but I suspect that this one will be close, depending on how many people he managed to bribe.

To vote, go to the site and left-click on your choice.  If it makes any difference, Brian has just gone digital, and will be shooting his next assignment with a couple of Nikon D2X digital SLRs. 

Wetpixel has been down intermittently for the past two days, and has fallen prey to the ”dst cache overflow” problem.  It may have been related to a DoS attack (or so the messages I’ve been reading say) and the repeated hack attempts I’m seeing in the logs.  We’re working on a fix, so please bear with us!

*UPDATE, MAY 12* I’ve updated the kernel, which supposedly fixes the problem.  Thanks to our hosts at Austin Web Development for their fantastic support!