The magnificent Shanghai Exhibition Centre was the venue of China’s 1st ever dive show in late September 2005. This dive expo was organised by Suntec Integrated Media and East West MICE who for the past 11 years also organised the largest dive show in Asia, ADEC. Amongst the exhibitors at the show were equipment suppliers, certification bodies, dive travel related companies, dive clubs and dive associations based in China.

Hello, guys.  I will be making a few changes to the Wetpixel server over the next week, so please bear with me.  Symptoms of the changes and additional server load may include sporadic downtime and/or server slowness.  But don’t worry: we will resume normality as soon as possible.

Wetpixel video moderator Drew Wong went around the DEMA Show 2005 looking at the new housings for the Sony HDV cameras.  Continue reading for full report and photos…

Christa Loustalot (photographer, artist, and Wetpixel rookie) covers the DEMA Show 2005, which took place from October 4-7 at the Last Vegas Hilton Convention Center.  Christa ran around getting the scoop on all the latest underwater photography and video products on the floor. Our DEMA report has descriptions and photographs of just about every new product being featured.  Continue reading for the full show report…

Congratulations to our very own Dr. Alex Mustard for winning the Animal Portraits category in this year’s BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest!  Alex’s hamlet photo also placed as a runner-up in the Animal Behaviour: All Other Animals category.

The BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year is one of the word’s most prestigious photo competitions. An exhibition of winning photographs is at London’s Natural History Museum from 22 October 2005 until 23 April 2006.

We’re proud of you, Alex!  See Alex’s website for more, amazing photos.

Congratulations to Wetpixel administrator Dr. Alex Mustard for his 3rd place win in the Seahorses of the World Photo Competition.  Alex’s photograph of a freeswimming Hippocampus bargibanti taken in the Lembeh Strait took a third place spot.  Congratulations are also in order for Wetpixel member David Harasti who also won a third place for his photograph of a Hippocampus breviceps called the “Punk Seahorse.” Stweart Sy aka Scubastu also received an honorable mention in the competition.

Congratulations to Wetpixel’s Editor and Administrator Eric Cheng whose outstanding Turtle Screaming photo won the Animal Antics Category in the Nature’s Best Photography Competition, the results of which have just been published in the Fall issue of the magazine. Nature’s Best is a large and prestigious nature photography competition, attracting 12000 entries from 27 countries making a top award a tremendous achievement. Eric’s Great Hammerhead photo also won him a Highly Honoured prize in the Oceans Category, which was won by Jesus Salillas of Spain with a photo of Pygmy Killer Whales taken in Hawaii. In the Endangered Species category, Wetpixel member Kasey Canton won a Highly Honoured Prize for this photograph of a green sea turtle.  The San Diego Underwater Photographic Society won the Camera Club award. You can see the winning images on the Nature’s Best website, in their magazine or on display at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum (exhibit opens on Nov 19, 2005). 

Marine Camera Distributors (MCD) have sent us some photographs of the prototype Nexus housing for the 16 megapixel Canon EOS1DsmkII digital SLR camera.  Nexus is developing an optional angled magnifying viewfinder which is shown in a few of the photos.  Apparently, this finder is a wetmount bayonet type and can be added and removed underwater.  According to Lee Peterson at MCD, Nexus is also designing a housing for the EOS-5D.

Depending upon one’s chosen perspective, the D2x is either ridiculously expensive or immensely functional, probably both at once. Weighing in with 12 mega pixels of resolution and a host of updated features, the D2x is, for the digital moment, Nikon’s top of the line camera. After a good deal of investigation, procrastination, and soul searching, the D2x is what finally got me back into a single lens reflex for my underwater photography. This report is the result of my first outing with the D2x, ensconced in a Nexus submersible housing…

Patima has announced a housing for the popular Canon 350D Digital Rebel XT.  The EHC-350DX is an aluminum housing with a screw thread port system.  Patima also has plans to introduce a housing for the Canon 580EX Speedlite.  Update: Continue reading to view new photos of the Patima 350D and 580EX housing sent in by Wetpixel sponsor Marine Camera.