Please join photo pros Tim Rock, Wetpixel moderator Mike Veitch, and Simon Buxton at either Puerto Galera in the Philippines or Yap, Micronesia in June 2007 (workshops will run in both locations) and enjoy some of the world’s best diving while learning to improve your photography skills at the same time. We have lined up a great bunch of sponsors such as Aquatica, PADI, Magic Filters, Ikelite, Think Tank Photo, and Cressi Sub.  We look forward to meeting lots of eager photographers, having a great time, and taking some incredible photos.

For details about prices and bookings, please visit www.shootunderwater.com

Pentax has announced the Optio W20 waterproof digital camera, an update to the older W10.  The W20 meets the JIS Class 8 waterproof standard and Class 5 dustproof standard, enabling it to be submerged in water for 30 minutes at depths up to 1.5 meters.  New features include a 7-megapixel sensor, Blur Reduction Mode, 2.5” LCD, Face Recognition AF, SDHC memory card support, and 21.9 MB of built-in memory.

Judges at Divester’s First-Ever Photo Contest have gone through more than 1200 images and have picked out 10 finalists.  The winning image will be selected by public vote, so head on over to Divester’s voting page before midnight, August 10 and pick your favorite one!

Steve Douglas reminds us that the San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition’s entry deadline is August 15, 2006!  Here’s a quick reminder of what to submit:

* We are accepting only mini-DV NTSC tapes.
* No film should be longer than five minutes max and at least 50% of the footage must be underwater.
* Please ensure that you have all rights, to any media that is used in your film(s) (music, visual footage, personal, copyright, or any other legal right.

See the SDUFEX website for full details.

X-Ray, a fantastic, free, online magazine, has just announced the availability of issue #12:

From cool blue wilderness of the Canadian high Arctic to the red hot deserts of Jordan - from Beluga whales close to magnificent wrecks. Also in this issue lots of Ocean Art including Chihulys Seaforms. Vi have a talk with photographer Kurt Amsler and AP Valves Martin Parker. Dives: 200m on CCR in Thailand and explore caves in Bosnia. Technique: Leigh Cunningham tells why we should watch our partial pressure and Jason Heller and Dan Beecham explains how we can rig your photogear.
Lots of other news and new gear too - as always.

Canon has announced the HV10, its first consumer-oriented HDV camcorder.  It features optical image stabilization, a 10x optical zoom, a CMOS sensor, manual exposure, custom white balance, simultaneous stills (2MP) and video, and a vertical grip orientation.  It looks *very* small, and should compete will with the Sony HC3.  MSRP is estimated to be USD $1299.

All of Canon’s newly-announced HDV camcorders use “Instant AF,” which incorporates external sensors as a first step toward fast autofocus.  It remains to be seen whether these sensors will even work underwater, and whether manufacturers will take them into account when designing underwater housings.

The 10th International Underwater Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro will be held at the end of this year from December 8-11, 2006.  The festival is accepting film submissions, which must have been produced sometime during 2005 or 2006 with at least 30% of the footage underwater.  Acceptable formats are BETA SP, DV Cam or MiniDV (PAL).  Competition admission is free.

Hello, photographers! Wetpixel is looking for your top 5 images from this year’s Sardine Run off of South Africa’s Eastern Cape.  We’re accepting uploaded photos until August 31, 2006.  The winner will receive local fame and glory as his or her sardine run gallery is published as a feature here on Wetpixel.

One of our video moderators, Paul Waghorn ("Wags"), has posted a wonderful, 8-minute demo video of his underwater work with HDV camcorders.  It’s well worth the download, if you have the bandwidth to pull down a 35mb (wmv) or 115mb (qt h.264) file.  You can see more of his work at his website, HDV Underwater.