The Art Innovation Center at DEMA was full of works by Wyland, and when I arrived, Wyland was accompanied by a mermaid and was receiving some sort of trophy checking out the Wyland Icon Award trophies with Greg Holt of ScubaRadio. Wyland was also doing some live paintings at the show, and the rows behind were full of artwork and photographs.

Our friends at Aquatica had all sorts of new products and developments at DEMA this year. As usual, Blake, Norma, Mauricio, and Jean were at the booth.

A new Canon 40D housing prototype was on display with a new finish: black matte, slightly textured, and rubberized. They haven't decided whether to stick with silver or go with the new, stealthy black yet. Aquatica's new Canon housings have a real focus on ergonomics, providing access to the back focus button and both dials from shooting position.

Catch-all entry for photos of people taken at DEMA Show 2007 on October 31, 2007.  There are so many familiar faces at DEMA that it’s hard to walk 10 meters without getting stopped!

It took me five hours to go through all of my images, caption them, massage them into form for Wetpixel, write up the copy, and post onto Wetpixel.  It’s 5am now.  This is just like last year—fun, but exhausting.  I’ll bet someone says to me (just like last year) “you look like shit” before DEMA ends. :)

John Ellerbrock, Karen Ellerbrock, and Pamela Mazey Metz of Gates Housings hosted a private gathering on the evening of the 31st featuring the legendary Stan Waterman.  Stan presented a retrospective of video shot by himself and his assistant, Nancy McGee, using Sony HDV cameras in Gates underwater housings.  As usual, Stan’s video presentation and accompanying commentary was excellent, and included quite a few humorous moments that made us laugh out loud.

Lee Peterson (Marine Camera Distributors) and Joe Holley (of Marine Visions) were at the Nexus USA booth showing housings for just about every SLR out there.

New this DEMA were housings for the Fuji S5 Pro, Canon 1D Mk III, Olympus E-3 (prototype), Canon 30D (40D expected to be similar), and Canon Digital Rebel XTi...

Olympus America's booth at DEMA represents the second time Olympus has represented their underwater products at DEMA.

Olympus compact cameras have always been very popular in the underwater photography community, and I personally knew probably dozens of people who used their venerable C-4040 and C-5050 cameras in red PT housings. With the introduction of the Four Thirds standard, Olympus is now pushing their tiny Evolt E-410 SLR...

ULCS displayed their usual assortment of popular arms, clamps, and accessories showing their versality in being able to mount to any camera, still or video housing, light or strobe.

Fairly new are the larger buoyancy arms, available in 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16-inch lengths. They also have two new clamps: a 2" and 3" version. The 2" clamp is perfect for the large buoyancy arms because it allows two of them to fold together (see photos). The 3" clamp is turning out to be a great modeling light clamp.

ULCS also has a new mounting system to attach Sea & Sea's TTL controller to a Subal housing. I didn't get to see it, but I'm told that it exists.

Arnold and Sigrid Stepanek at Subal showed a prototype Canon 1D Mk III housing (the CD3), which looked fantastic. All controls were in reach of fingers when the housing was held in typical shooting position, including the AF-ON button and both dials. The new housing uses a larger bayonet mount to accomodate new lenses, which are bigger in diameter. This probably means that there will be an entirely new line-up of ports, but I didn't find out details. The CD3 should ship during the 2nd half of November...

Robbie, Rick, Randy, and Kathy were at the NCUPS booth showing off printed images and promoting their annual photo contest. Randy and Kathy were in costume, which made me very happy. Other than the two of them, I only saw one other person in costume ALL DAY, ON HALLOWEEN (I mean, aside from Eli and me). So sad!

Harald Hordosch and Stephen Frink were at the Seacam (USA) booth showing some particularly innovative products, including a remote control system complete with remote monitor, pole (with shutter trigger), tripod, and monitor glasses. Equally as exciting was a new strobe, the SeaFlash 150.