Asia Dive Expo 2006 at Suntec Convention Center, Singapore

After three weeks in Palau and Yap at the Digital Shootout 2006, I flew to Singapore for this year's Asian Dive Expo (ADEX) through my favorite transfer city, Manila. Edmund Tee of FiNS Magazine was waiting for me in the arrivals area and was wearing a black FiNS shirt.

"I only wore the shirt so you would recognize me," he clarified. I believe him at the time, but during the entire weekend I never saw him wearing anything else, and thus can only conclude that the only shirt he owns is that black, FiNS polo shirt! Later on in the weekend, Edmund confessed that he had been worried about having made a relationship with me when he saw me walk out of the arrivals area; I hadn't had a haircut due for about two months due to continuous travel, which had given me a respectable afro -- for an Asian guy! (I had it fixed the next day. :)

ADEX is tiny compared to shows in the United States and Europe, and I was told beforehand by more than one person to "not expect much." But what I discovered when I arrived was a tight network of dive operators, tourism representatives, manufacturers, distributors, publishers, editors, and photographers working together to further the industry as a whole (for the most part). Three days hardly seemed like enough time to meet and befriend all of the people I wanted to see, and evenings were spent out dining and hanging out at bars, often into the early hours of the morning.

I spent much of my time at ADEX with the FiNS crew (Tony Wu, Edmund Tee, Paul Lees), Jason Heller (DivePhotoGuide), Peter Mooney (Scubapix), the Scubazoo boys (Simon Christopher, Jason Isley, and Matthew Oldfield), En-Lai Yeoh (AP), Stephen Wong, Takako Uno, William Tan, Wetpixel members Cor Bosman, Julie Edwards, Paul Ng, Lena Goh, and Mathieu Meur, and folks representing diving in Papua New Guinea (Vilia Lawrence, Max Benjamin, and others)

Events of note:

• April 20: "Digital Duo" talk by Tony Wu and Eric Cheng at the Canon Digital Media Hub. Tony talked about photographing whales, and Eric talked about photographing sharks.
• April 21: FiNS dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Food, drink, and fantastic company!
• April 23: Celebrate the Sea "Heroes" event: Neville Colman showed a bunch of undescribed worms, and Ron and Valerie Taylor talked about their lifetime with sharks.
• AsianDiver and CTS photo contest winners (see below)
• Ron Stevens (Rogest), the Scubazoo guys, and Mathieu Meur were signing books all weekend
• Larry Tackett was seen wandering around the expo floor after spending a month in Rajah Ampat
• Stephen Wong and William Tan gave a slideshow of their time in Gorontalo (where you can be hosted by the governor, who is an avid diver!)
• Peter Mooney fell off of a bench at a bay in Clarke Quay and ended up on the sidewalk outside, missing one shoe

Special thanks to Tony Wu and Emiko Miyazaki, who hosted me and went out of their way to make me feel at home during my first time in Singapore. Thanks also to Edmund Tee and Paul Lees, and to Paul Ng, Lena Goh, and En-lai Yeoh, who came to ADEX to hang out with me (they probably had other things planned as well, but I like to think that I was the draw. :).

We love gear. As far as I know, the gear booths represented at ADEX were:

• Bonica Precision
• Green Force/Hugyfot
• Olympus
• Patima
• ScubaCam
• ScubaPix
• Seacam

Bonica Precision [www]

William Wai of Bonica was showing off the Digital Snapper, a 3 megapixel "camera in a drysuit." The camera itself is waterproof and dustproof for snorkeling. When placed in its underwater housing, it can then be used while scuba diving. The Digital Snapper can be purchased alone for $199 USD, or with a tray, arm, macro lens (wet), and strobe for $599 USD.

Bonica Precision booth

William Wai shows off the Digital Snapper

William Wai shows off the Digital Snapper

Green Force [www] / Hugyfot [www]

Tom Leys took me through a tour of the Hugyfot underwater housing for the Nikon D200 [discuss]. Hugyfot housings have always been beautiful and compact, designed to hug the housed camera for the smallest possibly package. Hugyfot has traditionally not been well represented in the States, but you can expect more representation in the immediate future.

I can see why the housings have been popular in their target markets: they feel great in the hand, and are well-designed. But a small, rounded package has its compromises: Hugyfot housings require an allen (hex) key to open and close, and the company sticks to this design principle, refusing to switch to any sort of latch -- until a nicely designed latch exists, they say.

Green Force lights are very popular in Europe, and are probably the only lights than can be assembled into different forms based on a modular light, cable, and battery system.

If you are interested in Green Force and Hugyfot housings, contact our sponsors at Marine Camera Distributors.

Tom Leys of Green Force/Hugyfot

Cor Bosman holds a Hugyfot D200 housing

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot housings require a hex key to open (in order to preserve the housing's rounded shape)

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200. Camera fits like a glove.

Hugyfot housing for Nikon D200

Hugyfot has port adapters for all the major manufacturers' ports

Olympus [www]

A strong supporter of underwater photography, Olympus had a prominent booth where they were showing off E-System underwater housings & accessories and the new µ [mju:] 720SW camera, which is 7.1 megapixels and waterproof to 3 meters (10'). I'm not sure why manufacturers use weird names like "the µ". How many people out there even know how to pronounce µ? But it looks like a wonderful camera for snorkeling and dive deck use.

Olympus booth

Olympus's "mju" 720 SW - waterproof up to 10ft without a housing

Olympus E-System underwater housing and accessories

Patima [www]

My first meetings with underwater photography gear representatives is usually one of excitement (the Wetpixel name, I suppose!). When I first met the Patima executives the young translator's (Jae Kim) first words were, "[he] thought you were ... fat, from pictures on the web. but.. you are... thin!" I had to chuckle at that, because the fat thing is something that is often articulated openly in Asia and isn't meant as an insult.

Patima is a well-respected engineering firm in Korea, but has not penetrated much of the Western market yet. The first distributors are being set up in the States, and the housings will surely be successful if Patima can set up good distributors and contacts on our shores. Patima housings are machines aluminum, and have a nice feel to them. They are priced well and may end up being one of the only machined aluminum housings roughly in the same price range as plastic housings.

Patima currently only has one dSLR housing (for the Canon Digital Rebel XT / 350D) and one video housing (for the Sony HC1), but have plans t o expand their line-up soon. They also have a line of underwater lights, which seem to be high quality and flexible, with various mounting options and battery shapes.

If you are interested in Patima housings, contact our sponsors at Marine Camera Distributors, who are currently the only guys who can get ahold of them.

Patima booth

Patima staff, including President Yong-Eop Lee and Director of Sales and Marketing Michael Kim

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima's own bulkhead and cord interface, available in 5 or 6 pin

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima EHC-350DX housing for Canon Digital Rebel XT (350).

Patima underwater housing for Canon 580-EX substrobe

Patima underwater housing for Canon 580-EX substrobe

Patima underwater housing for Canon 580-EX substrobe

Patima underwater housing for Canon 580-EX substrobe

Patima line of underwater lighting

Patima PHC-HC1 housing for Sony HC1 HDV camcorder

Patima PHC-HC1 housing for Sony HC1 HDV camcorder

Patima PHC-HC1 housing for Sony HC1 HDV camcorder

Patima PHC-HC1 housing for Sony HC1 HDV camcorder

ScubaCam Pte Ltd [www] / Gates Housings [www]

David Cheung (ScubaCam) and John Ellerbrock (Gates Housings) were at the ScubaCam booth showing products from Ikelite, Fisheye, Gates, and others. John had the flagship Gates housing for the revolutionary Panasonic HD camera, which can shoot at high-bitrate progressive HD onto solid-state memory in addition to being able to record to tape. Gates uses the Fathoms Imaging wide-angle dome port, which is well-regarded in the industry.

David showed me a prototype of a Sony HC3 HDV camcorder housing, which was absolutely tiny. It was designed by Fisheye and will be sold under the Seatool name (thanks, Ryan!).

The ScubaCam booth was mobbed for most of the show, and I saw multiple film teams hanging out near the Panny housing. Hey, I was hanging out there, too. Larry Tackett came by and said to John, "sell one to Eric so he can let me use it!"

Scubacam booth

Ikelite D200 housing

Ikelite Substrobe 200

Prototype Sony HC1 HDV Camcorder housing, by Fisheye/Seatool

Prototype Sony HC1 HDV Camcorder housing, by Fisheye/Seatool

Prototype Sony HC1 HDV Camcorder housing, by Fisheye/Seatool

Gates housing for Panasonic HD cam

Gates housing for Panasonic HD cam

ScubaPix [www]

Peter Mooney of ScubaPix was showing the Light & Motion Bluefin HD housing for the Sony FX1/Z1U HDV Camcorder. The floor in front of the housing was covered in drool (obviously, lust for the HOUSING -- not for Peter!!)

Peter Mooney shows off the Light & Motion Bluefin HD Housing

Seacam [www]

If there's a constant at dive shows around the world, it's Harald Hordosch. I see him at every show I go to, standing in front of the aesthetically-pleasing Seacam booth with his polishing cloth. Not a single smudge mars any Seacam product for long before Harald notices it and wanders nonchalantly over to polish it off.

Consistent design is one of Seacam's goals, and it really shows. Seacam had on display their brand-new Nikon D200 housing, which has the same, luxurious feel as the rest of Seacam's products. I'll bet I could switch to a Seacam-housed D200 and barely notice.

I also played with Seacam's new strobe, which has an indicator that displays the last fired % power in order to prevent wrong settings. Harald also said that the Seacam strobe is the only strobe that can fire in E-TTL with two strobes connected at once (E-TTL support requires S6 bulkhead and cords). The Seacam strobe doesn't currently have removable batteries, but Harald assured me that we removable batteries will be a feature of the next strobe he designs.

Harald Hordosch with Lance Chen (Seacam China) and Kevin Deacon (Seacam Australia)

Lena Goh with a Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Seacam D200 housing

Harald can't stand even a single smudge

Eric Cheng and Harald Hordosch of Seacam. Photo: Paul Ng

Shiny Seacam products

Seacam strobe

Seacam strobe

Seacam strobe, the only strobe that does E-TTL with two strobes

Seacam strobe

Most of the Australia and Asia Pacific dive hotspots were well-represented at ADEX. I couldn't possibly have attempted to cover all of the areas, but I did spend a lot of time with representatives from Palau (Dermot from Sam's Tours), Papua New Guinea, Sabah, and parts of Indonesia. For the entire first day, Tony Wu took me around the show floor and introduced me to dozens of people.

Papua New Guinea: Emily Kamioka (PNG Japan), Tim Rowland (Aqua Ventures), Vilia Lawrence (PNG Divers Association), Max Benjamin (Walindi/FeBrina/Star Dancer)

Tony Wu, Clement Lee (Borneo Divers/Sabah Tourism), Ricky Lu (TDI/SSI, Taiwan Police Association)

Alex Bryant (Nemo Travel), Tony Wu (FiNS)

Celebrate the Sea [contest winners] and AsianDiver [Ocean Odyssey winners] both presented winners of their respective photo competitions. There were quite a few familiar names, and Wetpixel members were well represented.

CTS showed finalists in their booth space and announced winners at the CTS Heroes event on Sunday night. I was at the event with Cor Bosman, Julie Edwards, and Jason Heller. Julie placed second in the digital portfolio contest!

Paul Ng took first in AsianDiver's novice category, Chip Scarlett won and placed in multiple categories, and Ann Worthy (who placed in the Wetpixel contest) and Ethan Daniels (a friend, photographer, and marine biologist) were also in the rankings. AsianDiver's rules this year state that they can do just about anything with submitted images. Photographers: always read contest rules before entering! You may be giving up your rights to submitted images.

Celebrate the Sea contest finalists

Wide angle winners of the Asian Diver Ocean Odyssey Contest 2006 (1st: Alessandro Dodi, 2nd: John "Chip" Scarlett)

Paul Ng with his winning AsianDiver photograph! Photo: Lena Goh

Asian Diver Ocean Odyssey contest: Ethan Daniels, 3rd place in Wide Angle

Asian Diver Ocean Odyssey Contest 2006: Novice category, 1st Place: Paul Ng

Chip Scarlett's photos, Asian Diver Ocean Odyssey Contest 2006. Ann Worthy is also in here (I'm picking out names from Wetpixel membership and photo contest winners)

Ethan Daniels, 2nd place in Portfolio

Asian Diver Ocean Odyssey Contest 2006: Macro, 1st Place, Chip Scarlett

Ron and Valerie Taylor talk about sharks

Julie Edwards and Cassandra (Rogest is in the background)

Julie Edwards accepts her CTS photo contest win from Michael Aw

On Friday night, FiNS threw an informal dinner party at the Hard Rock Cafe for clients and friends. As many of you know, FiNS was not represented at ADEX this year due to a dispute with Suntec. I won't go into the details (don't ask me), but we all hope that the dispute is settled soon.

I spent much of the evening drinking wine and chatting with Tony Wu, Vilia Lawrence, and Max Benjamin (the PNG crew). In fact, we were the last to leave, stumbling out at 3am (which doesn't compare at all with some other folk, who were out clubbing until 7am every night!).

Also present were Edmund Tee and Paul Lees (FiNS), the rest of the PNG crew (Tim, Emily, Linda, and Dick), ProDive folk, Aey Komson and a few young Thai architects who produce wonderfully-drawn dive site schematics (PocketDiveSite), Jason Heller (DivePhotoGuide), Nemo Travel, Dermot Keane (Sam's Tours, Palau), Gunther Deichmann (Philippine-Micronesia Alliance), and many others.

I tried to eat local food while in Singapore, but a German restaurant, the Hard Rock Cafe, a Swiss restaurant, and a seafood restaurant obstructed my path.

FiNS dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe

The Thai "kids" show off old technology

Edmund Tee with Nudie, Min (sp?), Tony Wu, and Aey Komson (PocketDiveSite)

Vilia Lawrence (PNG Divers Association), Eric Cheng (Wetpixel), and Max Benjamin (Walinidi/feBrina/Star Dancer)

Originally planned as a Wetpixel get-together, Lena planned a dinner at Jumbo on Saturday night, which ended up ballooning out into 21 people. We played musical tables a couple of times before getting our food, which was quite good. After dinner, the Scubazoo boys (Simon Christopher, Jason Ives, and Matthew Oldfield), Peter Mooney, Tony Wu, Stephen Wong, and Jim ended up at a bar in Clarke Quay. I've been asked for the photo of Peter Mooney falling off of a bench and onto the sidewalk outside (while losing a shoe), but I missed the moment. He was, however, nice enough to re-enact it for me, and the resulting photo is below. :)

I had a great time meeting everyone out in Singapore, and I definitely want to go back to ADEX again.

There were lots of media folk at ADEX as well, including magazines, film crews for hire, and websites.

Edmund Tee (FiNS) and Polpich ("Aey") Komson (PocketDiveSite books)

Scubazoo boys Simon Christopher and Matthew Oldfield

David Espinosa (Editor, Australasia Scuba Diver, Asian Geographic), Jason Heller (DivePhotoGuide), Larry Tackett (Author), and Eric Cheng (Wetpixel)

The empty FiNS Magazine booth

X-Ray Magazine and DivePhotoGuide booth. Jason Heller and Catherine.

Mathieu Meur and his book, "An Essential Guide to Digital Underwater Photography"

PADI's digital underwater photography course

Jason Isley and the Scubazoo book

Socializing

Here are a bunch of miscellaneous photos. This is the real reason I wanted to stay in Singapore longer. :)

Always busy: Tony Wu and Edmund Tee (FiNS Magazine)

Eric Cheng, Julie Edwards, Cor Bosman

Tony Wu hails a cab

Just what I had hoped for: German food in Singapore. Edmund Tee and Tony Wu (FiNS), Dermot Keane (Sam's Tours, Palau), Gunther Deichmann (Philippine-Micronesia Alliance), Paul Lees (FiNS)

Eric Cheng and Jason Heller. Who took this blurry photo??

Peter Mooney (Scubapix) and Eric Cheng (Wetpixel)

Jason Heller can't stop working

Dermot Keane (Sam's Tours, Palau), Gunther Deichmann, and Jason Heller

Wetpixel members (and friends!) Julie Edwards, Lena Goh, Paul Ng, and Cor Bosman

Photographers William Tan, Takako Uno, Stephen Wong, and friends at the Gorontalo presentation and slideshow

Photographers Stephen Wong and William Tan

Photographers Stephen Wong, Takako Uno, William Tan, and Eric Cheng

Photographer Aaron Wong

En-Lai Yeoh (AP), Jason Isley, Matthew Oldfield, Simon Christopher (Scubazoo men), Peter Mooney (Scubapix) out for dinner at Jumbo East Coast

Lawrence Lee (Layang Layang), Sharon, Jason Heller (DivePhotoGuide), Imran Ahmad (Escapeinc), Paul Ng (Freshfields), Eric Leong (Ocean2U)

Lena Goh (Clifford Chance), Paul Ng (Freshfields), Stephen Wong and Takako Uno, Mathiew Miur (Photographer), Tony Wu (Photographer)

Julie Edwards and Cor Bosmon (Photographers)

Photographers Stephen Wong and Tony Wu

Clarke Quay.

Clarke Quay

Reunited: Matthew Oldfield, Peter Mooney, and Simon Christopher

Peter Mooney re-enacts falling over the bench through the window

Jason Isley (Scubazoo) and Jim (KBR/Manado)

Matthew Oldfield (Scubazoo), Peter Mooney (Scubapix), Stephen Wong, Eric Cheng, and Simon Christopher (Scubazoo)

John Ellerbrock (Gates Housings) and Jason Isley (Scubazoo)

Shaved nuts are cool.

Lena Goh has just purchased "professional diving gear!"

Eric Cheng next to a giant hippo bus. In real life, hippos are scary. Photo: Paul Ng