This year marks the 10 th anniversary of the Asian Dive Expo, otherwise known as ADEX . The Asian diving community came to Singapore in droves and is alive and well after fighting the negative perceptions of SARS, terrorism and chicken flu. I was pleased to notice the Suntec City Convention Center being “guarded” by air-filled balloon sharks built to scale. This so far was the closest I've been to a Whale Shark, Basking Shark or Great White. I need to get out diving more! The display is a traveling educational tool from the WWF geared to generate awareness of the perils of shark finning and to dissuade people from eating shark fin soup.

The larger than life size balloon sharks in front of the convention center

Michael Aw from OceanNEnvironment and one of Asia 's most talented and accomplished underwater photographers was also promoting his “Say No to Shark Fins” campaign. Other notable photographers at the show included Tony Wu (Sport Diving Magazine), Scott “Gutsy” Tuason ( Antibes winner), Neville Coleman (of 1001 Nudobranchs fame), and Todd Essick (who came all the way from Florida to define a new type of uw photography).

Tonu Wu and Neville Coleman

Digital Goodies

I stopped by the Olympus booth to get a closer look at the new PT-020 housing for the 5 mega pixel Olympus C5060 digital camera. As far as “pro-sumer” systems go, I was very impressed. The PT-020 comes chock full of features not available from other housings. Most notably are the abilities to connect an external strobe to achieve a TTL exposure, and the ability to utilize the WCON-07C wide angle conversion lens directly on the camera, providing great optical quality without vignetting. Olympus even came out with an underwater case for the FL-20 flash, which might not be as powerful as other strobes but does give you the TTL capabilities. Of course the PT-020 comes with all the necessary features that you would expect including and LCD hood, easy to use buttons and a compact design. All in all, with the C5060 and PT-020 housing, Olympus has provided underwater photographers with an affordable and flexible pro-sumer system.

Olympus PT-020

Amphibico also has a neat product on the market for digital photographers and, they call it the Light Sensor Device., which replicates TTL light monitoring. Strobe intensity can be set to automatic or one of 7 additional settings. The LSD can be used with various Nikonos, Sea & Sea and Ikelite strobes and connects via a standard Nikonos connection. Chalk one up to Amphibico for providing innovative technologies for underwater digital photography.

Amphibico LSD unit

Lastly, I wanted to offer a personal note on the higher end housings from Seacam, which you may already be familiar with. The craftsmanship that goes into the housings is evident in all the features. This is the only housing line that offers large viewfinders and all glass dome ports. Kudos to Seacam for manufacturing the Rolls Royce of housings. I was able to shoot the housing for the D1X and D-100 and although I have not yet calculated how much I need to spend to trade in my Nexus housings and upgrade, I'll be keeping an eye on Seacam for my next round of purchases!

Michael Aw, Christopher Lee, Harold (the founder of ) Seacam

A Great Show

ADEX was a great show in a amazing city and brought together an extraordinary diving community in the backyard of some of the world's best diving locations. Having spent 10 days in Bunaken and Lembeh Indonesia just prior to the show, I can certainly attest to that! For any underwater photographer who has not dived South East Asia , what are you waiting for?