Underwater Photography and Videography, News, Forums, Trips, Photo Contests :: Wetpixel.com

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INON Japan has announced the X2 Canon 10D dSLR Housing. A preliminary translation from Japanese can be found in our forums, but we are waiting for some sort of official press release from INON America.

Our friends Andreas Voeltz & Lars Kirchhoff over at Digideep have posted comprehensive coverage of the BOOT EXPO, which takes place annually in Düsseldorf, Germany. The article is still being revved, but there is already a lot of content up.

It’s easy for me to say that this is by-far the finest housing I have ever used. The construction and quality is superb, the design is extremely well thought-out, the housing balance and weight is perfect underwater, and the unit is just “dead-sexy” looking with the Seacam Silver finish.

THIS TRIP HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
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Dates: Sept 28-Oct 8, 2004



Espen Rekdal and Wetpixel's Eric Cheng have teamed up to offer a Wakatobi Underwater Photo Workshop 2004. Wetpixel will be doing a daily webcast from the island, and both Eric and Espen will be available for daily consultations and advise.

Very exciting news for Canon shooters: We just heard from Blake at Aquatica that they have made a breakthrough and will be offering their Canon 300D digital Rebel housing with TTL strobe control. Aquatica's electrical engineers have "cracked the E-TTL code" for the Canon 300D and will install special circuitry between the camera's hotshoe and the housing bulkhead that will enable the camera to communicate with underwater strobes for automatic, TTL strobe control. One of Aquatica's beta testers is trying out the 300D housing with TTL right now in Bonaire and should have a report in the coming weeks. We don't know yet which strobes will be TTL compatible with the setup, but we hope to find out soon - so check back here for more information as it becomes available. [see some photos of the A300 housing] [discuss in our forums]

Wetpixel's James Wiseman has finished a review of Seacam's Fuji S2 Pro Housing:

Excerpt: "It’s easy for me to say that this is by-far the finest housing I have ever used. The construction and quality is superb, the design is extremely well thought-out, the housing balance and weight is perfect underwater, and the unit is just “dead-sexy” looking with the Seacam Silver finish. The strobe mounts and interchangeable viewfinders make it easy to set up for your style of shooting. Of course, all of this comes at a price that is out of reach for many underwater photographers. I would strongly recommend this setup for shooters that use their housing day-in and day out, as part of their living, and for folks that demand the very best..." [read the review]

Back in October, we reported that Olympus Japan had announced the PT-020 housing for their new Olympus C-5060 camera. According to Ocean Optics (a UK shop), the PT-020 is now shipping! (Our sponsors at Marine Camera Distributors and OceanBrite also have it in stock). The PT-020 is the first PT housing to have an accessory shoe and a bulkhead for external strobe use. Wetpixel has an active forum topic about the PT-020.

Belated news from Sea & Sea:

Sea & Sea Japan announced o­n December 10th that they would quit as distributor in the USA for financial reasons as of Dec. 23rd and that TUSA (Tabata USA) will pick up distributorship as of Jan. 1st 2004. Sea and Sea USA will continue to take dealer orders until the 17th of December and continue with fulfillment of these until December 19th. After that all orders will be taken at TUSA headquarters in Long Beach, CA after the Christmas and New Years holidays beginning o­n January 4th.

The transition is expected to be fairly seamless and under the guidance of TUSA President Stephen Ashmore operations will continue as they were with refinements being made to the program as needed.

The sales force will remain in place and continue to give all of our dealers the same level of professional support they have always given. We look forward to 2004 being a year of rebirth and with all of Sea and Sea's innovative and diverse product line will remain number o­ne in the underwater imaging marketplace.

More discussion in the forums.

Frequent contributor Rodger Klein has sent us a review of the Light & Motion Titan D100 housing.

Excerpt: As usual, Light & Motion has delivered a work of design art. Ergonomically efficient, it has both manual and electronic controls. The rear panel includes all available manual controls as well as the ROC ( Remote Optical Controller ) display. The ROC controls, as well as the Main Dial (Aperture) control, the Sub Dial (shutter), and Auto Focus control are located o­n the left and right handles (it’s possible to swap the Main and Sub dial functions if you choose). Unlike manually operated housings, the Titan D100 allows total control of shutter, aperture, auto focus, and strobe power remotely from these handles. For most situations, it is not necessary to move your hands from the controls. [read the review]