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Review and Field Notes: Subal ND4 Photo

Review and Field Notes: Subal ND4

Wetpixel Associate Editor, Alex Mustard, has written a comprehensive 5 page review of the Subal ND4 housing for the Nikon D4 SLR. Alex was an early adopter of the D4, and published a review of the camera’s performance here on Wetpixel last May, so this review concentrates on the housing’s performance. In characteristic style however, he includes a wealth of information and advice about techniques, tools and lens selections that are suitable with almost any camera and housing combination.

The article sections are as follows: Introduction, Subal ND4 housing, housing and camera controls, lens choices for the D4 and FX cameras and other notes, problems and conclusion.

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Lytro goes underwater Photo

Lytro goes underwater

As most of the Wetpixel community is probably aware, Wetpixel publisher Eric Cheng is also Director of Photography for the ground-breaking Lytro light field camera. Recently, Eric took one, in a custom Nauticam housing with Light & Motion SOLA 2000 lights, with him on the Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia expedition. Wetpixel has interviewed him about the camera’s performance and how to shoot light field images underwater.

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Winter edition of Alert Diver published Photo

Winter edition of Alert Diver published

The winter 2013 edition of DAN’s Alert Diver magazine is now winging its way through the post towards North American members of the organization. This issue features articles on the Egyptian Red Sea by Wetpixel Associate Editor Alex Mustard, Yap by Andy Sallmon and Alison Vitsky and Antarctica’s Ross Sea by John B Weller. Magazine editor Stephen Frink writes about using slow shutter speeds and Cathy Church writes about receiving training in the provision of oxygen first aid.

As mentioned above, print editions of Alert Diver are a member benefit for North American DAN members. It is also available as a flipbook version online or as a purchase for iPad, iPhone or Android devices via an app.

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Revised: Photographer captures manta giving birth Photo

Revised: Photographer captures manta giving birth

Wetpixel reported earlier that: “Martin Ureta of cameraman.com has captured a unique image of a giant manta (Manta birostris) in the act of giving birth.”

It would now seem likely that this is not an image of a manta giving birth, but rather an image of one having a “gastro-intestinal eversion,” where the manta actually ejects the lower part of its intestine out of its cloaca in order to remove indigestible debris from its intestine. Comments posted onto the original Wetpixel post have caused this re-evaluation.

This has been documented and photographed before (pdf) although it is still a rarely witnessed event. It may also be that the image is actually of a reef manta (Manta alfredi) rather than a giant oceanic manta (Manta birostris) as was originally reported.

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Apple updates RAW compatibility Photo

Apple updates RAW compatibility

Apple has updated its RAW compatibility to include seven new cameras. These include the: Leica D-Lux 6, Leica V-Lux 4, Leica X2, Nikon D5200, Pentax K-5 II, Pentax K-5 IIs, Pentax K-30, Pentax Q and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1. The update requires Aperture v3.4 or later and iPhoto version 9.4 or later to have been installed.

Update version 4.04 is available now via the App store, or from the Apple support page.

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Final call: DEEP Indonesia 2013 Photo

Final call: DEEP Indonesia 2013

Wetpixel and DivePhotoGuide’s second major competition is making its final call for entries. DEEP 2013 offers over $40,000 in prizes from our sponsors with entries being accepted in 7 categories. New for 2013 are categories in surf and shark imagery. Judges this year include Diego Garcia, David Fleetham, Matt Weiss and Keri Wilk.

Please head on over to the UnderwaterCompetion site to view the contest’s rules and make your entries. The deadline is midnight on Sunday 10 February, so please do so soon.

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Amazing macro sea star images Photo

Amazing macro sea star images

Alexander Semonov, marine biologist and head of scientific diving team at the White Sea Biological Station, Russia, has published a series of unique and beautiful high magnification images of sea stars. He writes:

“This is just small collection of sea stars skin surface with high magnification ratio from 1:2 to 2,5:1 made recently in three different seas: the White Sea, the Red Sea and the Sea of Japan. All those unusual structures at the skin surface is very common for echinoderms, it’s just gills, skeleton elements and pedicellariae. But look at it! I never cease surprised that nature shows amazing things. Variety of forms and colours among starfishes are very huge and you can hardly find two identical stars.”

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DivePhotoGuide publishes Nikon D600 review Photo

DivePhotoGuide publishes Nikon D600 review

Wetpixel’s sister site, DivePhotoGuide, has published a review of the Nikon D600 and Nauticam NA-D600 housing. Written by Keri Wilk and shot in the Cayman Islands, the review has some great images of “Stinky” the troublesome loner dolphin that has been a feature of diving in the islands recently.

Keri found the housing and camera’s performance to be very good however, slow initial sales of the camera seem to suggest that many people have decided to choose the D800.

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PEW on the enforcement of shark sanctuaries Photo

PEW on the enforcement of shark sanctuaries

PEW Environment has published a video highlighting the initiatives that are in place to enforce the laws in the world’s shark sanctuaries. Unfortunately, many of the countries with the strongest legal protections for sharks have the least capacity to enforce their laws. However, during 2012 there have been a number of high-profile seizures of illegal shark fins in Palau and Honduras whilst authorities in the Marshall Islands have successfully prosecuted five shark sanctuary violations in recent months, resulting in total fines of $235,000.

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