Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Registration opens for Epson World ShootOut

The international underwater photography competition, World ShootOut, will take place worldwide from 1 to 8 August 2011. The idea is that during the week of the shoot-out, the underwater world will be performing as one huge festival, with professional and amateur photographers competing with each other. Images entered in the contest must have been taken in any natural water resource found around the world, including seas, oceans, lakes, rivers and under the ice.

Competition registration ends on 30 July with early bird registration (up to 1 July) entitling the participant to submit a free additional set of images in each category the participant has registered for.

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Sabah may outlaw shark finning

The Sabah state cabinet of Borneo Island, Malaysia has agreed with minister Masidi Manjuner in his attempt to have sharks added to the protected species list in the Sabah Wildlife Act, the Borneo Post reports. Mr. Manjuner has said that local activists and foreign tourists have complained about cruel shark finning activities by local fishermen and that the state government is aiming to impose a ban on finning that will start next year. If successful, this will make Sabah the first state in Malaysia, one of the world’s top shark-catching countries, to impose such a ban.

The proposed ban still faces staunch opposition from the Sabah Restaurants Association. Its chairman, Lim Vun Chen described the move as “illogical”, and said sharks should be harvested like any other marine creature.

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Short film Weightless released onto YouTube

Weightless Emotions has released a short freediving film onto YouTube entitled Weightless. It was filmed at Dahab, Egypt, during January and February this year and used three different film locations. Five hours of footage in total was shot solely on breath hold. The deepest filming was done at 20 meters (60 feet) depth and no single clip was longer than 1.5 minutes.

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Adam Hanlon appointed as Wetpixel Editor

Over the past year, many of you will have noticed that Adam Hanlon has been increasingly involved with Wetpixel.com, and has been responsible for adding almost-daily news items to the front page. We are proud to announce that Adam will be taking over as Editor of Wetpixel, and will be driving online content creation and curation. I will continue my role as Wetpixel Publisher and Editor-at-Large, and will concentrate on strategic and continued development.

Wetpixel has been in existence for over 10 years and has fostered a close-knit community of passionate underwater image makers. Here’s to another 10 years of sharing what we find under the surface of the earth’s oceans!

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Exmouth Navy Pier, Ningaloo on DiveFilm HD

Wetpixel senior moderator Paul Wags has had the trailer of his new DVD Exmouth Navy Pier featured as a podcast by DiveFilm HD. The Navy Pier is situated about 1200km north of Perth in Western Australia on the famous Ningaloo Reef, and the film takes us on a tour of underwater Western Australia.

DiveFilm HD podcasts are available on iTunes as free downloads and are produced in conjunction with Wetpixel.

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Datacolor launches color management app for iPad

Datacolor has launched a free app on the iTunes store that allows users to color calibrate iPad displays and ensure that colors are consistent throughout the workflow. The Datacolor SpyderGallery app provides a simple calibration program, and then a gallery that allows images to be viewed using the color profile created. In order to calibrate the display, a Spyder3 (or higher) calorimeter is required.

The app is a free download from the iTunes store.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Canon revises release dates for 8-15mm Fisheye and other lenses

Canon USA has announced a revised release date for the EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens, as well as other new lenses. It is now expected to be available from late July. Canon claim that it will be the world’s widest fisheye zoom lens, delivering an 180° diagonal angle of view on all EOS SLR cameras, from full-frame to APS-C, and providing full 180-degree circular fisheye images for full-frame EOS models. Suitable for still photographers and cinematographers, the lens will offer a unique perspective particularly when coupled with the highly popular full-frame EOS 5D Mark II DSLR camera.

The Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens will have estimated retail price of $1,399.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Call for entries: Divers for Africa photo contest

Divers for Africa (DFA) are calling for entries for their third International Competition of Photography. The online competition is being held in conjunction with the DFA Dive Days 2011, and the prizes will be awarded on 25 June, 2011 during a gala evening event at “The Palace of Congress” in Florence, Ravenna, Italy.

Full entry details are available on the organizers’ website and the deadline for online entries is 31 May.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Dyron releases new products

Dyron has released a series of new accessory products for compact and SLR housings. These include a new quick release mount for use with the Dyron Fisheye lens on Recsea S90/95 housings, a glass fisheye lens for Ikelite, Patima and RecSea housings that gives full circle (8mm) field of view, a macro wet lens/diopter with a 77mm thread and adaptors that allows the lens to be used on Subal, Seacam, Hugyfot and Ikelite macro ports.

We have had the M77 macro lens on test and will be reviewing it shortly.

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Review: Xit 404 Quad Ball adaptor

More and more previously dedicated still shooters are now trying their hand at video, using the capabilities that now seem standard in each new SLR. This brings with it a raft of design problems for housing designers and users. Not least of these is the fact that we often now need to attach two different light sources to the housing.

Adam Hanlon reviews the Quad Ball adapter by Xit 404, which offers the user multiple attachment points for video/focus lights and strobes.

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