Saturday, May 28th, 2005

UR Pro Shallow Water Filter Review

Alex Mustard reviews the new UR Pro SW-CY shallow water filter, which was designed for available light photography in tropical waters between 0 and 25ft. This new filter will be available in June 2005.

Excerpt: “UR Pro’s Colour Correction filters have long been favourites of videographers. A quote from Stan Waterman on the UR Pro website sums it up for me: “URPRO filters provided dependable color balance to an otherwise monochromatic blue world…I depend on them”. If they are good enough for Stan, then I reckon they are worth a try…”

Thursday, May 26th, 2005

Wide Angle White Balance

There is an excellent discussion going on in the forums about techniques for obtaining the proper white balance for a wide angle photo. The discussion primarily centers around mixed lighting photography (no filters) where the photos are taken in RAW format and the white balance is set using the software converter. We also have a few articles on this topic in the Wetpixel Features section with more coming soon.

Sunday, May 22nd, 2005

Kata 103 Camera and Laptop Backpack

A few weeks ago, I purchased a KATA 103 backpack for toting around my digital camera kit. I haven’t taken the bag on a divetrip yet, but I did use it last week for a day-trip offshore where I photographed an offshore platform from a helicopter and made an engineering and site photography visit. To get there, I flew on a commercial airliner, took taxicabs, and finally a helicopter - at no point did I feel I was missing any neceessary equipment and I never feered for my camera or laptop. The bag met and exceeded my expectations. Read the full article to see photos of how I laid out the pack for my camera equipment.

Saturday, May 21st, 2005

Canon 1D/1Ds Mk II and Lexar 80X compatibility problem

At the end of last year, I started losing images when using a Canon 1Ds Mk II with Lexar 80X compact flash cards. Actually, the problem was that the camera would lock up completely, forcing me to abort dives to fix the problem (the fix required battery removal—highly inconvenient, while underwater).

After five months of silence, Canon and Lexar have finally issued service notices acknowledging that the problems “may occur.” A firmware update is expected before the end of May (continue reading)...

Saturday, May 21st, 2005

Light & Motion Announces Bluefin HD

Light & Motion has announced the Bluefin HD housing for the Sony High Definition HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1U camcorders. The Bluefin HD is constructed from machined, industrial-grade aluminum and is depth rated to 400 feet. Full press release follows.

Tuesday, May 17th, 2005

Sony Announces HDR-HC1 palm-sized HD camcorder

Today, Sony announced the HDR-HC1 HD camcorder, which is 1/2 the size and 1/3 the weight of the larger HDR-FX1 announced last year. It weighs 680 grams without a battery, and is scheduled to ship in July for a retail price of roughly 180,000 yen ($1,684). The HDR-HC1 uses a single CMOS sensor instead of using three, like the FX1 does. Full press release follows. (Update: the professional version of this camera will be called the HVR-A1U; it includes an XLR audio module)

Tuesday, May 17th, 2005

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s White Shark

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has issued a report about the whereabouts of the captive young white shark released in March.

“It’s clear she survived and thrived after release,” said Dr. Randy Kochevar, a marine biologist with the aquarium and a principal investigator with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) project—a research collaboration that maps the migrations of many open-ocean species in the northern Pacific. “There’s no question that she was hunting and feeding on her own.”

I guess she recovered from having her nose rubbed off.

Monday, May 16th, 2005

Isla Guadalupe granted bio-preserve status

San Diego Shark Diving owner Paul “Doc” Anes writes in his blog:

“For many years the topside land of Isla Guadalupe has been designated as a bio preserve by the Mexican government. Now the waters surrounding the island have also been granted bio-preserve status. Just exactly what this means for the long range sportfishing boats and the white shark diving operators who utilize the island’s bountiful waters is not clear at this time. There may be a system similar to the one imposed on the Revillagigedos Islands (Socorro, San Benedicto, Roca Partida, and Clarion) where users must pay a per day fee to use the resource. I’ll be posting more as I acquire definitive information from my contacts.”

For those of you not familiar with Isla Guadalupe, it is the (relatively new) hotspot for cage time with great white sharks.

Monday, May 16th, 2005

Nikon D70 Firmware 2.0 Update

Nikon has released firmware 2.0 for its D70 digital SLR. Additions and refinements include improved performance for the 5-area autofocus system’s Dynamic Area AF and Closest Subject Priority Dynamic Area AF modes, updated menus with a new design similar to that of the D70s, making them easier to view and quicker to recognize, in-camera page setup support for PictBridge compatible printers, and more…

Friday, May 13th, 2005

Fantasea adds CP-6 and CP-7 housings

Fantasea has announced CP-6 and CP-7 housings for Nikon Coolpix 4600, 5600, 5900 and 7900 cameras. They will be available in June for $160, and will include one year of flood insurance.

See press releases at Steve’s Digicams: [CP-6] [CP-7]

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