CDesperado

You raise several valid points - don't be bashful brother, someone needs to bring these sorts of things up. Here are a few of my thoughts. (Please note that I am purely thinking out loud.... just tossing out ideas) 1. Editing can definitely be a painful process - both the text and images. From my perspective, I see three realities that must be addressed. a) The process will be iterative and will take time. B) The people involved will probably not be able to routinely sit in a room together c) A private website (?) may need to be established to enable people to review images and discuss other text-related matters As far as individual picture size, I think first someone needs to determine the overall page dimensions for the book itself. This may be a non-issue as I think there is already some tentative agreement with a publisher who may already have a specific size in mind. 2. I'm confused about what you meant on this one. If anyone here gives you $5 grand... I need $5 grand too. <grin> You are right about the outside parties not working without the payment in hand - my guess is we won't have some of those hassles bc I am guessing the publisher may be expecting us to deal with that and it would probably be handled internally. 3. The word for the new milennium is "iterative development" - I think putting that much of a workload on one person wouldn't be fair. A committee is probably the right thing to do, but then we have to address the issue of selecting the committee. Regardless, one thing is critically important - people need to be assigned specific roles and be held accountable for taking care of their responsibilities. The biggest strength we have in a project like this is our diversity, but it's all about teamwork in cohesion, not chaos. 4. My "personal opinion" about image selection may not be popular, but it's just an opinion. I do not believe that any image submitted by someone "must be" included. The book would lose artistic merit and credibility if it included muddy, uninteresting, out-of-focus, or poorly composed images. I realize there are some wide gaps in experience and equipment within our forum, but if the book is meant to reflect WetPixel and underwater photography in general, then it should include the best of the best (or least, should include the as good as good can be). (Note: This is just an _opinion_ and I don't want to offend anyone. There are MANY images I have seen presented by people with very simple P&S systems that I thought were truly amazing photos and I have seen many images taken with elaborate, top of the line DSLRs that looked routine or uninteresting!) Additionally, I would say that it would be better to have people submit images, and if they are accepted for inclusion, then they would pitch in some cash - if they dont send in the dough, then their image is not included. I'm not really sure where to draw the lines here, but that's the point of the forum (I hope) is to hash these sorts of things out. Although Kelp didnt present this, it is presented by NW originally, so I will throw this in for thought: I do not personally see a specific reason to limit people to submitting only two images, however, I also don't want to overwhelm the people involved by allowing people to submit more than 10 images. I guess that is enough for now. If anyone has any strong disagreements with anything I have said, please contact Joe directly at home. (LOL Just kiddin man.)

Hey Kelp :-) Long time no see. Speaking for myself only, I have not published a book previously; however, I have a Master's Degree in a field called Technical Writing and have participated in numerous efforts related to publishing materials. I have experienced some bizarre things in the past as well, so I understand your question/hesitation... right now I would say they are still in the "kick the tires" mode. Is there anything that you specifically concerned about?

If anyone has an Epson 4000 (or know someone who does), could you send me a message please? I would like to ask a favor and have someone do an 8x10 print that I can use a comparison with another brand. I'd be happy to hand over a few bucks to cover ink/paper if that is an issue. I need to buy a large volume printer within the next 30 days or so. Thanks :-)

Assuming Eric and James are on board with the idea, yes.

I know this is outside of the realm of lenses for uw stuff, but I just thought I would ask. I am wondering if anyone has heard any rumors about Canon releasing some new L series lenses? The EF 24-70mm F2.8 has been plagued with problems relating to soft images at anything less than F4 - which is a shame. I am a Canon fanatic, but it's ridiculous to pay $1200-$1300 (US) for an F2.8 lens that is gaining a rep for only being sharp at F4. (I've thought about buying one just to test it myself, but Im holding off). I really need a fast lens in this range... or longer. Maybe I am a perfectionist, but if I buy a 2.8, I expect my images to be sharp at 2.8. So... my question is basically... has anyone heard any rumors about a replacement for the EF 24-70 F2.8 ... OR.... any rumors about a next gen replacement for the EF 70-200 F2.8 IS lens? (I haven't heard of sharpness problems with the 70-200, just throwing that out there as well.)

Just adding my two cents... (feel free to give me back the change) Andi is right about the button alignment... although the buttons for the shutter speed, the aperture, and the trigger all worked with no problems, I was rarely able to access many of the other camera features, such as adjusting focal points or hitting the Info button from the histogram. These issues were a little annoying, but I shrugged them off as a typical prototype thing that had to be dealt with. I don't know if the base tray needs to be adjusted or if the rubber nipples on the buttons themselves are simply not reaching the camera, which is what I suspect. I had no problems with leaks whatsoever... I probably would have stopped shooting completely had I even seen a droplet of water inside the housing. I also had no problems with scratches on any of the ports (I had three, the macro port, the 4 inch dome, and the 8 inch dome). The 4 inch dome has a rubber protective cover, but the other two ports do not. I am hoping one will be made for the 8 inch dome. The biggest outstanding issue from my perspective is the buttons issue... I was told it had been resolved, but I have heard from a few people who say their production models suffered from the same problem. Of those, some people have had some frustrations getting their housings shipped back in time for a pending trip. I am taking my housing to the Honduras in two weeks and when I get back I will send the housing back to Korea and let everyone know how things are going. My main issue is getting the buttons to all function. As for customer service problems, I have had very good response when working with the owner of the company and am not sure who out there is saying they had problems or what those problems were. It would be nice if someone could comment publically on any situations if possible.... I think that would be a benefit for everyone concerned and would eliminate these issues of "someone" saying "something" happened. (Just my thoughts...) I just re-read my review and am seeing some things I should have discussed more in depth or clarified... I'll have to work on that. The only two people I know of for sure who have used these underwater are Eric (with DigiDeep) and myself. Has anyone else used a Jonah underwater with a Nikon or Canon?

I just finished the first portfolio page last weekend and am working on the second one. When that is finished, I will post a link to my website and you can view everything there. Sorry for the delays... I have been overloaded with work from a client and haven't caught up on a lot of things yet. I jsut finished the review of the Jonah housing and am about to send it to James. I am sure it wont take long for him to post it.

This looks very interesting. I will go pick one of these up over the weekend and play around with hacking into it. This would enable her to spend her money on some photography books and things too. Let's continue this discussion and report progress and frustrations. The website says it takes 10 hours to transfer the images, which seems overly excessive considering the amount of data cant be that big. I wonder if anyone else out there has tried to hack the camera? http://revjim.net/wiki/DakotaDigitalCamera/diff?a=586&b=585

Hey guys... this is WAY off topic, but if anyone has an old digital point and shoot (like a Nikon 990 or something) that they would like to offload, let me know. I've got an 11 year old girl who is just "DYING" to find her eye as a photographer, but she isnt ready for a DSLR yet. She has a small budget to work from, but thought someone here might have an old camera they dont use anymore.

Hey guys... this is WAY off topic, but if anyone has an old digital point and shoot (like a 990 or something) that they would like to offload, let me know. I've got an 11 year old girl who is just "DYING" to find her eye as a photographer, but she isnt ready for a DSLR yet. She has a small budget to work from, but thought someone here might have an old camera they dont use anymore.

Just a kernel for thought... Shooting manual strobes isnt as difficult as most people think it is, especially considering your husband only wants to shoot macro. Generally speaking, if you choose a shutter speed of say, 1/90, you are then left only with choosing an aperture. He will have to use a shutter speed of at least 1/60 to prevent motion blur or subject blur. If he is primarily interested in shooting macro, his aperture will be somewhere around (or between) F11 to F22 (this would cover about 80% of macro situations most underwater photographers would encounter). With this all said as a given, that means that all he really needs to do is spend one dive shooting at different power settings with his strobes and once he finds the "sweet spot", all he will have to do is adjust the settings up a stop or two if it is a dark subject or down a stop if it's a bright subject or a bright background. I recently shot over 5000 images with a Canon 10D on a dive trip in Indonesia and I am absolutely convinced that anyone with a desire can learn to shoot manual strobes. The digital camera gives you instant feedback so you know immediately if you need to power up a stop. Just something to think consider. (And I LOVE my Canon 10D! Please tell them to design a protective cover for the display screen next time!!!)

Hi guys, sorry for the delayed response. The Jonah review has been written but we havent posted it yet because we are trying to decide which pics to publish. I have just been running around like crazy since I got back and I am hoping things will slow down this weekend. I Have selected the best of the best pics now and will be posting them soon. Very soon... 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week. Where does the time go? As far as North Sulawesei, we didn't dive that area on our trip. I can put you in touch with a man who is very familiar with it though. Email me privately and I will track down my contact and try to get you two in touch.

Not much is known about Bobbitt Worms really... but after seeing them up close and personal, I am positive I wont be sticking my finger anywhere near one!

Is there a common name for this crab?

These are shots from islands around Sulawesei Indonesia, I will post the actual locations later... but hopefully that will help for now.