Issue 66 of X-Ray Magazine is now available to download. Featured in this issue is diving in the Bosphorus Strait, British Columbia’s freshwater interior, India’s Andaman Islands; Micronesia’s Yap and the sea lions of Los Islotes. Also included are articles about Bimini Shark Lab, lighting for underwater photography and a profile of photographer Tina Christiansen.
If you live in the UK, the first episode of a landmark BBC series entitled Shark goes to air on 7 May. The site has been filmed over several years, and many Wetpixel members and contributors have been involved, including Andy Cassagrande and Morne Hardenberg.
RGBlue has released a magnification system that enlarges the view of a camera’s LCD screen. The magnifier uses “light condensing lens technology” to overcome the loss in magnification caused by water contact with the lens. The company has also released a micro flex arm to mount the magnifier.
The May/June edition of Underwater Photography Magazine is available to download. It includes reviews of the Nauticam CMC, Saga Dive Fiber Optic Ring Flash, Vivid Housings Leak Sentinel and the G7 X compact camera. In terms of marine life, it has images of a thresher shark birth S and giant Australian cuttlefish. Featured locations include Cuba, the Mergui Archipelago and Wakatobi.
Sea&Sea has announced their housing for the Sony a7 Mark II mirrorless camera. In addition, the company is supply a conversion ring that will allow the use of NX ports as well as the standard ML ones. The MDX-a7II is compatible and can be supplied with the internal Optical YS-Converter which converts the camera’s electrical flash triggering into an optical signal.
Fantasea has released details of their housing for the Canon G7 X compact camera. Manufactured from injection molded polycarbonate, the FG7X has two removable fiber optic ports, a flash diffuser and access to all camera controls.
Photographer Angel M. Fitor posted this poignant picture of a stingray caught as bycatch by a bottom trawler. Due to poorly implemented quota regulations, European fisherman discard around 60% of their catch, the vast majority of which are killed in the process.
Long-time professional underwater photographer and filmmaker Norbert Wu has been posting a series of his favorite images onto his blog. He has kindle agreed to syndicate his posts as a weekly feature onto Wetpixel too. This first episode discussed an image of fluorescing corals that was shot on film in Palau.
Getting footage of the deep ocean and its inhabitants can prove to be time consuming and extremely expensive. National Geographic mechanical engineer, Alan Turchik, has adopted the methods used by oceanographic research scientists to film deep water animals much more economically than using a manned or unmanned ROV.
Earth Touch’s Wild Oceans features more footage from Sodwana Bay, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This week’s episode was shot at Anton’s Reef, and features an array of marine creatures including playful bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and a cruising leopard or zebra shark (Triakis semifasciata). At the macro end of the scale, there is also footage of a seaweed goby (Bryaninops yongei) and juvenile dragon wrasse (Novaculichthys taeniourus).