The March 2015 issue of X Ray Magazine is now available for download. In issue #65, there are articles about Tiger Beach San Salvador and the Shark Feeder Program, Bahamas. In addition diving in Iceland, Malpelo, Kyrgyzstan and cave diving in China are featured along with GoPro use underwater.
Nauticam has announced that their housing for the Sony a7 Mark II mirrorless camera is now shipping. The NA-A7II features lever controls for AF-ON, review and record. In addition, it features a switch to enable or disable the EVF. The port selection offers support for the Sony 16-25mm f4 rectilinear wide-angle zoom.
An interesting new underwater video is making the rounds on social media. The video shows divers off Ticao Island in the Philippines encountering one of the ocean’s most unusual looking creatures - or group of creatures - a pyrosome.
Off the coast of Honduras is a chain of islands known as Cayos Cochinos. The islands have been recognized as a vital portion of the Meso-American Reef and are now protected as a marine sanctuary where commercial fishing is banned. However, the Garifuna people have been living and fishing there since the 18th century and continue to be allowed to do so to this day.
Underwater photographer Amanda Cotton, in conjunction with Lee Burghard of Wild Shutter Imaging has posted a short film of her in action during a shoot. In the film she explains her motivation in shooting images: “I like to try and tell a story with my images, to show a connection between the person and the environment they find themselves in. The bond between a human being and nature….”
Sony has announced a series of new lenses and converters. For underwater use, these include the FE 90mm f2.8 macro, the FE 28mm f2 wide-angle, two new wide-angle converters and two fisheye converters.
This week’s Earth Touch’s World Oceans episode features more footage from Wakatobi. It includes footage of the rare and very camera shy blue-faced angelfish (Pomacanthus xanthometopon), some unusual sea fans and hundreds of different species of fish congregating around vividly coloured corals.
So far this year over 900 starving sea lion pups have washed ashore in the state of California. This number is four times as high as what rescue centers normally see and scientists believe it is a result of warmer water.
Sea&Sea has officially announced their housing for the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. It is compatible with the company’s internal YS converter and its control levers have been re-designed for better ergonomics. It has two fiber-optic bulkheads as well as the option of Nikonos and HDMI connections.
Nikon has announced their D7200 DX format SLR camera. It has a 24.2 megapixel sensor, no low -pass filter and the EXPEED 4 processor. Native ISO range is 100 to 25,600 and it has a “51-point autofocus array powered by a new Advanced Multi-CAM 3500II DX high-density system”. Video is available at 1080 at 30/25/24p and 1080 at 60/50p in 1.3x Crop Mode. It looks like the D7200 may fit into some existing housings, for more info, please see the thread on the Wetpixel forum.