Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Last few spaces for Wetpixel Alaska 2013

There are now only three spaces left on the Wetpixel Alaska Expedition for 2013. The trip departs Juneau on 18 July and will arrive at Ketchikan on 1 August, and is based on board the well-known liveaboard, the Nautilus Swell. Alaska offers some of the best cold-water diving in the world and during the trip divers can expect to see and photograph gorgeous colorful reefs, humpback whales, glaciers, sea otters, stellar sea lions, bald eagles, harbor seals, jellyfish and wolf eels.

The last few spaces are expected to sell out very quickly, so please don’t delay in getting in touch with trip leader Jason Bradley if you are interested.

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Nocturnal Lights releases the M700i video light

Nocturnal Lights has released the M700i video light. It features an 80° reflector and outputs 700 lumens at full power or 280 lumens at low power. It is powered by two CR123 batteries which give a burn time of 1.5 to 2 hours on full. In addition, there is an optional rechargeable lithium-ion battery available. Nocturnal Lights offer various mounting options, including double, YS mount and a ball joint adapter.

The M700i is available now at $204.99 (with a YS mount).

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

Vincent Laforet to judge photo contests

Wetpixel and DivePhotoGuide, organizers of the Our World Underwater and DEEP Indonesia imaging contests, are pleased to announce that journalist, Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer and videographer, Vincent Laforet, will be joining the judging panel for the contests this year. Vincent is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in modern photography, and he brings a fresh insight and vision into the contest’s judging. He joins an already illustrious judging panel consisting of Alex Mustard, David Fleetham, Berkley White, Diego Garcia, Keri Wilk and Matt Weiss. Steve Douglas, Mary Lynn Price and Eric Hanauer will judge the concurrent video contest.

The deadline for photo and video entries into Our World Underwater 2013 is 18 January, so is fast approaching. DEEP Indonesia will accept entries up until 10 February.

Our World Underwater and DEEP Indonesia are among the most prestigious underwater imaging contests, and will hand out over $80,000 in prizes this year. For more details or to enter, please visit the UnderwaterCompetition.com site for details on how to do so.

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

The Great Hammerhead by Joe Romeiro

Underwater filmmaker, Joe Romeiro of 333 Productions, has posted a short video featuring some silky smooth and beautiful footage of great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran) onto YouTube. It was filmed off Bimini, Bahamas earlier this month.

He describes it as:

“Kind of my answer to ripfin with hammerheads.”

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Issue 27 of Underwater Journal available to download

Issue 27 of the Underwater Journal is ready for download. In it, Bob Croft presents an account of his record-setting breath-hold dive, Walt Stearns recounts a tale of exploring of Fiji’s mysterious whale graveyard cave, and Doug Ebersole shares his latest experience of Palau. Pierce Hoover reports on one of Florida’s Manatee Springs and Walt Stearns’s image of a stargazer delivering an electric shock to a blue tang is the Parting Shot.

Underwater Journal is free to download after a simple registration.

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Issue 52 of X-Ray Magazine available

The January 2013 issue of X-Ray Magazine is available to download. Featured articles about dive sites include: Diving Spain’s Costa Brava; Honduras’ Roatan; Micronesia’s Kosrae & Pohnpei; diving Gulen, Norwegian fjord and diving the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Photographically, the magazine has an article about mirrorless cameras lenses and Amanda Richardson’s portfolio is featured.

X-Ray Magazine issue 52 is free to download in high and low res pdf formats.

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Canon announces two new EF lenses

Canon has released details of two new cinema prime lenses, a 14mm T3.1 and a 135mm T2.2. Both feature Canon’s EF mount, odd-numbered 11-blade aperture diaphragms and are designed for use with large-format cameras with 35mm single sensors. The lenses are suited for use with 4K video production.

The CN-E14mm T3.1 L F is expected to be available in April 2013 for an estimated retail price of $5,500. The CN-E135mm T2.2 L F single-focal-length lens is expected to be available in May 2013 for an estimated retail price of $5,200.

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

Milder weather is good news for manatees

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has recorded fewer Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) deaths in 2012 than in the preceding two years, which they attribute largely to milder winter temperatures. The FWC logged 392 deaths last year, compared with 453 in 2011. Collisions with watercraft caused 81 fatalities in 2012, compared to 88 in 2011.

The FWC works to enhance access to warm water sites for the manatees. Recent projects include the restoration of Fanning Springs, which give the animals access to a natural warm-water habitat off the Suwannee River.

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

Sony embraces 4K at CES

At Sony’s press conference at the CES show in Las Vegas, the company was all about delivering and creating 4K footage, Engadget reports. On display was a prototype 4K consumer camcorder which appeared to have a fairly standard prosumer form factor and features and displayed a Handycam logo. Also announced was the HXR-IFR5 Interface Unit, which upscales existing HD footage to 4K. The RAW video files produced by the unit are in 4096 x 2160 resolution. These new devices join Sony’s announcement earlier in the week that it will release two new affordable 4K TVs this summer.

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

Nikon announces new mirrorless products

Nikon has announced the release of two new mirrorless cameras and two new 1 series lenses. The 1 J3 and S1 both have phase-detection and contrast-detect AF. The J3 has a 14.2-million pixels CMOS sensor which supports an ISO range from ISO 160-6400. The S1 has 10.1-million pixels and a native ISO range ISO 100–6400.

Nikon has also released details of two new lenses for the 1 series, a 6.7-13mm f/3.5-5.6, and a 10-100mm f/4-5.6. The former gives a 100° field of view equivalent to a 16-35mm lens on a full frame camera.

Lastly, the company has announced an underwater housing for the J3.

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