Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

BSoUP releases photobook

In late 2011, the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) invited members to submit images taken in British waters for a photobook to promote the society and showcase underwater photography, particularly at events like dive shows. The 58 page book, compiled by Alison Major, is now available to order online and you may preview the contents at photobox. The password required to access the preview is LIDS2012. The book costs £56.99 ($89.50), however the publisher is currently offering a “buy two, get another free” offer.

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Sony releases the α57 SLR

Sony has announced the release of the α57 SLR. The camera features a 16.1 megapixel CMOS sensor with a native ISO range of 100-16000 and a BIONZ processor which gives a claimed shooting speed of up to 12fps. For video, the camera support the AVCHD 2 codec, which now features 1080p60 and 24 on NTSC models or 50p and 25p in PAL countries. It also has phase detection AF and full control over P/A/S/M modes whilst shooting video. Lastly, the α57 has a new 1440k dot resolution electronic viewfinder.

The new camera will be available in April, with an 18-55mm kit zoom lens for $800 or body-only for about $700.

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

DiveFilm HD celebrates 100 episodes

DiveFilm HD celebrates its 100th high-definition podcast episode at iTunes with “Befriending Giants,” an award-winning short video by Shawn Heinrichs. Created for the conservation group Shark Savers, this film tells the story of a unique relationship between whale sharks and the fishermen of a small village in the Philippines.

“Over the years, DiveFilm podcasts at iTunes have been a great way to raise public awareness of the beauty and fragility of the ocean world through short videos by underwater filmmakers, and this film embodies the spirit of great video storytelling,” notes DiveFilm HD podcast curator and Wetpixel Moderator Mary Lynn Price.

DiveFilm HD podcasts are produced in association with Wetpixel and are available to download on iTunes

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Achtel announces RED housing using Nikonos lenses

Australian manufacturer Achtel has announced the release of a housing for RED Epic and Scarlet cameras which uses Nikonos lenses to provide “no more porthole view, port distortions, aberrations or fuzzy edges.” It is compatible with the following Nikonos lenses: UW-Nikkor 15mm F/2.8, LW-Nikkor 28mm F/2.8 (water resistant, land only use), UW-Nikkor 35mm F/2.5 and W-Nikkor 80mm F/4.0. By using Nikonos lenses the housing does away the need for lens ports hence allowing for quick lens changes too.

The DeepX is also very lightweight, weighing in at 10kg complete with camera, batteries, monitor and lenses. Achtel is now taking deposits for the DeepX and it will be available at a price of AUD 15,700 ($16,480).

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

Review: ProSoft Data Rescue 3

Steve Douglas provides a review of ProSoft’s Data Rescue 3 data recovery software. This is designed to find and retrieve data that has been lost due to accidental deletion, hardware failure or simple loss. The software can be set up to scan for “Deleted Files” which searches for any deleted or lost files. Steve concludes:

” It’s the same case with ProSoft’s Data Rescue 3; you pray you never need it, but if you do, even though it will probably take up a good portion of the day locating just the file you need, it does as advertised and can save the day and possibly a significant amount of money for you.”

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

Nocturnal lights provides specifications of LUNA 4V lights

Nocturnal Lights, the US distributor for Keldan, has released full specifications of the LUNA 4V video light. It is described as a “compact video light for smaller video setups” with power settings from 1100 through to 4000 lumens via 5 power settings. It has an externally charged removable battery good for 50 minutes at full power.

Wetpixel will be running a full review of the LUNA 4 soon, along with other 4000 lumen lighting solutions suitable for SLR video. The Keldan LUNA 4V is shipping now at a retail price of $1,500.

Friday, March 9th, 2012

New study shows effects of shark tourism on behavior

A new study by five University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science researchers has been published in the journal Functional Ecology entitled, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Assessing ecological impacts of provisioning ecotourism on an apex marine predator”. The team used satellite tags to track the movements of tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) from Tiger Beech, Bahamas, and Florida. It was hypothesized that those from Tiger Beach would stay fixed around the locale due to the availability of food from shark diving operators’ bait, whilst those from Florida would be more mobile due to feeding being illegal.

The results actually show that the Bahamian sharks were more mobile, suggesting that the expected behavioral modification due to feeding does not occur.

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Beat Lightroom 4 Chromatic Aberration process

Those of you have played with the latest release of Lightroom may have found an apparently unwelcome surprise lurking within the Lens Correction tab of the Develop module. Previous versions of Lightroom have offered sliders to allow users to correct Chromatic Aberration in terms of colors, and a “Defringe” option. In place of these controls, Lightroom 4 simply offers a check-box labelled “Remove Chromatic Aberration”.

The challenge is to defeat Lightroom 4’s automatic CA correction tool. Please post examples of images that have beaten the new process in the thread on the forum or, if you can’t do so, please post this too.

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Please vote to ban shark fishing in Sabah, Malaysia!

The Department of Fisheries Sabah Malaysia is conducting a web survey on whether to ban shark fishing in Sabah, Malaysia. This is public interest step that was quietly conducted before. We can help by creating more votes for the ban and letting the Malaysian government know that the world wants shark fishing to stop in their oceans. So vote “YES” to the shark fishing ban and give sharks in the area a chance!

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Mangrove adds housing for SONY HXR-NX70 camcorder

Mangrove has added a new housing for the Sony HXR-NX70 camcorder. The housing’s front case is machined from aluminum, with a Delrin rear. The housing features controls via LANC, giving access to most camcorder functions, including manual white balance, aperture, shutter speed and zoom. These are accessed via a 12 key electronic control on the rear of the housing, where a 3.4” monitor is situated too. It is available with flat or dome port options and the housing has a standard depth rating of 200m (660 feet).

It is available now at a retail price of €1,741.53.

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