DEMA Show 2014

Day 3

New World Publications

I got an early start and headed straight in to the halls to see the folks at New World Publications. Eric Reisch showed me the fantastic new limited edition Colors of the Reef three book set of imagery by Roger Steene. It features over 7,000 images in 1,400 pages.

New World also had their new edition of the Reef Fish ID, Florida Caribbean, Bahamas on the stand. This benefits from 89 new fish species and more than 200 new photos.

Sea&Sea

I then wandered over to Sea&Sea’s booth and met with Anna Backe, Christian von Stentzsch and Brian Pak. While I was on their stand, I had a look at their new products.

They had their new housing for the Nikon D810 which features their internal TTL converter.

I also saw their housing for the Sony a6000 and the YS-03 strobe:

Gates Underwater Products

I met with John and Karen Ellerbrock and Pamela Masey Mertz on the Gates stand.

The hot news is that Gates are offering a conversion option to allow the use of all Nikonos RS lenses with their Deep Epic and Deep Dragon housings. John explained the reasoning behind using the lenses as them offering superior image quality with corner to corner sharpness even on RED Dragon sensors being used for IMAX productions. In addition, they offer quick and convenient lens changes and offer a lightweight travel option.

As Gates housings are entirely mechanical, there is no need to connect the lens to the camera as all controls are mapped mechanically onto the housing controls.

The conversion kit consists of an F mounting plate that has gears that can mesh with the iris, focus and zoom (where appropriate). This is installed under a new front plate, with a couple of the control arms in the housing being shortened. The housing, lens and camera are then “lined up” with a simple alignment procedure.

John expects that the kit will be rolled out to other camera and housing combinations soon.

Pamela took me through the new GT14 video light. This outputs a staggering 14,000 lumen a CRI of 90, a color temperature of 5600°K and a 90° beam angle in water.

It has 7 step adjustment, which varies burn times from 30 minutes to 10 hours. It has a mirrored gauge-which means that the gauge can be viewed from both sides, which consists of 4 LEDs that offer information about remaining burn time and current power output level.

The lights are equipped with a thermal cut out, and a travel safe mode. If the light is not activated for 6 hours or more, it goes into a safe mode, which requires a double click to resume function.

The batteries are also travel safe at 97W/hr and are equipped with a travel insulator. Their shape ensures that they cannot be incorrectly inserted into the light.

The lights uses “rear cooling” technology under licence from Light and motion to keep the LEDs cool and hence deliver a maximum amount of light. The lights are around 19oz negative, so they will ship with buoyancy to offset this

Price will be in the region of $2200 to $2500 with options being available to include Gates’s Seal Check system and custom color temperatures.

Light & Motion

Light and Motion’s booth featured their burgeoning dive light collection as well as some new imaging ones. Heidi Hall showed me their new Sidekick lights for the Gopro cameras.

These are available in either rigid or mini-locline versions and offer 600 lumen output over three steps, with wide and spot settings. They will burn for 1.5 hours on high. They are supplied with a USB charge adapter and will recharge over 2.5 hours. They will be available from January at $150.

We were then joined by Daniel Emerson and we discussed the issue around the lack of standardisation of light testing and reporting. Light & Motion have subscribed to the FL1 standards which set specific criteria for light testing. The logos that are printed on the packaging of their lights can only be used by those that have carried out these standardized tests.

Daniel went on to explain that in the SOLA line, of the 4% returns they have experienced, 2.5% related to the chargers. Hence the new lights all feature internal charging and simply accept either 12 or 24V (depending on model) input. This also means that charging can be faster and controlled by the light’s built-in microprocessor.

The first of the new lights he showed me was the VideoPro8000. This outputs 8000 lumen with three steps, a 90° beam angle (in water) and a burn time of 40 minutes at full power.

The light features the patented “rear cooling” that allows the water to circulate behind the LEDs, providing for efficient power use and output.

Recharge time is 1.45 hours, but will reach 80% capacity in 50 minutes. Light & Motion has spent considerable effort to make the light very small and compact for its power output. The VideoPro8000 retails at $2299.

The next new video light on offer is the 3000F. It features 3000 lumen output, again over three steps and a burn time of 50 minutes at full power.

It also has a beam angle of 90° in water and a recharge time of 1.45 hours. It is a very compact light, and incredibly lightweight given the power of its output. It retails at $799.

Lastly in the video specific line of new light is the 2500F. As you may have gathered, this has 2500 lumen of output, over three steps and a burn time of 60 minutes. Otherwise the specifications are identical to those of the 3000F. Selling price is $699.

Not video specific, but a popular choice due to its versatility, is the 2100S/F. This has also been equipped with the internal fast charger and has 2100 lumen available either as a spot or flood. Beam angle underwater is 12° and 60° respectively, and it has a burn time of 60 minutes at full power.

Perhaps not widely known, but each Light & Motion light is pressure tested at 90 meters before shipping.

Watershot

The company, renown for its mobile phone housing has an iPhone 6 housing due to ship soon.

In addition, they have an optional depth and temperature sensor that can be attached, which connect to the phone via Bluetooth and gives depth/temperature and dive computer functions on the phone It can be attached to any of Watershot’s iPhone housings.

Watershot is releasing a splash proof housing for surfing and general water sports for the iPhone 5, 5C and 5s.

Jonathon Lorenzon showed me the iDive housing for the iPad. This has a soft touch screen compatible surface, which needs equalising to prevent damage to the iPad. This is achieved by adding gas via a regulator attached to its rear.

Lastly, he showed me the new light head that is now available for Watershot’s lighting system. The i3600 torch has an output of 3600 lumen over 3 steps and a red mode.

Inon

Inon did not have a booth at the show, but I was able to get Takuya Tori to show me his new products. The range of Gopro accessories announced earlier this year are completely compatible with the HERO4 series.

In addition, Inon is releasing some new LED lights and accessories. The LF1100 W HAS 1100 lumen and a beam angle of 85° in air. It features the LF series signature double o ring seal and gold battery compartment connector. It can be adjusted in two steps, the other setting giving 300 lumen output.

It will ship with a red filter and a diffuser that increases the beam angle to 95° in air. Inon are also offering a dome diffuser that further increases this to 100°. This is a separate accessory, but will be bundled with the torch as a special offer initially.

The LF800N has a spot beam and can be fitted with both a red and color correction filters.

It also has a condenser lens that narrows its beam and can be stacked if required, or it can be fitted with an M67 step-up ring to allow attachment of a macro lens to focus the beam. It will be shipping in December.

Next is the LF2700, which offers 2700 lumen and can be fitted with the same accessories as the LF1100W. It is powered by 6 AA batteries which give it a 1 hour burn time. It has a native 85° beam angle, and can be fitted with diffuser to increase this (to 100° with the dome diffuser).

In addition it can be fitted with the LF-W fitting that will allow the attachment of the UWL-10028AD wide-angle lens which produces a very soft even beam with an angle over 100°. It will be available in early 2015.

Lastly, Takuya showed me an (as yet unnamed) accessory that is designed to prevent the torches’ beams from shinig back onto the camera lens.

Booth visits day 1: Backscatter, GoPro, Keldan, Ikelite, Subal.
Booth visits day 2: H20 Tools, 10 Bar, Seacam, PolarPro, Aquatica, Nauticam, Acquapazza.
Day 2: Wetpixel/DivePhotoGuide Underwater Imaging Party.
Booth visits day 3: New World Publications, Sea& Sea, Gates, Light & Motion, Watershot, Inon.
Booth visits day 4: Saga, ULCS, Aquatica, BS Kinetics, Fantasea, Orcalight, XIT404, iDive.
Mark Goyen: A newbie’s impression of DEMA.
Steve Williams: Final thoughts on DEMA 2014.
Adam Hanlon: Finishing thoughts and round up.