DEMA Show 2010 Coverage

Underwater photography guide techniques editor Todd Winner, with some help from Scott Gietler, Kevin Griffen and Bill Van Antwerp, took some time to photograph some of the products on display at the DEMA 2010 show in Las Vegas.

Reefnet at the DEMA show

Keri Wilk from Reefnet with the new fiber optic micro-snoot. The snoot is not for sale yet, but Keri does plan on having some more Subsee's to ship out soon. The new fiber optic snoot system is currently being moved from prototype to production. Adapters for a variety of strobe systems will be offered. Additionally, Keri was showing a very nice, wide base tripod adapter suitable for a variety of housings as well as SubSee adapters for almost any still or video system.

SeaCam

SeaCam mini fisheye dome. SeaCam was there showing an impressive line of high-end DSLR housings, new ports, and high-power strobes and a beautifully finished underwater tripod.

SeaCam underwater tripod

Canon

Canon's new 8-15mm F4 fisheye lens. The lens produces a circular view at 8mm when used on a full-frame camera. Canon showed their normal line-up of DSLRs, compact cameras and video. They presented an excellent seminar on the joys and pitfalls of shooting video with DSLRs as well. The highlight of the exhibit though was this new 8-15mm circular fisheye lens scheduled to ship in March (so they say). For a sense of how this will look underwater take a look here. This lens appears aimed at underwater photographers, a first from a major camera maker.

Aquatica

This is Aquatica's new pole-cam setup. This has a unique feature to allow the operator to tilt the camera while it is underwater. Aquatica showed a variety of new housings and ports for both DSLR and some EVIL cameras as well as this  innovative polecam. They were also showing a very nice housing for the Sony HD video cameras with full manual control of all camera functions. This shows that a company specializing in still cameras can be very innovative moving to video. Aquatica also plans on having a Nikon D7000 housing ready around January.

Aquatica's new housing for the Sony NEX-5 mirrorless camera. The housing feels solid and well-built.

Aquatica's new port extension with focus control for the Canon EF 16-35mm and EF 17-40mm. This is a great feature for those of us shooting video underwater. Now we can still use zoom lenses and have the ability to manual focus while shooting video.

Nauticam

Nauticam housing for the Sony NEX-5. This housing has been getting a lot of attention due to the ability to use the old Nikonos lenses. Essentially creating the long sought after digital Nikonos camera, although the 1.5 crop factor of the Sony camera will make the lenses not as wide as they originally were.

Nauticam was very busy, showing their new housings including a housing for the Phase One camera (bring your wallets), the Sony NEX-5 pictured above, and all of the latest generation of new DSLRs including a Nikon D7000 housing.

Nauticam white balance port on the Phase One 645DF housing

Fisheye

Here's the Fisheye Fix Aqua Vault 4500, a super bright video light. Fisheye was also proudly showing their version of the Canon S95 housing which has some of the same features as the Nauticam, noticeably the locking port mechanism. This makes perfect sense since the Fisheye housings are now manufactured by Nauticam rather than Seatool. The G12 housing is scheduled to ship early next year.

Saga

Saga, the Spanish maker of all sorts of clever adapters and ports was showing one of the more unusual but potentially very cool new toys. They were showing a fiber optic ring flash that used 24 (if I counted right) fibers arranged in pairs around a super macro setup. One key advantage of this setup compared to traditional ringstrobes is that the fibers can be bent toward the subject allowing lighting of tiny critters very close to the front of the port. It might also be a killer way to light either the Inon endoscope lenses or for close focus wide angle of tiny subjects..

Ultralight

Ultralight Control Systems showed a new mount for the Go-Pro video housing, shown above, as well as some clever extendable arms. They also had a tripod with some very cool looking practice golf balls cut in half at the bottom of the arms. The GoPro video is a a tiny HD camera used for surfing, freediving, or any other activity that needs a tiny underwater video camera.

Ultralight adjustable arm

Ultralight's new underwater tripod

Ikelite

Ikelite's new Pro-2800 LED video light with 2800 lumens and 5500k color temperature. Ikelite had a large booth showing their impressive range of housings and strobes and the very nice looking video light pictured above, where the battery sits in its own neoprene bag.

Ikelite's DS-161 movie strobe, which conveniently combines their popular DS-160 strobe with a LED video light in a single package for those DSLR shooters who also want video.

Sea & Sea

Sea & Sea 45 degree viewfinder. Sea and Sea announced their D7000 housing will be in the MDX series (aluminum) not the RDX and they showed a new 45 degree viewfinder (pictured above) along with their other housings and strobes. Unlike most everyone else, they are building a housing for Ricoh P&S cameras and not getting on the EVIL/micro 4/3 bandwagon.

Sea & Sea YS-250 strobe. One of the most powerful strobes out on the market these days.

Light & Motion

Light and Motion's new SOLA photo and video lights. It's amazing how much light these small compact units can put out. Light and Motion have a new logo (much nicer) and some very nice new video lights based on some of their bicycle lighting systems. Apparently they are no longer going to sell the systems with pods and separate batteries but are making higher power systems for video and still systems. If the new systems are as well received as the Sola 600 focus lights they will have a hit on their hands. They also showed a Sola 4000 good for lighting up the entire reef at night and the size of a Foster’s beer can. It has a built in diffuser and a cyan filter for warming up the LED color temperature.

Zen

Zen glass mini-dome fisheye port with Ikelite mount. This will be a good small-sized (4 inch) option for the Tokina 10-17mm lens.

Inon

Inon Insect Eye lens. The Inon insect eye lens was on display at a couple of booths with adapters for a variety of housings.

Dyron

Dyron wet-macro port for compact cameras for improved corner sharpness. Dyron had some very nice looking wide angle ports for compact camera systems.

Dyron fisheye port for compact cameras

Dyron buoyancy arm

Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface mounting cage with lots of mounting points for attaching strobes, video lights, aiming lights and handles.

10 Bar

10 Bar housing and accessories

Patima

Patima 3D underwater video rig and compact housings. Patima was showing their G12 housing but the biggest news was their 3D camera system for 2 Panasonic HD recorders. The housing can hold either camera in portrait or landscape mode and all controls for both cameras are available.

Subal

Subal's new prototype for Sony NEX-5. This housing will feature a 45 degree angle viewfinder. Subal was showing all of their new housings now with port locking systems as well as a luscious new 9-inch dome port. They also were showing a prototype of the NEX-5 system and a nice looking external monitor for those of us shooting video with our SLR rigs.

Subal's new 9 inch glass dome and glass mini-fisheye dome. 

Big Blue

Big Blue video lights and aiming lights. Big Blue showed some new focus lights and some lights that might be very nice for video.

BS Kinetics

BS Kinetics were showing a nice series of accessories including carbon fiber arms in both normal and extra buoyancy sizes and BS had some very stunning looking carbon fiber housings for a wide variety of cameras.

Underwater Photography Guide

Penny (Scott's wife) at the Underwater Photography Guide booth at DEMA, while Scott, Todd, Bill, Mark, Kevin G. and Kevin L. visit other booths.

Overall the DEMA show in Las Vegas was extremely well attended and it seems that the world of underwater photography is alive and well.

Further Reading

Long Beach Scuba show coverage 2010