DEMA 2013

New Housings, new lights and other great new photography tools!

This year at DEMA we spoke with all our photography vendors to get the scoop on all the new and upcoming products that they have to offer. There were definitely some great things to see and lots of upcoming products that are very exciting. Here's a brief overview of what we saw!

Aquatica

New housings coming up include the Nikon D7100 (now available!) and the Canon 70D (available January). We also learned that Aquatica is starting work on a housing for the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 which we should see a little into the new year.

Aquatica Housing for Nikon D7100

Aquatica Housing for Canon 70D

Beneath the Surface

Adding to their line of great trays, arms & clamps, the folks at BTS have brought out a new product on thier GoPro line, the Multi-Grip Handle for GoPro. This is a great tool if you want a simple extended grip on the camera, or to add a single light off the bottom.

Dyron

Dyron has a new super wide angle lens which should work great for the Canon G15 camera, screwing in directly to a 67mm port and offering a 120 degree angle of view with no vignetting. We were able to get one to test, and are looking forward to the results!

Fantasea

The big news over at Fantasea is the upcoming housing for Canon G16. This housing looks very similar to the great G15 housing they came out with and works with all the current F series accessories, like BigEye Dome, and 67mm Eyedaptor. One cool new feature: the G16 housing ships with an improved handstrap for added grip and comfort.

Ikelite

As always Ikelite is busy creating great housings for all the popular camera models. Upcoming housings include the Nikon D7100, Canon 70D, Canon S120 and Canon G16. The G16 marks a first for Ikelite with two different versions, the standard housing with their TTL circuitry built in, and a fiber optic version so that you can easily attach fiber optic cables.

iTorch

Still working hard with new lights, iTorch unveiled the new Fishlight V24 at the show, this 2400 Lumen light has a 120 degree beam and red focus light. If that isn't enough for you, check out their new Video Pro7 light boasting 5000 lumens and still that superwide 120 degree beam angle, all in a very compact body.

iTorch Video Pro 7

Light & Motion

The new buzz from Light & Motion is the new GoBe light. This small light is univeral, it can be used topside or underwater. In addition it supports a removeable light head so you can customize it for exactly what you need - wide beam, spot, UV, red and more!

In addition, Light & Motion have revamped their Sola Video line with a new 2500/1200 Lumen Sola. This light has a 2500 wide and a 1200 spot focus light option. They have also improved the old 2000 Sola increasing its output to 2100 lumens.

Sola 2500 Lumen Video Light

Nauticam

Along with all the great new housings, such as Canon 70D, Blackmagic Cinema and E-M1 coming out, Nauticam has also been really busy adding to thier very helpful photography tools this year. Two that stand out include the new Vacuum System and Super Macro Converter. The Vacuum System allows the user to pull a vaccum in the housing, which engages the o-rings and confirms that the water tight seal is intact. Proper use of the vacuum system can virtually eliminate all risk of flooding a housing. New dSLR and mirrorless models will ship with the needed electronics. Anyone with a current model housing can send it in to Nauticam to have the electronics installed. The vacuum bulkhead and pump are sold separately.

Secondly would be the new Super Macro Converter. This lens was engineered specifically for underwater use and is the strongest underwater macro lens we've seen. With superior optics, it results in images with less abberation and distortion and tos of great detail.

Olympus

Olympus was showing off the new OM-D E-M1 camera and a first look at the upcoming PT-EP11 housing for the E-M1. It follows the style of previous Olympus housings with the red and black polycarbonate design, clear back piece and full functionality with the camera. This housing will have the same bayonet style mount as the E-M5 housing for easy port changes. Look for it to be out around January.

Polar Pro

Polar Pro has been busy redesigning all their filters and creating new filters for the Hero3+ housing. The big exciting news is that they are moving to premium glass filters which will provide better optics and a more scratch resistant filter. Also something to look forward to is thier improved filter / macro lens option. The macro lens doesn't add much magnification to the camera so you still get the great wide angle view, but it significantly reduces the minimum focus distance allowing you to get much better close up shots in focus. Video tests shown at DEMA were very impressive, we'd say this is a must for anyone shooting with a GoPro underwater.

SeaLife

The big news from SeaLife this year is thier new Sea Dragon lighting system. They have completely redesigned thier tray and arm system with a new modular system for more customization. The new Sea Dragon strobe is smaller and easier to use, with built in electronics to sense the pre-flash on a camera. They have a new video light which offers good power in a small size. Pair these with the ever popular DC1400 camera and they offer a very solid auto fuction camera system for underwater shooting.

Sea & Sea

There are a couple new things happening over at Sea & Sea. Apart from some great new housings to look forward to, like the Canon 70D, and new Canon SL-1 (100D), Sea & Sea has revamped their fiber optic cables. This may seem trivial but it can make a huge difference. The new cables are a multi fiber core so that they can take a bit more of a beating and still transmit light effectively. In addition they're offered in three different sizes to help suit everyone's needs.

Sea & Sea RDX-100D for Canon SL1 (100D)

The real exciting news however is the new Optical YS Converter. This small piece works with specific dSLR housings to allow the shooter to bypass the slow, battery draining onboard flash and plug directly into the hot-shoe as you would with electronic sync cords. However, instead of sync cords, which can fail and flood, this unit outputs the light and important ttl guide number information in an optical signal that is sent via fiber optic cables to your Sea & Sea strobes. The new Optical YS Coverter will allows for fast reliable TTL with quick burst shooting capability, all with fiber optic cables.

Ultralight

We also caught up with our good friends over at Ultralight Control Systems. While they did not have anything new, they were displaying their full line of trays, arms, clamps and the many, many accessories they offer to allow you to set up your camera system perfectly.

Watershot

In addition to thier great line of iPhone housings, Watershot now offers housings for the Galaxy S3 & S4. They are working on an underwater pairing between thier pro version housing and the Sony Smartphone Attachable lens, which will enable the shooter to get high quality underwater pics using their smart phone. Look for more information on that in the next couple of months.

Overall DEMA was pretty exciting, keep an eye out for all these great new products and as always if you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 310-633-5052 or email sales@bluewaterphototore.com.