new Nikon D90

The new Nikon D90 has been announced (see preview on dpreview). the D90 has a new 12.3MP DX format CMOS sensor, offers a movie mode, live-view with contrast detect AF, ISO 100/200-3200/6400, 3" lcd, and image sensor cleaning. There is also a compact gps unit available that connects on the hotshoe.
the price tag is 1000USD (camera body only) on bhphotovideo.com, expected in october.

hmm. i dont know.

i will just continue to look forward to the first olympus micro four thirds camera...

housing for pentax w60

the pentax w60 was announced on 23-May-2006 (no, no, i am not that late finding out, here, i posted about it earlier..). I just found (through digifish.nl)some information about a Seatool 40m housing for it. But the only page i've seen is in japanese; here is a link to a google-translated version of the seatool.net page.



the page mentions a price of about 350AUD and a release date of august 8. and some accessories, such as M67 adapter, optic fibre adapter, and a close-up lens. Apparently the seatool products are available directly from seatool.net (japanese only) website. You can buy all the w60 goods here (again this is a link through google-translate).
The pentax optio W60 is waterproof itself (4m) has a wide 28mm lens, ISO to 6400 (on a 1/2.33" 10mp sensor..) , manual focus, no image stabilization.

was wondering if anyone has seen this housing available in any other site on the web. the US version of seatool (seatoolUSA.com) only lists dSLR and video camera housings as far as i could see.

micro four thirds

Excellent news !

Olympus / Panasonic announced the micro four thirds format, which is basically the four thirds format without the mirror box and the optical viewfinder. The lens mount becomes slightly smaller too, but will still accept the four thirds lenses with an adapter. New micro four thirds lenses should be more compact.

I read the press release from dpreview.com. But of course the news can be found in many many pages and blogs.

ok now, when will the first olympus micro four thirds appear on the market?

new blog on the block

Bjorn has started a new blog on diving, the "Sydney Diver Daily", only not so daily in his posts i guess. There is an interesting post there about the salvo 12W LED canister light.

quick price check for dSLRs

A quick price check for entry level dSLRs with a housing
(prices are in US dollars, so also in AU dollars..)

• Olympus E520 in an Olympus PT-E05 housing, with the standard lens port PPOE05 :
  700 + 830 + 300 = $1830
• Canon 450D in Ikelite with port:
  800 + 1330 + 200 = 2330
• Canon 1000D has a price tag of 700USD, but not sure about a housing for it.
• Nikon D60 in fantasea (fantasea housings prices include a port):
  630 + 1000 = 1630
• Nikon D80 in fantasea:
  950 + 1100 = 2050

I believe that the olympus housing is the only one (from the short list above) that allows the camera's internal strobe to be used (for use with external strobes connected with optic cables).

creatures of bare island: pygmy lionfish

We keep seeing a pygmy lionfish (possibly more than one?) at bare island. it has the strange habit of sitting inside sponges upside down, or pointing its "nose" straight down.

I was just reading this article about lionfish that threaten reefs in the Caribbean, so I remembered the lionfish photos i got from bare island, somehow!

The most recent encounter was saturday 19-Jul-2008. This time it was not hiding in the sponges as usual.

.
photos from 25-May-2008, and on 26-Apr-2008.



from 10-apr-2008, night dive:



More pics (14-Mar-2008)



I believe my first photos of this lionfish at bare island are from 30-Jan-2008.




Here are the photos that i got from different dives, side by side, oldest to most recent.

rumors of a new nikon P6000

I am reading through DivePhotoGuide.com that there are rumors about a new nikon P6000.
The specs mentioned in the photo that appears on flickr, in full size, include:

28mm eq. wide lens, Raw format, 6400 ISO, nikon's VR, 2.7in screen and 13.5 mpixels on a 1/1.7 sensor.

new Canon 1000D

canon 1000D announced, which is placed below 450D. most features are similar to 450D (including the live view with both phase and contrast detect auto focus) but with a smaller lcd screen, slightly slower in continuous mode, no spot metering, 7 point (instead of 9) AF, no highlight tone priority, and slightly less magnification on the viewfinder. for a detailed preview see the dpreview pages.

new pentax Optio W60

a new compact camera from pentax, which is

• waterproof to 3-4m (13ft) for 2h
• dustproof and freezeproof to -10C (13F)
• wide lens (28mm equivalent)
• manual focus
• 1cm macro focus
• 9 point TTL contrast detection AF (9 point, spot, auto tracking, macro, super macro, infinity, pan, manual focus)
• ISO up to 6400
• High-Quality Movie mode with HD resolution up to 1280 x 720 pixels
• 10mp, internal optical zoom 5x
• available in July 2008 for US $329.95

if only pentax would make a proper underwater housing for it. i like the idea of having (possibly as a second camera) a waterproof compact camera in a waterproof housing.

my first underwater camera was a pentax optio s30 in a pentax housing, and i was very very happy with it. especially the super macro mode. using just the camera's internal flash and super macro mode the photos (sometimes) were very good. i still cannot get such photos with my canon g7, two inon strobes, and an inon wet macro lens, after thousands of photos. some examples from my old pentax camera: one, two, three, four. a problem with my old pentax was that it was very very slow to focus and take a photo.

more info about the new pentax w60 on dcviews.com or the h2ocamera.com site.

dolphins

for the first time this saturday i saw

• dolphins while diving
• dolphins while ... driving !

cant believe there are many other cities around the world (or any) where someone can see dolphins while driving their car on a busy road with traffic jams and all that.

we saw two (small i think) dolphins at kurnell diving the leap to the steps, close to the steps and while we were at a depth of around 10m. after the dive, and while driving back into the city over the taren point bridge we saw dolphins again in botany bay with a few boats circling them.