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Merry Christmas to all! Thank you for visiting our very first online newsletter. These are going to be monthly and will contain, well, news, as it says on the label. We'll tell you what's happening in the underwater photographic world, both here and abroad, and also what's going on here at the strange and wonderful place that is Cameras Underwater. We may occasionally drop in an offer or two just to tempt you a little but you'd forgive us that wouldn't you?
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Historic Ixus
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Sounds a bit like an ancient Greek god? Well it's not, it's Canon's latest flagship compact, the Ixus 980is. What makes it 'historic'? Well it's the first ever Ixus to have manual control (it also celebrates 10 years of Ixus cameras or something but who cares?). Let me tell you more about the camera in general before we talk about the manual control.
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The 980is is a 14.7 megapixel camera with a 3.7x optical zoom, which features image stabilisation. It has a clear 2.5" LCD screen for composing, taking and reviewing your shots. The 980 is a stylish little camera available in silver or a very attractive satin black. Beneath the surface it's packed with the latest imaging technology; Digic 4 image processing, the latest face recognition, anti-blur motion detection and a host of other innovative goodies all designed to give you better photographs.
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From a divers submerged point of view this little machine ticks all the right boxes. It has the all important manual white balance so you can take ambient light photos with correctly balanced colours, no need for filters or flash. A choice of housings are available for the 980; Canon's own WP DC 27 which will take you down to 40 metres or Ikelite's housing which will get you down even further to 60m. Wide angle lenses can be attached to either getting you closer to your subject and therefore giving you sharper more colourful results.
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Manual control. Most Ixus cameras do a good job underwater but the 980is just gives you that little bit extra. The ability to set you aperture manually means you can get even more creative with your macro or strobe work. Set F8 and use a strobe to isolate your subject from the background giving you that deep black/blue negative space behind your subject.
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Sony Cashback Offer
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Until the 31st December buy a Sony Handycam HC9 and get £60 cashback from Sony.
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The HC9 is our best selling HD camcorder and there is a wide range of housings for it. The line up starts with an inexpensive Ewa Marine flexible housing for pool and surf work. Next up is Sony's own sport housing giving you 5 metres to take footage in. As we get more serious we encounter Ikelite's 60 metres polycarbonate housing, giving you a serious enclosure at a not so serious price. From there we move up a gear to the state of the art Gates housing as used by professional end users the world over including the BBC and the Navies of several countries. All of these can be found at http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/video/index.html along with wide angle lenses and lighting equipment.
If you've been considering going HD, now's the time to do it and save some money.
Terms and conditions apply.
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News from the Canadian Front
Canadian housing manufacturer Aquatica have launched their new Nikon D700 housing, the AD700, and it's causing quite a splash (oops, sorry about that).
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Aquatica have been successfully making SLR housings for a long time but this year decided to re-engineer the model range. We met with Blake, Aquatica's President, at DEMA in October and he showed us what they've been up to.
Out with the blue in with the black, Aquatica's have a new finish, milled out of aluminium the new housings are anodised to a military specification and then painted with a rugged, durable black coating. It looks pretty good too.
The new housings also feature new interfaces with tensioners to ensure the housing buttons and knobs marry up correctly to the camera's controls for a positive feel and ease of use.
Another new feature is the unique V cut slot for the O ring. This new approach to O ring seating further minimises the risk of flooding and reduces O ring maintenance.
These are just a few of the new innovations Aquatica have added to this model and indeed the rest of the range. Coupled with Nikon's ground breaking D700 this is truly an advanced piece of equipment.
For more information please visit: http://www.aquatica.ca/subpages/catalog/housings/ad700.html
and http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/aquatica/slr/d700.html
Aquatica have also just launched the new A50D for Canon's EOS50D, which features the new technology as used in the AD700. We'll bring you more in depth info on this product soon.
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Not sure what to get your loved one for Christmas this year? May we suggest?
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Our hot product this Christmas is Canon's Ixus 960 with it's matching WP-DC19 housing. One of our best selling packages, the 960 will give you great pictures whether you're above or below the water. 12.1 megapixel with a 3.7X optical zoom and crammed with the latest imaging technology this little camera performs flawlessly, it even takes wonderful video footage. What's more it's on offer right now! Buy it now with an upgraded 2 GB SD card and a free Canon camera sock, which Jessops are currently selling for 20 quid! For more information please go to:
http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/store/product_info.php?cPath=1_17&products_id=161
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Special Christmas Promotion
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Spend £50 on anything at Cameras Underwater this Christmas and you'll be automatically entered into our fantastic free prize draw. The prize is an exciting week for two at the exclusive Anthony Keys Resort in The Bay Islands. The package includes everything except flights and alcoholic drinks. Diving, food and soft drinks, beach front accommodation and other exclusive activities are all included. The location is superb and the diving mind blowing.
For more details about Anthony's Keys please visit the following site:
http://www.anthonyskey.com/en/index.html
Go on, treat a loved one (or yourself) this Christmas and maybe we'll be treating you to a trip of a lifetime.
Offer applies to all retail sales over £50 inc VAT, in store, on-line or mail order. Standard terms and conditions apply. No cash alternatives. All sales must take place by 31st January 2009. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer unless otherwise stated.
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Dan Hopkins, our Devon Office Manager,
talks about taking photos in UK waters.
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The UK is considered a very tough place to take great pictures, the conditions and extra kit we have to drag around with us often means the camera is left behind. Also compared to our images from far-flung places, pictures from the UK can seem drab and colourless. Having said that, we all have our favourite sites we know very well, sites where we know when we are going to get good conditions or not, sites we would be happy to take our cameras that would usually be reserved for our holidays. It is then we should be exploring new ways of showing off our home rocks and reefs. After all, as cameras become smaller, cheaper and easier to use it is going to be what we find that makes that special photo. That special swim through or pillar, maybe wildlife unique to your area and of course wrecks. Even if you have a thousand pictures of your favourite wreck, how about an evening or night dive? Different conditions offer different opportunities, just like the weather on land. So just because the vis is low shouldn't hold you back from experimenting. So as a rule of thumb, always have your camera with you. You never know when you will stumble across that unique creature or even have that unique compositional idea!
This is just a taster, each month I'll be telling you how to produce great shots out of the green.
Have you got a UK shot that you're proud of? Send it in, we love to see people's work.
sales@camerasunderwater.co.uk
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Coming up in our New Year's issue...
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We'll be trying to keep you entertained whilst the diving isn't so good over here and if you're jetting off for some winter sun and diving - wait up! I'm coming with you!
Dan will be talking about diving in the UK through these dark months (brave lad) and how to get the best out of your camera even if it's not in the water.
We'll have an article from Rob Asquith, the power behind In Deep, which is becoming more commonly known as The Northern Dive Show, which is taking place on the 22nd February 2009 in Charnock Richard near Preston.
There will also be news from Ali Hood who is one of the main influences at The Shark Trust telling us about The Trust's activities at present.
And if you're really lucky you may even hear from our very own DIVE columnist Paul 'Duxy' Duxfield, that's if I can tempt him out from under his duvet with a bottle of cheap vodka and a copy of Hartlepool Playboy magazine...we'll see.
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