GEAR TESTS: Aquatica MisCELLANEOUS
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Jean BruneaU Aquatica Technical Advisor  |
The Digital Shootout is not only a multi-level event, but it is one of, if not the biggest of its genre in underwater photography. Aside from the intensive seminars on video and still photography that aim at honing your skills, there are workshops on editing software to help improve your images.Also there is the opportunity to access and pick the brains of the multiple staffers available, any day and any time. As if that was not enough, a large inventory of underwater photography equipment is available which you can actually test underwater, a rare opportunity indeed as this sort of gear is not your average photo equipment. And trying it before buying it, is sometimes next to impossible.
The Digital Shootout is the perfect occasion to test new photo equipment and techniques. Aquatica contributes to this unique event by flying me, from the Technical Support Department and Sean Havas, an accomplished photographer himself, with hundreds of pounds in demo gear for attendees to try out. As part of the Digital Shootout's dedicated staff, and as manufacturer representatives, we remain on call around the clock to answer any questions you should have on our products or photography itself.
We brought along DSLR housing systems to accommodate the Canon 5D Mk III and the Nikon D800 The Aquatica A5D Mk III housing is always a favorite at these type of events. It is a no nonsense system tailored for the advanced and professional shooter, offering stellar performance both in stills and in video, in a well laid out and easy to handle housing. As demo gear for the attendees, this was setup for macro or for wide angle, the latter taking advantage of our innovative port extension which has a manual focusing control knob integrated in its design.
The Nikon D800 yields massive files of 36MB of resolution, even when in DX mode it still has a higher pixel count than many high end DSLR cameras. Not only are the image files huge, they are outstanding in quality. No wonder it became the "must have" setup for underwater photographers shooting Nikon. As these lines are written, the Nikon D810 has just been announced, looking very much like a D800 does. It appears, at first glance, that the camera is likely to fit into the AD800 housing If that is the case, it will make for quite a formidable underwater setup. The AD800 housing is lightweight and well balanced underwater and every control is in the right place, where it should be ergonomically.
Both Aquatica DSLR housing systems were backed up with our complete range of ports. Available for demo use were the 4" Minidome 6"& 8" dome port and 9.25" Megadome port , which took care of the wide angle requirement (a must in Little Cayman's famous wall dives), we also had the AF and AF/MF macro port both of which could be set up with our close up kit of +5 and +10 Wet Diopters. To improve the already good viewing system of our DSLR housings, our Aqua View Finders, both the 45 degree and the 180 degree were on-hand as well.
This trip was also the occasion to introduce our SURVEYOR moisture and vacuum sensor system All housings we had on the islands where equipped with these sensor systems. Being in charge of our demo gear also meant that I had to rotate multiple housing systems on a daily basis and most often, at the last minute, just before the boats casted off the dock. These kinds of situations usually leaves the door wide open for human error, so the SURVEYOR devices sure became my indispensable friends for this trip. Watching that green LED slowly blink, as the attendees walked away with our demo gear, gave me that warm fuzzy feeling of comfort that our cameras and lenses where safe and sound for the day.
We just barely unpacked our gear, and the dive gear just got dry, and already we are stoked on next year's event in Roatan!!! It's going to be loaded with photographic opportunities, and unlimited shore diving is just the ticket when you want to test any kind of gear. So really! I sure hope to see you at 2015 Digital Shootout edition.
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