Photokina 2008 Coverage

They say that the first day of the show is always the slowest one, and so it was. Some of us expected some hectic traffic, and instead, we found ourselves in quite a relaxed day, which eventually turned out to be a good thing, as we were given the opportunity to invest more time and energies in those visitors that approached our booths. Some of the visitors were photo dealers and some were consumers, all of them driven by a tremendous thirst for new products and technologies. Following the advice of a Taucher.net representative, which was an inevitable part of planning the underwater imaging world, exhibitors should not get used to this phase, as tomorrow things will look a little differently, as great traffic is expected at the show.

Some news from Subal

I went to visit Rolf Sempert and Peter Stangl at the Subal booth and could not ignore the large poster which displays an image of the Subal ND-700 Housing for the new Nikon D700 DSLR and reads "We are the first!”. Considering the fact that this camera was announced by Nikon at the beginning of July, this is quite a remarkable achievement, based on a quick responsiveness strategy. In addition, Subal also showcased the new C40 Housing, which was designed for the Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera. Both housings are made from aluminum, machined from block, extreme surface hardening and feature corrosion resistance through HardCoating. All parts are manufactured from anodized and hard coated aluminium, acid proof stainless steel or high quality plastics. Rolf and Peter also revealed that they are planning to manufacture a housing for the Canon 50D DSLR camera and it will be called the US-50D Housing.

• Subal housings

Some news from Sealux

I then went to visit Jurgen at the Sealux booth, which was a bit difficult to find at first as he was well hidden behind a huge video camera housing, called the HDEX1 and specially designed for the Sony PWM-EX1 camcorder. This housing is accompanied by a 120 degrees wide angle lens port and a zoom control that enables using the full zoom extension of the lens. According to Jurgen, although it weighs 9 kilos, the housing is the most lighweight solution for the EX1 camcorder as it was specially designed to accommodate it. The Sealux booth also proudly displays the CD-3 Housing for the Nikon D3 camera and I was told that they are now in the process of designing a flash housing for the new Nikon SB-900 Digital Flash. Doing my best to trigger an interesting competition, I asked about plans regarding a housing for the new Nikon D700 DSLR. Jurgen smiled satisfactorily and left me with no doubt regarding Sealux's progress in this matter.

• Sealux photo housings | Sealux video housings

Tomorrow Dennis Wilson promised us a big party on the world of imaging floor. A huge aquarium was prepared for this event, as underwater photography products will ocassionaly be thrown inside and extremely ambitious visitors who really, but really, want to win the product, will be permitted to dive into the aquarium and pull out their prize. Did I already mention it was raining cats and dogs today?

Stay tuned with us as tomorrow we will come back with further information regarding new underwater photography trends as well as general photography news brought to you from the booths of the largest photo manufacturers in the world.

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