Great job, Eric and James!

Great workshop at Seaspace, Eric and James!

 

astrl

Thanks! We had a really good time at Seaspace and it was great to meet some of you:

 

Craig Jones, Myself, and Dr.Craig:

 

 

Craig, Karl and Kimberly (sp?) Dietz:

 

 

Ryan from UPCP - I finally got to talk to him for more than 30 seconds! (but not much more):

 

 

One of my friends got some photos from the Workshop - I'll try to post them tonight. It was a packed house.

 

Cheers

James

Bah! I missed just about everything.

 

It was me, my wife, my friend, and his girlfriend that went to SeaSpace. I couldn't get those guys out of bed in time for the workshop on Sunday.

 

I did get a chance to talk to Ryan though, as he was the only person I knew exactly where to find. Very nice guy and always helpful!

Jim, you missed a very informative workshop. James and Eric did an excellent job and we all learned a lot.

 

We enjoyed finally meeting James and it was great to meet Craig....turns out he boards his dogs with Kimberly's sister....it's a small world!

 

It was good to see Ryan again....hope he had a safe drive back....12 hours straight!

 

I finally got my hands on Ikelite's D70 housing and I can't wait for ours to come in. Might be this week

 

I have to admit that I had aluminum envy with the Nexus D70 and Aquatica housings, but I'm happy with my choice.

 

Karl

Thanks Karl,

 

Ike loaned us that housing - but it's for the D100. They are very similar - almost exactly the same.

 

Cheers

James

I was disappointed that I there wasn't an Ike D70 housing for me to play with.

 

I have to admit that Nexus Housing is really sweet. It's pretty light, it's tight and compact, but the one thing that really impressed me was how smooth all the dials where, and how easy it was to reach everything with just my thumb or fingers.

 

I also really liked the Sea and Sea housing. Most notably the ability to use your thumb to do a 1/2 press of the shutter, and then use your finger to snap the shot. I've never been good at doing a 1/2 press of the shutter with just the Shutter lever, so this would be a huge plus for me.

 

But really, the Ikelite (future) TTL is worth more than all those features to me. I played with the Rebel Ikelite Housing, which is supposed to be similar to the D70 one. It was very nice. This was my first time to see any Ikelite housing in person, and I was impressed with their quality.

 

Jim, you missed a very informative workshop. James and Eric did an excellent job and we all learned a lot.

You have no idea how disappointed I was. This was honestly my main reason for the drive down to Houston. I looked at the clock and it was 9:30 and neither of the women had showered yet, my wife was cooking still cooking breakfast and we still had to pack to check out of the Hotel. At that point I just gave up on making it on time. It wasn't till we were on our way to the Expo around 11am that my wife said "Oh, you are missing your workshop! I thought it didn't start until noon."

Hi Jim,

 

No sweat - it would have been nice to have you though. If you're not busy, I'll be giving a digital workshop for HUPS.org this Saturday in Houston. It's free for HUPS members, and I think it's $5 for non-members.

 

Also, I'm curious where you got your information about iTTL???? Why do you think that Ikelite will have iTTL figured out, but none of the other companies like Aquatica or Sea and Sea or Nexus will be able do it?

 

If anything, I'd put my bet on Aquatica first, because they have already cracked Canon's eTTL code, so they are a step ahead. I asked Blake about this at Seaspace and he said that they'd be focusing their efforts on iTTL next.

 

Cheers

James

No sweat - it would have been nice to have you though.  If you're not busy, I'll be giving a digital workshop for HUPS.org this Saturday in Houston.  It's free for HUPS members, and I think it's $5 for non-members.

HUPS had a great booth at SeaSpace. I wish I could, but unfortunatley I have another long drive from Dallas to Brady Texas next weekend.

 

Also, I'm curious where you got your information about iTTL????  Why do you think that Ikelite will have iTTL figured out, but none of the other companies like Aquatica or Sea and Sea or Nexus will be able do it?

It's Ryan's fault, blame him! I was looking over the Sea and Sea housing closely, and when he showed me the Thumb Button Trick I was just about sold on it. I then said "But Sea and Sea won't give my TTL though right." and Ryan's responce was "Not a chance."

 

I guess I just assumed that Ike was the only one even working on TTL...

I looked at the clock and it was 9:30 and neither of the women had showered yet, my wife was cooking still cooking breakfast and we still had to pack to check out of the Hotel. At that point I just gave up on making it on time.

 

I said, "We need to leave at 7:00am." (This was Saturday) We left our house at 8:22.

 

I had directions to the hotel, but not directly to Reliant Center. My next mistake was having her read the road atlas to get us to Reliant Center. Luckily we didn't end up in Shreveport. "Aren't we supposed to take Hwy 80 to get to Houston?"

 

We had enough time Saturday to hit everything for the most part. Met some wetpixel folks and saw some others I already knew. Saw Bret Gilliam's and Burt Jones' Indonesia presentations. Redundant but interesting. We decided to skip Sunday and head back to Dallas the next morning.

 

HUPS booth was very nice. We commented on the lighting. A guy came and mentioned that he had set up the lighting. He was quite proud of it, as he should be. It really added to the presentation.

 

Norma at Aquatica was really surprised whe she met me. We've talked on the phone a billion times. She was probably expecting someone younger, but not near as good looking. :wink:

 

The Nexus D70 looks really nice and compact. I overheard the price. It's quite attractive.

 

I did not have a particularly good experience at the Ikelite booth.

 

How about a group trip on the Kararu? Anybody? I think I want to go back to Indonesia. It's a long drive, but well worth it.

Indo's just up the road from me, so I'd think about it!

 

The drive to Seaspace was a bit far however, so I'll have to content myself looking at the photos of new shiny housings.

I also really liked the Sea and Sea housing. Most notably the ability to use your thumb to do a 1/2 press of the shutter, and then use your finger to snap the shot. I've never been good at doing a 1/2 press of the shutter with just the Shutter lever, so this would be a huge plus for me.  

 

I expect you'll be very happy to see Ikelite offer this control as well...

You expected right!!!

I also really liked the Sea and Sea housing. Most notably the ability to use your thumb to do a 1/2 press of the shutter, and then use your finger to snap the shot. I've never been good at doing a 1/2 press of the shutter with just the Shutter lever, so this would be a huge plus for me.

 

We had this housing all last week in the Galapagos, and should have a review up as soon as possible.

 

The workshop was a lot of fun! There will be more, in the future. It was nice to meet y'all as well, even though George refused to let me photograph him...