The UK’s major Dive Show was held at the National Exhibition Center, Birmingham last weekend. It attracted many people from around the UK and, as always, large numbers of underwater image makers attended, along with equipment suppliers and travel operators. Wetpixel was on hand to give the community a flavor of the event:

On the imaging stage, one of the perennial favorites of the show was a talk presented by double act Saeed Rashid and Nigel Wade which typically became as much of a stand up comedy event as a tutorial.

Sadly Nigel died suddenly earlier this year, so it was a bittersweet event. British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) Chair, Paul Colley provided a moving eulogy to Nigel prior to Saeed’s talk.

The Underwater Visions/Nauticam UK stand had some interesting new products.

The Nauticam Wide Angle Converter Port (WACP) was reviewed by Alex Mustard on Wetpixel earlier this year.

There was a very recent production version of the lens on the booth:

Another new product on their stand was the Nauticam NA-D850 housing for the Nikon D850

Underwater Visions imports many accessory brands into the UK, including Chinese company Weefine. Among Weefine’s products is an interesting looking ring flash.

Lastly, they were exhibiting the new Retra flash (seen here with the optional extra battery pack):

Pash Baker produces exquisite hand created glass jewelry and dishes. They all have a marine theme.

A new exhibitor at Birmingham for 2017 was Easydive. The Italian manufacturer was showing his wireless and USB controlled universal housings and accessories. Fabio Benvenuti showed me his new control system for smartphone housings, which combines Bluetooth phone control with optical sensors.

One of the highlights of the imaging stage is another double act, this time of Alex Mustard and Martin Edge. Their topic this year was “Unseen Images,” and was about the experimentation and learning process that is involved in the creation of stunning imagery.

They spoke to a “packed house.”

BSoUP hold an annual print competition at the show which is open for public voting:

Inon had a number of new products in the show’s products showcase (thanks to Diver’s Alex Khachadourian for making the time to come and open up the showcases for me).

Lastly, Ikelite had their housing for the Canon 5D series cameras, which features a vacuum valve as standard and TTL strobe triggering as an option.