SeaLife debuts underwater photographic gear
SeaLife Underwater Cameras debuted numerous new underwater photography products and gear. Among the highlights:
SeaLife’s SportDiver Smartphone housing fits the new iPhone 14 series including the iPhone Pro Max. The SeaLife SportDiver is a compact, lightweight underwater housing that fits most Android and Apple smartphones, and accommodates the new iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Ultra, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The iOS apps work with previous generations including the iPhone 7.
The $349.95 SeaLife SportDiver housing allows divers to take photos and video with their smartphone down to 130 feet or 40 meters. The durable housing is constructed of polycarbonate, stainless steel, aluminum, and optical-grade glass. The SportDiver housing weighs less than 1.5 pounds (641 grams) on land and offers near-neutral buoyancy in water depending on the smartphone.
The new compact Sea Dragon 5000+ Photo-Video light is a high-performance underwater lamp delivering 5000 lumens in a smooth 120° wide beam. The $599.95 light offers a 90 CRI (color rendering index) with a proprietary COB LED array replicating natural sunlight (A CRI of 100 would be just like natural sunlight). With the addition of the newly patent pending SeaLife Color Boost™ mode, the photo-video light combines red and white light frequencies to produce a warming underwater effect that increases brilliance and adds colors to underwater photos and video. The Sea Dragon 5000+ is depth tested to 330 feet (100 meters).
SeaLife also introduced the compact Sea Dragon 3000SF Pro Dual Beam Photo-Video light. The larger COB LED delivers 3000 lumens in an even 120° wide beam. The $549.95 light offers a 90 CRI (color rendering index) with a proprietary COB LED array that replicates natural sunlight (A CRI of 100 would be just like natural sunlight). With a simple one-button push, the underwater photographer can switch from the wide 120° beam to a narrow 1500 lumen 15° spot beam. The narrow beam feature has a long effective range making it useful to see in dark areas and discover hiding fish. The Sea Dragon Pro Dual Beam also offers two 180-lumen 88° red LEDs.
SeaLife also introduced a new Micro Wide Angle Dome Lens for the Micro-series and ReefMaster underwater cameras that increases the camera’s field-of-view by almost 50% and allows photographers to get three times closer to the subject.
The $349.95 Micro Wide Angle Dome Lens design uses high-grade optics arranged in a 4- element/4- group array that delivers crisp edge-to-edge sharpness. The internal elements are fully multi-coated optical glass. The dome lens is optical polycarbonate with a hard, anti-scratch coating.
“This is a breakthrough for Micro-Series camera users, as the lens significantly improves the camera’s performance” says Bjorn Harms, SeaLife’s Vice President of Product Development. The lens has a 13.3mm film-equivalent effective focal length when used with the SeaLife Micro 3.0 and is waterproof to 200ft/60m.
The lens fits all SeaLife Micro-series cameras (Micro HD, HD+, Micro 2.0, Micro 3.0). With the Micro 3.0 camera, the shooting angle is increased from 100° to 143°, and the close focus distance is reduced 3-fold to 5”/12.7cm.
Finally, SeaLife debuted the underwater SeaLife Lens Caddy, which holds Micro, DC and ReefMaster series lenses. The $59.95 Lens Caddy attaches under the camera tray using a standard ¼-20 tripod screw or to any grip/arm up to 1.8” (45mm) in diameter using a sturdy Hook & loop nylon strap.
The SeaLife Lens Caddy mounts SeaLife DC, Micro, and RM-4K series lenses to a camera or tray using the standard ¼-20 tripod screw or to any grip/arm up to 1.8” (45mm) in diameter using a sturdy hook & loop nylon strap. The Lens Caddy holds any DC series lens (SL975, SL050, SL051, SL976), or Micro and RM-4K series lenses (SL571, SL572, SL052).