'07 Long Beach Show Report

We were invited to attend as press to the Long Beach Scuba Show held once again at the Long Beach Convention Center.

This time though the venue was moved to a larger hall to accommodate the larger attendee and vendor numbers this show had compared to last year.

It is rewarding ambulating about before the show actually opens so we can interview vendors on new products without the crowds.

Of course the first thing we did is make a bee-line for Amphibico's booth to pick up from Joe Brendahan our new external HiDef monitor for our Phenom housing. They are taking pre-orders for this monitor and I must say it rocks! Even has a push-button digitial zoom feature on the monitor.

While there, we spied the production version of their new housing for the remarkable 3 CMOS chip Sony HDR FX7 & HDR V1U. Amphibico is taking pre-orders and if you do so, shipping is free, which should save you around $100 depending on where you live in the U.S.

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The Endeavor comes with a external standard definition monitor and there is an option so the monitor is a 16:9 HiDef. Especially if you use manual focus, the HD monitor option is the cats meow.

Next we had an opportunity to go talk to the always helpful people at Jetsam, the KISS rebreather manufacturer. They partnered at the show with Delta P, the VR3 people and the great Ouroboris CCR. In addition to their existing stagger-stacked LCD p02 display rray, they showed one of their newer units with a color VR3 as the primary and a tertiary P02 display housed in a VR3 case. I wonder if the tertiary display is driven off either the cells directly or more likely amplified by the redundant display batteries in the unlikely event of main unit power failure. Being able to read cell values with total electronics failure is quite a desirable feature.

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As to the Boris, we're going to upload photos of the Boris internals along with their new hydrophobic membrane.

Jetsam is using a new compact 2nd stage for the CCR bailout valve. Nice unit!

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In addition to the new, there was the old. I had a blast pouring over a booth that had a large collection of past dive equipment. The At-Pac takes me back to my days of when I got certified. Shown below left is ScubaPro's version of a more streamline At-Pac.

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Can anyone guess what the below image is of? Look next week in the forum and we'll have the most comprehensive photos of any dive discussion forum of this really compact unit where photos are more scarce than an honest politician.

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Titan rebreathers were present and their compact CCR unit is coming along quite nicely. We had a chance to get some good photos of their dual controller displays. Look for more photos next week in the CCR section under titan.

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It was interesting to see some new vendors with new products. Shown below left are the folks at On Edge, a new high output dive light manufacturer. And check out the smooth exterior of the below right BC. Ought to hold less grime in less than pristine waters.

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We did have a chance to see Olympus with their own booth. It was nice to see the manufacturer of a pro DSLR line at a dive show, evidencing their committment to the underwater photo market. I say "see" their booth as it was quite hard to actually get in and talk to them as their booth was packed. Seems everyone had also heard about their new really compact Evolt 410 and Evolt 510 compact 10.mp DSLR's.

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Saturday evening's festivities included a buffet dinner of either tri-tip or a selection of penne chicken pastas. I say this as I am hungry writing this remembering how good the buffet dinner was and it was only $9. There was a good crowd in attendance that enjoyed the silent and open auction to raise money for the Catalina Chamber. Thanks to all the vendors who donated valuable items.

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On a special note, one of our members here, DrBill, had his video footage being shown on the large video screen, great video DrBill and congrats!

The Shecklers and staff of California Diving News, volunteers and vendors once again put on an even larger show than last year.

Just wait till next year!