Sterling Zumbrunn: I have been looking forward to the Digital Shootout all year, and it’s tremendously exciting to be here. Although I’ve been traveling with Berkley and Dan for nearly a decade, this is both my first trip to Bonaire and my first Digital Shootout. I’m truly honored to be part of this year’s staff. I’m excited about working with all of the participants this week, and I can already sense the great spirit of learning and sharing that the group has. After three plane flights, I’m glad to be settled in at the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort which is a gorgeous facility.

For the trip down, I actually traveled pretty light. I didn’t bring any of my own housings which felt incredibly strange when checking in at the airport. I’ll be using the demo gear all week with the purpose of putting some recent cameras through their paces for writing upcoming articles on the Backscatter Website. I’m really grateful to Jim, Russ, Jean, and Chris for doing such an outstanding packing job and getting all of the gear down here. The number of camera systems we have available to lend out to participants is positively mind blowing.

This week I’m primarily going to focus on mirrorless systems, which are an exciting new class of cameras that have many of the features of an SLR, but are much more compact. In this age of escalating luggage fees, having an entire underwater rig that will fit into a carry on bag is pretty attractive - probably even more so for the few unfortunate folks whose bags have yet to reach Bonaire.

Today I dove on the house reef with the Sony NEX-5, a camera that I’ve been eager to try out. The camera is tiny, yet it has a large sensor similar to what you would find in an SLR. The 18-55 kit lens is extremely versatile, allowing for shooting wide angle scenics all the way down to extreme macro with the addition of an INON close-up lens. I was stunned with the image quality from such a tiny package. The Nauticam NA-NEX5 housing is extremely sleek, and I found the ergonomics to be well thought out. I enjoyed getting to know this rig, and plan to use it again tomorrow.

It’s great to see everyone getting up to speed on using their gear, and the images that participants have already taken are quite impressive. It’s going to be a fantastic week.



Jennifer Penner: It's officially my third anniversary as an underwater shooter. My addiction started here in Bonaire at the 2008 Digital Shootout, when I protested to my husband (then boyfriend) that , "I really don't think I'll like underwater photography... I just want to dive". No longer considered a novice, and with a few skills under my belt, I find that my current challenge is putting those fundamentals into practice on each dive. There are good days and definitely some not-so-good days when technique seems to just go by the wayside. I keep reminding myself, "practice, practice, practice." But the only way to practice those underwater photography skills is to dive and dive often, so... LET'S GO DIVING!

Jim Decker: It's arrival day and it's great to be back at the Divi Flamingo. So many familiar faces from Shootouts past and a lot more new ones this year too. It's the 10th anniversary this year and it's the biggest Shootout yet. We have a lot of extra staff on board, and the demo gear department is larger than ever. Just check out all the gear in the photo. It's all available for the guests to shoot. If you want to see if that camera you had in mind is really all it's cracked up to be, or if adding a strobe would make a difference, this is the place to do it. And there's expert staff to make sure you get up to speed on it fast. Tomorrow is the first official dive day, even though most of the staff have been here for a few days. I'll be testing a few different camera systems this week from the demo department and will post comments and results.

Gear Tested Today
I hooked up with Marissa from Pegasus Thruster Underwater Scooters today to try out their product. The Thruster is a tank mounted underwater scooter. It is just about the coolest thing since sliced bread! It only weighs 13 lbs., and is 5 lbs. negative, so you can take that weight off your belt. The result is something that is barely noticed on your tank until you hit the happy button that takes you forward. It's great for the photographer because you can zip around a reef or wreck quickly while consuming less air, allowing you to have more time to take pictures. Long swims from shore? No problem. On a shipwreck, but too many divers in your shot? Zip around to the other side of the wreck to avoid them. These scooters are available all week for demo. Did I already mention they were cool?

Jean Bruneau: Just waltzed in after a gruelling flight that got cancelled, then delayed, then connected to a yet another delayed flight. Hungry and tired but... smiling from ear to ear! Right off the bat in the Newark airport, I start to see familiar faces all heading down to the yearly event. After a very welcomed nap, I set up to prep up the demo gear. Boy, oh boy is this year’s edition ever loaded with equipment! Four large tables worth of photography and video gear for everyone to play with. This is going to be a busy week for us on the staff!

Chris Parsons: When the Embraer Bandeirante 15 seater lands in Bonaire, it doesn’t need a jetway to deplane passengers. It doesn’t even need a set of boarding stairs - it has it’s own built into the door of the aircraft. There’s nothing quite like getting off of an airplane on a small island, when that first breath of island air and warmth tells you this is a place you want to be. After my nearly missed connection in Curaçao, I knew my bags wouldn’t be onboard, and they weren’t. Two hundred pounds of demo gear may just require a bit larger plane for the hop over to Bonaire. Indeed, Insel Air came through the next day, delivering all of the Nauticam gear that I had entrusted them with in Miami.

I’m honored to be here at my first Digital Shootout event. Everyone here has been gracious and kind and there is a real sense of helping each other for a common goal - to make some beautiful images. Divi Flamingo seems like a great spot to host this event, and I can’t wait to get started!

With all of my systems put together and batteries charging, yesterday I got a chance to get into the water. For my first dive I took my trusty Canon 7D with me as it was the only thing I had fully charged and ready to go. I shot the Tokina 10-17 with a Zen Underwater DP-100. For my second dive, I took the new Panasonic GH2 in a pre-production housing. I’m a big fan of this camera and it did not disappoint. There’s a lot of interest in this camera and several others that I’ve brought so I might not get a chance to dive with it again until the end of the week. For this dive I shot the Panasonic/Leica 45mm macro, and found it to be an excellent macro lens. The working distance seems pretty similar the the Canon EFS 60mm macro on the 7D. Focus was quick though it hunted a bit when I didn’t use my focus light. But, with all of the Light&Motion Solas around here, there’s no excuse not to run a focus light. The images I got were very sharp and GH2 continues to be my favorite small camera by a long margin.

Marissa Wiganowske: The official arrival day for those partaking in The Digital Shootout, hoping that their equipment did in fact arrive with them. The same can’t be said for me, when you have multiple gear manufacturers on a small plane it’s pretty much a guarantee all the equipment could use it’s own plane. It’s my first time with the Shootout, but it’s a fantastic feeling to be back in Bonaire, a place that was previously a home to me is going to produce remarkable images for those behind the lens.

Of course there are a few individuals who just can’t resist arriving and settling in early. With that, we straight charged for a shore dive out to the wreck of the Hilma Hooker. This was the first time any staff was going to give the Pegasus Thruster a go. They may look stoked about it, but they had no idea what they were in for. Ron with his Red One camera and Gates housing in tow was the first one out to the mooring, Jim was the first one to the bow setting up for shots, and with everyone trying to keep up with the speed and effortlessness of the Pegasus Thruster, it was then they all realized flying underwater was going to be in high demand this week.