Duxy's Gift List help
From £25 to over £500+ I will check out some useful photo stuff that should bring smiles and satisfaction all round.
 Martin Edge The Underwater Photographer at £24.99 would be something most prospective underwater photographers would love
to get in their stockings.
Martins book has been the goto volume for aqua snappers for some years now, and is currently in its fourth edition. Packed with information distilled from years of in water experience, Martin gets the facts across in an easy to understand way, and has helped many photographers to succeed over the years.
http://www.aquapress.co.uk/bookDetail.asp?id=90&cat=88
Big Blue Focus Light from Ocean Leisure Cameras
This is a great idea from Big Blue, a powerful, but small and streamlined LED torch, that contains a small sensor in it that will switch the light off for the actual photograph. Focussing lights are useful even if your strobes have a modelling or focus light as your strobes may well not be pointed directly at the subject.I have one and although it is not designed to be used to actually shoot pictures with I took this picture of a frogfish in Lembeh when my strobes ran out of juice! This one comes with a standard YS fitting that you can adapt to most housings with.It costs a whisker under £100.
http://www.oceanleisurecameras.com/products/lights/strobes-1/bigblue-al-1x5-afo-led-focusing-light.html
 Pelicase from Peli Products
The Peli 1510 is a very popular case amongst photographers, it is sized to fit exactly within the usual dimensions considered to be carry onboard size. Yet being made of extremely tough and resilient hard material means that if you need to put it in the hold with your regular luggage it should be rugged enough to cope with even the most extreme baggage handling.
They are lockable water tight and even have a pressure release valve, there is no finer camera or electronic equipment protection out there.
Quite expensive at around £220 but surely your precious photo kit is worth it?
http://www.oceanleisurecameras.com/products/peli-cases/peli-1510-case.html
 iPix iPhone Housing from UWVisions
We used to joke within underwater photography circles about waterproof cases for mobile phones, and lo and behold they now exist. With associated apps available to allow functionality from your iPhone this one is particularly good value and great for someone who perhaps only wants to occasionally take a few snaps or someone who wants to have an extra level of protection for their phone whilst on a boat or splashing around in the water.
This unit requires you to download a free app, is good to 40m. It has been made as a serious piece of kit though,and sports a tripod adapter and a filter thread for filters and accessories, and at £84.95 is somewhat of a bargain.
Available from the same people that bring you Nauticam the super duper housings that lots of us are using these days.
http://uwv.mygostore.co.uk/ipix-housing-for-iphone-4-4s.html
http://www.uwvisions.com
 For the very serious underwater photographer who has everything then these buoyancy adjustable arms from Hugyfot will be something to put a big smile on their faces. Using a small red button on the side of what looks like normal buoyancy tubes, you can partially flood these arms and fine tune your camera rigs position in the water, a bit like a BCD for your camera gear! They come as a set of four arms that will give you around 2.5kg of positive lift. They aren't the least expensive of Xmas gifts though and will set you back around 750 Euros. Yikes
Ok thats all folks for 2012 and I hope you all have a very Merry Xmas and a great New Year.
See you in 2013.
Duxy
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