[ad_1]
Once again, the Underwater Awards Australasia exhibition was a major highlight of the Go Diving Show ANZ
The weekend of September 6th–7th, 2025, saw the Go Diving Show ANZ returning to the Sydney Showground. The event—the second Australian edition of the popular UK dive show—was another great success, with organizers reporting around 2,600 visitors over two days.
With about 100 exhibitors and dozens of speakers giving talks across four stages—Main Stage, Photo Stage, Tech Stage and ANZ/Inspiration stage—as well as try-dives and in-water skills demonstrations, there was something for everyone. In addition, of course, DPG, Underwater Australasia and UW Images, organizers of the Underwater Awards Australasia, once again revealed the winners and runners-up of the competition, alongside another stunning exhibition featuring metal prints (made by local printer PhotoMart) of the awarded entries.
In this report, we focus on underwater photography related exhibitors that were at the show, in addition to various other booths that piqued our interest along the way. Check the show website for a complete list of exhibitors in attendance.
Imaging Booths
A dive show is a great chance to get your hands on a range of housings, lenses and strobes. At the Go Diving Show ANZ, there were housings from at least seven brands (AOI, Doris, Ikelite, Isotta, Marelux, Nauticam, and SeaLife) visible across five booths, as well as a range of strobes, video lights, wet lenses, and accessories. Notable underwater imaging retailers included UW Images, Underwater Australasia, and Scubapix (aka Nauticam Australia).
UW Images
UW Images is a distributor of underwater imaging equipment based in Sydney. I caught up with owner and underwater photographer Brett Lobwein, as well as Elisa Isotta, owner of Isotta, who had traveled to Sydney for the occasion.
The UW Images booth, showcasing Isotta housings and strobes, as well as lighting products from Kraken and OrcaTorch
Isotta’s housing for smartphones is now shipping, and Elisa Isotta showed me the optional rotating handle, which lets you easily switch from horizontal to vertical shooting
Proudly on display was Isotta’s new RED64 strobe, which is now shipping, too. It uses a set of eight AA batteries, which remain in a handy battery pack while being recharged, avoiding the inconvenience of handling batteries one by one
Owner Brett Lobwein showed me their full range of Kraken strobes and video lights, complete with lighting accessories—diffusers, reductors, snoot and even colored mask sets
The new Kraken KR-S40 compact strobe is geared towards macro shooters and its power can be controlled via the company’s RC-02 remote, so you don’t have to reach out to adjust each strobe’s settings
Finally, UW Images showed off the Doris universal housing, which is compatible with a range of mirrorless cameras from Canon, Nikon and Sony. Users can either frame their shots via the camera’s rear LCD or use the housing’s nifty external EVF, which makes use of the camera’s HDMI output and can be positioned to the user’s liking
Underwater Australasia
Adjacent to UW Images was Underwater Australasia, an equipment retailer selling online and from their physical store in Byron Bay. The booth featured not only underwater imaging gear, but also a range of cool-looking underwater scooters and underwater drones.
They love their drones and scooters at the Underwater Australasia booth!
Owner Tim Hochgrebe shows off a wide range of strobes and video lights from various manufacturers. Behind him, posters of the SeaLife smartphone housings and cameras, which Underwater Australasia also sells
 |
 |
Top: Strobes on display (right to left): Backscatter Hybrid Flash, Backscatter Mini Flash 2 and OS-1 snoot, Scubalamp D-Pro, Fotocore GTM, Sea&Sea YS-D3 Duo, Sea&Sea YS-01 Solis, and Inon Z-220. Bottom: Video lights on display (left to right): Fotocore M15, M8 and M5, Backscatter MW-4300, and Scubalamp PV73, P33 Pro, P33 and P21
A Qysea Fifish underwater drone like this one was once again one of the awesome prizes in the Underwater Awards Australasia imaging competition. Imagine the cool stuff you could do with that thing?
Scubapix/Nauticam Australia
Scubapix sells imaging equipment online and from their store in Cairns. I caught up with owner Peter Mooney as well as Nauticam’s General Manager Phoebe Lu, who were taking visitors through a range of Nauticam products on display, including the very latest housings, and nearly all their wet lenses/water contact optics. Scubapix also sells strobes and video lights, among which Keldan and Backscatter products were on the stand. Backscatter’s Operations Manager, Becca Boring, even flew over from the United States for the occasion.
Owner Peter Mooney (center) catching up with two of his Sydney-based customers
Visitors could peek through the Nauticam T7 HD UltraBright monitor (mounted on my Canon EOS R5 Mark II housing) and see the unique perspective unlocked by the Extended Macro Wide Lens (EMWL) Angled Relay Lens
The new Nauticam Midrange Focus Optimizer (MFO-3) expands the field of view of a macro lens, turning your 90mm, 100mm or 105mm into a 60mm equivalent
The Nauticam Olympus Tough TG-7 housing and Nauticam Nikon Z5 II housing side by side
The Nauticam NA-CV1 housing for the Canon PowerShot V1 makes for a travel friendly setup
Nauticam’s Phoebe Lu shows off a new device that lets you rotate the camera between horizontal (left) and vertical (right) orientations without changing strobe placement! (The device is the arch; the vertical pillars are just there as a display stand.) It’s at the prototype stage—and is yet to receive a product name!
Digital Diver
Next I visited Digital Diver, an underwater imaging retailer that sells both online and from their physical store in Cairns. At their booth, they had a range of housings, strobes and lights from Ikelite, AOI, Weefine, and Sea&Sea. They have housings catering for all sorts of cameras, starting from smartphones and action cameras, all the way to compact and full-frame mirrorless systems.
Digital Diver stocks Ikelite, Aquatica, Sea&Sea, Fantasea, AOI, Weefine, and OM System products
The OM System TG-7 is a very popular camera with macro shooters, here on display in an Olympus housing, ready to take pictures with a Weefine snooted light
Digital Diver had a range of Ikelite housings, strobes, trays, arms and other accessories you need to build a complete underwater imaging setup
Digital Diver owner Chris Mitchell proudly shows me a travel-friendly setup: OM System TG-7 camera in its Ikelite housing paired with the new Ikelite Ecko Fiber strobes
Steve from Digital Diver holds another lightweight yet effective kit: an action camera paired with a dome port, tray, arms and video lights from AOI
Aquatic Imaging Australia
Next up was Aquatic Imaging Australia, a Sydney-based retailer of underwater photography equipment, selling housings from Marelux and Isotta, covering mirrorless cameras, compact cameras, action cams, and smartphones. For example, they sell DIVEVOLK’s smartphone housings, which give users full access to their phone’s touchscreen underwater. In terms of lighting, there were several Marelux strobes (as well as their SOFT snoot), Kraken strobes, and various lights from Dive Lantern, a Perth-based maker of underwater lighting gear that is also DIVEVOLK’s Australian distributor.
Owner Vanessa Torres Macho chats to underwater photographer Michael Aw
Vanessa not only sells photo gear but also offers courses and runs photography workshops
A range of underwater lighting equipment to suit various underwater imaging needs and budgets
DPG and The Underwater Club
Not far from the Photo Stage were your favorite resources for underwater imaging news and education: DPG, the number one underwater photography media by reader numbers, and The Underwater Club, the first online underwater photography school and club, with members in 18 countries.
In today’s digital world, this was a chance for manufacturers, retailers and dive operators to discuss advertising in-person with DPG’s Chief Operating Officer Ian Bongso-Seldrup. For myself and other DPG contributors, it was great to chat with the man who curates DPG content, ensuring it stays at the highest standard.
Together with Léna Remy (my partner in life and in business), I had a great time catching up in person with local and international members of The Underwater Club. We also enjoyed chatting with new and experienced shooters about membership, our monthly webinars, and our upcoming photography workshops.
Members of The Underwater Club including William Gladstone (far left) and Maryline Renault (third from left) were among the category winners in the Underwater Awards Australasia 2025. Also pictured are judge Matty Smith (second from left) and the author (far right)
Other Booths
Besides covering the photography-related booths and delivering a talk on the Photo Stage—“How to Take Great Photos of Divers”—I managed to pay a visit to several more of the exhibitors.
Ocean Geographic
Ocean Geographic Society was present at the show, with recent issues of Ocean Geographic magazine on offer, as well as several coffee-table books. The society runs dive expeditions and photography workshops for their members.
I caught up with Ocean Geographic founder Michael Aw, who for once was on dry land, rather than running an expedition somewhere on the planet!
The team was available to answer questions about the newly announced Ocean Geographic Photographer Recognition Program, created in partnership with The Underwater Club
Silver Reef Dive Resort
I met with Ana and Reggie from Silver Reef Dive Resorts. Located in Dauin (one of the Philippines’ best macro regions), their SSI Diamond Dive Center has everything to make underwater photographers feel at home, including a camera room, flexible dive times, and even an underwater scooter/taxi service—to get you quicker to your next macro subject!
Together with the other dive centers from Dauin, Silver Reef runs the Dive 7 festivals (now in their fifth year). I look forward to attending in June 2026, and I will be running a workshop at the resort to prepare 14 underwater photographers for the live shootout competition, which is the cornerstone of the festival
The author (left) with Silver Reef CEO Ana Sison (center) and COO Reggie Reyes
Mike Ball Expeditions
Another booth I was pleased to visit again was Mike Ball Dive Expeditions, a well-known dive operator from Cairns that runs liveaboard trips to various parts of the Great Barrier Reef. Mike Ball runs three-, four-, and seven-day liveaboard itineraries, visiting some of the healthiest reefs on the planet, including special trips to swim with minke whales, and others to dive the famous Yongala wreck.
Mike Ball Dive Expeditions operates liveaboard trips to the top sites on the Great Barrier Reef
Volivoli Beach Resort
I then caught up with Simon Doughty from Volivoli Beach Resort, a photography-friendly dive operator based in the northern tip of Fiji’s main island (Viti Levu). The area where they operate has been nicknamed the “Soft Coral Capital of the World” and it is obviously very popular with wide-angle shooters. Resort guests enjoy unlimited diving at the three house reefs, which are recommended for macro lovers.
Volivoli’s 14-person camera room and the support offered to rebreather divers (CCR and SCR alike) are two more reasons why I might pay them a visit someday…
Benni Marine Designs
Finally, I caught up with Benita Vincent, a Tasmania-based underwater photographer and artist, who creates eco-friendly clothing inspired by the marine critters featured in her photographs. To browse her catalog and order online, check out www.bennimd.com.
Benita Vincent (right) of Benni Marine Designs
About the Reviewer: Nicolas Remy is an Australia-based pro shooter and founder of online underwater photography school and community, The Underwater Club, with members in 18 countries. He serves as an ambassador for Mares and Nauticam, and chairs the jury of the prestigious DPG Masters photo competition. Nicolas’ images have been widely published in print and digital media, and have won over 40 international photo awards. To see more of Nicolas’ work or browse his upcoming workshops, visit: www.nicolaslenaremy.com.
When purchasing underwater photography equipment like the products mentioned in this article, please support DPG by supporting our retail partner—Backscatter.com.
[ad_2]
Source link
