Karl Dietz

Forum username: kdietz
Real name: Karl Dietz (from source: “Karl and Kimberly Dietz”)
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Posts: 1,284
Threads started: 67
Comments on articles: 7
Active years: 2002—2010 (peak 2004—2006)
Camera: Nikon D70, Nikon D200
Housing: Ikelite
Website: kdietz.com
Primary forums: Photography Gear and Technique (483), Photo/Video Showcase (428), General Chat (117)

Community Role

kdietz was one of Wetpixel’s earliest and most image-focused members, joining in May 2002 when the community was barely a year old. He was distinctive for his heavy participation in the Photo/Video Showcase forum (428 posts — a third of his total output), making him one of the most prolific image sharers in the community’s early years.

Karl and his wife Kimberly were a diving and photography team, traveling together to destinations like Wakatobi and sharing galleries on their personal website kdietz.com. Their Wakatobi trip report in September 2004, documenting 17 days at Wakatobi Dive Resort with matching Nikon D70/Ikelite housings, drew enthusiastic responses from community members including Mike Veitch and leslie (^[1]).

kdietz was an early adopter of the Nikon D70 for underwater photography, one of the cameras that helped drive the DSLR revolution underwater. His posting peaked during 2004—2005 (888 posts), precisely the period when digital SLRs were overtaking compact cameras in the underwater photography world.

Notable Contributions

• Wakatobi Gallery — D70’s (23 replies): Shared a comprehensive gallery from a 17-day trip to Wakatobi Dive Resort in Sulawesi, describing how the D70/Ikelite combination was “very easy to use underwater” and that composing with the viewfinder was easier than LCD — “that was a surprise.” Community praised the images, with Mike Veitch calling them “outstanding stuff” (^[2])
• New Ikelite Bulkhead (20 replies): First to spot and share Ikelite’s new 90-degree bulkhead connector, a significant ergonomic redesign that addressed the long-standing problem of strobe sync cords being damaged by the straight-out bulkhead design. The thread became a practical discussion of Ikelite housing engineering (^[3])
• AF-S or AF-C (14 replies): Started an early educational thread about autofocus mode selection for underwater photography, asking the community “What do you use? when? why? Macro? Wide Angle?” — a fundamental technique question that generated useful guidance from experienced shooters (^[4])
• Shark Gallery: Maintained and regularly updated a shark photography gallery on kdietz.com, sharing updates with the community (^[5])
• Website facelift (15 replies): Shared redesigns of kdietz.com with the community, demonstrating how personal photography websites served as portfolio and gallery platforms before social media (^[6])
• Early contributor to Nikon D70 housing discussions, including Ikelite D70 autofocus issues, high-speed flash sync tests, and Sea & Sea D70 housing evaluations
• Participated in the 2006 U/W Images Competition thread

Activity Profile

• Image-forward: 33% of posts in Photo/Video Showcase, one of the highest showcase-to-total ratios among prolific members
• Founding era: Present since May 2002, among the first 100 members
• Travel photographer: Galleries from Wakatobi, shark diving destinations, and other Indo-Pacific locations

References