2023

Key events

Wetpixel’s final active year of publishing. The year opened with strong competition results and significant gear announcements, but new article output ceased effectively around April 2023, with the last substantive editorial content published on April 1. Alex Mustard’s February review of the Sony a7R V marked a landmark moment: he declared it “the first mirrorless I enjoyed shooting more than my SLR,” signaling the completion of the mirrorless transition in underwater photography. In March, the United Nations finally reached agreement on a High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) after years of failed attempts — a conservation milestone the Wetpixel community had followed closely. Kat Zhou emerged as a dominant competition winner, taking both Ocean Art and Underwater Photographer of the Year. The DPG/Wetpixel Masters saw Martin Broen win for a second consecutive year.

Panasonic finally addressed its long-standing autofocus criticism with the S5 II, the first Panasonic full-frame camera with on-chip phase-detect AF. Canon expanded its mirrorless range further with the entry-level EOS R8 and APS-C R50. OM System released the 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO, a dedicated macro lens immediately of interest to underwater photographers. Nauticam continued shipping housings for the latest mirrorless bodies. The Wetpixel Live YouTube channel produced only 3 episodes in 2023 (Ep 264 plus two extras: the Sony a7RV review and “Old Lenses for New Cameras”) before ceasing, with a farewell video published in January 2024 officially ending the 302-episode series. Alex Mustard subsequently launched “The Underwater Photography Show” as a successor.

January

• 2023-01-03: Issue 130 of Underwater Photography Magazine (UwP) is released, featuring reviews of the Nauticam WACP-C, Isotta housing, and large-diameter domes, plus features on freediving photography and photographing crocodiles. (^[1])
• 2023-01-04: Panasonic announces the S5 II at $1,999 — the first Panasonic full-frame camera to feature on-chip phase-detect autofocus (PDAF). The addition of PDAF addressed a long-standing criticism of Panasonic’s contrast-detect-only autofocus system that had limited the brand’s adoption among underwater photographers. (^[2])
• 2023-01-17: Ocean Art 2022 results announced: Kat Zhou wins Best of Show for “Octopus Mother.” (^[3])
• 2023-01-23: DPG/Wetpixel Masters 2022 results: Martin Broen wins the overall title for the second year running. (^[4])
• 2023-01-26: Giacomo Rossi reviews the Scuba Lamp D-Pro strobe on Wetpixel. (^[5])

February

• 2023-02-01: Wetpixel Live: Alex Mustard provides early underwater-specific impressions of the Sony a7R V, tested during Grand Cayman workshops. Adam Hanlon joins the discussion. (^[6])
• 2023-02-02: Nauticam announces the NA-R6II housing for the Canon EOS R6 Mark II and ships the NA-XT5 housing for the Fujifilm X-T5 at $3,163, using the N100 port system. (^[7], ^[8])
• 2023-02-04: Alex Mustard publishes his written review of the Sony a7R V, declaring it “the first mirrorless I enjoyed shooting more than my SLR” — a landmark statement from one of the underwater photography community’s most respected voices, marking the effective completion of the mirrorless transition for top-tier underwater photographers. (^[9])
• 2023-02-08: Canon announces the EOS R8 (entry-level full-frame mirrorless) and R50 (APS-C mirrorless), continuing the expansion of the RF-mount ecosystem across all price points. (^[10])
• 2023-02-08: OM System announces the 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO lens at $1,499 — a dedicated macro lens with industry-leading combined in-body and in-lens image stabilization, immediately of interest to underwater macro photographers for its ability to extend handholdable shutter speeds. (^[11])
• 2023-02-15: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2023: Kat Zhou wins the overall title for “Boto encantado,” an image of an Amazonian river dolphin — her second major competition win of the season after Ocean Art 2022. (^[12])
• 2023-02-15: Kate Jonker reviews the Marelux Soft Pro snoot on Wetpixel. (^[13])
• 2023-02-23: Wetpixel Live: Alex Mustard and Adam Hanlon discuss using older lenses — including Nikonos lenses — with new mirrorless cameras, addressing gaps in native lens availability for underwater work. (^[14])
• 2023-02-28: Reef ID Books publishes a pictorial guide to marine worm species with 820 color images of over 440 species. (^[15])

March

• 2023-03-13: After years of failed negotiations — the fifth attempt collapsed in August 2022 — the United Nations agrees on the High Seas Treaty (formally the BBNJ Agreement: Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction), providing a legal framework to protect marine biodiversity in international waters covering roughly two-thirds of the ocean. The Wetpixel community had closely followed previous failures. (^[16])
• 2023-03-13: Wetpixel Live Ep 264: Alex Mustard and Adam Hanlon review UPY 2023 winning images — the final numbered episode of the series. (^[17])
• 2023-03-28: ADEX Ocean Gallery 2023 calls for photo submissions. (^[18])
• 2024-01: Wetpixel Live publishes a farewell video, officially ending the series after 302 episodes (June 2020 — March 2023). Alex Mustard launches “The Underwater Photography Show” as a successor YouTube series. (^[19])

April

• 2023-04-01: Retra publishes an April Fool’s joke announcing “voice control” firmware for their strobes, promising photographers can adjust output by talking to the flash. The firmware was to be “released from 31 April 2023.” This was the last substantive editorial article published on Wetpixel. (^[20])

Note: After April 1, 2023, the Wetpixel article archive contains approximately 80 files dated April 4 with malformed URL-derived filenames (e.g., banners.php, email addresses, modules.php queries, external domain names). These are crawler artifacts from site dysfunction and do not represent editorial content. Wetpixel publishing effectively ceased at this point, ending over two decades of continuous coverage of underwater imaging since the site’s founding in 2001 by Eric Cheng.

References