Some exciting news!!

I am absolutely delighted, over the moon in fact and extremely proud to announce that photographic and moving image giant, Canon, are now endorsing myself and "From the Office to the Ocean."

So what does this mean? Well, firstly, I will personally be using Canon cameras and lenses for the long term future for both film and photographic work, it also means that I will have the considerable weight of the Canon brand and their marketing behind me. This is a big deal, Canon can realistically claim to be the makers of the best camera equipment around, the professional photos and films you see everyday are most likely captured using at least Canon lenses and more often than not Canon cameras so it is a guarantee of quality that is important in the making of everything that carries the "From the Office..." name.

Why Canon? This wasn't a case of just emailing and phoning a load of camera companies and hoping one of them was interested, I wanted it to be Canon and after speaking to one of the guys there was incredibly impressed by his attitude, technical knowledge and enthusiasm for what I am doing and was sold right from the beginning.

The camera I will very soon be the proud owner of, is the one above, the Canon 7D. I was introduced to the range of DSLR's by a friend of mine, Liam Wright, who runs his own production company, Banter Media and who was interviewing me for a documentary he is making. When he turned up with the Canon 5D MK II, I was surprised, I thought we were doing an interview, not a photo shoot and it was here when I learned about the capability of these amazing cameras. Not only do they shoot stills in 18-21 megapixels, they also shoot broadcast quality 1920x1080 HD video!

George Lucas is using them, Shane Meadows shot much of "This is England '86" on the 7D and they are rapidly becoming the tool of choice for filmmakers in need of flexibility, they offer an astonishing level of depth of field and after using Hamish's Canon 550D to shoot the teaser trailer I was absolutely insistent I wanted one of my own to film all of my footage for "From the Office to the Ocean."

There are three main reasons I am so keen on these Canon DSLRs. First of all, the quality is absolutely exceptional, full HD broadcast quality and professional standard stills capability. They also offer a depth of field range which is difficult to achieve with standard hand held filming cameras.

Secondly and perhaps most important is that they are affordable to an ordinary consumer budget. They're not cheap, that goes without saying, you don't get this kind of quality for peanuts but for less than £2000 you can get a camera and a couple of lenses that can get you professional results. It is important to me that if I am aiming to inspire ordinary people to do things, that I do it in a way in which they can also achieve the same results, i.e. that people would be able to do exactly what I do if they wanted to, instead of me trying to inspire you to follow in my footsteps but using equipment that is out of the reach of most people.

Finally, for a diver like me, these cameras are the answer to all my prayers. Every dive I do, I want to film but I also want the capability to take stills, this means a bulky housing for video and then having to have a separate stills camera in the pocket of my BCD and juggling between the two, also meaning having to buy two cameras and two housings. These canon DSLRs completely remove those problems, one camera, one housing and professional results in both still and film. Amazing.

It is also important for me to point out that I am not being paid to say any of this! Canon are not providing funding, they are however providing equipment, support and marketing for me and I am very happy to be able to have the pleasure of being able to endorse cameras I genuinely believe to be the best around for a consumer market looking to achieve professional results. For some examples of what this camera can do when in the hands of amateurs, look here

In other good news, the rather appalling screen shot above actually shows the BBC website and a brief interview they did with me about the shark attacks in Egypt. It's a very condensed write up of a conversation we had on Tuesday and whereas it's a little back to front,  have to say, fair play to them for being willing to give the shark's side of the story, they also turned it around in less than 24 hours. It's difficult for people with no understanding of something as complex as shark behaviour and the triggers for shark attack to be able to grasp the intricacies during a thirty minute phone call but well done them for being so open to trying to give a different slant on the reporting of the attacks. It also doesn't hurt that they have mentioned and linked "From the Office to the Ocean" and also the Shark Trust.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my last article about the Egyptian Shark attacks, it has already had over 3000 unique views in the space of four days which is pretty amazing and I love the comments and questions. If anyone has any requests for blogs for me to do, please send me your sharky suggestions and I'll do what I can.

Also, there is only 43 days left on my Indiegogo fundraising page, if you can help in any way, please do so, I will be more appreciative than you could ever imagine and there's also some pretty cool things up for grabs for you as well! I am getting closer and closer to making this film a reality but the closer I get, the harder my own situation becomes due to financial strains, I accepted this from the beginning and it's all part of the journey and I'm still happier than ever!



Finally, here's the teaser trailer again to show the results you can get with these canon cameras, as far as the range goes, the camera used for this was the "bottom" of that range, that is the 550D, 60D, 5DMKII and 7D and was the first time I had ever used one but the results speak for themselves I think.



Thanks for continuing to read this blog and support me and welcome to all my new friends and subscribers, it's great to have you! Huge, enormous and massive thanks to Alan and Dave at Canon, it was a pleasure to sit down with you at HQ and get the benefit of your expertise and generosity, you guys are awesome!

David