REBIKOFF, Dimitri

REBIKOFF, Dimitri

France (1921-1997)

Last updated: May 17, 2018 at 14:45 pm

Oceanographer and underwater surveyor; engineer; pioneer diver; underwater photographer; designed a revolutionary speargun; invented the portable electronic flash in 1947; developed the first underwater electronic flash in 1950, stereoscopy and film cameras; developed the world’s first underwater scooter (Torpille, 1952), which later became the world’s first ROV, the Poodle; emigrated to the U.S. in 1959 where he designed underwater cameras and lighting for the U.S. Navy; co-founded the Institute of Marine Technology in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, Ada Niggeler, in 1980 to further develop underwater photography and cinematography.

“Our earliest single assembly system was immediately successful in producing the first and only really sharp and color-correct underwater photos of marine life, geology and archaeology. It was fully effective only because it was designed as a complete integrated system with each component subsystem, camera, corrected lens, strobe light, controls and housings simultaneously designed for each other to fully accomplish the required job. This basic underwater systems engineering concept is the essential design philosophy of the modern Pegasus Photographic Systems applications described hereafter.” — Dimitri Rebikoff (1967)

International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame (2015)
NOGI Award (Arts, 1966)

Rebikoff-Niggeler Foundation

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