Apple has posted a new Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update to MacOS X. Version 4.05 adds support for cameras using Fujifilm's X-Trans sensors - to wit, the Fujifilm X20 (pictured), X100S, X-E1 and X-Pro1. Note that Aperture version 3.4 (or later), or iPhoto version 9.4 (or later) is required to install this update.

Website: Apple Support

Phase One has announced 2 new Capture One 7 webinars scheduled for April. Hosted by a Phase One imaging expert, these interactive sessions encourage questions before and during each online seminar. The webinar, “Get the RAW Advantage” will take place on Tuesday 23rd April, from 2pm - 3pm GMT; while the other lecture entitled, “Using Capture One’s Many Creative Tools Part 1” will be held on Monday 29th April from 9am - 10am GMT, and again from 4pm - 5pm GMT. Advance registration is required - click through / read on for the details.

Adobe has just posted Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta for Mac and Windows. The Lightroom 5 beta offers a free, public preview of new features and tools that will be offered in the final release, expected later this year. The most important novelties include an advanced Healing Brush tool that allows users to heal imperfections and remove distracting elements, a new Upright tool that you can use to automatically straighten buildings and level horizons in a photo, an also-new Radial Gradient tool that enables you to create off-centre vignette effects to highlight your main subject, new Smart Previews that let users edit images without needing the original raw file, a Video Slideshow feature enabling customers to combine still images, video clips and music in a creative HD slideshow, and a range of upgrades to the Book module. You can download the free public beta version of Adobe Lightroom 5 from the website below.

Akvis AirBrush is a new application which converts photos into “paintings” that look as though they were made with a special airbrush tool. Equipped with 40 ready-to-use presets, Akvis AirBrush works as an artistic filter creating stylish colourful airbrush designs from images using chosen settings of photo-to-painting conversion. The program also lets you save your favourite photo-to-painting settings as a preset, which can be imported and reused at any time. Akvis AirBrush can be used as a standalone program and as a plugin to a photo editor. The plug-in is compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro etc. Akvis AirBrush sells for $49 for Home version (either Plugin or Standalone, all features except colour changing), for $69 for Home Deluxe (Plugin and Standalone, all features included), and for $89 for Business (Plugin and Standalone, all features included, for commercial use).

InstaScoop is a new digital magazine for the Apple iPad. Giving readers the inside scoop on the best photographers on Instagram, InstaScoop reveals their top tips for better looking images and offers insightful articles, video tutorials, and app reviews to help readers improve their photography skills. “Instascoop Magazine is the magazine to read if you enjoy the art of mobile photography and Instagram,” said Kris Lougoon, Publisher of InstaScoop Magazine. “Each issue features the personal stories of groundbreaking photographers as well as their beautiful images to inspire you.” For a limited time, the magazine is offering specially discounted 1-month subscriptions for $1.99 on iTunes.

proDAD has announced ProDrenalin, an all-in-one software application for GoPro action/sports camera users to improve their videos by removing fisheye and perspective distortion, stabilising, correcting rolling-shutter distortion, de-noising, colour correction, and adjusting the brightness and contrast of the video. Supporting 2.7K and 4K resolutions, the program is also capable of rotating the video if the camera was accidentally mounted upside-down or at the wrong angle. ProDrenalin will be available in May at £29.85.

ReaSoft Development has released ReaConverter 6.9, a new version of its batch image conversion and editing software tool. Besides 400+ supported image formats, ReaConverter 6.9 now offers improved conversion of PDF/EPS/AI files, support for raw file formats of the newest cameras, increased conversion speed and more. The program is available in three editions: Lite, Standard and Pro. Pricing for a single-user license starts from $24.95 for ReaConverter Lite.

Sony has released two new PlayMemories Camera Apps for its NEX-5R and NEX-6 compact system cameras - Light Shaft and Motion Shot. Light Shaft transforms ordinary landscape, beach and sky shots with an dramatic ray of light, like sunshine bursting through cloudy skies. Position your light source and choose from Ray, Star, Flare or Beam effects then tweak the angle, intensity, length and number of rays to suit your taste. Your original photo is automatically saved as a copy alongside the amended version. Motion Shot identifies your moving subject in a high-speed burst of frames, capturing each moment of the subject’s motion into a single image. Alongside the composited image, your original frames will be recorded in continuous shooting mode and remain untouched. These apps are priced at $4.99 each. In addition, Sony has launched a new Android app that adds fresh features to PlayMemories Online, the company’s photo and video cloud service.

DxO Labs have released DxO Optics Pro 8.1.5 for Mac and Windows, which adds support for the Nikon D7100 (pictured). This update also incorporates 131 new DxO Optics Modules that support additional Nikon, Panasonic, Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina lenses for Nikon cameras. This upgrade is free for all owners of DxO Optics Pro 8, as well as for photographers who purchased a DxO Optics Pro 7 license on or after 1 September 2012.

Canon is developing firmware updates for three of its interchangeable-lens Cinema EOS System cameras. Following the release of these upgrades, the Canon EOS C500 (pictured), EOS C300 and EOS C100 will offer support for a new Magnify function that will allow users to check focus in different parts of an image, on the camera LCD, as well as the centre. The EOS C300 will also be upgraded to support an additional range of features designed to assist independent videographers. Push Auto Iris and One Shot AF will provide further versatility on small-crew shoots, offering a quick, easy way to check and adjust exposure and focus prior to recording. The EOS C300 will also gain additional support with 1440x1080 HD video recording at 35Mbps. A further upgrade for the EOS C100 will add support for Continuous AF when used with Canon’s EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens. In addition to these updates, Canon will also add new features to the Cinema Raw Development (CRD) software. The firmware updates for the EOS C500, EOS C300, EOS C100 and CRD software will be available later in 2013.

Seim Effects Photo Tools has introduced ColorFlow, a creative preset collection for Apple Aperture. The ColorFlow presets collection organizes more than 60 presets across 5 categories of colour tools: Essential Colour, Colour Story, Film Inspired, Hollywood Cinema and Colour Toners. The colour effects can be mixed and blended to achieve a specific look or desired mood. Seim Effects’ ColorFlow preset collection for Apple Aperture (ver. 3 and newer) is now available for instant download. And, until April 10, 2013 there is an introductory price of $39 (a $10 discount).

Google has released a software bundle that includes all of Nik Software’s plug-ins and costs only $149. Branded as the Nik Collection by Google, the bundle was announced in a Google+ post by Christian Pesch. For the $149 price you will get the latest editions of Color Efex Pro, Dfine, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, Silver Efex Pro and Viveza. “If you’ve already purchased one or more Nik plug-ins in the past, then don’t worry, we’ve got you covered,” Pesch says. “In fact: we’re going to upgrade you to the entire Nik Collection by Google for free. Just keep an eye out for emailed instructions in the next few days.”

Website: Nik Collection by Google

DxO Labs have released version 8.1.4 of DxO Optics Pro for Windows and Mac. This update to DxO Optics Pro 8 brings support for four additional new cameras: the Nikon Coolpix P7700 (pictured), the Nikon 1 J3, the Olympus XZ-2 iHS, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3. Furthermore, over 200 new camera/lens combinations have been added to the library of DxO Optics Modules, offering support for additional Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Sigma, Tokina, and Zeiss lenses for numerous Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Pentax camera bodies. This upgrade is free for all owners of DxO Optics Pro 8, as well as for photographers who purchased a DxO Optics Pro 7 licence on or after September 1, 2012.

Ohanaware has released its latest photo enhancing application “Shine” for Mac OS X. The program uses lighting effects such as light rays and lens flare, as well as colour tinting and various other effects to alter a photo. Shine is available today, priced at $9.99, from the website below.

MindSmack has released Pixies, an iOS app which allows users to add illustrations and text to their photographs. “Pixies is an exciting boost to today’s photo editing options,” states MindSmack Founder and CEO, Sam Feuer. “We’re in an age where mobile photo editing is its own art form. We’ve taken away the confusion that typically accompanies editors and produced a fun and simple app that is accessible to all users. We’re excited for Pixies’ release and can’t wait for users to begin enjoying it.” Pixies is available for free on the iTunes App Store.

Cypress Innovations have launched Digital Negative, an iOS app which captures uncompressed images that retain all of the information recorded by the camera sensor and saves them in DNG format. Other interesting features include a real?time histogram, exposure compensation and shutter speed adjustments as well as flash, focus, and zoom controls. Additionally, Digital Negative can also record high?quality JPG images or uncompressed TIFF files. Digital Negative is now available for $2.99 on iTunes.

Ed Hamrick has released VueScan Mobile version 1.2 for Android – adding the ability to use the camera as a scanner. The new camera scanning function allows anyone with a camera phone to easily take photos and store them in a JPEG or PDF format. In addition to sending via e-mail and saving to the Photos App, VueScan Mobile also allows you to save scanned images to Dropbox, GoodReader and Evernote. VueScan Mobile for Android also allows anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled HP, Canon, Epson or Brother scanner to seamlessly scan documents and photos straight to an Android device.The full version at $4.99 supports document feeders, duplex, document management and multi-page PDF. The VueScan Mobile Free App and the full version for Android devices is available in Google Play Store and the Amazon Appstore.

Ten years ago today, Phase One released the first version of its Capture One raw conversion and image editing software that added support for DSLR cameras. “
Born in the late 1990s to process raw files exclusively from Phase One’s first digital image capture devices, the software that would become Capture One was one of the first raw conversion solutions,” the company said in a statement. “Its general availability in 2003 helped support a growing DSLR market.” The latest iteration, Capture One 7, is localised for Simplified Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

BeFunky has unveiled an upgraded, interactive online photo gallery. The new Channels feature takes into consideration the kinds of photos people love looking at, and not only helps them find those pictures, but gives them the tools to see the content in a variety of ways. Filtering options are incorporated throughout the gallery, giving people an “unparalleled” amount of control, the company says. BeFunky has also created a sophisticated algorithm that takes into account numerous factors to help photos get noticed.The latest version offers a new screen for saving and sharing photos across multiple social networks at once. Finally, BeFunky has added new features that let users customise their user profiles.

Caal Studio has released a new iOS app which is claimed to “essentially turn a user’s device into a light field camera” enabling them to take “refocusable” photos. “A single photo does not tell the complete story,” commented Chan Paey-Lun of Caal Studio. “And now with tap2focus, users can re-focus their photos, and tell a different story with each tap. It’s a whole new way to experience photography and photo editing.” tap2focus is available on iTunes for $0.99.