The GigaPan Epic 100 is a new robotic camera mount for capturing detailed gigapixel panoramas. The Epic 100 model fits a wider range of camera models and is compatible with almost any point and shoot digital camera. The Epic 100 also works with several smaller DSLR cameras and has a maximum weight limit of three pounds. The GigaPan Epic sells for $379 and the GigaPan Epic 100 for $449.

Allegedly, Leica is finalising a new, limited-edition version of its digital rangefinder camera. Luxist has it that an all-white Leica M8 - or, more probably, M8.2 - is on its way to become available in “extremely limited” numbers. There is no info on pricing yet, but if the olive green Leica M8.2 Safari Edition is anything to go by, expect it to cost at least double the price of the standard all-black version (which isn’t exactly the cheapest digital camera on the planet to begin with).

Website: Special Edition All-White Leica M8 At Luxist.com

Update (15 April 2009): photoscala reports that the Leica M8 White Edition will cost €7,000 in a bundle with a silver-coloured Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, and should be available from mid-June.

ISTEGO Distribution GmbH has announced the world premiere of the Vosonic DPA4000 digital photo album. Manufactured by Taiwanese company Vosonic Technology Corporation, the DPA4000 is an external storage device boasting 4GB of memory and an 8” TFT LCD with anti-reflex coating. The Vosonic DPA4000 comes bundled with a charger, a USB and an audio cable, headphones and a genuine leather case. Owing to the latter, the Vosonic DPA4000 resembles a traditional photo album when “closed”. When “open” and powered on, the DPA4000 can show you the photos stored on it in a conventional photo album layout, but can also present them as slideshows with background music. The integrated Li-ion battery has enough capacity to power the device for about 2.5 hours straight. Availability in the EU is slated for 19 April. The price will be €249 including German VAT.

Website: ISTEGO Press Release (in German)

JOBO AG has announced the JOBO Plano series of ultra-thin digital picture frames. The new JOBO Plano 8 is the first in a series of three new digital picture frames to be introduced this year. The Plano 8 is only 25 mm thick and features an 8” high resolution (800x600 pixels) TFT-Color-LCD display. This model features USB 2.0 high speed capability and support popular memory cards such as SD, SDHC, MMC, MS and xD. Also included with this model is a wall mount kit and remote control unit, plus an AC power adapter. The kit is available now for €129,00 MSRP. Two other JOBO Plano frames, the Plano 7 and the Plano 10, will hit the shelves in May, for €99 and €179, respectively.

Pentax offers an instant rebate programme on select digital cameras. The models involved include the Pentax Optio E70, Optio P70 and Optio W60 compacts, and the Pentax K2000 DSLR bundled with a DA L 18-55mm kit lens and an AF200FG flash. The rebate programme is valid in the US between 3 - 11 April.

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA9 waterproof digicam / camcorder, announced back in January, is to become available this month. The Xacti VPC-CA9 is a hybrid camera that takes 9-megapixel still images and records 720p HD video, and is equipped with a 5x zoom lens and a 2.5” LCD. In addition, the new Xacti is waterproof to a depth of 1.5m. The recommened retail price is €449.

Website: Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA9

Panasonic Japan has disclosed the launch date of its new Lumix DMC-GH1 interchangeable-lens digital system camera. The Panasonic GH1, announced earlier this month, is the second Micro FourThirds camera, which closely resembles the Lumix DMC-G1 but adds HD video recording with continuous autofocus, high-quality stereo sound and manual exposure control in its Creative Movie mode. In a recent press release, Panasonic has revealed that the camera will hit the shelves on April 24th. Production will be limited to 5,000 units per month, at least initially.

Website: Panasonic Press Release (in Japanese)

Calumet are to stage a UK-wide Hasselblad week starting March 30th. If you happen to be in the UK next week, you will be able to try out the Hasselblad H3D-II in a number of Calumet shops. The Bristol, Edinburgh and Nottingham outlets will host this event Monday through Friday, while in other shops, this will be a one-day affair. Hasselblad will also be demonstrating the HTS1.5 tilt and shift adapter as well as their Phocus software. The sessions are free of charge, but advance registration is required. Once registered, all you need to do is “turn up and start shooting”, says Alison Dodds, Calumet’s Product Manager for Hasselblad. Read on to find out about exact dates and locations.

J. D. Power have published the results of a customer satisfaction survey conducted among digital camera owners in Japan. The findings are based on data collected from nearly twelve thousand respondents. The survey covered five segments: Digital SLR, High-end compact, Superzoom, Stylish and Standard. In the DSLR segment, Nikon acquired the first place with a score of 711 (out of 1000), trailed by Pentax and Canon (both scoring 697 points), Panasonic (679), Olympus (665) and Sony (653). Among owners of high-end compacts, Ricoh came out on top, with a score of 713, followed by Canon (704) and Panasonic (660). Each of these brands had a strong point of its own, with Ricoh being the absolute knock-out in the design and handling departments, Canon rated highest for capabilities and Panasonic seen as delivering the best quality. Among superzooms - cameras sporting a fixed-mount zoom lens with at least a 10x zoom ratio - Canon (660) just trumped Sony (659) and Nikon (657). In the Stylish segment, Sony took the lead (657), with Canon a close second (656), and Nikon third again (654). Among standard compacts, Panasonic was the clear winner with 625 points, followed by Canon (619) and Nikon (611).

Website: J. D. Power Press Release (in Japanese)

Wacom Intuos4 is a new professional pen tablet that delivers new features and unparalleled performance to photographers. The Intuos 4 is capable of capturing the slightest nuance of pen pressure against the tablet surface, as well as offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. Other innovative product enhancements offered by the Intuos4 include a refined and intelligent industrial design, customizable shortcut and modifier keys with accompanying OLED displays, and a user-defined Touch Ring capable of controlling up to four different functions in any application. The Wacom Intuos4 is available now and comes in four sizes - small ($229 / £199.99), medium ($369 / £329.99), large ($499 / £429.99) and extra large ($789 / £699.99).

The Pentax 645 Digital camera looks like it will finally arrive in 2010. An official press release on the Pentax Japan website provides a target release date for both the 645D and the smc PENTAX-D FA645 55mm F2.8 lens. It also reveals that the 645 Digital will feature an image sensor with at least 30 megapixels. The Pentax 645 Digital has been shown in prototype form at various photography shows over the last few years.

Website: Pentax Japan

Kodak and LG have just signed a contract enabling LG to use Kodak’s OLED technology in a number of electronic devices, ranging from cell phones to television sets. According to a report by Engadget, neither company has issued an official press release yet, but if the story is to be believed, you might soon see LG branded computer screens and TVs featuring OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays. This could be beneficial to both editing and viewing digital photos, as Kodak claims OLED screens have “unsurpassed contrast and luminance”, offer “lifelike colour reproduction, vibrancy and brightness”, and are “easier to see in changing ambient light contitions”. On the other hand, OLED screens have historically been criticised for having a much shorter lifespan than other types of display.

Website: Engadget

The Mamiya DL33 is a new medium format camera that offers 33 megapixels. At 36 x 48mm, the DL33’s sensor is twice the size of full frame DSLR cameras, with a pixel size of 7.2 microns. The Mamiya DL33’s 3.5-inch touch screen, the largest in the industry, offers a bright, high-contrast display ideal for outdoor or indoor work. 16-bit capture, 12-stop dynamic range and an ISO range of 50-800 are the other headline features of the $19,999 Mamiya DL33, which will be available in April.

Transcend’s new SDHC HD Video memory cards are designed specifically for recording, storing, and playing back high definition video content. A 16GB Transcend SDHC HD Video Card can store 2 hours and 40 minutes of video content when recording high quality 1920x1080 AVCHD footage at 13Mbps. If slightly lower quality settings are used, the same 16GB card can record up to six full hours of high definition video. Transcend’s SDHC HD Video Cards are also fully Class 6 compliant, providing fast data transfer speeds (guaranteed minimum write speed of 6MB/s), and are backed by a Lifetime Warranty.

OmniVision’s OV9810 image sensor combines 9 megapixel photography with 1080p HD video on a single chip.  The new 9 megapixel sensor is designed specifically to address the ‘sweet spot’ of both digital still camera and high-definition camcorder market segments. Featuring OmniVision’s high-sensitivity 1.75 micron, the OmniVision OV9810 delivers best-in-class low-light sensitivity. The 1/2.3-inch OV9810 is capable of operating at 8.9 fps in full 9 megapixel resolution, and offers true HD quality (1080p) video at 30 fps. The OV9810 is immediately available for customer sampling with volume production slated for the second half of 2009.

Sakar have unveiled new Vivitar products including digital, underwater and video cameras, digital SLR camera lenses and flashes. The Vivitar V8400P ($129.95) is an 8 megapixel that’s waterproof at depths up to 30 feet. The Vivitar V8025 ($99) is an 8 megapixel touch-screen camera. The Vivitar Series 1 Lenses for DSLRs includes an 85mm F1.4A spherical lens for portraits and a a 650-1300mm super telephoto lens. Vivitar Series 1 Flashes includes the DF-283 ($129.95) bounce, zoom, swivel AF flash and the DF-383 ($199.95) power zoom LCD display flash.

The WD ShareSpace network storage systems now offer 8 TB (terabytes) of capacity. Other key improvements include up to 30 percent faster transfer speeds, and DLNA media streaming capabilities. WD’s Anywhere Backup software provides automatic and continuous protection for data from every PC and Mac on the network. The WD ShareSpace storage system with 8 TB costs $1,699.99.

Pretec has unveiled the world’s first highest capacity and fastest SD card. The Pretec 32GB SDXC card is a next-generation SD card offering read/write speeds of up to 50MB/s. Pretec are demonstrating the new card at this week’s PMA show in Las Vegas. The capacity of Pretec’s SDXC cards will be increased to 64GB by the second half of this year.

Pretec has unveiled the fastest compact flash card in the world. Four times faster than a typical compact flash card, the Pretec 666X card offers 100MB/s transfer speeds, approaching the theoretical maximum speed of the compact flash specification (133MB/s). The Pretec 666X CF card will start sampling by April from capacities of 4GB to 64GB.

The new Apple Mac Pro delivers up to twice the performance of the previous system. Available in quad-core or 8-core models, the Mac Pro uses Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processors, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics cards and up to 4TB of internal storage. The new Mac Pro will be available next week, priced at £1,899 for the quad-core Mac Pro and £2,499 for the 8-core Mac Pro.