Lomography has unveiled a transparent collector's edition of its do-it-yourself film camera - the Konstruktor. Like the regular version, the transparent collector's edition  takes about 1-2 hours to build, but unlike its cousin, it cannot take pictures. "It looks absolutely fantastic on any coffee table or bookshelf, and will act as a perfect conversation starter and centre piece for your upcoming holiday parties," the company promises. The Lomography Konstruktor Transparent Collector's Edition is available as a standalone product for €59, or as part of a special gift bundle that also includes a fully functioning, garden variety Konstruktor.

In an open letter addressed to the Lomography community, Dennis Olbrich, president of Personalised Imaging at Kodak Alaris) has stated that Kodak will ‘continue to offer the full portfolio of photographic films and papers. "Whether you prefer shooting on the award-winning KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA films or an all time classic like the KODAK PROFESSIONAL TRI-X or you look 
forward to print your images on the unmatched KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Metallic paper – Kodak Alaris will continue to offer all you need," Olbrich says. The Lomographic Society responded: "As partners in the mission to keep a great selection of film available for analogue photographers, we at Lomography are thrilled by this news."

C&A Licensing, the authorised Polaroid licensee for camera accessories, mountable sports video cameras and the instant digital camera line, is bringing back the Polaroid Pic-300 instant film camera. The Polaroid Pic-300 includes auto flash and four scene settings, and comes equipped with a detachable wrist strap. The camera is available on Amazon and Target for $69.99.

Fujifilm UK is to close its E6 processing lab facility in November 2014. This ceasing of operations has been planned in advance to enable customers who have remaining rolls of Fujichrome Sensia process-paid film sufficient time to get them processed. Fujifilm's pre-paid processing vouchers will continue to be available, but must also be used before the closing date of 1st November 2014.

Lomography has released a Diana F+ instant camera package that includes an instant film back as well as a medium-format roll film back. Other items in the kit include a close-up attachment lens and a Diana+ Flash. The camera body is the same as the classic Diana F+, with standard lens, "daytime" and "bulb" shutter modes, multiple exposure and pinhole functions. The Diana F+ Instant Camera Package is available for £119/€129.

The new Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic is a high-end instant film camera. "The mini 90 stands apart from the previous 'cute' image that instax had built up in the past and features a variety of shooting modes for various scenes and applications for users to enjoy," Fujifilm says. These shooting modes include a double-exposure mode, a bulb setting and a macro mode which allows short-distance photography at the press of a button without attaching a closeup lens like previous instax models. Encased in a stylish and premium body, the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic also has a "kids" mode, a "party" mode and a "landscape" mode. The Fuji Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic is available for £129.99 for the camera only and £139.99 for the camera + 20 sheets of film. In the United States, the camera will go on sale early next year, priced at $199.99.

CEWE Color has just launched its new Photo Legacy service. This service offers digitisation of analogue media including negatives, slides, prints, VHS tapes and cine film. Photo Restore is an additional service available across prints, slides and negatives which improves the quality of the print through a digital image filter, enhancing colour and contrast. To take advantage of the new services, consumers can take their old prints, negatives, slides or footage into selected Boots (those with a Photo department) and Jessops stores across the UK. For a list of participating stores and for more information, visit the website below.

Lomography has released a special, limited edition version of its ‘La Sardina’ camera to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Where’s Wally? (known in the United States and Canada as Where's Waldo?). Shaped like a humble sardine can, the La Sardina Wally Watcher 35mm film camera offers a 22mm wide-angle lens, double exposures and long time exposures. Also equipped with a Wally embossed lens cap, the La Sardina Wally Watcher edition is priced at £65.

Fujifilm has announced the winner of its 2013 Student Awards. The theme for this year's Award was 'The Colour Of....' with students being briefed to capture an image that illustrates how colour lights up their world. The awards were open to all students in the UK. The winner is Nick Linnett of Leicester College, who will be presented with £200 worth of Fujifilm films, a trophy, plus a professional quality portfolio by Metroprint. Nick's image, a double-exposure shot of traffic lights against a bright building (above), impressed judges with its technical ability and striking colours. Explaining the inspiration behind his image, Nick said: "It’s a building many consider to be an eyesore, however I wanted to show it in a different way so decided to take some multiple exposures using my trusty Canon... I chose Fujifilm Superia 200 as I wanted something flexible for the variety of different shots I was planning and I found Superia 200 gives great results in just about every situation."

"Printing your own pictures is all nice and well, but why stop there when you can print your own camera?" Perhaps this is what crossed Leo Marius's mind when he set about creating a fully functional 35mm film SLR camera using a 3D printer. The 24-year-old French student named his invention "OpenReflex," and made the documentation available on the Instructables.com website so that anyone with a suitable 3D printer can make his or her own copy of the device. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: OpenReflex on Instructables.com

The Konstruktor is a new, do-it-yourself film camera from Lomography. Priced at £29, the Lomography Konstruktor takes about 1-2 hours to build. "This innovative, self-crafted SLR camera will reward you with impressively sharp and typically Lomographic shots on regular 35mm film," the company claims. The Konstruktor takes interchangeable optics, and the kit includes a 50mm f/10 lens.

Four Corner Store has announced a new 35mm Film Collection, which combines colour and black-and-white, Kodak, Fuji and even its own private label films. The films, ranging from 12 to 36 exposures per roll, are packaged in recycled boxes and bags, each one hand stamped and filled. Boxes are four rolls each, bags are six rolls and there's even a hard film case that holds 10 rolls. Boxes start at $7.95, while the Hard Case sells for $14.95.

Yesterday, less than a month after halting shipments of its OpticFilm 120 multi-format film scanner, Plustek USA issued a statement saying it has resumed shipping of the device. "Recently we discovered a component used in the manufacture of the OpticFilm 120 does not meet our quality standards," the company said in a statement issued back in April. Now Plustek are saying that they "will control scanner production to maintain a high level of product quality and customer satisfaction. Each scanner is assembled and tested by skilled technician[s] to ensure the image quality exceeds that of any non-drum film scanner in production or use today." 

Kodak has announced a comprehensive settlement agreement with the UK Kodak Pension Plan (KPP), its largest creditor, providing for the spin-off of Kodak’s Personalised Imaging and Document Imaging businesses to KPP for $650 million. The Personalised Imaging business includes still camera film products, photographic papers, retail print solutions and souvenir photo products sold at theme parks and other venues. The Document Imaging business provides a portfolio of scanners, capture software and services to enterprise customers. At present it is unclear what KPP intends to do with these businesses.

Hasselblad has announced the discontinuance of the Hasselblad 503CW, the last V system camera in its portfolio. The decision, which comes into immediate effect, brings to an end over a half century of evolution of the company’s original camera line. Hasselblad has confirmed that the last 503CW has rolled off the production line but the company will continue to provide V System accessories while stocks last.  V System support will also still be available through "current channels."

Lomography has launched a new 35mm film back for its medium-format Belair X 6-12 camera. With this adapter, users of the Belair X 6-12 camera can make impressive panoramic shots on regular 35mm film. The extensive exposure area of 104x33mm enables them to capture images with a rather extreme aspect ratio of 3.15:1. Available in the Lomography Online Shop, the 35mm back fpr the Belair X 6-12 camera retails for £55.

Fujfilm North America will increase prices for consumer and professional photographic film as well as one-time-use cameras by approximately 20%, effective 1 July 2013. “The price increases are a result of the continuing decline in demand for film products, the high costs of production, and the increased expenses associated with raw materials, including silver and petro-chemicals, and energy,” the company said in a statement. “Under such circumstances, and despite efforts to maintain production costs, Fujifilm is unable to absorb these costs entirely and must implement price increases at this time.”

Yesterday we reported that a set of “never-before-seen” colour photographs portraying inmates in the Dachau concentration camp had surfaced on the Vintage Everyday blog; with the remark that the original source of the photographs was not specified. Since then, we’ve managed to trace back the images to the copyright owner, which happens to be the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). The photos were apparently taken by Alexander Zabin, an “American soldier from Malverne, Long Island, New York, serving with the 4th Auxiliary Surgical Group in the US Third Army when he visited Dachau in mid-May 1945.”

The Vintage Everyday website has published a set of never-before-seen colour photographs showing inmates in a Nazi concentration camp. The Daily Mail, which also carried the photos, has talked to an unnamed expert who said the shots would most probably have been taken in the Dachau camp sometime after its liberation on 29 April 1945 by US Army forces. With the exception of one photograph depicting dead bodies in a railway carriage, the rare colour images feature exhausted but fairly relaxed-looking men of various nationalities, among them Russians and Poles. In some of the pictures one can also see French and Yugoslav flags being flown, underpinning the assumption that they were taken after the camp had been liberated. (The prisoners weren’t able to leave immediately after the arrival of the Americans as the war was still raging, and many of them didn’t have the means to return home on their own.) The original source of the images has not been revealed.

Photo: Vintage Everyday via The Daily Mail

Update: PhotographyBLOG has managed to trace back the images to the original source.

The recently launched Plustek OpticFilm 120 multi-format film scanner will be on display at the Focus on Imaging trade show held in Birmingham from 3rd - 6th March. Capable of scanning both 35mm and 120 format negatives and slides, the Plustek OpticFilm 120 boasts a custom-designed 8-element glass lens and a high-resolution CCD sensor; and comes complete with adjustable-pitch film holders that feature unique sliding inter-frame dividers to ensure optimal film flatness. The scanner’s hardware resolution - based on the specification of its stepper motor and the number of pixels on its CCD - is 10,600dpi, with the optical resolution (which also takes into account the resolving power of the optical system) specified at 5,300dpi. Other highlights include automated IT8 calibration and a motorised film transport for batch scanning.