Bowens is set to launch a number of new products in 2016, including innovative lighting equipment the company believes will be ‘game-changing’ in the industry. "New product development is the number one target for us," said John Gobby, Managing Director. "Our R&D team is expanding and not only are we going to be launching exciting new products but we are going to be launching them much faster." New technical director John Gass, added: "We are working more closely than ever before with photographers on focus groups and already as a result of this we are planning new and different products that will appeal to diverse segments of our market. Our professional photographer customers worldwide will see that Bowens is in the business of providing genuine design innovation and functionality across its portfolio."

Hasselblad and DJI today announced a corporate partnership through DJI's acquisition of a strategic minority stake in Hasselblad. "We are honoured to be partnering with DJI, the clear technology and market leader in its segment," said Perry Oosting, Hasselblad's CEO. "DJI and Hasselblad are equally enthusiastic about creativity and excellence, and we are looking forward to sharing technical expertise and paving the way for future innovations." Hasselblad and DJI will each focus on their individual strategic directions and related growth opportunities, with marketing and branding platforms continuing to delineate the two companies. Hasselblad cameras and equipment will continue to be handmade in Sweden, and DJI will continue to make products in Shenzhen, China.

Ricoh Imaging Americas has appointed Linnea Wolken as its new director of marketing for the U.S. and Canada. In this role, Wolken will manage all marketing activities for Ricoh and Pentax cameras and accessories, including the Pentax 645Z medium-format camera system; the newly available Ricoh Theta S and the complete line of digital SLR and compact cameras. “This is such an opportune time to join Ricoh Imaging, as it has just launched some ground-breaking cameras. Positioning the company to grow in multiple directions is such an exciting endeavour,” said Wolken. “I am inspired by the opportunities ahead, and am looking forward to working with everyone on the talented Ricoh team as well as its extended family of dealers, partners and photographers, including our Pentax Image Makers brand ambassadors.”

Western Digital and SanDisk today announced that Western Digital will acquire all of the outstanding shares of SanDisk for a combination of cash and stock. The offer values SanDisk common stock at $86.50 per share or a total equity value of approximately $19 billion. "This transformational acquisition aligns with our long-term strategy to be an innovative leader in the storage industry by providing compelling, high-quality products with leading technology," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer, Western Digital. "The combined company will be ideally positioned to capture the growth opportunities created by the rapidly evolving storage industry. I'm excited to welcome the SanDisk team as we look to create additional value for all of our stakeholders, including our customers, shareholders and employees."

Hasselblad has announced the appointment of a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Effective 12th October, Johan Åhlén, a former brand, marketing and sales expert with Scandinavian Airlines assumes responsibility for Hasselblad's marketing initiatives. "As a marketeer it is an honour for me to accept this new role at Hasselblad and become an integral part of this iconic brand," Åhlén said. "This company has a stunning history, with its cutting edge products used by some of the best photographers in the world. It will be a joy to develop new marketing initiatives and business potential together with the Hasselblad team."

Elinchrom, Phottix and Sekonic have announced plans to launch the "most revolutionary lighting control system ever." The integration of select existing technologies as well as the joint development of new ones from this global alliance carries the promise of creating a creative lighting toolkit allowing photographers to dramatically expand their repertoire. Currently, Phottix and Elinchrom design engineers are collaborating on enhanced features for the next generation of the Skyport transmitter, which will include hyper-sync functionality. Additionally, photographers using the Phottix Indra 360 TTL (pictured) or Indra 500 TTL lighting systems will soon have the ability to use the broad range of Elinchrom light-shapers. Sekonic is collaborating with both Phottix and Elinchrom to finalise two new 478-series LiteMaster Pro flash meters; one for Elinchrom featuring in-meter power control and one for Phottix that allows for triggering of groups from the meter.

Phottix has joined the MAC Group, a sales and marketing company representing an array of imaging brands in the US. "Phottix is the new standard for cutting-edge innovation and excellence in photographic TTL lighting triggering accessories," said Jan Lederman, MAC Group President. "Together, we are committed to changing the industry and making TTL flash solutions easy and accessible to everyone."

Nikon have been formally recognised as the Best Photography Brand at the annual Which? Awards ceremony 2015. The Japanese company won the Award as during Which? testing over the last year, the brand’s digital compact and SLR cameras have been top-scoring. “To win the Which? Best Photography Brand award is a tremendous reflection on the performance and reliability of Nikon products and the service we provide to our customers,” says John Walshe, Managing Director at Nikon UK. “We are absolutely delighted to be recognised by Which? and to have achieved 9 Best Buys and to be in the top spot for appliance reliability ratings too.”

To celebrate Earth Day 2015, Triggertrap brought together photographers from five continents to create EarthLapse: a spectacular timelapse window on our world from many perspectives. In a follow-up to last year’s highly successful LapseLondon, when 40 photographers timelapsed a day in the life of London, EarthLapse drew on the vision and enthusiasm of photographers across the globe to highlight how breathtaking every far corner of the world can be. The beautiful outcome illustrates why days of global appreciation such as Earth Day remain important to preserving our planet’s environment.

Canon Europe today announced that it is acquiring London-based digital start-up Lifecake, the company behind the Lifecake photo-sharing app for families, which allows parents to store, organise, share and relive key moments of their children’s lives.  With the app, parents can create photo and video timelines that the whole family can experience on smartphones, tablets, computers and in printed photobooks. Lifecake is currently available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Elinchrom has announced its separation from Manfrotto Distribution USA to begin a new chapter in its history. The company will begin US operations on 5th May, helmed by Chris Whittle. "As the U.S. photography market continues to grow and evolve across the professional and prosumer markets, we felt now was an appropriate time to pursue some exciting new ideas," Whittle said. "We would like to thank the team at Manfrotto Distribution USA for their years of support and dedication towards growing the Elinchrom brand in the U.S."

Modelled after its American parent company, MAC Group US, the new MAC Group Europe unit will bring the same unique line of products to the EU. "We believe in the old-fashioned way of selling, people-to-people," says MAC Group president Jan Lederman. "So our new sales team will be bringing that message, face-to-face, with our European dealers." Leading the foray into this territory from the company's new Wolverhampton headquarters will be Managing Director Nigel Fielden, who previously spent many years overseeing the European market for Lowepro and Manfrotto. The group's current brand portfolio includes Benro, Induro, MeFOTO, Tenba and Vü.

Lytro has launched the world's first light field imaging studio in Tokyo. Providing rich, dynamic exhibitions of living pictures and 3D images captured with the Lytro Illum camera (read review), the Lytro Studio in Tokyo allows visitors to render multiple outputs from a single exposure by adjusting aperture, point of focus, tilt, perspective shift, depth of field and animation. "Lytro Studio transports the flourishing light field ecosystem we have cultivated into a physical experiential space," says Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Lytro. "With its culture of innovation and active photography, fashion and creative communities, Tokyo is the perfect city to host this studio and illustrate the intersection of technology and imaging." The Lytro Studio is located at Nichihata Bldg., Floor 1 2-32-3 Jingumae, Shibuya.

Hasselblad has announced a new aerial imaging camera equipment alliance with Australian importer C.R.Kennedy. The arrangement, described as 'a pioneering strategic partnership for all aerial imaging solutions' by Hasselblad, is expected to expand the market for the company's professional H5D aerial camera (pictured) and other high-end capture portfolio products.

Olympus has announced that Chinese drone manufacturer DJI, Guangzhou-based JCD(GuangZhou) Optical and FLOVEL, a Japanese company designing the cutting-edge optical equipment, have joined the Micro Four Thirds standard. DJI is a Chinese company established in 2006 that designs, produces and sells high performance flying platforms, flight controllers, aerial gimbals for cameras in addition to the most popular ready to fly quadcopters with built-in cameras and handheld gimbals for filmmaking professionals. JCD(GuangZhou) Optical is a GuangZhou-based company established in 1999 that designs and produces cameras and lenses for still cameras and camcorders. FLOVEL is a Japanese company established in 1968, that designs, produces and constructs the system for the super high sensitivity cameras and shooting system in the medical and bio-science field.

Inspired by the Hungarian Fortepan project, the University of Northern Iowa has announced the establishment of a new public digital photo archive featuring curated photos made by ordinary Iowans over the 20th century. Taking its name from a panchromatic black-and-white film stock manufactured in Hungary right up to the closure of the Forte plant in 2007, the original Fortepan archive started out as a private project of collectors Ákos Szepessy and Miklós Tamási, borne out of a desire to demonstrate that photos - even "artistically worthless" snapshots - taken by ordinary people can help us better understand the history of the 20th century. Thanks to donations, the collection has grown to include over forty thousand digitised black-and-white and colour photographs, from a pseudo-bucolic idyll dating back to 1900 to a 1990 photograph of a still-standing section of the Berlin wall. Based on this project, the new Fortepan Iowa archive will display thousands of photographs along a sliding interactive timeline and invite visitors to horizontally scroll through highly curated, well-documented photographs digitised at "tremendously high resolution," the university says. The open-source platform will inspire visitors to engage digitally with the high-quality images — a rare opportunity in a heavily copyrighted age. Fortepan Iowa will launch in March 2015 with at least 2,000 photos in the archive.

Hasselblad has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer. The company is now helmed by Perry Oosting, a former CEO of luxury mobile phone manufacturer Vertu. "It is an honour for me to accept this new role at Hasselblad and become an integral part of this iconic brand," Oosting said in a statement. "This company has an incredible history and with its core DNA has a sound foundation for further development. The recent and widely acclaimed launch of our 'back to the future' CFV-50c CMOS back [pictured] is a great example of our ongoing commitment to the total Hasselblad brand experience that enables customers to benefit from our advanced and exclusive digital engineering know-how."

Adobe has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fotolia. Founded in 2004, Fotolia currently operates in 23 countries and has websites in 14 languages. The service will be integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud, providing current and future Creative Cloud members with the ability to access and purchase over 34 million images and videos. “The acquisition of Fotolia will reinforce Creative Cloud’s role as the preeminent destination for creatives,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe. “Creative Cloud is becoming the go-to marketplace for the creative community to access images, videos, fonts and creative talent, through critical creative services like Fotolia and our new Creative Talent Search capabilities." The transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of Adobe’s fiscal Q1 2015, is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Upon close Fotolia CEO, Oleg Tscheltzoff, will continue to lead the Fotolia team as part of Adobe’s Digital Media business.

Lytro have announced the Lytro Platform to "empower innovative organisations to harness the full potential of the light field" in their industries. The first product to be released as part of the Lytro Platform is the Lytro Development Kit (LDK). The LDK provides imaging researchers with the highest degree of control of Lytro’s advanced light field capture devices and software processing engine. “We always believed that light field technology could benefit areas outside of photography,” said Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Lytro. “Since Lytro’s inception, we’ve continually been approached by a number of organisations wanting to collaborate with us on a wide variety of new applications." A number of companies and government agencies have embraced the Lytro Platform, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is leveraging Lytro’s LDK technology to develop new light field cameras for use on future space missions to other planets. The LDK is available from Lytro, starting at $20,000.

OmegaBrandess has announced the acquisition of the assets of the Gigapan hardware division of Gigapan Systems. Gigapan, which was formed in 2008 as a commercial spin-off of successful research collaboration between a team of researchers at NASA and Carnegie Mellon University, manufactures Gigapan EPIC Robotic Mounts. Part of a fully integrated solution, the Gigapan EPIC and EPIC 100 are compatible with a broad range of point-and-shoot cameras and small DSLRs to capture Gigapans, quickly and accurately. The EPIC Pro is designed to work with DSLR cameras and larger lenses, features advanced technology to deliver stunning performance and precision. OmegaBrandess is now in the process of transitioning the operation to their facility in Hampstead, MD where they plan to be in full production as soon as possible.