Kodak announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move is “intended to bolster liquidity in the US and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the company to focus on its most valuable business lines,” Kodak said in a statement .The company expects to pay employee wages and benefits and continue customer programmes. Non-US subsidiaries are not subject to proceedings, and “will honour all obligations to suppliers”.

Mamiya and Leaf have created a new, worldwide Mamiya Leaf brand that integrates both companies’ product lines into a single medium-format digital camera system. “Creating a new Mamiya Leaf brand represents a win-win situation for photographers” said Dov Kalinksi, Leaf General Manager. “Not only will photographers be able to immediately benefit from a highly advanced, fully-integrated medium format system from the industry’s leading suppliers, but they will also be able to enjoy powerful new products emerging from a unified R&D effort.” Cameras and lenses made by Mamiya and backs manufactured by Leaf will retain their respective Mamiya and Leaf labels and they will still be sold as individual components. For more information, visit the website below.

Kodak has filed a lawsuit against Fujifilm, alleging infringement of certain patents related to Kodak digital imaging technology. Specifically, the complaint alleges infringement of the following five patents: “Single Sensor Color Camera With User Selectable Image Record Size”, “Electronic Camera For Initiating Capture of Still Images While Previewing Motion Images”, “Electronic Still Camera For Capturing Digital Image and Creating a Print Order”, “Electronic Camera With Quick Review of Last Captured Image” and “Electronic Still Camera Providing Multi-Format Storage of Full and Reduced Resolution Images”-

Now open to the general public, the recently launched Morpholio project seeks to create a new platform for presentation, dialogue, and collaboration relevant to all members “of any image driven culture”. Originally initiated by a group of five architects and academics, the Morpholio project has grown to include over 200 contributors including representatives of other visual disciplines including photography. “Our interest is in advancing the ways that we discuss, debate, and critique our work with a global community,” the founders say. They have recently released a free iOS app called Morpholio Beta 1.0 and launched a website where you can learn more about the project.

Light & Land has announced a brand new ‘journey of a lifetime’ photography tour along one of the most stunning and dramatic coastlines in the USA - Highway 1: The Famous Pacific Coast Highway. The tour, led by Landscape Photographer of the Year award winner Antony Spencer, will run from 28th May to 8th June 2012 with places limited to 10 guests. For more information or to book, visit the website below.

Leica has announced the expansion of its premises in Bruton Place, Mayfair. The Leica Store Mayfair (opened in September 2009) at 34 Bruton Place will continue to display and offer the entire range of Leica products. Above the store, the current Leica Akademie training facility will be expanded to encompass a second Akademie space, allowing the company to offer a wider range of training workshops, one-to-one product demonstrations, advice sessions and private consultations for its customers. In addition, Leica will open a dedicated Media Centre for members of the press, a complimentary café-style area for Leica owners, a service centre, a gallery of images created using Leica cameras and a fully equipped studio available to hire exclusively to photographers using the Leica S-System.

Olympus’ stock tumbled 20% today after a 29% fall on Tuesday, in the wake of the company’s admission that it had paid over $1 billion to “advisors” to hide losses on securities investments over the course of the past 20 years. A report by Reuters has called the affair “the biggest corporate scandal to hit Japan since a series of scandals at brokerages in the 1990s”. Olympus’ largest shareholders are now worried that the 92-year-old company could be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The crisis broke out in October when the board of directors dismissed Chief Executive Officer Michael C. Woodford after he had commissioned an investigation into what seemed like “unusual payments” linked to a series of acquisitions made before his appointment. Since then, the company has lost more than 75 percent of its market value.

Kodak has completed the sale of its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) business to Platinum Equity. Included in the sale is a 263,000 square-foot facility in Eastman Business Park in Rochester. “This is a great opportunity to acquire a business with an impressive record for delivering innovative solutions to customers around the world,” said Brian Wall, the partner at Platinum Equity who led the team pursuing the acquisition. “The ISS business has a strong management team with the right vision for leading the company into the future. We share their commitment to product development and customer service and are committed to helping the business realise its full potential.” Over the past 30 years, Kodak has been manufacturing sensors for devices as diverse as earth imaging satellites, traffic monitoring systems and digital cameras such as Olympus E-1, the the Leica M9 and S2 and the Pentax 645D.

Registration for the WPPI 2012 convention and trade show is now open. WPPI is the biggest show in the world for wedding and portrait photographers and takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from February 16-23, 2012.

Canon has offered a donation of 50 million yen to support flood relief efforts in Thailand. Beginning in late July and described by a Thai official as “the worst flooding yet in terms of the amount of water and people affected,” the disaster has claimed more than three hundred lives and inundated many industrial areas (including camera factories and printer manufacturing plants owned by Canon and its competitors). “We at Canon extend our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this disaster and our thoughts go out to the victims and their families,” Canon said in a statement. “The Canon Group is providing aid for victims of the floods and support for recovery efforts in the affected regions with a donation of 50 million yen.”

Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms, indirectly through a holding company, a 44% minority stake in Leica, to support the latter’s international growth plans. Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica commented on the transaction: “With Blackstone we have gained an experienced and internationally established strategic partner, which also understands and appreciates the established brand philosophy and business model of Leica. Following the successful turnaround of the business and record sales last year, we are now focused on the continued development of the brand, its products and our growth plans into new markets such as Asia, South America and the Middle East.”

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Nikon 1 Factory in China.

Ricoh has announced the establishment of Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company as its wholly owned subsidiary. Ricoh’s acquisition of Pentax’s camera business from Hoya had been made public earlier this year. Today’s announcement means that the deal has now been completed-

Agency Access has announced the acquisition of ADBASE and its division providing online portfolios, FoundFolios. “This move positions Agency Access to be the top photo marketing and illustrator marketing resource provider,” the company says. ADBASE and FoundFolios will become divisions within Agency Access, maintaining their websites, brand identity and product offerings, and will continue to operate from their Toronto location.

Getty Images has announced that it will shoot the London 2012 Olympic Games in 3D. The agency, which first used 3D photography when covering the Royal Wedding in April, will be deploying a handful of 3D-dedicated photographers “to ensure the best still shots are captured”.For further information on Getty Images’ involvement as the official photographic agency of the International Olympic Committee, visit the website below.

Getty Images has announced that five photojournalists have been selected to each receive a grant of US$20,000 to pursue their documentary photography projects. The recipients include Alvarro Ybarra Zavala for ‘Colombia, in the eternity of sorrow’, Walter Astrada for ‘Violence against women in Norway’, Stanley Greene for ‘The E-waste Trail – China/ Pakistan/ Nigeria’, Liz Hingley for ‘The Jones family’ and Joan Bardeletti for ‘The KILL (the African Gays) BILL’. For more information about the grant recipients and their winning projects, visit the website below.

DayMen Group has announced the acquisition of Joby, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of photo, mobile and lighting accessories, including the award-winning GorillaPod (pictured). Since it was founded over six years ago, Joby has grown from a start-up to a company with distribution in over 65 countries. DayMen has been distributing Joby in Canada since 2007 and Australia since 2008. “DayMen will bring its extensive distribution network and our history of building great brands to the Joby line of products,” said Gil Roberts, DayMen CEO. “Together, we can accelerate the growth of our business and build the global presence of our Lowepro, Acme Made and Joby brands, as well as the many outstanding third-party brands we distribute around the world.”

The EISA awards for 2011/2012 have just been unveiled. Among the 15 winners in the Photo Awards section was the Canon EOS 600D (pictured) as Best European Camera, Fujifilm FinePix X100 for European Advanced Compact Camera, and Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G3 for European Compact System Camera.

Website: EISA Awards 2011/12

Corbis Images today announced the acquisition of Splash News. Founded in 1990, Splash News is a leading independent entertainment news and photography agency with more than 3,000 active photographers in entertainment hubs throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. “With the addition of Splash, Corbis will provide our customers the most comprehensive, unique and differentiated offering in the high-growth entertainment sector—from candid celebrity to high-end portraiture to motion,” said Gary Shenk, CEO of Corbis.