Albelli is a new photo book creation tool for Photobucket’s 40 million users. Seamless integration with Photobucket allows its users to drag and drop their high-resolution images from both their Photobucket account and desktop computer to create their own personalized photo book. After choosing from the varied backgrounds, effects and text options that Albelli offers, the user completes the order and receives a printed, bound photo book in about 7 days.

Steves Digicams have reviewed the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 camera, an 8.1 megapixel entry-level addition to the brand new FS range.

“The image quality of our outdoor shots are pleasing for a camera in this class. Exposure and color were both good even on an overcast day and around water. The Leica 3x optical zoom lens, with a 35mm equivalent of 33-100mm, is great for shooting landscapes and group portraits. The telephoto is not enough to single out distant objects, but it is very helpful when framing shots and shooting individual portraits. At the wide end of the zoom there is some barrel distortion as well as slight edge softness throughout the focal range. The camera did an excellent job of controlling chromatic aberrations (purple fringing), with only slight instances in high contrast areas.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 Review

The Ricoh G600 is a new compact, lightweight, water and dust-resistant, wide-angle, 5x zoom digital camera featuring enhanced shock resistance for outdoor use. Successor to the Caplio 500G Wide model (which will still be available), the Ricoh G600 is smaller and lighter yet still passes the shock resistance test for a 1.5m fall. The Ricoh G600 will be available in May 2008 for £349.99 inc vat.

The natural history website Loveearth.com has launched a natural history photo contest. Each week 20 images will be selected and published on the site, with the winner drawn at random. The first prize is a digital camera worth £299, and the weekly winners will receive a Planet Earth box set (RRP £20) and £50 worth of Lonely Planet travel guides. Open to all residents of the UK and USA, the Love Earth contest will run until May 31st 2008.

Jobo have released a firmware update for the Photo Display PDJ701 digital picture frame series. The update installs the folder structure function and allows you to arrange up to 10,000 images into individual folders for more organized slideshow presentations.

The G–RAID Pro hard drive offers RAID data protection, a triple interface and storage capacities up to 4TB. The G–RAID Pro drive’s on–board, hardware RAID controller supports both RAID 0 and fail–safe RAID 5 operation with auto–rebuild functionality, and utilizes four hot–swappable 7200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s disk drive modules. Available in June, the G–RAID Pro drive will be available in 1, 2, 3, and 4 TB configurations with prices starting at $999.

The second annual ASMP Arnold Newman Prize has been awarded to photographer Jonathan Torgovnik. The work of Torgovnik, “Intended Consequences: Genocide Mothers, Children of Rape,”, was selected from nearly 300 images submitted in the 2008 contest. He will receive a grant in the amount of $2,500 cash from Getty Images and a Canon EOS 30D camera. The ASMP Arnold Newman Prize prize recognizes the work of a contemporary environmental portrait photographer whose imagery is grounded in the traditions and values that Newman pioneered.

Eye-Fi users have now wirelessly uploaded more than one million photographs to the Web. The Eye-Fi Card is the world’s first wireless memory card for digital cameras. “With the Eye-Fi Card, uploading digital memories is automatic and effortless, so users are sharing photos with friends and family while the memories are still fresh.  They aren’t waiting until their memory card is full or they have spare time to transfer pictures from their cameras.” said CEO Jef Holove. The 2GB Eye-Fi Card retails for $99.99 USD and is PC and Mac compatible.

The version 1.10 firmware update for the Nikon D3 DSLR has been removed from Nikon’s support site following customer feedback. Image data may be corrupted if the D3 is upgraded to v1.10 and a certain combination of camera settings is made. Nikon are instructing anyone who has upgraded their D3 to the v1.10 firmware to shoot with different settings until a revised firmware update is released in late April.

Panasonic UK have confirmed that the WiFi-enabled DMC-TZ50 camera announced last week will not be released in the UK or Europe.

Mark Robinson, Lumix Product manager, commented “Panasonic is currently exploring new opportunities with potential alliances and wireless technologies. The United States was selected as the testing ground for TZ50 due to the availability of a unified HotSpot service provider with coverage throughout the country. At the moment the provision of HotSpot services in Europe is very fragmented, and therefore less suitable for our first launch. A decision about the possibility of the Wi-Fi camera concept (not necessary TZ50) coming to Europe in the future is still under review”.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 is a 9 megapixel, 10x zoom compact camera with built-in Wi-Fi, retailing for $449 in the USA.

First stocks of the new ColorMunki colour management device from X-Rite are now available in the UK. “The launch of the ColorMunki range has been the most successful in our history, with unprecedented levels of pre-orders and a universally positive response from our customers, the industry and press alike”, comments Geoffrey Clements, Managing Director of Colour Confidence. We awarded our highest 5 star / Essential rating in our ColorMunki Photo Review. ColorMunki Photo and ColorMunki Design are available now, priced at £319/€429 ex. VAT.

The RAW converter software Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0 now supports the Canon Digital Rebel XSi / EOS 450D, Pentax K20D and Sony A350 DSLRs. Version 3.0.18.3 also records ens information into the JPEG/TIFF file using the XMP standard, which was standardized by Adobe. Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0 costs $149.00 and a free trial version is available.

Website: Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0.18.3

Steves Digicams have reviewed the the Fujifilm Finepix Z100fd, an 8-megapixel ultra-compact camera featuring a 2.7 inch LCD screen and 5x internal zoom lens.

“Image quality from the Z100fd was very good. The outdoor exposures were good, with images being sharp and pleasing color saturation. The 5x Fujinon optical zoom lens has a 35mm equivalent range of 36-180mm. This gives it a moderate wide end for shooting landscapes and small group portraits, while the telephoto end is great for individual and close-up photography. You will find some barrel distortion as well as slight edge softness at the wide end of the zoom and slight purple fringing (chromatic aberrations) throughout in areas of high contrast.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Fujifilm Finepix Z100fd Review

Website: Read our Fujifilm Finepix Z100fd Review

The specification for CFast, a new CompactFlash card with a SATA (Serial ATA) interface, is due to be published in May. The SATA interface of the CFast cards will provide interface data rates up to 3Gb/sec, much faster than the 133MB/second rate of standard CF cards. “The development of a CompactFlash card with a SATA interface will maintain the dominance of CompactFlash in the non-consumer (embedded systems, single board computers, data recorder, etc.) markets as well as promote its use in other applications such as digital SLR cameras and professional video cameras. Having the SATA interface will be a significant step for CompactFlash.” commented Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon and the CFA chairman of the board.

The Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA8 is a new waterproof hybrid digital camera/camcorder. Featuring JIS IPX5 and IPX8 waterproof ratings, the DMX-CA8 can be used underwater to a depth of 1.5-meters for 60 minutes or less. The Sanyo DMX-CA8 has an 8 megapixel CCD sensor, 5x zoom lens, and 2.5 inch LCD screen. On the video side, the DMX-CA8 can shoot 680×480 movies at 60fps, with 75 minutes or 200 still images promised from the lithium-ion battery. Currently only announced in Japan, the Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA8 will cost around around 50,000 yen / $500 / £250.

Buy a 50 sheet pack of Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk paper and get 10 sheets of the same size, worth up to £39.99. This special offer is available at participating dealers in the UK whilst stocks last. There’s also a special promotion on Gold Fibre Silk rolls - buy 3 rolls of the same size, get another roll free whilst stocks last.

The new OWC Mercury On-The-Go 500GB is the highest capacity portable, bus-powered storage drive on the market. A palm-sized drive that fits in a shirt pocket, the Mercury On-The-Go 500GB offers FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 connections and 5400RPM performance. The OWC Mercury On-The-Go 500GB is available now priced at $359.99.

Version 11.1 of Leaf Capture image workflow software features a a brand new Compare View function. Leaf Capture also features an all-new Lens Calibration File Wizard and automatic firmware updates. Leaf Capture 11.1 software supports all of Leaf’s camera systems and is available for an unlimited number of users.

The new Mamiya ProSD Adapter HX702 turns the RB67 Pro-S/Pro-SD into a 22 megapixel digital camera. The Mamiya ZD 22-megapixel Digital Back can be fitted to the Mamiya RB67 Pro-S and Pro-SD medium format film cameras using the new adapter. “With the introduction of the RB67 ProSD Adapter, we’re opening the digital world to a large number of photographers who invested in RB67 equipment.” commented Jeff Karp, Mamiya Product Marketing Manager. The Mamiya ProSD Adapter HX702 will be available in May 2008.

Microsoft has updated Expression Media with a post-SP1 rollup of bug fixes. Microsoft Expression Media (formerly known as iView MediaPro) is now up to version 1.0.9058. Expression Media Post-SP Rollup for Microsoft Windows fixes the following issues from Expression Media Service Pack 1:

- Nikon D3/D300 NEF RAW files crash Expression Media
- Custom fields have garbage characters appended to the end of the fields when opened in Expression Media Service Pack 1
- After upgrading to Apple QuickTime 7.4, files/folders added to a Catalog that previously existed are duplicated in the Catalog Folder pane and uses 8.3 naming instead of long file names.

Website: Microsoft Expression Media Post-SP1 Rollup (Windows)
Website: Microsoft Expression Media Post-SP1 Rollup (Mac)