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)

Olympus have released a firmware update for the mju 1030SW, 1020, 1010, 850SW and the 840 digital cameras. Version 1.1 offers the following improvements:

- Now supports movie recording on 4 GB and higher microSDHC cards.
- Using an xD-Picture Card TypeM+ or TypeH, you can now continuously record movies with VGA quality (640x480) 30 fps up to the capacity of the card.

Website: Olympus Download Files

Rob Galbraith reports that the firmware update (v1.10) that Nikon released for the D3 DSLR earlier this week is intermittently corrupting images. An offset ghost image is appearing when shooting until the memory buffer fills and then taking additional frames. Apparently the Rob Galbraith staff are “able to make the problem surface pretty much at will”. Nikon have made no comment yet about this issue.

Website: Rob Galbraith - Nikon D3 v1.10 firmware appears to cause photo corruption problem

LG’s Viewtyful World photo competition aims to encourage people to explore and capture their surroundings. The Viewtyful World winner’s work will feature in National Geographic magazine and they will receive a copyright fee of £5,000. There are three different themes, night view, retouch, and moments, and the contest will be will be judged by website visitors. Jeremy Newing, head of LG Mobile Marketing, LG Electronics commented “This is a great opportunity for budding photographers to put their skills to the test and take their photography to a new level, via the powerful combination of a world class imaging device with a world class media partner.”

The finalists for the Garden Photographer of the Year 2008 contest have been announced. Theirphotographs will be showcased at an exhibition launched on 22nd May at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which runs until late September 2008.  The winners themselves will be announced when the show opens, as part of the opening of Kew’s Summer festival. Prizes include £5,000 cash for Best Single Image, £5,000 for Best Portfolio, and over £10,000 worth of vouchers from Manfrotto, Kata and Visible Dust. The competition for 2009 is now open with new categories including “World Botanic Gardens” and “The Edible Garden”.

Ilford now offers over 145 free ICC profiles for their Premium Plus and Premium Photo inkjet papers. Available to download for free from http://www.ilford.com , each ICC profile is built by in-house specialists at Ilford, allowing you to obtain a more striking and professional look in your prints. “ILFORD is dedicated to developing premium digital imaging technology for photographers, whether they are enthusiastic amateurs or ‘happy snappers’,” said Andrew Stewart, Sales and Marketing Director, ILFORD Imaging Switzerland GmbH. “We are delighted at the feedback we’ve been getting from the public. The increasing number of users downloading our profiles further proves that more and more people are turning to home printing.”

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 is new 9 megapixel, 10x zoom compact camera with built-in Wi-Fi. The Panasonic TZ50 can connect to a standard 802.11b/g wireless LAN, access the T-Mobile HotSpot service in the USA, and upload to Google’s Picasa Web Albums. “Active users will appreciate the TZ50’s Wi-Fi capabilitilies so they can share photos while on-the-go, but they will also benefit from HD video recording, a 10x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens, so capturing images, whether far or wide; moving or still – is all possible with this compact camera.” said Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 will be available in silver in May 2008 for $449.95.

Nikon have released a new firmware update for the D3 full-frame DSLR camera. Version 1.10 adds a Vignette control to the shooting menu, a Focus point brightness option, and a number of other changes and fixes.

Website: Nikon D3 Firmware Update 1.10 (Windows)
Website: Nikon D3 Firmware Update 1.10 (Mac)

Nikon have released a new version, 1.3.3, of Capture NX. Version 1.3.3 includes support for RAW images captured with the D3 and the Vignette Control option has been added.

Website: Nikon Capture NX 1.3.3 (Windows)
Website: Nikon Capture NX 1.3.3 (Mac)

Nikon have released a new version of ViewNX, a file browser which ensures quick access to images for instant viewing. Version 1.0.4 of Nikon ViewNX includes support for RAW images captured with the D3 and the Vignette Control option has been added.

Website: Nikon ViewNX 1.0.4 (Windows)
Website: Nikon ViewNX 1.0.4 (MAC)