The Essence of Photography with John Upton is a new educational DVD from Calumet Photo. It’s the perfect guide for beginners and advanced amateurs who want to learn photography from the legendary John Upton. The Essence of Photography provides a discussion of topics that include Upton’s mentors, understanding how cameras work, learning to see pictures, photographic history and development of the photographic image. The Essence of Photography with John Upton costs $39.99.

RectFish aims to make fisheye image remapping simple, accurate, and efficient. RectFish is for users of fisheye lenses remapping in software to other projections, which produces images with an angle of view wider than that provided by rectilinear lenses. All the user has to do is to select a camera and lens, then RectFish will use appropriate parameters for both RectFish and rectilinear remapping. RectFish costs $30.

Getty Images has been purchased by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in a transaction valued at approximately $2.4 billion. Getty Images stockholders will receive $34.00 in cash for each outstanding share of common stock they own. Completion of the transaction is subject to shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions. Andy Ballard, managing director of Hellman & Friedman, said, “Getty Images is the leader and pioneer in the visual content and digital media business. We believe in the vision and execution capabilities of Jonathan Klein and his team, and share their commitment to the Company’s stakeholders and customers.”

TrustedReviews have reviewed the 7.2 megapixel Casio EX-Z77 camera, which features a special YouTube mode that saves movies at the optimum size, quality and other settings.

“Unfortunately the Z77 does have one major weakness, and that is its final image quality. It’s “only” a 7.2-megapixel model, so it’s not going to be able to match more powerful rivals for total resolution, but its main problem its lens quality. The ultra-compact folding lens suffers from significant barrel distortion at the wide-angle end, and pincushion distortion at the telephoto end, but it is overall sharpness that is the real problem. It’s not too bad in the centre of the frame, but it gets very soft toward the edges, and also suffers from some chromatic aberration. Image noise isn’t too much of a problem, mainly because the Z77 is limited to a maximum of 800 ISO. At the lowest setting images are nice and clean, but above 200 ISO noise does become very noticeable.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Casio EX-Z77 Review

“Layers: The Complete Guide…” is a new book about the most powerful feature in Adobe Photoshop. “Layers” covers such topics as working with and managing multiple layers, building multi-layer images, blending layers together, and layer masking. Layers: The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature is published by Peachpit Press and costs $39.99.

Panasonic are giving away a free 16Gb Pro High Speed SD card with the new DMC-L10 DSLR camera. Allowing over 6000 still images to be captured, the Panasonic 16GB card provides fast data transfer speed of up to 20MB/S. This offer is valid until the end of April 2008 and is offered via participating retailers only.

TrustedReviews have tested the new 8 megapixel Samsung NV8 digital camera.

“For what is practically a budget price the Samsung NV8 provides a level of quality on a par with premium-range cameras from any of the other manufacturers. It has a lot of style, excellent build quality, fast performance and a range of useful and entertaining features, made more accessible by the clever Smart Touch control system. It lacks a little in the picture quality department due to its image noise problems, but makes up for this somewhat with good low-light performance.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Samsung NV8 Review

In a shock move, Leica has sacked its CEO, Steven Lee, following comments that he recently made about a full-frame Leica M-system rangefinder camera. UK magazine Amateur Photographer, who initially broke the full-frame news back in January, are reporting that Leica’s owner, Andreas Kaufman, has now replaced Lee with immediate effect.

“This change of management allows Leica Camera AG to immediately review strategies and make changes where required.’ Leica UK’s MD David Bell tells AP. ‘One of the first tasks for Dr Kaufmann will be to positively review all options for the M system’s future. There will be more details in the following weeks.”

Amateur Photographer - Leica Camera sacks CEO Steven K Lee

Nikon have also released a new version, 1.3.2, of Capture NX. Modifications enabled with ver. 1.3.2:

  * Support for RAW images captured with the D60 has been added.
  * When Exposure Compensation was adjusted from Base Adjustments > Exposure Compensation while Picture Control settings were applied from Base Adjustments > Camera Adjustments > Picture Control, the sharpening effect was cancelled. This issue has been resolved.
  * When images captured with the D1 and an AI Fisheye Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D lens, “Fisheye Lens” could not be selected from Base Adjustments> Lens Adjustments. This issue has been resolved.

Website: Nikon Capture NX 1.3.2 (Windows)

Website: Nikon Capture NX 1.3.2 (Mac)

Nikon have released a new version, 2.1.0, of Camera Control Pro. Modifications enabled with ver. 2.1.0

- Support for the D60 has been added.
- Response is faster when thumbnails are selected in the Viewer.
-When a camera with a PC lens was connected, the lens name displayed in the Mechanical tab indicated that it was a G-type lens. This issue has been resolved.
Lenses with which this occured:
PC Micror-Nikkor 85mm f/2.8D
PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED
Cameras with which this issue occurred:
D3, D2Xs, D2X, D2Hs, D2H, D300, D200, D80, D70s, D70, D50, D40X, D40
-When a D40 or D40X with a PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED lens was connected, the lens name displayed in the “Mechanical” tab indicated that it was an AF-S 24mm f/3.5D lens. This issue has been resolved.

Website: Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.1.0 (Windows)

Website: Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.1.0 (Mac)

The 2pad private online photo and video gallery has just launched. 2pad provides the most user-friendly approach to managing and exchanging media, and you can control who can view your gallery. Every time a photo or video is sent to [email protected]. it will be added to your private gallery. 2pad was created to counter the trend of excessive public media sharing online.

PhotoReflect.com, a photography storefront hosting and e-commerce site, has expanded into the UK. PhotoReflect.com is the largest professional photographer Internet storefront in North America, with over 28,000 professional photographer customers. UK photographers can now create internet business storefronts that will sell photos to their clients 24/7. “PhotoReflect.com is a necessary and powerful tool for all professional photographers who want to take their business to the next level in the Internet age,” said Graham McFarland, Founder and CEO of ExpressDigital.

PCMag have just reviewed the new Epson R1900 printer.

“For serious photographers, the most important issue with any printer is photo quality, another area where the R1900 performs well. For our standard photo test suite, output on Epson’s Premium Photo Paper Glossy was in the top tier of photo quality—the level you’d expect from a photo lab for professionals rather than from your local drugstore.”

Website: PCMag - Epson R1900 Review

CameraLabs have reviewed the new Canon S5 IS ultra-zoom compact camera, which features a 12x optical zoom lens equivalent to 36-432mm, optical image stabilizer and 8 megapixel sensor.

“The PowerShot S5 IS is certainly a powerful super-zoom camera with some neat features. The 12x range gives you decent coverage, the stabilisation is effective, the flip-out screen allows for unusual angles, the movie options are some of the best around on a still camera, and the literal icing on the cake is the hotshoe, supporting external flashguns.”

Website: CameraLabs - Canon S5 IS Review

Website: Read our Canon PowerShot S5 IS Review

For keen photographers on a shoestring budget, Photoshop Elements 6 is the latest version of Adobe’s popular entry-level image editor. New features include the Guided Edit mode, which helps walk users through the steps of improving a photo, and Photomerge, which combines facial expressions from a series of shots to create a single cohesive group shot. Photoshop Elements 6 for Windows costs £70 / $99, and a MAC version is on the way very soon. Jon Canfield found out if Elements 6 is all the image editor that you really need…

Website: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Review

Kingston Technology has posted an interview with National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig. The 20 Questions interview provides an up-close-and-personal look at a world-class photographer. “Gerd is one of the great chroniclers of our time and his experience as a photographer and world traveler will help visitors to our site learn from his incredible career while gaining tips to improve the overall quality of their own photography,” said Jaja Lin, Flash memory marketing manager, Kingston. After reading Kingston’s article, also check out our in-depth Gerd Ludwig interview.

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14 is a new version of the award-winning video-editing software. Available in two editions, Classic and PLUS, both feature easier editing and burning and a new improved user interface. You can also now upload your videos from Movie Edit Pro 14 to YouTube. MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14 Pro is available from 10th March at SRP £39.99 inc Classic and PLUS version at SRP £59.99

VueScan, the world’s most widely used 3rd party scanning software, now includes support for skew correction. Version 8.4.60 of VueScan can now straighten any photo that has been placed in the scanner slightly askew. “Many of our users are high volume users, and it is annoying to them when a document or a photo is slightly rotated. Skew correction allows them make the changes from within VueScan, and therefore saves them frustration and time.” says Ed Hamrick, President of Hamrick Software. VueScan is available in two editions, Standard Edition ($39.95 USD) and Professional Edition ($79.95).

The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 is a step-by-step guide to achieving professional-looking photography. Written by best-selling computer book author Scott Kelby, The Digital Photography Book helps readers to shoot dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 is now available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and independent retailers.

Samsung Cameras are offering you the chance to win a unique Red Letter Days experience worth up to £1,000. The prize draw includes top prizes such as a Top Gun style aerobatics ride for two plus other major prizes including dinner on the Orient Express and a hot air balloon ride. To take part simply complete the on-line claim form no later than 31st March 2008.