The Kata Digital Photo Series is a completely new line of camera backpacks, cases and pouches. The Kata Digital Photo Series combines a number of technologies found in other Kata product lines to create a lightweight, ergonomic and protective line of carrying solutions. To identify which carrying solution is suitable for a specific digital camera and gear, visit the Online Kata Bag Chooser at http://www.kata-bags.com/katabagchoosers/

National Geographic has added seven new models to its Earth Explorer Camera Bag collection. The Earth Explorer collection featuresan environmentally friendly design coupled with cutting-edge ergonomics and performance. The new additions to the National Geographic Earth Explorer collection include three pouches, two camera straps, a small sling bag, and a large shoulder bag.

The deadline for entry to the Royal Photographic Society’s 151st International Print Exhibition is 14th March 2008. This year’s exhibition sees the introduction of the Allen & Overy Awards, with a total prize fund of £18,000. The overall winner will receive a prize of £10,000 and a Gold Society Medal. The prize winners will be announced on 12th June 2008.

CorrectPhoto 3.0 takes the guess work out of color correction with PictoColor’s OneClick Color technology. With just one click, anyone can remove an unwanted color cast, improve the exposure and increase the vibrancy of all of their digital pictures. Also included is ImageTitler, an additional stand-alone program for adding titles to any photo. CorrectPhoto with ImageTitler costs $39.95 as a software download. A free trial version is also available.

The CoastalOpt 60mm UV-VIS-IR is the world’s first fully corrected lens for the UV-VIS-NIR spectrum. Available in the Nikon F mount and designed for use with both 35mm film and digital formats, the 60mm UV-VIS-IR 1:4 Apo Macro lens is perfect for full spectrum cameras such as the Fuji IS-Pro. The CoastalOpt 60mm UV-VIS-IR lens costs $4,495, available on Feburary 1st 2008.

onOne Software has just bought Liquid Resize, a ground-breaking new way to resize images. Liquid Resize uses a technique known as “seam carving” to reduce the distortion that typically occurs when manipulating the aspect ratio of an image. A free public beta of Liquid Resize for both Windows and Mac OS X users will be available in late January 2008, with A Photoshop plug-in version available in the middle of 2008.

DPReview have reviewed the Sony DSC-H3, the smallest ever Cyber-shot camera featuring a Carl Zeiss 10x zoom lens.

“The H3 is essentially a long-zoom point and shoot camera that performs well as long as you let it do its thing in Auto mode. Once you develop an ambition to set your own shooting parameters things get a bit more tricky. This is partly because some manual settings are simply not available, but also due to the fact that changing the settings that are actually there can be a fairly time-consuming process.”

Website: DPReview - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 Review

CNET have reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7, which offers 8 megapixels, 15x optical stabilized zoom lens, ISO 3200, face-detection and HDTV output.

“Under the right circumstances, the photos look very good. Those include shooting at sensitivity settings of ISO 200 or lower, in bright sunlight. Thanks to the fast continuous shooting, solid stabilization and reliable center-point focus, the H7’s sibling the H9 delivered the best results I’ve had so far shooting dogs in the park. The EVF updates quickly enough to make it possible. The automatic white balance does a solid job, if a bit cool, and colors look bright and saturated.”

Website: CNET- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 Review

Steves Digicams have reviewed the Sony DSC-T200, the first digital camera to automatically react to a person’s smile.

“Just like with the other T-series cameras that we have seen, the image quality is very good. The 5x optical zoom lens did very well taking pictures outdoors, with only slight chromatic aberrations (purple fringing), and very slight edge softness. Neither of these would be noticeable when having prints made unless they were larger than an 8x10. The 35mm to 175mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens makes this camera a little more versatile than most compact digital cameras that you will find.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Sony DSC-T200 Review

The Sony A700 is a new DSLR camera with a wealth of features that are clearly targeted at the advanced amateur photographer. Clearly based on the design of the Konica Minolta Maxxum / Dynax 7D camera (Sony bought Konica Minolta’s camera assets in 2006), the A700 inherits the same lens mount, eye-start auto-focus system, and in-body anti-shake system. Building on that solid foundation, Sony have brought the A700 bang up-to-date with a 12.24 megapixel CMOS sensor, large 3 inch LCD screen, 11 point autofocus system and 5fps continuous shooting. At this price point (around £999 / $1400) the Sony A700 faces some stiff competition, with rival models from Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Panasonic all making a strong claim for your money. Mark Goldstein took the new Sony A700 to the deserts of Dubai to find out if this new pretender to the prosumer crown has what it takes…

Website: Sony A700 Review

PMA Newsline International are reporting that stocks of the 10 mgapixel Nikon D40x DSLR camera have run out in Japan. Could this mean that a new replacement model is on the way? The 6 megapixel Nikon D40 model is still available. In the same article, Nikon is raising production of its new D3 and D300 DSLR cameras by between 16-25 percent, to 10,000 and 70,000 monthly units respectively. All good news for the leading DSLR manufacturer in Japan.

Website: PMA Newsline International

Corel PhotoImpact X3 digital photo editing software is aimed at the family memory keeper and the graphic arts hobbyist. “Project-oriented users will find that PhotoImpact X3 has the perfect mix of easy-to-use editing capabilities, creative project templates and digital art - all at an affordable price.” said Denise MacDonell, Director, Product Management, Digital Imaging at Corel. With a suggested retail price of $69.99 (US and Canada), PhotoImpact X3 is available now.

The Plustek OpticFilm 7500i AI / SE are Plustek’s first Mac compatible film scanners and offer a high optical 7,200dpi resolution and 48-bit colour. Both the AI and SE models feature multi-exposure function for negative film as well as a multi-sampling feature that reduces noise. The OpticFilm 7500i AI additionally comes with a SilverFast 35mm IT8 Target calibration, which can generate ICC profiles. The OpticFilm 7500i AI and 7500i SE are priced at £395 and £223 excluding VAT respectively and are available now.

Bling! It from Vertus is now available for Mac OS. Bling! It is a simple to use image editing tool which gets you amazing results in minutes. It lets you prepare professional-looking images of products for publishing on the Web or on an online auction site. Vertus Bling! It costs $49.95, and there’s a free 15 day fully functional trial version.

Available in 30GB or 40GB versions, LaCie will be offering its smallest Little Disk yet in the 1.3-inch hard disk format. Lacie are also using the Samsung drive for the new credit-card sized USB Key Max. “The development of these small products was enabled due to Samsung’s new 1.3-inch technology that offers a small footprint with vast capacity improvement,” said Nolwenn Rozen, LaCie Mobile Product Manager.  “By using this technology in these new mobile offerings, LaCie was able to see an increase in maximum capacity from 12GB to 40GB.” The 1.3-inch Lacie Little Disk and Lacie USB Key Max are available now starting at $119.99 and $109.99 respectively.

FaceTime from FotoNation is a new technology that makes it easier to take a self-portrait when using digital camera or camera phones. FotoNation FaceTime is a new type of shutter trigger technology that is invoked when the photographer’s face is detected in a scene. The camera waits to fire the shutter until it recognizes face of the photographer. “Sooner or later, every photographer wants to be part of a photo they are composing; and until now, it has always been a cumbersome effort. We believe that FaceTime is the first new technology that brings a pragmatic solution to self-portraits,” said Eran Steinberg, CEO of FotoNation, Inc.

Printroom has released new plug-ins for Apple Aperture and Apple iPhoto that enable photographers to upload images into their Printroom online storefronts. The next generation of Printroom’s own complete photo management application, Printroom Studio Manager (PSM) 3.1, has also been unveiled at MacWorld. “Now Mac users can choose the studio workflow that best fits their needs, whether it is with Aperture, iPhoto or PSM, and quickly publish online galleries that meet the expectations of the most demanding clientele. As soon as the shoot is over, no matter where they are, the pro can quickly update their dynamic Flash home page and post galleries. said Printroom vice president of marketing Andrew Baum. All three software tools are free to Printroom customers.

PicMarkr is a new web application lets users add custom watermarks to their photos for free. You can either upload images from your computer or grab them from a Flickr account. Users can then download the watermarked images or upload them to their Flickr account. There is also an optional feature for resizing images to some of the most popular sizes by width. You can try out the watermarking service for free at http://picmarkr.com .

The G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 is the world’s first 500GB portable hard drive. With a FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interface, the G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 is bus-powered and doesn’t require an AC adaptor. It fits into a computer, camera or camcorder bag and can store 200,000 5 megapixel JPEG photos. Available in March 2008, the G-DRIVE mini Triple 500 comes complete with cables, a protective leather carrying case and 3 year warranty. Price is to be confirmed.

PicWash is a new photo-enhancement web service that delivers professional retouching to the masses. From as little as $7 per photo, you and your pictures will look better than ever, with photos returned in 48 hours via e-mail. The first product, PicWash, is $7 and focuses on the most requested touch ups. The second product, PicWash with Note, is $10 and gives the user more control over the touch-up.