The Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro camera is now available at the reduced price of $1,699.95, along with a a free Power Grip and Pantone Huey Pro. Available only through authorized Fujifilm dealers, the “Get a Grip” promotion represents a total savings of $480. “With this new promotion, we’re happy to make it easier for those photographers who have been waiting for the opportunity to get the S5 Pro,” says Darin Pepple, consumer and professional marketing manager with Fujifilm’s Electronic Imaging Division.  “And the new Power Grip provides a useful, proven tool for the professional photographer.”   

The Hasselblad H3DII-39MS is a multi-shot version of the recently announced H3DII-39 DSLR camera. The H3DII-39MS eliminates the need to interpolate images and enables both single- and multi-shot DSLR capability. “With the H3DII-39MS, in addition to single-shot technology, we’ve included our multi-shot technology to offer professional photographers of still life and architecture a camera system that gives them image quality equal or in many cases superior to anything they’ve experienced before, as well as the functionality, flexibility and ease of use of a digital system.” commented Christian Poulsen, CEO of Hasselblad. The H3DII-39MS will be available from January 2008 for $43,995.

Hasselblad is also announcing the H2F, a simplified, film-only version of the H2 camera, which it is replacing at a substantially lower price. The H2F offers full compatibility with H System HV viewfinders, film magazines, and HC lenses. The Hasselblad H2F will be available from November 2007 for $2,799 body only or $7,678 for the H2F camera kit.

Following the release of the E-3 on Tuesday, Olympus is targeting at least 20% global market share for DSLR cameras within 5 years, according to a report by Reuters. Aiming to become one of the top 3 leaders in the sector, Olympus are taking on the likes of Canon, Nikon and most notably Sony, who recently released the A700 DSLR. Other possible contenders include Pentax, Samsung and Panasonic. Olympus’s current market share is around 8%. Much will depend upon the acceptance of the Four Thirds standard, which all Olympus DSLR cameras and lenses are based upon.

Website: Reuters

The Sony HDMS-S1D Digital Photo Album features an 80GB hard drive, connects to a high definition television via HDMI and can store up to 50,000 high resolution photos. Images can be imported via multiple flash memory card formats, CD, DVD, USB or Ethernet. The HDMS-S1D Digital Photo Album uses Sony’s face detection technology to locate faces in photographs and adjusts the slideshow transitions around the location of faces. The Sony HDMS-S1D will be available in October for about $400.

Have you bought a digital camera because it offers face detection, but been disappointed by the slow performance? FotoNation have the answer with the catchily-named FastTrack IPC, hardware acceleration technology that improves Face-Tracking quality and performance by up to 400%. It won’t make any difference to your current camera, but will probably appear in future models, as FotoNation’s system is used by a significant number of manufacturers. “With FastTrack IPC, we are providing better image quality and a prolonged battery life, which are always important in the design of handheld electronic products, such as cameras and camera phones,” said Eran Steinberg, CEO of FotoNation Inc.

Blurb Community Books is the first ever hybrid client/web service to enable groups of people to make books together. Community Books opens up a new way for socially connected groups of consumers and professionals to stay connected and create together. They can be shared, marketed, and sold at cost or for profit in the free Blurb Bookstore. Blurb’s new Community Book capability enables connected creatives to easily make group-contributed books that capture and reinforce their shared experiences and passions,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb’s founder and CEO.

Blurb BookSmart 1.9 Beta is free bookmaking software which enables you to make professional-quality books. New design elements, more than 45 new layouts in each of Blurb’s four book sizes, and the ability to create community books are included in this version. “This version of BookSmart is our most ambitious product release in company history,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb’s founder and CEO. “Blurb users make several thousand books each week, and are very vocal about their experiences and what they’d like to see next. We listen, prioritize, and develop based on this ongoing conversation with our users.” Blurb’s BookSmart software is free, runs on a Mac or PC, and offers a wide variety of book layouts created by professional book designers.

The Inside Digital Photo radio show have interviewed Scott Kelby, author of a string of bestselling Photoshop books. Kelby talks about his new book and soon to be patented training methodology “The Photoshop 7 Point System”. Scott Kelby realized that there are many photographers do not work in Photoshop every day and even though they may have taken a course or experienced it, without repetition and practice getting around this often complex application is not always easy to navigate. He promises, with his new methodology anyone can. Known as a Nikon shooter, Kelby also discusses his experiences using Canon gear.

Website: Inside Digital Photo - Scott Kelby Interview

Fujifilm’s “Capture to Print Solutions” seminars for professional photographers show how Fujifilm’s FinePix S5 Pro DSLR can be usedfor school, portrait, sports and wedding photography. Held in five cities across the United States, the seminar series will kick off on Monday, November 5th in Orlando. The half-day “Capture to Print Solutions” seminars are completely free to attend.

The Samsung NV20 is a new 12 megapixel digital compact camera featuring the radical touch-sensitive user interface that debuted on the NV range in 2006. As well as the slight resolution increase, Samsung have also added Face Recognition and an expanded ISO range to their new flagship model. The 2.5 inch LCD screen, 34-102mm, Advanced Shake Reduction mode and stylish black metal body of the NV20 are exactly the same as on the older NV10 camera. So has the Samsung NV20 merely undergone a superficial makeover, or is it a genuine improvement compared to its predecessor? Mark Goldstein battled against the inclement British weather to find out…

Website: Samsung NV20 Review

The 8GB SanDisk Extreme III SDHC memory card can store more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 16 hours of MPEG 4 video. The card has a read/write speed of 20 megabytes per second and is packaged with the SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader. Expected to ship within the next 30 days to U.S. retailers, the 8GB SanDisk Extreme III SDHC will costs $179.99.

In a Nikon sponsored white paper from research company IDC, Nikon has been named as the worldwide leader in regards to Wi-Fi integration. The IDC report states “To date, Nikon is the only digital camera manufacturer to consistently and fully embrace wireless photography. IDC predicts that other top vendors will seek to catch up and embrace wireless photography as well, spurring industry-wide adoption.” 60 percent of respondents said that they would be somewhat or much more likely to consider one camera over another if it included wireless connectivity, and that they would pay up to $86 more for a camera with this ability.

So is this true? Would you choose a camera because it had built-in Wi-fi connectivity, and pay more for it? The market as a whole seems to believe nthat you won’t, as Nikon are one of the few manufacturers to really support Wi-Fi - but what do you think?

Kingston Technology have published a 20 question interview with photographer Colin Finlay, known for his photojournalism images as well as his advertising work. Finlay has documented with compassion, empathy and dignity the human condition as it has unfolded throughout the world for the last 17 years. “I appreciate the opportunity to share my work through the ‘Icons of Photography’ Web site,” said Finlay. “The photo critiques are great and I enjoy reading what the other Icons have to say. I’m fortunate to call the other Icons friends and I am proud to be a part of such a great, diverse group.”

Reviews aggregator website Wize has released its list of the top 5 digital cameras. Wize compiles user and expert reviews to deliver definitive ratings for consumer products through its propriety Wize Rank, a product ranking scoring system. The Canon PowerShot SD750 / IXUS 75 (pictured) came out on top of the pile, followed by the Casio Exilim EXZ75, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55, Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and Olympus Stylus 770 SW.

Laptop Magazine have evaluated four sub-$800 digital SLRs based on how well they executed five shooting scenarios: close-up, action, landscape, portrait, and low-light.

“If you’ve only taken pictures with a point-and-shoot before, you’re in for a pleasant surprise with these models; it’s like using an entirely different species of camera. Even the most basic DSLRs have remarkable speed with virtually no shutter lag, along with a range of features, extended battery life, and manual controls. These attributes will not only make you a better photographer, but they’ll also make taking pictures more fun.”

Website: Laptop Magazine - The Best Digital SLRs Under $800

TrustedReviews have reviewed the Samsung S85 entry-level digital camera, which features an 8.2 megapixel sensor and 5x optical zoom lens.

“The good news continues when we look at image quality, which is outstanding for such a low cost camera. Exposure and colour rendition were virtually perfect, and even when shooting directly into bright sunlight the sensor managed to capture plenty of shadow detail. The lens may not have the Schneider-Kreuznach brand name, but it is very high quality nonetheless, producing excellent centre sharpness and very little barrel distortion at wide angle, with only a little softness and a small amount of chromatic aberration around the edges of the frame. Image noise was extremely well controlled at all ISO settings, with good picture quality at ISO 800 and a usable image even at ISO 1600, which is a very impressive performance by any standard. For a camera costing under £100 it is nothing short of remarkable.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Samsung S85 Review

The long wait for Olympus DSLR users is finally over, as the much-rumoured professional Olympus E-3 will finally be unveiled at 0.00am CET on October 17th. Olympus have been extremely cagey about the whole thing, with no information at all being sent out about the E-1’s successor ahead of the deadline time. Unless you live in the US, where journalists have been invited to a swanky reception at a New York museum. And unless you got hold of a copy of the much-circulated insider PDF document a couple of month’s ago. The Olympus E3 will be the last new DSLR of 2007 (unless Nikon really are hiding a new full-frame in a Christmas cracker), so you can all finally breathe a sigh of relief and make your photography wish list for this holiday season. We’ll have all the details about the E-3 just as soon as we get them…

Update: The Olympus E-3 will be available in November 2007 and cost $1,699 in the USA / £1099 in the UK - read the full details by clicking the link below.

The Olympus FL-50R and FL-36R are new remote control (RC) wireless flash units, which enable flash photography minus the complication of cords and inconvenient set-ups. The high-performance FL-50R boasts multiple adjustment modes including TTL Auto and manual, and high-speed synchronisation. The lightweight FL-36R boasts power in a compact design. The remote control wireless flash units FL-50R and FL-36R will become available in November 2007 and December 2007.

Olympus are releasing 3 new Supersonic Wave Drive lenses, 1 standard lens and a 2.0x Teleconverter to support the launch of the E-3 DSLR. The SWD lenses are: 12-60mm (24-120mm) 1:2.8-4.0 SWD ($999.99), 50-200mm (100-400mm) 1:2.8-3.5 SWD ($1,199.99) and 14-35mm (28-70mm) 1:2.0 SWD ($2,299.99). The standard lens is the 70-300mm (140-600mm) 1:4.0-5.6 ($479.99).

Datacolor Spyder3 is a new monitor calibration device aimed at photographers needing the most accurate colour for digital editing. The new Spyder3 colorimeter offers the only seven-detector colour engine on the market, with its 27mm aperture, the largest in its class, giving a greater screen sampling area and a 400 per cent increase in light sensitivity. New products in the range include Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Studio. Spyder3Elite enables users to calibrate multiple studio displays to a single target. Spyder3Studio combines the features of Spyder3Elite’s display calibration with a printer profiling tool.