The Kingston Mobility Kit includes a microSD card with dual miniSD and SD adapters and a USB card reader. “The combined convenience of miniSD and full-size SD adapters and USB reader lets users easily convert their cards to navigate between mobile phones, PCs, and other digital devices,” said Wendy Lecot, Flash memory marketing manager, Kingston. The Kingston Mobility Kit is available immediately in a 1GB card configuration for $27.00, with a 2GB version to follow.

The Pentax Photo Gallery (http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com) enables Pentax users to exhibit their work, share and gain resources within an artistic community, create an online portfolio, and more. “...the PENTAX Photo Gallery that offers 24/7/365 virtual access to the best photography captured by PENTAX photographers.” said Ned Bunnell, Vice President Marketing, PENTAX Imaging Company. The Pentax Photo Gallery already features more than 2,500 images submitted by more than 300 artists.

Colour Confidence’s “Red Hot Summer Savings” promotion features reductions of up to £600/€900 on popular products from X-Rite, Pantone and Kodak. Running from from 9am BST on Monday 6th August to 5.30pm BST Friday 10th August, there are also free monitor calibration devices on offer with every purchase of an Eizo CE240 or any CG monitor. “For customers looking to upgrade their colour management solutions, the cost can be a major hurdle. This promotion gives our customers an excellent chance to purchase high-end products that may otherwise be outside their budget”. commented Geoffrey Clements, Managing Director of Colour Confidence.

Nikon is teaming up with Wanderlust, the UK’s leading adventure-travel magazine, for the UK’s longest-running annual travel photography competition. Four winners from the Amateur category will win a trip to South Australia, while the winner of the new Portfolio category receives £5,000 cash. Full terms and conditions can be downloaded from http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/photocomp

The Library of Congress has made a major award to the American Society of Media Photographers to fund a project to promote digital photo standards, refined production workflows, archiving methods and best practices. “The Library is pleased to be able to bring together creators of such diverse content for the sake of saving our nation’s heritage, which is increasingly being created only in digital formats.” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

The DXG “Short Shorts” YouTube online video contest invites you to submit a maximum 1 minute video to DXG using any DXG camera or camcorder. 2 Grand Prizes of a DXG-589V gaming camera and 6 Runner-up Prizes of thel DXG-506V will be awarded on October 2, 2007. Entries will be judged by a combination of originality, the number of YouTube views, ratings received, and number of favorites selected.

Digital Foci are offering a $30 rebate on the “Image Moments” digital photo album frame. Customers who purchased Image Moments from July 5, 2007-September 30, 2007 can mail in a rebate form. Image Moments lets you display and share photos directly from digital camera memory cards.

DPReview have reviewed the Ricoh GX100 digital camera, which features a 10.01 megapixel CCD, fast 24-72mm wide zoom lens and a removable electronic view?nder.

“To sum up, the GX100 isn’t quite as good a camera as it thinks it is, because great features and handling cannot make up for a noisy sensor and questionable processing. It is also certainly not a camera I’d recommend for everyone - unless you want the 24mm equiv. lens and manual controls there are plenty of better options at not much more than half the price.”

Website: DPReview - Ricoh GX100 Review

Website: Read our Ricoh GX100 Review

Sony have responded to recent comments about their upcoming Alpha DSLR cameras by starting a blog. Mark Weir, Sr. Technology and Marketing Manager for Alpha and Cyber-shot digital cameras, has published the first post.

“Many of you have asked for more information on the new Alpha cameras and lenses revealed last March at the Photo Marketing Association conference.  We would surely like to say more, but the competitive nature of the camera business doesn’t allow us to provide further detail just yet.  Even so, I want to assure you that the models are on schedule and that we are dedicated to fulfilling your high expectations for the Alpha system.”

Website: Sony Electronics Blog

Microsoft have teamed up with NASA to bring you unprecedented access to the space shuttle Endeavour using the power of Photosynth. You can see three-dimensional environments of preparations for the launch, with Endeavour on the launch pad, interior and surrounding area of the Vehicle Assembly Building. Thousands of photos intertwine to provide three dimensional, 360 degree perspectives of the shuttle. Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

Website: Microsoft Photosynth

SensorKleen Pro allows you to automatically erase dust and debris in a set of DSLR camera images. “The SensorKleen Pro utilizes a patent pending technology that will automatically ‘Kleen’ the whole photo shoot when dust is discovered the morning after,” said Dan Sullivan, president and CEO of Image Trends, Inc.  SensorKleen Pro is priced at US$99.95 and the PearlyWhites and ShineOff Plug-Ins are priced at US$49.95 each.  The Mac version of SensorKleen Pro will follow near year end ‘07. Current users of SensorKleen SmartBrush get a free upgrade to SensorKleen Pro, saving them the $50 difference in price as a customer loyalty benefit.

Vertus has released a series of tutorials for Fluid Mask 3 image masking software. Aimed at both beginners and more experienced users, there are 9 tutorials to help you achieve professional quality masks quickly and efficiently. The tutorials are available for download on Vertus’ website at: http://www.vertustech.com/fm_tutorials.htm

DIWA member LetsGoDigital have reviewed the Ricoh GX100 digital camera, which features a 10.01 megapixel CCD, fast 24-72mm wide zoom lens and a removable electronic view?nder.

“The Ricoh Caplio GX100 soon becomes my standard travel mate on the bicycle or during a stroll through the city. The camera fits in my pocket with ease and with the wide-angle I can photograph what I want. If I want more I can use the lens attachment, although it usually stays in the bag because mounting it is hard and the camera gets too big. Nevertheless, the stick-on viewfinder stays on the camera at all times. It provides a nice image and looking into the camera from above offers a fresh view on the world. “

Website: LetsGoDigital - Ricoh GX100 Review

Website: Read our Ricoh GX100 Review

Megapixel.net have reviewed the Fujifilm S700 digital camera, which features 7 megapixels, a 10x optical zoom, 2.5 inch LCD plus electronic viewfinder, ISO 1600 and Picture Stabilization mode.

“The Fujifilm FinePix S700/S5700 is a very good camera that easily produces excellent images. If its flash is no better than most compacts, its image quality outdoors is one of the best we have seen recently. This said, could the FinePix S700 be even better? Yes, it would be even better if it also offered an effective optical stabilizer. But even as is, this camera should garner a wide following.”

Website: Megapixel.net - Fujifilm S700 Review

CNET have reviewed the new Kodak Z712, which is positioned as an alternative to a DSLR, offering a 12x zoom lens (36-432 mm) and 7.1 megapixels.

“Image quality is generally pleasing, especially at lower ISOs, though I did notice some purple fringing in high contrast areas of my images, and some artifacts which made some lines look jaggy and gave some blocks of color a mottled look. Overall colors generally look accurate, though slightly oversaturated. This isn’t a problem, though, since most people prefer and are used to slightly oversaturated colors, since most consumer film has slightly oversaturated color.”

Website: CNET - Kodak Z712 Review

ePhotoZine have reviewed the new Olympus SP-550 UZ. This is the first digital camera to offer an 18x optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28-504mm.

“Focussing is a little slack, particularly when the zoom is at the telephoto end. It can hunt about looking for things to focus on. It isn’t quick either. Things are better at the wide angle end, but it’s still fairly sluggardly. Packing an 18x optical zoom, giving the equivalent reach of 504mm in 35mm terms, means that optical stabilisation is a jolly good idea. In practice it isn’t a safety net for casual handling, as even in bright light with the shutter speed at the top end, plenty of photos were blurred.”

Website: ePhotoZine - Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

Website: Read our Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

Steves Digicams have reviewed the pigment based Canon PIXMA Pro 9500 A3+ professional printer.

“The bottom line - the Pro9500 is an excellent choice for the pro or semi-pro user that needs to print large color photos up to 13 x 19-inches on a wide variety of media including fine art papers. And you can also make archival quality monochrome prints. I have always been impressed by the quality and speed of Canon’s wide carriage printers having owned and used the i9100 and i9900 - the Pro9500 takes their best features and adds the ability to print on even thicker media.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Canon PIXMA Pro 9500 Review

Ricoh have released the fourth firmware update, v1.16, for the Ricoh GX100 digital camera.

1. Adjusted the exposure in bright-light shooting with a flash.
2. Modified the following display phenomena.
• If you playback a picture (3:2 or 1:1) enlarged, the location window in the right corner of the LCD may be out of alignment.
• If you assign FOCUS in the Fn button, and set to enable the STEP ZOOM, and if you switch a focus setting to the MF from the other focus settings with the Fn button, it may remain a number of zoom display on the zoom bar in the left of the LCD.

Website: Ricoh GX100 1.16 Firmware Update

Power Stroke 1.0 is a stroke based color correction, colorization and special effects plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Power Stroke introduces a simple, interactive stroke-based interface to perform targeted adjustments, including color correction, recoloring or desaturation. Power Stroke 1.0 is available now for $120.

Photo Backup 2.6.0 ensures that your photo archives are full and up-to-date even if photos are moved, renamed or edited. Photo Backup calculates a unique signature for each photo based on its contents, which is saved and later used to compare photos. Photo Backup runs under Windows 2000/XP/Vista and costs $29.95(US). A fully featured 14-day evaluation version is also available.