The REALVIZ 2007 World Image-Processing Tour opens in London on 22. May 2007, and continues through June 2007, taking in key cities across Europe, the United States and Canada. REALVIZ will be showcasing Stitcher Unlimited 5.6, VTour 1.2 HDR and REALVIZ Movimento. Each event begins at 6:00 pm in the evening, and includes a free buffet and drinks.

The Samsung Digital Roadshow 2007 showcases their latest digital cameras, including the hugely popular i7 and L74, in various shopping centres across the UK. Anyone that purchases a Samsung digital camera before 31 August 2007 can claim a free Virgin Holiday voucher worth £150. Shoppers will also be entered into a special larger prize draw, with ten vouchers worth £2,500 and 50 vouchers worth £1,500 up for grabs.

Three new sizes have been added to Ilford’s Galerie Smooth High Gloss range of inkjet paper. The improved Smooth High Gloss sheets feature a backing layer that enables the material to lie completely flat. The sheets provide a genuine photo look and finish, and are dry to touch immediately after printing.

Amazon has bought the digital photography reviews website DPReview for an undisclosed fee, which will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in London, UK. “One of the difficulties of operating dpreview.com independently has been the balance between producing content and delivering new site features,” said Phil Askey, founder of dpreview.com. “Now, with the support of Amazon, I’ll be able to devote more of my time to expanding and improving our features – such as product reviews and discussion forums while still delivering the high-quality content that our readers have come to expect.”

PrinterSpot have reviewed the Kodak 5300 printer, which promises to save customers up to 50% on everything they print.

“The Kodak EasyShare 5300 delivers on its biggest promise: to save you money on supplies like ink and paper. Kodak should be applauded for taking the lead on this, and it’s in everyone’s interest if the other manufacturers follow suit. However, the 5300 is marred by sluggish print speeds, a lackluster feature set, and bugs both in the printer and the accompanying software. The ES5300 makes good quality prints (on the right paper), but ultimately there are better options out there.”

Website: PrinterSpot - Kodak EasyShare 5300 Review

CNET have reviewed the new HP Photosmart R837 digital camera, which can remove blemishes from faces, such as a spot, mole or scar, and includes pet-eye fix, which removes the glowing effect caused by pets’ eyes. The R837 offers a 7.2 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom lens and large 3 inch LCD screen.

“HP has learned to do some amazing things with the processing inside its cameras, but sometimes all this processing doesn’t help. We feel that the R837 works a bit too hard to make photos look bright and high-contrast, sometimes at the expense of dynamic range, giving its photos an overly two-dimensional, somewhat unreal look. The upside of this is that camera’s automatic white balance does an admirable job of neutralizing the color cast caused by incandescent lights.”

Website: CNET - HP Photosmart R837 Review

Website: Read our HP Photosmart R837 Review

Photographer Gerard Maynard and French panorama software maker Kolor have collaborated to create the world’s largest stitched panoramic photograph. Harlem-13-Gigapixels is a composite of no less than 2,045 photos taken of Harlem in New York by Maynard with the Nikon D2x DSLR and a 300mm lens. Kolor’s AutoPano Pro software was used to sticth the photos, taking one day to assemble and 46 hours to render! (found via Rob Galbraith).

Website: Harlem-13-Gigapixels

According to a report by the Daily Yomiuri Online, Pentax has sold its headquarters in Tokyo and will cut unprofitable divisions including manufacturing printers and measurement equipment. This move follows Hoya’s recent unsuccessful attempt to merge with and then buy-out Pentax, who are now attempting to go it alone. Pentax will focus on camera, medical equipment and optical component businesses, which is great news for all the loyal Pentax camera users out there. No staff lay-offs will take place, and despite all the upheaval, Pentax is still aiming to increase its operating to 10 billion yen (from 6 billion currently) during the next 3 years.

Website: Daily Yomiuri Online - Pentax to sell land, facility HQ in Tokyo

Kodak have unveiled independent test results that confirm the company’s claim of saving customers up to 50 percent on everything they print. Third-party testing lab QualityLogic compared the Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One printer to 12 other industry-leading printers. The analysis confirmed that in every case, Kodak EasyShare AIO printers offer consumers more pages for every $5 of ink purchased.

A fully functional trial version of SizeFixer for Windows (Mac version due out soon) from FixerLabs is now available. SizeFixer is a stand-alone ‘upsizing’ tool for images based on patented Super-Resolution technology. SizeFixer XL can enlarge images to A0 size and beyond. In addition, savings of 50% are available on all FixerLabs products, with a special promotion of 75% off for customers who already own an alternative upsizing solution when they purchase SizeFixer XL using the special the coupon code GF75 at the checkout. This promotion runs until the end of May.

HP has expanded its graphic arts portfolio at the 2007 HP Graphic Arts Summit. New large format solutions include the HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series, two new HP Indigo presses and the HP Indigo UV Coater. “The digital solutions announced today are not only easy to use, cost-effective and high quality, but also enable commercial printers to grow their businesses with broader service offerings and increased profit margins,” said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president, Graphics and Imaging Business, HP.

Hot on the heels of v1.12, Ricoh have released another new firmware update, v1.13, for the Ricoh GX100 digital camera.

1. Modified the following phenomena.
• In RAW mode shooting, if a shutter speed is slower than 15 sec., a camera may fail to record an image properly.
• If you turn the camera power with the lens cap is attached to the lens, and then if you press the playback button, you will not operate a camera at all.
• After you change a mode, the step zoom setting may become OFF.
2. Improved stability the lens control at normal AF.

Website: Ricoh GX100 1.13 Firmware Update

CNET have reviewed the Nikon Coolpix P5000 camera, which offers 10 megapixels, 3.5x zoom lens (36-126mm), Vibration Reduction to combat camera shake, ISO 3200 capability and a 2.5 inch LCD screen.

“The P5000’s shooting speed falls at the bottom of its small pack. The 2-second wake-up-to-first-shot time doesn’t hurt, but the 0.9-second shutter lag under optimal conditions coupled with a 3-second shot-to-shot time makes it unsuitable for shooting animals and children, along with many other things that move. At least adding flash doesn’t increase that time at all.”

Website: CNET - Nikon Coolpix P5000 Review

DigitalCameraInfo have just reviewed the new 6.1 megapixel Pentax K100D DSLR camera.

“The Pentax K100D is a good value. It’s easy to use, well-built, and inherits some particularly worthwhile features from cameras at the top of its line. The autofocus system lives up to its specs, and is excellent. It also offers Shake Reduction. Though 6-megapixel cameras are becoming rare in both the DSLR and compact camera markets, there is a place for them. The file size is plenty big for most prints and they take up much less space on hard drives than 10-MP files, making them less taxing on slow computers.”

Website: DigitalCameraInfo - Pentax K100D Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

Steves Digicams have reviewed the Sony W90, which has an 8 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom lens, metal body, 2.5-inch LCD screen and an optical viewfinder.

“The results of our “8M” megapixel images was very good. When shooting outdoors in the bright sunlight, it captured nice sharp images, with accurate exposure and rich color saturation. I did notice a bit of edge softness of several of our photos, however this is common with consumer models. The W90 is equipped with a very nice Carl Zeiss lens that offers a typical 3x zoom range (35-105mm in 35mm equivalence) for a consumer camera. At full wide angle (35mm) the field of view is sufficient for most of your interior and landscape shots, however, you’ll find yourself walking backwards with your feet at times.”

Website: Steves Digicams - Sony Cybershot W90 Review

Photo-i have started an interactive review of the long-delayed pigment based Canon PIXMA Pro 9500 A3+ professional printer.

“Looking at the size of each Canon cartridge I wonder just how much ink they contain, I will try to find this out. The HP cartridge contains 27ml and an Epson R2400 contains approx 14ml. Having said that, I couldn’t imagine bigger cartridges fitted in a print head assembly that moves up and down the print rail. I am surprised that Canon didn’t incorporate a static ink system as with their large format printers - this would mean a totally new design from the Pro 9000 chassis. But then HP did do that with the B9180.”

Website: Photo-i - Canon PIXMA Pro 9500 Review

ePhotoZine have reviewed the Kodak EasyShare V803 camera which offers 8 megapixels, a 2.5 inch LCD screen, 3x optical zoom lense and up to ISO 1600.

“Startup time is a sluggardly 5secs or thereabouts and while there is a burst mode, it can manage four shots before the internal buffer fills up and it stops to write things to the memory card. It can shoot them in around 4secs, so that’s one per second or slightly under, but then in a 10sec test, the rest of the time is spent writing to the card. It can take up to 17secs to finish writing those images to the card, from the end of the last capture of the four.”

Website: ePhotoZine - Kodak EasyShare V803 Review

Website: Read our Kodak EasyShare V803 Review

Megapixel.net have reviewed the new Fujifilm FinePix F40fd camera, which offers 8.3 megapixels, 3x zoom lens, 300 shot battery life, Face Detection technology and support for both xD-Picture Card and SD card formats.

“s a high resolution, very compact camera, the FinePix F40fd should satisfy the needs and requirements of most point-and-shoot users. Easy to use, it offers a compatibility with SD memory cards — a very popular format that seems to occupy the sweet point between size, practicality and cost — and with Fuji’s own tiny memory card standard: xD. Moreover, it also offers an effective face detection system that goes a long way to ensure that photos of family and friends are correctly focused.”

Website: Megapixel.net - Fujifilm FinePix F40fd Review

PCMag have reviewed the Casio EX-V7, the world’s slimmest digital camera with a 7X optical zoom lens (equivalent to 38-266mm on a 35mm film camera).

“Casio’s new Exilim EX-V7 is one of the first 7X optical, 7.2-megapixel ultracompacts with image stabilization, to hit the market. The introduction of this advanced and stylish camera proves Casio has plenty of game, especially in the point-and-shoot space, where the company consistently strives to innovate. Even better, the EX-V7 has a nice design, reminiscent of some of Sony’s striking compacts. That said, the Exilim doesn’t quite measure up in a few key areas.”

Website: PCMag - Casio EX-V7 Review

Website: Read our Casio EX-V7 Review

We’ve published 25 photos taken with the new Sony H9 ultra-zoom compact digital camera. The Sony H9 offers 8 megapixels, 15x optical stabilized zoom lens, ISO 3200, face-detection and HDTV output, a 3-inch, flip-up LCD screen and NightShot technology for shooting in near-darkness. Take a look at our Sony H9 photos, with the full review to follow soon.

Sony H9 Photos