The World Photography Organisation and Zeiss today announced the winner of the 2017 Zeiss Photography Award “Seeing Beyond”. Now in its second year, the theme of ZEISS Photography Award was ‘Meaningful Places’ which challenged professional photographers to look past the ordinary and everyday and submit a body of work that captured extraordinary aspects of the world we live in. The overall winner is Belgian photographer Kevin Faingnaert, recognised for “Føroyar”, a stunning photography series about life on remote and sparsely populated villages on the Faroe Islands. Faingnaert receives €12,000 worth of Zeiss lenses and €3,000 in travel expenses to complete a photography project.

Fantasea Line today unveiled the rugged and stylish FA6500 Housing for the Sony A6500 and A6300 mirrorless cameras. Featuring an ergonomic design with access to all essential camera functions, the Fantasea FA6500 is depth rated to 60 metres / 200 feet, and offers double O-ring protection for a perfect watertight seal. The housing ships with a Moisture Detector and Alarm, a Hand Strap and a Body Cap. Availability is slated for April 2017.

To celebrate its 100th birthday, Gitzo will give any customers who purchase a Systematic tripod a bespoke, lithographically printed, limited edition book commissioned by one of the world’s most respected landscape photographers, Colin Prior. Gitzo’s strongest and most stable tripods, the Systematic range is modular - with a top casting element that opens and closes to allow each tripod to be configured with a flat disk, geared or sliding centre colum, levelling base or other Systematic accessoires. The Systematic tripods feature Carbon eXact tubes, ultra stable feet for a solid footing and maximum stability on any surface, and the Easy Link attachment for attaching various accessories. Colin Prior has used Gitzo products for years in his work, and as such is a Gitzo ambassador working closely with the brand. He will be working with Gitzo to launch the 100 years celebration by holding an exclusive talk at The Photography Show on the 19th March speaking about his current project ‘The Living Mountain’.

Hasselblad will be exhibiting its product line-up, including the new Hasselblad X1D (pictured), at The Photography Show taking place from 18-21 March 2017 at the NEC in Birmingham. The new Hasselblad H6D will also have pride of place on the stand, including the top-of-the-range H6D-100c, the 100-megapixel version of the latest H series generation. The company will also be hosting a series of seminars, presented by various Hasselblad ambassadors, Hasselblad Masters and other friends of the brand; including the legendary Clive Arrowsmith, H6D ambassador, Tom Oldham, and Hasselblad Master, John Paul Evans. Click through / scroll down for the detailed schedule.

The World Press Photo Foundation has announced a unique three-day festival taking place from 20-22 April in Amsterdam. Showcasing the best visual journalism and presenting the stories behind the stories, the World Press Photo Festival allows attendees meet the leading editors and visual storytellers from all over the globe. Confirmed speakers include Noor Images' Stanley Greene, Iranian photographer and filmmaker Amak Mahmoodian, documentary photographer Daniella Zalcman and TIME's Instagram Photographer of the year Ruddy Roye. Additional speakers will be announced in the run-up to the event.

Venus Optics today released a video promoting the Sony version of the Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D lens. Billed as the fastest 15mm lens for Sony full-frame cameras, the Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D measures 82x66mm, takes 72mm filters, and weighs in at 500 grams. The metal-bodied manual-focus lens features an aperture click switch, enabling both stepped and clickless aperture operation for both stills photography and videography. "With [an] f/2 aperture and 110-degree angle of view, together with Sony's impressive sensors, this lens is perfect for astrophotography, aurora, interiors and nightscapes," the company said in a statement. "Also, the 72mm filter thread allows quick installation of filters for landscape shooting." Availability is slated for Q2 2017.

Click through / scroll down to watch the official video.

This month Canon celebrates 30 years of its EOS system. The company has invested a lot in the system over those years, launching almost 100 film and digital EOS cameras and over 100 EF lenses.

To mark the anniversary, Canon UK has held meet-ups to showcase EOS cameras old and new. Photography Blog was invited to an event in the Aldwych disused underground station in London for a hands on with one of the company’s latest EOS cameras, the EOS 800D. 

In a bid to keep Britons printing their favourite moments, Jessops are offering Boots Advantage card holders 20% off all photo printing and gifts in-store throughout March. To highlight the importance of printing photos in this digital age, Jessops commissioned YouGov* to look into how long we really keep our digital images and what we like taking photos of. The findings revealed that 44% of British adults have lost a digital photo that they wish they had printed, with ‘losing/ breaking hardware’ and ‘accidentally deleting the photos’ being the most common ways of losing digital photographs. Despite this, only 8% print a photo at least once a month, while over one in five respondents have never printed a photo. “For many of us, our most treasured photos are of family, friends and special occasions. It is staggering that so many of us have lost some of our precious digital photos, while ironically photos stashed in old boxes by parent and grandparents are still here today. It was clear from our research that if you want to keep your most precious photos and hand them down, printing them is the fail safe way of making sure you don’t lose them,” comments Danielle Nicholls, Head of Photo for Jessops.

XP Distribution, the specialist distributor for X-Rite’s range of colour management products, has announced a series of product bundles. Each kit contains essential colour calibration tools for photographers and filmmakers, designed to save the user both time and money against purchasing the products individually. The i1 Photographer Kit, the ColorMunki Photographer Kit and i1 Filmmaker Kit now also come with a cashback of £25/€30 for a limited time, to offer even better value. Click through / read on to find out more about the components of each X-Rite bundle.

Adorama have partnered photographer/activist Dorie Hagler to host a month of events celebrating Women’s History Month. In addition to panels, workshops and presentations, Adorama will be launching their #WomenWhoWander series on Instagram and the Adorama Learning Center, which will feature women photographers covering different topics from all over the world. Featured events at the Adorama store include a panel discussion on 19th March, a Women’s Shopping Event on the 22nd and a hands-on lighting workshop on the 27th. Click through / read on for the details.

Meyer-Optik-Görlitz today embarked on a Kickstarter campaign to help commercialise the launch of the third lens of the Trioplan trilogy -- a 35mm f/2.8 optic that brings the signature “soap bubble” bokeh to a wide angle lens. Dubbed the Trioplan 35+, the new lens will join the Trioplan 100mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/2.9 in Meyer-Optik’s line-up of Triopan branded manual-focus lenses. But while Meyer-Optik engineers designed the new lens according to the historic Cook Triplet design, they added a couple of extra elements - which is why Meyer-Optik decided to add the “+” to the name of the lens. “The Trioplan 35+ will be unrivalled in its ability to capture the spirit and emotion of the moment,” says Dr. Stefan Immes, CEO of Meyer-Optik. “Photography is not just about squeezing the most pixels into a square inch – it’s about creating art.” Through the Kickstarter project, Meyer-Optik offers backers the chance to be first in line to receive the new Trioplan 35+, which is expected to go into serial production in October of this year.

Gitzo have launched their new Microphone Boom poles. Built for expert and professional audio technicians and sound operators, the new Gitzo Booms enable effortless internal cabling. The audio cable can be easily inserted thanks to smart, removable top and bottom attachments, and exits naturally from the side. This allows boom operators to hold the boom vertically on the floor without pinching the cable. The new mic booms end with larger tube sections than the previous range, reducing unwanted flexion and keeping the microphone in its desired position. The new range covers popular lengths (250-350cm) and tube diameters, meeting the needs of most locations and providing an optimal balance between lightness and stiffness. Pricing for the new Microphone Boom starts at £299.95.

Fotodiox Pro has announced the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel LED light. Roughly the size of a soda can, the PopSpot allows photographers and videographers to focus its powerful beam for a high precision, strong contrast and dramatic shadows. “The problem with most Fresnel lights is they’re typically quite bulky, heavy and fragile, and they get screaming hot to the touch,” said Bohus Blahut, marketing director for Fotodiox Pro. “But our new PopSpot Focusable Fresnel does away with those pitfalls by combining power and control in a form factor about the size of a pop can. A simple twist focuses the PopSpot's output from a 55° to 25° beam angle, and removable barn doors offer further control of the shape and direction of the light. We’ve even included a slot for a slide-in tungsten filter.” The PopSpot Focusable Fresnel LED light is available now in three configurations: the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel, the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel + Battery Module, and the PopSpot Focusable Fresnel 3-Light Kit with Rolling Carrying Case.

Adobe Lightroom CC 2015.9 is now available. This version adds support for the Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II, the Casio EX-ZR3200, the Fujifilm GFX 50S. X100F, X-A10 and X-T20, the Leica M10, the Olympus E-M1 Mark II, the Panasonic FZ80, GF9, GH5 and TZ82 cameras and the Phase One IQ3 100MP digital back. Additionally, the new update includes a number of new camera-lens profiles and 21 bug fixes.

Source: Adobe

Datacolor will be showcasing their range of colour management solutions at The Photography Show, taking place from 18-21 March 2017 at the NEC in Birmingham. Located at stand A117, Datacolor will be hosting a range of talks at regular intervals throughout the exhibition, giving attendees the opportunity to hear from professional guest speakers each day, and ask questions in their open question session. Click through / read on for more details about Datacolor's products and what to expect at the Photography Show.