Nikon has announced the winners of its European Film Festival in association with independent film organisation, Raindance and Oscar-winning director, Asif Kapadia. ‘Not A Pizza Order’ by Cécile Ragot, France, has been awarded the Grand Prix, with cecile winning a Nikon D810 film kit and a one-week, all-expenses paid networking trip to the Cannes Film Festival in May. All jury members were impressed by this film, which is centred around the issue of domestic violence. The other category winners selected by the jury were ‘Bad Luck’ by Martin Taube, Sweden (Best Narrative), ‘Evasion’ by Pierre le Gall, France (Technical Excellence) and ‘Diamondjaw’ by Tormi Torop, Estonia (Best Student Entry).

Nikon has released the Android version of the SnapBridge app, which enables constant connection of a compatible Nikon digital camera to a smart device using Bluetooth low-energy technology. SnapBridge will be a standard feature in almost every new Nikon camera from 2016 onwards, beginning with the Nikon D500 DSLR. SnapBridge for Android is available on Google Play.

The Guernsey Photography Festival is launching a second series of photographers’ talks following the success of its 2015 series. Thee talks will feature acclaimed international photographers and will form part of the festival’s ongoing cultural and educational programme. The festival is also collaborating for the first time with the Digital Greenhouse in Guernsey and the Jersey Arts Centre to enable the photographers to speak in both islands. The programme opens on Wednesday 25 May in Guernsey and Thursday 26 May in Jersey with Sian Davey, whose work about her down-syndrome daughter ‘Looking for Alice’, won widespread critical acclaim last year. The other photographers scheduled to talk are: Jack Latham on Wednesday 6 July in Guernsey and Thursday 7 July in Jersey who will present his fascinating work ‘The Sugar Paper Theories’ which traces an infamous true crime case in Iceland. On Wednesday 12 October in Guernsey and Thursday 13 October in Jersey, Guillaume Bresson will talk about ‘Fukushima No-Go Zone’, an ongoing collaborative project with Venezuelan photographer Carlos Ayesta about the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Finally, on Wednesday 23 November in Guernsey and Thursday 24 November in Jersey, Norwegian photographer Helge Skodvin will discuss his acclaimed project ‘A Moveable Beast’.

Timelapse+ have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the commercialisation of their auto ramping VIEW intervalometer. To allow for automatic day-to-night and night-to-day time lapse creation without any complicated setup, the VIEW individually analyses the exposure value of each image the camera takes; then feeds it through a sophisticated algorithm to deliver perfect results for sunset, sunrise, or night sky captures. This allows it to achieve what its creators call "the holy grail in time lapse photography." Additionally, the Timelapse+ VIEW provides photographers with the ability to watch a preview of the time-lapse sequence while it is still being captured, upon a gentle wave of the hand in front of the device. A smartphone app extends the experience even further, giving professionals complete control over their camera. They can preview, make settings adjustments and even download images remotely. The early-bird backer pricing is $320 for one Timelapse+ VIEW. Following the Kickstarter launch, the retail price will be $380.

Pepper Networks have launched Version 4.0 of their Timebox automatic photo journal app. Timebox instantly organises all of the photos and videos in a user’s Camera Roll and Photo Library, plus entries from the user’s Calendar, into photo stories. Rather than an endless grid of photos, the Timebox app gives users a scrolling timeline of stories including one key photo per story, its title, date and location, making finding past trips or events easy. Going beyond the standard iOS Photos app, Timebox also makes it easy for users to enhance their stories with captions and details. Powered by Kite.ly, users can make, print and buy hardcover photo books, photo cases for devices, posters, prints, stickers and magnets from any Timebox story. Timebox 4.0 is available now on the iTunes App Store.

The Plugin Site has announced ActionsXXL, which enables Photoshop Elements users to create, record, play and save Photoshop actions. It also supports recording image editing steps performed with The Plugin Site's ElementsXXL, LayersXXL and FilterHub plugins, which enhance the feature set of Photoshop Elements. Conditional action steps enable playing other actions depending on 24 predefined conditions. ActionsXXL is displayed as a floating panel window in Photoshop Elements 6-14, but can also take over the Actions panel of Photoshop Elements 11-14. It also offers a Batch feature for automatically processing multiple document or image files with actions, scripts and other features. ActionsXXL is available for $39.95.

Lens Lab has launched two new photography walks in Brighton and London. The instructed walks are led by experienced professionals who will give guidance to small groups on manual camera controls including shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Participants will learn the tricks and techniques of low-light photography and take home a professional-quality photographs crafted by themselves. The instructed walks cost £79 each.

The World Press Photo Foundation and the Tim Hetherington Trust are launching a new fellowship, starting in 2016. The renewed cooperation, instead of providing funds for an individual project, will offer new ways of supporting photographers so we can expand Tim Hetherington's legacy in new and creative directions. The selected fellow will receive an award of €5000, to be provided equally by the Tim Hetherington Trust and the World Press Photo Foundation and its partners. The fellows from each year will become part of the network and will play a role in selecting new fellows. The aim is to grow and strengthen a network of multiple skills that provides on-going support. The inaugural fellowship  has been awarded to Nana Kofi Acquah, to develop his project about gender/women in Africa.

Swedish software developer jAlbum have released version 13.1 of their popular Web photo gallery creator, jAlbum Pro. "With this new release we take a huge step forward to simplify the workflow for professional photographers by supporting 38 raw image formats," says developer Amal Asry. "jAlbum interacts well with Adobe’s software suite: Metadata like titles, descriptions and keywords entered in Photoshop or Lightroom " Pricing starts at €39.

Hama have launched a new universal charger with an LCD display. According to the company, the Hama Delta Ovum will charge just about any lithium-ion battery (3.6V/3.7V/7.2V/7.4V) and NiMH (AA/AAA) battery available today. The device automatically detects the voltage and polarity of Li-ion batteries, and cuts off when charging is completed. The LCD function display shows the current charge level of the batteries. The Hama Delta Ovum LCD Universal Charger is available for €34.99.

The Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) exhibition will be on show at 10 Stockwell Street, an award-winning building at the University of Greenwich, from July 22nd to September 4th. The photographs going on display are the winning shots from the international Travel Photographer of the Year awards, one of the world’s leading photography competitions. Photographers from 114 countries have entered TPOTY, and these images give a beautiful, fascinating, entertaining and, at times, moving, depiction of life, cultures, wildlife and landscape all over the planet.Visitors can take home the winning images in the form of the latest TPOTY book, Journey Eight, which will go on sale at the exhibition. They will also be able to buy postcards and greetings cards featuring a selection of the winning images.

The new Polly Slider is the most compact, lightweight camera slider of its class with integrated ‘high-inertia’ flywheel stabilisation, a flexible mounting plate, and a new patented connection option. A flywheel with an integrated, fine-tuned gear provides for extremely smooth, stable camera panning, while the flexible mounting plate offers three combined fastening options for all common thread formats. In addition, the slider has height-adjustable folding feet and a level for alignment. Weighing in at 1.5kg, the Polly Slider is available for €940+VAT.

Today marks the official opening of Jessops' 51st UK store in North Street, Brighton. The new shop will offer Brighton the full portfolio of Jessops services. Customer can take advantage of the professional expertise of staff by enrolling on one of the many Academy Courses available to all levels. Other new services on offer include a Rental Service, Trade-In offering, Sensor Cleaning, one-to-one photography tuition, an on-site lab for photo printing products made in-store within the hour, and access to a large range of cameras and accessories. “Our success is a multi-channel strategy, within which the high street plays a key role,” says Neil Old, Jessops CEO. “It is all about giving shoppers choice on how to buy: whether that’s in-store where they can get hands on experience, by phone, online 24/7, or via the collect at store service.”

The new Trioplan f2.9/50 lens that was announced last week has a new front focusing element which garnered a lot of attention. This innovative front focus lens gives users a second way to focus, and allows nature and macro photographers to take 1:4 images, reducing the minimum focusing distance to 0.28 m from 0.8m. We've interviewed Dr. Wolf-Dieter Prenzel, one of the chief engineers at the original Meyer-Optik company and the company's Chief Technology Officer, to find out more how this new focusing mechanism works and why it lets you get even closer to your subject.

Want to see exactly what the new Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS lens looks like in the flesh?

Check out our hands-on gallery of photos of the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS lens.

Want to see exactly what the new Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens looks like in the flesh?

Check out our hands-on gallery of photos of the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens.