Amazon has announced unlimited cloud storage with Amazon Cloud Drive. The Unlimited Photos Plan (free 3-month trial, then $11.99 per year) allows users to store an infinite number of photos in Cloud Drive without worrying about taking up space on phones, cameras, or other devices. Customers can upload existing collections and store all future photos taken. This plan also includes 5 GB of additional storage for videos or other documents and files. The Unlimited Everything Plan (free 3-month trial, then $59.99 per year) eanbles anyone to stoe an infinite number of new and existing photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music in Cloud Drive.

Manfrotto has just launched its new Lumie series of portable LED lights. They feature super bright surface mount LED technology and superior colour accuracy (>92% CRI), and each Lumie LED kit comes with a snap-fit filter mount as well as a variety of CTO and diffusing filters. In addition to the standard filters, there are Portrait, Classic and Multicolour kits as well as a friction-based ballhead that enables 360° pan orientation and up to 35° in any other direction. The series comprises three units that differ in their power output and the number of LEDs they contain. The Lumie Play has 3 diodes, offers 220 lux of illumination and costs £44.95. The Lumie Art (6 LEDs, 440 lux) is available for £69.95. The Lumie Muse (8 LEDs, 550 lux) is £99.95.

Sony has released a firmware update for a number of its compact system cameras including the A7, A7R (pictured), A7S, A7 II and A6000. The new upgrade adds support for theSEL24240, SEL28F20, SEL35F14Z and SEL90M28G lenses. You can download the update for your camera from the website below.

Website: Sony UK

Focal Press has published the fifth edition of Light Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Featuring photographs, diagrams, and step-by-step instructions, this book speaks to photographers of varying levels. It provides invaluable information on how to light the most difficult subjects, such as surfaces, metal, glass, liquids, extremes (black-on-black and white-on-white), and portraits. The 382-page paperback is available for $44.95 / £28.99.

Photographer’s Guide to the Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) by Alexander White is a new title from White Knight Press. Providing a complete guide to the use of this advanced compact camera, the 242-page book shows beginning and intermediate photographers how to capture excellent images and video sequences with the D-Lux. Containing more than 350 colour photographs showing the camera’s controls, display screens, and menus; the book includes examples of photographs taken using the creative settings of the camera, including the Photo Style settings; the Filter button picture effects, and the movie recording mode. The book is available now for $9.99 in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats.

Light Blue, business management software designed specifically for photographers, has launched a new online contract signing service. The new release is an addition to Light Blue Software’s online services. Every subscriber will be able to send contracts to clients, and receive an electronically signed copy back from them. “As a photographer, it’s important you have a proper contract with your clients, but when a client tells you that they want to confirm a booking you want to make the process as quick and painless as possible,” Light Blue founder Tom Catchesides says. “We’ve designed the online contract signing services in Light Blue to be powerful, but really simple to use, so once you’ve got a template set up you send your contract out to them in just a few clicks. It’s all part of our commitment to building really useful software that’ll help streamline business admin and let photographers spend more time out taking pictures.”

Canon is celebrating a 12th year as the global number one within the interchangeable-lens digital camera market. Canon’s run as market leader began in 2003 owing to the launch of the company’s first truly affordable dSLR, the EOS 300D. Since then, Canon has launched a host of interchangeable-lens cameras, including the EOS-1D series for professional users, and the EOS 5D series. More recently, Canon launched the EOS 7D Mark II (pictured), the EOS 5DS and 5DS R, which boasts the world’s highest pixel count among 35 mm full-frame sensor digital SLR cameras, the EOS M3 compact system camera plus the EOS 760D and EOS 750Do entry-level digital SLRs.

Akvis has announced a new software which turns images into pointillistic paintings. This painting technique is characterised by the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes. The new Akvis Points program includes ready-to-use presets for the pointillism effect, and it is also possible to add a signature, an inscription or a copyright watermark to the picture. The software runs on Windows XP/Vista/Win7/Win 8 and on Mac OS X 10.6-10.10. A home license of the program is available for $49.

TeoreX, the company famed for its BatchInpaint, FolderIco, Inpaint, iResizer and PhotoSticher applications, has released PhotoScissors 2.0.Targeting users who don’t want to learn secrets of retouching, PhotoScissors makes background removal easy: the user marks foreground and background zones in the image and immediately sees the results, which can then be fine-tuned with a few mouse gestures. Version 2.0 provides a number of improvements to further enhance results and reduce time required to obtain them. In particular, the improved edge feathering algorithm plus the "Offset Boundary" option allow for much neater and more precise contours of the cut out object. The "Shadow" option quickly applies a transparent shadow to the picture, and the new interactive processing mode optionally allows applying all changes to the image in real time. The price for a single license of PhotoScissors is $19.99. PhotoScissors is available both for Windows and Mac OS.

Leica Fotopark, an online image hosting and sharing service offered by Leica Camera, has announced a spring themed photo challenge. Photographers are encouraged to upload their brightest, liveliest and most idyllic spring pictures to the Leica Fotopark website between 30 March and 12 April 2015 and tag them with #LeicaSpring. Once the submission period is closed, the images will be rated and three winning photos will be chosen and displayed in the Leica Store in Wetzlar. In addition, the overall winner will receive a 90x60cm print of his/her photo mounted on acrylic glass.

Elinchrom has announced its separation from Manfrotto Distribution USA to begin a new chapter in its history. The company will begin US operations on 5th May, helmed by Chris Whittle. "As the U.S. photography market continues to grow and evolve across the professional and prosumer markets, we felt now was an appropriate time to pursue some exciting new ideas," Whittle said. "We would like to thank the team at Manfrotto Distribution USA for their years of support and dedication towards growing the Elinchrom brand in the U.S."

The Group of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament's Committee of the Regions (CoR) is launching the 8th edition of its annual photo competition, "Living together." The contest invites photographers to capture in a photo one of the founding values of the European Union, that is, United in Diversity. The competition runs until 15 July 2015 and is open to European residents aged 18 and older.

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) has named Heidi Levine as the winner of the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award. The foundation created the award to honour the courage and dedication of AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed while reporting in Afghanistan in 2014. “The images captured by the award nominees represent a collective vantage point on some of this decade’s most dangerous conflicts,” IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz said. “Their work helps us better understand the world and inspires us to take action.” Levine is an American photojournalist who has made a career of working in conflict and post-conflict areas. She has covered the critical moments in the Middle East including the revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Syria, the plight of Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, Syria, and Sweden, and spent one month embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. The award will be presented to Levine at a ceremony in Berlin on 25th June.

The Guernsey Photography Festival (GPF) and Raven Russia Ltd have launched a major international photography competition with a prize of £5000 and an opportunity to exhibit at the next Guernsey Photography Festival. The contest is open to all photographers, professionals and amateurs alike, and there is no set theme. “We are delighted to be able to support this competition,” says Glynn Hirsch CEO of Raven Russia. “The Guernsey Photography Festival is now an established event that has national and international recognition. This prize will help raise the island’s profile abroad and will further cement Guernsey’s place as a centre of excellence for business and cultural activities. We are proud to be a part of it.” The entry fee is £15 per project. Entries must be received no later than 15 June 2015.

In celebration of World Backup Day, ioSafe has announced a special offer on its Solo G3 external hard drive. Featuring fanless FloSafe Vent Design for near-silent operation, the ioSafe Solo G3 is waterproof to 10m and protects data from loss in temperatures up to 1550°F for up to half an hour. Visit ioSafe to get 15% off the 3TB version plus a free upgrade to the 3 year Data Recovery Service until 15 April 2015.

Phase One today released Capture One Pro 8.2. This update adds support for the Fujifilm X-A2, Nikon D5500, Olympus OM-D E-M5 II and Samsung NX1 cameras and eleven lenses (one from Nikon, one from Sigma and nine from Zeiss), plus offers a new Colour Balance tool. Capture One Pro 8.2 is a free update to existing Capture One Pro 8 customers.

Sony are showcasing the new FE 28mm F2, FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS, Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA at this year's Photography Show. We grabbed some hands-on shots of the three new lenses (there wasn't a 90mm sample) and the two convertor lenses for the 28mm lens that were also recently announced.