British Heart Foundation (BHF) Furniture & Electrical shops are urgently appealing to photographers and camera lovers to donate any unwanted cameras or accessories to their local store. Chris Hull, BHF Field Operations Manager for Furniture & Electrical stores, says, “We’re reaching out to professional photographers and camera enthusiasts as we’re in urgent need of cameras, lenses, camcorders, carry-bags and other accessories. We absolutely rely on the support of the community to keep us running and without their generous donations, we risk reducing funding for vital research into heart disease. Please join the fight for every heartbeat and donate any unwanted items to your local BHF Furniture & Electrical store today!" To find your local BHF Furniture & Electrical store, visit  the website below.

We have two great Booq camera bags up for grabs!

The two lucky winners are Glen Urban, who wins a Booq Python Slimpack, and Nigel Soper, who wins a Booq Python Mirrorless.

Booq have just launched their new Python range that includes the Python Slimpack and the Python Mirrorless and we have one of each to give away.

The Python Slimpack has been designed for the digital age photographer with space for two DSLRs and up to four mid-size lenses, as well as one large zoom lens, a tripod and a 10-inch tablet or iPad. The Python Slimpack is also waterproof and has a rubberised base. The Python Slimpack is worth £110.

The Python Mirroless a compact camera bag designed to hold a mirrorless camera with a large lens, or a compact DSLR with a small lens. The Python Mirrorless keeps photography gear safe from knocks and bumps and is water-resistant. The Python Mirrorless has been designed to be practical and compact, it is worth £68.

All Booq bags they come tagged with a Terralinq serial number. Once registered, the Booq Terralinq service may help reunite you with your lost & found bag.

For more information on Booq and their other products please visit: http://www.booqbags.co.uk

Ricoh UK has announced the repositioning of a number of its key products. The compact, lightweight and fully weather-resistant PentaxK-3 is now available at £949.99, the K-50 can now be had for £499.99, the weather-resistant DFA 100/2,8 MACRO WR lens has a new RRP of £549.99, the Pentax Q7 (pictured) has a new price tag of £339.99 - and the list goes on. Click through / read on for the details.

Kenro, the official distributor of Nissin flash guns in the UK, has announced that TIPA has awarded the Nissin i40 flash gun top honours in the 'Best Portable Lighting System' category at the 2014 Awards. The newly launched Nissin i40 flash gun is available in models dedicated (TTL) to Canon, Nikon, Sony, Four thirds and Fujifilm models, and can cover a lens angle of view from 24-105mm, with additional coverage to 16mm with the supplied diffuser. The Guide Number is 40 at the 105mm setting (meters/ISO 100) and 27 at 35mm. An innovative LED illuminator sits where smaller fill flash modules were in the past, and the light can be used for both still and video recording with 9 steps of output. The i40 offers rear, front curtain and high-speed sync, wireless slave and can be swiveled up to 180 degrees right and left and 90 degrees vertical. Says Paul Kench, managing director of Kenro: "I'm delighted TIPA has endorsed our own thoughts on the Nissin i40. We've always had high hopes for this flash gun; it seemed to tick all the right boxes from the start. Our dealers have experienced great interest in it and it's selling extremely well."

The Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM is a new ultrawide-to-wide zoom for dSLRs with APS-C sized sensors. Offering a 35mm equivalent focal range of 16-29mm, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM features both a UD lens element and a range of optimised lens coatings, as well as a quiet STM focus motor, 4-stop image stabiliser and a circular iris diaphragm. The EF-S 10-18mm IS STM will be available from May 2014 with an SRP of £299.99 / €349.99 / $299.99.

The Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM is Canon’s first ultra-wide L-series lens to feature image stabilisation. The lens’s optical structure includes two Ultra-low Dispersion (UD) elements to minimise chromatic aberration. Super Spectra Coatings reduce ghosting and flare, while fluorine coatings on the front and rear elements prevent dust and water drops sticking to each element. The newly-designed IS system features a number of additional improvements, including gyro sensors for greater accuracy in traditional shooting or when capturing panning motion. The EF 16-35mm f4L IS USM will be available from June 2014 with an SRP of £1,199.99 / €1,399.99 / $1,199.00.

The white-grey edition of the Canon EOS SL1 camera (originally launched in Japan as the EOS Kiss X7 White) will be available in the USA from the end of June. The white EOS Rebel SL1 camera is complemented by a matching white EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens. "[N]ew to the U.S. market, the white EOS Rebel SL1 Digital SLR camera with its companion white lens, provides users with high-quality images in a small, compact body that is easy to bring along on all their summer adventures," says Yuichi Ishizuka, president and COO, Canon U.S.A. The Canon EOS Rebel SL1 and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens kit in white will retail for an estimated retail price of $749.99.

Profoto today released the first B1 off-camera flash kit. Containing 2 B1 off-camera flashes, two batteries, a Fast Charger that recharges the battery in one hour, and a Car Charger that plugs into any standard car cigarette connector and recharges the battery in two hours; the Profoto B1 Location Kit sells at £2,550 (+VAT). This represents a ~

AKVIS has updated its OilPaint software to Version 3.0. Available as a standalone application and as a Photoshop plug-in, AKVIS OilPaint is claimed to offer "an incredible algorithm" for turning photos into oil paintings. The software offers a number of ready to use presets, and allows users to share their favourites with other fans of the oil painting technique. The batch processing feature enables the program to automatically process a series of images in order to create a number of illustrations at the same style or to process all frames in a video. The updated version adds Extra Strokes, a Flat Brush option for the Oil Brush for changing the shape of the edges of the brush strokes and a brand new 3D Brush that lets you bring volume and relief to your painting. Version 3.0 is a free update for all OilPaint customers.

Roca London Gallery will host a photographic exhibition during the London Festival of Architecture (2nd June – 23rd August), exploring some of the capital’s key regeneration projects and their impact on the city’s inhabitants. Entitled Regenerating Capital: Healthy growth, healthy city?, the exhibition will explore the impact regeneration has on green spaces, small businesses, local communities and valued buildings while supporting an increasing population. The exhibition, which is free to visit and open to all, will provide a fascinating insight into how London is coping with the impacts of dramatic shifts within its demography, economy, inhabitants and ecology.

Photographers Lucy Harrison and Katherine Green have collaborated on a new project that surveys the former Warner Estate in the suburbs of East London. The project explores the changing uses of domestic architecture and communities, and compares two points in history of rapid change in East London. A mixture of contemporary photography and oral history will be presented alongside early 20th century photographs as well as other historical material related to the Warner Estate. The exhibition opens on Friday 30th May and runs through Sunday 15th June. To accompany the exhibition, a new limited edition book is also being published and there will be free walks, talks and events throughout.

Manfrotto has announced two innovative tools designed for 'strobists.' The Manfrotto Nanopole is a new lightweight stand that can be easily carried everywhere. The closed size is only 49cm (13.3in), and the stand guarantees a payload of 1,5Kg and outstanding stability. Its main characteristic is being a two-in-one product: pressing the button with Manfrotto’s logo, the central column can be pulled out and easily turns into a hand held boom. The Snap Tilt Head  is an innovative and versatile tilthead with pioneering features that make it unique in the market. The hot shoe attachment is compatible with all branded flashguns and the provided hole for umbrella, makes it the perfect choice for a great variety of situations.

The Profoto B1 off-camera flash has won a TIPA award. The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) is an international, non-profit association supporting the interests of the photography and imaging magazine publishing industry. This year the association has named the Profoto B1 off-camera flash the Best Professional Lighting System. The jury said: "Battery-powered and cordless, the Profoto B1 has become an instant hit with pros that understand the benefits of the freedom and facility off-camera flash shooting affords. The system’s Air Remote TTL controller attaches to the camera’s hot shoe and becomes a command center for light output and balance, even for manual settings. Each monobloc styled flash can be assigned a channel and controlled from up to 1000 feet away, with results quickly previewed, checked and modified by the photographer without leaving camera position. The 500 w/s units have a 9-stop range, very fast recycling time and LED modeling light, and are powered by a lithium-ion battery with 220 full-power flash capacity."

Following the success of the inaugural ArtGemini Prize 2013 which attracted 744 entries from 33 countries, 15th May sees the launch of the ArtGemini Prize 2014. Open to all photographers and painters form anywhere in the world, the ArtGemini Prize is described as "a celebration to promote international contemporary art for emerging and established artists." A cash fund of £5500 will be awarded to the winners in 4 categories, Photography, Painting & Sculpture, Young Artist and Public Choice. The shortlisted entries will be exhibited in London and Singapore. Do note that entry fees apply. The deadline for entries is 7th September.

Three design students at Royal College of Art, London, have teamed up for a fun project about creating photography filters out of... sugar. "The Lomo Filter Kreator Kit is reintroducing the art of using photographic filters and gives the user full creative control," says project manager Morten Grønning Nielsen. "Having three silicon trays, one for flat filters, one for gradients and one for vignettes, the user can create filters in unlimited colours and compositions. The process is outrageously simple, using a special sugar called Isomalt, and sugarcolours, the filters can be created in a household microwave or oven. If they scratch they can be remolded into a new filter or even consumed. Making one filter takes about 2 minutes to create and 10 minutes to cool down. Using our kit, you could make around 50 filters for $10 worth of isomalt." To learn more, visit the project's home page on Behance.

The Vivo Xshot is an Android "phablet" with an f/1.8 lens. Manufactured by BBK, one of the biggest Chinese smartphone manufacturers, the Vivo Xshot has a 13-megapixel main camera with a head-turning f/1.8 lens, optical image stabilisation, dual LED flash, physical shutter release and 4K movie recording. It also has an impressive secondary camera with an 8-meegapixel sensor, 720p video and a LED flash, a 2,600mAh battery and a 5.2" Full HD touchscreen. The BKK Vivo Xshot will be available in two versions from the end of this month, priced at around CN¥3,500 and CN¥3,000. There is currently no word on international availability and pricing.

Via Engadget