According to media reports, Sony “halted and evacuated” half a dozen manufacturing plants in north-eastern Japan after the country was hit by a massive earthquake and a giant tidal wave. Bloomberg reports that Panasonic is busy sizing up the damage to its own factories, while Canon’s facilities apparently managed to escape major devastation. Meanwhile, Thom Hogan points out that Nikon’s professional camera body manufacturing plant is located in the immediate vicinity of the Sendai airport, known for being struck by the tsunami that ensued after the main quake - although he adds that the factory itself was “not significantly affected”.

Nokia UK has launched a search for photos taken with its Nokia N8 camera phone for a national billboard advertising campaign. The Nokia N8 billboard competition opened yesterday and runs for four weeks, closing on 7th April. UK residents can enter the competition by visiting Nokia’s Facebook page. The winner will get their image blown up to the size of a huge 96 sheet, billboard advert and displayed near their home.

Rebit 5 is a new easy-to-use backup program that provides automatic, transparent and continuous backup for multimedia content including photos, videos and music. The new version of the Rebit software features anew user interface that provides backup and recovery status at a glance, concurrent support for both DAS and NAS, on-demand recovery point creation and USB 3.0 support for fast data transfer.Rebit 5 software is available in single and three-PC licenses at SRP £24.99 and £49.99 from Amazon UK.

Sigma announced that 167 students have submitted images to the second annual Sigma Scholarship Contest. The contest has just entered the voting phase, with a crucial online, public vote now underway to narrow down the field of scholarship candidates to five finalists. Voting will last until 5pm ET, on 1 April 2011. From the five finalists, a judging panel of Sigma executives will then choose the scholarship winner, who will receive $5,000 in cash, and $1,000 toward Sigma products. Sigma will announce the winner on 18 April 2011. o view the students’ submissions and cast a vote, visit the website below.

Nearly one in four digital imaging enthusiasts in the US are likely to purchase a 3D digital camera within the next year, according to a new Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study. The top reasons consumers indicated they were likely to purchase a 3D digital camera included an interest in 3D technology (61 percent), an appreciation for additional photographic options (55 percent), a desire to be on the cutting-edge of technology (23 percent) and a belief that 3D will help them be more creative (22 percent).

Adobe has just posted the new Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 6.4 and Photoshop Lightroom 3.4 Release Candidates. Both updates fix a few bugs and includes support for many new cameras, including the Canon EOS 600D and EOS 1100D (pictured), the Hasselblad H4D-40, the Olympus E-PL1s, E-PL2 and XZ-1, plus the Samsung NX11. They also add support for 4 Canon EF, 3 Leica S and 6 Nikon F mount lenses.

Website: Adobe Camera Raw 6.4 RC
Website: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4 RC

Mohawk Fine Papers have announced the launch of Pinhole Pro, an affiliate programme for photo products site Pinhole Press. Allowing professional photographers to provide their clients with high-end photo products such as photo books, calendars and cards while collecting client-generated royalties, Pinholre Pro additionally provides member photographers’ clients with exclusive access to premium photo products that include leather-bound photo books, guest books, day planners and more. Each photo product is printed on Mohawk i-Tone papers, and the ordering platform on PinholePress.com is powered by Mohawk Digital Technologies Group.

The hotly anticipated Fujifilm X100 has just landed in the Photography Blog office! The X100 is already in such short supply worldwide that we’ve splashed out our own cash and actually bought one, just so that we can bring you our usual in-depth review in a timely fashion. We don’t usually photograph the contents of a camera’s box, but the X100 is supplied in such a luxurious one, complete with mock silk lining, that we felt a photo gallery of our Fujifilm X1000 unboxing was worth sharing.

We’ll be bringing you some X100 sample photos in the next few days, fickle UK weather permitting. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the X100, just shout out in the Comments and we’ll do our best to answer them…

Carl Zeiss has announced the winner of its photography competition, “Light is my language”. Under the theme “Light is my language”, Carl Zeiss encouraged photographers from around the world to illustrate and capture their ideas in exciting images between 15 December 2010 and 16 January 2011. Anyone could participate provided the image was taken with a Zeiss lens. The winning photo, A Pier Too Far  (above) was taken by Australian photographer Timothy Poulton at the Bellinger and Kalang rivers in Urunga in New South Wales, Australia. Poulton will receive a Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 2/100 ZF.2.

Kenro has been named the UK and Ireland distributor for Reflecta. Formed in 1967 in Nuremburg, Reflecta produces a wide range of film and slide scanners, from a simple entry level unit costing around the £60 mark, right up to a high-end model at over £1,100. Kenro will be marketing the full selection, together with many other products in the Reflecta range including digital microscopes, endoscopes, video and studio lights, USB record players plus a selection of slide projectors.

Pentax has issued a firmware update for the Pentax K-5 digital SLR camera. Version 1.03 improves auto-focus accuracy in low light, and enhances overall stabiity. The firmware update can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Pentax K-5 Firmware Update Downloads

Pentax has posted a firmware update for the Pentax 645D medium-format DSLR camera. Version 1.02 brings minor improvements, including the following:

• When processing Noise Reduction after long exposure, remaining time is displayed on LCD panel
• When mode dial is set to “X”, Flash X-Sync Speed can be set by custom function menu.
• When connecting to a computer via the USB cable, recognized Disk name is changed from [Removable Disk] to [645D]. If format SD memory card, volume label will be [645D].
• After mirror lock-up, extended standby time (until mirror automatically return to original position) from approximate 1 minute to 5 minutes If Auto Power Off setting is shorter than 5 minutes, Auto Power Off setting has priority.

Website: Pentax 645D Firmware Update Downloads

Sigma USA has raised the price of the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 EX DG APOMacro HSM II, while simultaneously reducing the price of the new OS version. According to Fro Knows Photo, the company cited “an increase in manufacturing costs and the current poor exchange rate” as the main reasons for the price hike on the old lens. As a consequence of the recent changes in pricing, the price difference between the old non-OS and newer OS versions has shrunk from $800 to $450; with the stabilised version remaining the more expensive option.

Source: Fro Knows Photo via PR

World class Sports Illustrated photographer Peter Read Miller has announced he will conduct his annual Sports Photography Workshop in Denver, Colorado from 4-10 April 2011. In addition to receiving expert tutelage from Miller, attendees will also receive additional instruction from other industry notables including Steve Fine, Director of Photography at Sports Illustrated, Grant Leighton, advertising / portrait photographer and instructor at the University of Colorado, photographer / videographer Max Morse, and Shawn Cullen, lighting technician at Sports Illustrated. Tuition for the workshop is $1,495 and includes all instruction, one-on-one portfolio review with Peter Read Miller, and all model / location fees.

iQuikDoF is an iPhone app that can emulate a number of special effects that normally require the use of specialised optics such as selective focus and tilt lenses. The app fully supports the Retina display of the iPhone 4 and offers an easy-to-use interface to adjust the level of blur around the sweet spot of sharpness. iQuikDoF 1.0 is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store.

Aptogo has updated its iPhone app Showtime to Version 2.0. The app allows you to use your iPhone as a remote control as you display your photos on any browser-based device on your wifi network: a computer, internet TV or games console. Version 2.0 adds support for more devices including the Nintendo Wii, and allows users to download full-length videos over WiFi to their computer, upload photos to their device’s camera roll, and view EXIF data and a mini map in a floating panel.

Website: Showtime

Kenro, the official UK and Ireland distributor for the Benro range of tripods, has announced a number of new additions to the range. These include three new Flat Traveller tripods that feature a unique design that changes the traditional tripod model of triangular profiles and adopts instead a flat unified connecting hub, which contributes to its compact size and ultra-portability when folded; a new Travel Angel model that offers the same great features of the standard Travel Angel, plus the ability to convert from a full size tripod into a compact monopod quickly and easily; and two new kits including the Aluminium Universal Flip Lock Tripod with 3 Way Pan and Tilt Head and the Aluminium Universal Flip Lock Tripod with BH Hea.

Panasonic has launched ‘A City Exposed’ campaign, which showcases five new galleries of photographs and a short film, taken with the GF2. The campaign presents a diverse collection of creative snapshots by up-and-coming photographer Will Cooper Mitchell, all of which are focused around a day in the life of one City - London. Speaking about his experience with the Lumix GF2, Will comments ‘My usual pro set up is great but the GF2 has freed me up and allowed me to be the photographer who always has a camera in his pocket and never misses a good opportunity – well, almost never!”