The Mamiya DM22, DM28 and DM33 digital backs are now available worldwide, either as standalone products or in a bundle with a Mamiya 645DF body and Capture One software, at “affordable” prices. Do not rush to sell your DSLR just yet though - the term “affordable” is meant relative to other medium-format digital offerings. The Mamiya DM22 bundle, for instance, will retail for $9995/€6995 - some other products in the range cost even more. Meanwhile, the company - which has just turned 70 - has quietly changed its logo too (see image above), although many Mamiya websites around the world still carry the old one.

Hama has unveiled a portable standalone photo scanner that scans prints up to 10x15cm in size, and saves the results on SD cards. The scanning resolution is 300 dots per inch, the colour depth is 24 bits, and the digitised images are saved in JPEG format. The scanner can be connected to a digital frame using the supplied USB cable. The device is available from Hama at an SRP of €77.

Entry for the fourth annual Take a view - Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards closes tomorrow, so now is the time to visit the website and upload your pictures to see if you can win the prestigious title ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year 2010’ and the top prize of £10,000. Unlike many other photographic competitions, ‘Take a view’ celebrates the United Kingdom only, offering photographers worldwide the opportunity to showcase their images of this richly diverse country. Entrants may submit up to 15 photographs of the UK’s landscape across four categories, Classic View, Living the View, Your View and Urban View. There is also a separate class for those under 16, with a chance to win a place on a photographic workshop with awards founder and landscape photographer, Charlie Waite. All entries must be uploaded via the competition website. Please note that entry fees apply.

Website: Take a view

Gary Fong has announced an extension of its Flip-Cage line with the introduction of the Pro-Series designed to accommodate larger point-and-shoot cameras. The Flip-Cage provides protection from accidental drops or general wear and tear and swings out to provide a stable table-top platform that locks a point-and-shoot camera in a vertical or horizontal orientation, enabling the photographer to step out from behind the lens and become part of the shot, or to capture macro photographs. Accommodating cameras up to 3” x 4-1/4” x 1-3/4”, the new Flip-Cage Pro-Series is available for $19.95.

Kubota Image Tools are now offering a new educational format that combines the business value of their Digital Photography Bootcamps with the convenience of an in-home or in-studio setting. The e:CLASS series will be taught by company founder Kevin Kubota (pictured), who promises to bring his unique learning-style to the online-seminars. The first e:CLASS will kick off at 10am PDT on 21 July, and will focus on the new features found in Lightroom 3. The webinar will last 1.5 hours including a 30-minute Q&A session. This e:CLASS costs $39 to attend and includes access to a recorded copy for download, as well as a $20 coupon for any Kubota Image Tools Lightroom products through 2010.

Kubota e:CLASS

Pixelmator 1.6, codenamed “Nucleus”, is a GPU-powered image editing tool for Mac that provides everything needed to create, edit, and enhance still images. Available as a free software update, Pixelmator 1.6 adds major performance improvements, 64-bit support, layer groups, an Import feature, Flickr, Facebook and Picasa support, redesigned transform tools, and more. The overall performance of Pixelmator increased up to 40%; the launch time is now twice as fast and the ability to paint with Pixelmator is four times faster than it was in the previous version. The new Import feature allows quick and easy importing of images directly to Pixelmator from cameras, scanners, and multifunction devices such as camera/phones, printer/ scanners, and such as iPhones and iPads. Pixelmator 1.6 Nucleus is a free update for current Pixelmator users.

Website: Pixelmator

ImTOO has released the ImTOO Video Converter 6, for Windows and Mac, that is able to convert between AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, MPEG-4 AVC, RM, MOV, XviD, 3GP, FLV files and more, with a grand total of 150 formats supported. The new version of ImTOO Total Video Converter also adds video profiles for the iPhone 4 and enables the output of files to iPod, iPhone, or PSP. New features in version 6 include the ability to add subtitles and soundtracks to output video, insert transitional effects between merged videos or picture items, and switch the zoom mode between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Users can also customize the program’s interface by resizing the built-in player and by choosing from different skins available for the user interface. In addition to the Windows version, ImTOO is also offering Video Converter for Mac that includes the same capabilities and handles the same files, with added support for QuickTime and other Mac supported files. ImTOO’s video converter software is available in Standard, Platinum, and Ultimate editions, each downloadable as a free trial from the company’s website. The price for the full versions starts at $35.95.

Website: ImTOO

The Canon Legria HF M32 is a Full-HD camcorder boasting a touch-sensitive screen and 64GB of internal memory. Featuring a 3.3-megapixel CMOS imager and 18x Advanced Zoom with image stabilisation, it’s also the first Legria model to support SDXC memory cards. Advanced Face Detection Technology identifies up to 35 faces in a frame, ensuring that friends and family remain in focus and well-exposed at all times – an individual face can even be manually selected to track someone moving around. Canon’s Instant AF technology provides the high-speed, pin-point auto-focus required for HD video. Additionally, the Legria offers an easy way for users to share content online. An in-camcorder HD-to-SD conversion tool combines with an Easy Web Upload feature to allow clips to be transferred to YouTube with the minimum of effort. The Canon Legria HF M32 will become available in September 2010. In the U.S.A., the Legria HF M32 is known as the Vixia HF M32 and is expected to sell for $1000.

The Sony Handycam NEX-VG10E is an interchangeable-lens Full-HD camcorder using the Sony E lens mount - the same as the one found on the new Sony NEX digital system cameras - and an APS HD CMOS sensor. The NEX-VG10E comes supplied as standard with an image-stabilised E18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS lens, optimised for video shooting and offering smooth, ultra low-noise autofocus and stepless diaphragm control. Alongside the three currently available E-mount lenses, users of the NEX-VG10E can mount a wide variety of A-mount DSLR optics by using the optional LA-EA1 mount adapter. The Sony NEX-VG10E comes equipped with a 3”, 921,000-dot LCD screen and a 1,152,000-dot electronic viewfinder. Apart from capturing Full-HD video, the Handycam NEX-VG10E can also shoot stills at a resolution of 14.2 megapixels. Availability is slated for September in the U.S.A. and October in Europe. The price is $2,000 including the 18-200mm lens.

Oloneo today launched the first public beta version of Oloneo PhotoEngine for Windows, an HDR imaging program and raw editor featuring a re-lighting tool, a real-time tone mapping module and a noise filter.  By merging multiple photos of the same scene, Oloneo PhotoEngine not only offers almost unlimited control over exposure and lighting but also provides a new level of creativity in digital photography, the company claims. For example, you can individually set the white balance of different parts of the image lit by different light sources, re-light the image by digitally “switching on and off” the various lights or create a realistic night view based on daylight photos. The English/International version of Oloneo PhotoEngine Beta 1 for Windows is available immediately as a free download at the website below.

Website: Oloneo

Pandigital has announced that it has expanded its line of photo scanners with a new model – the Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter – that can scan print photos up to 8.5x11” large. Requiring no PC to convert print photos into digital images, the Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter is a standalone device that scans photos at at 600 dpi onto the included SD memory card at the touch of a button. And while the scanner can accommodate prints up to 8 ½ x 11 inches, it can also scan in photos as small as wallet-sized or any size in-between. The Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter is available now for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $149.99.

Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 is now open for entries, and invites photographers from around the world to submit their best contemporary collection of images that conveys a compelling narrative. You have until 1 st October 2010 to enter your work. The submissions will be screened and the narratives with potential will appear on the Viewbookphotostory.com website for everyone to view and comment on. The submitted photo stories will also be judged by an international panel of industry professionals. The two first prize winners will win an exhibition in the Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (including a flight to the event and accommodation), a lifetime Viewbook Pro website account, a custom-designed book by Blurb, publication of their work in GUP Magazine and several other prizes.

Website: Viewbook PhotoStory 2010

In Germany, Mamiya is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its being in business with a promotional offer on the Mamiya 7 II medium-format rangefinder camera. The company was founded in 1940 and soon became famous for its Mamiya 6 medium-format folding camera that featured film-plane focussing (which meant that the bellows and the lens did not move while focussing, but the film plane did). The year 1948 marked the launch of the first Mamiya Twin-Lens Reflex (TLR) camera, while next year the company entered the 35mm market. The second half of the twentieth century saw the introduction of a series of innovations by Mamiya, including the Magazine 35 - a 35mm camera featuring interchangeable film backs -, the Mamiya Press - a 6x9 format press camera -, the Mamiyaflex C - a series of TLRs with interchangeable lenses -, the RB67 Professional 6x7 SLR with a rotating back, as well as the M645 and the RZ67 Professional SLRs. The company recycled the Mamiya 6 name in 1989 when it introduced a medium-format rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses, which was later followed by the Mamiya 7 and 7 II.

The CompactFlash Association (CFA) has announced key development goals for a new CF5.1 specification. These include Mandatory Write Caching, an UDMA mode that enables the development of higher performance cards while providing complete backward compatibility, a new Sanitize function that provides an efficient NAND Block Erase of the entire user data area to return the CF card to “fresh” state before reuse, a new protocol that allows improved internal data organisation, and an optional card capability to report the operating temperature range of the card. The new CF5.1 specification is expected to be formally released later in 2010.

The new Scrapbook MAX v2.05 is billed as “the first digital scrapbooking software program to combine ease of use with an archival quality graphics engine”. With this new version, users can bend and stretch text, and fill characters with patterns and images. Photos and elements can be accurately re-coloured with a colour-picker tool, and users have complete control over the angle, distance and colour of shadows. Additionally, a new eraser tool allows scrapbookers to extract people and objects from photos with precision, or add artistic blurred edges to photos and embellishments. Scrapbook MAX v2.05 sells for $59.95 and can be purchased at select retailers or online at the website below.

Website: Scrapbook MAX

Waqas Mustafeez, a student from Stanford University, has been named winner of Hot Shot Media’s Snapshot Scholar Photo Contest. The Snapshot Scholar Photo Contest allowed students and alumni from Stanford University and the University of the California—Berkeley to submit photos and vote on other contestants’ photos. Each week, the photos with the most votes advanced to the next round. At the end of the fifth round, the top twenty photos were presented to a five-member judging panel that decided on a winner. Mustafeez will receive a $5,000 scholarship.

The Benro A-150EXU Digital Tripod Kit is a lightweight and robust tripod that comes complete with a precision matched ballhead featuring a bubble level and a quick-release plate. Weighing in at only 2.2lbs, the Benro A-150EXU can support cameras up to 4.4lbs. A standard wing-nut style centre column locking collar provides ease of use and extra strength, and quick lock four-section aluminium legs makes set-up and packing fast. Pricing to be confirmed.

In order to promote its new photo-backup membership plans, SnapHaven has launched a free photo scanning promotion. During this special promotion, SnapHaven members can also take advantage of free photo scanning for all their prints up to 8x10” with any active membership. Members just pay shipping and handling to have as many prints digitised as they like. Negative and slide scanning, colour correction, and expedited service options are available at an added cost.

Website: SnapHaven

The Sigma APO 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM full-frame telezoom lens is now available in Japan. Constructed of 22 elements in 17 groups, the lens has a filter thread size of 77mm and has an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades for a smooth bokeh. Two FLD (“F” Low Dispersion) glass elements, which have the performance equal to fluorite glass, and three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements provide excellent correction of colour aberration, the company says. Supplied with a tripod collar and a petal type lens hood, the Sigma APO 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM weighs in at 1,430 grams and is available in Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Sony and Pentax fit. Film camera users should be aware that the Optical Stabiliser (OS) does not work when the lens is mounted to film SLRs except for the and Canon EOS-1V.

Website: Sigma