FileTagSleuth from Ulfwood Ltd. enables photographers to search all of their various photo files by shutter speed, exposure, and anything else stored in the EXIF. Paul F. Wood of Ulfwood said, “Cataloguing and searching [...] photo files can be incredibly time consuming. FileTagSleuth lets you search thousands of files quickly - even if you don’t know the entire name of what you’re looking for and just have a small bit of the text. FileTagSleuth will unlock the secrets of your files, and quickly show you what you’re looking for and which file it’s in.” The program is available as a free download from the website below.

Website: FileTag Sleuth

Luminescence of Nature Press today released The Photographer’s Guide to Digital Landscapes, a new eBook from photographer Jason P. Odell, Ph.D. Available as a printable PDF, the book is a modern review of landscape photography in the digital age. The Photographer’s Guide to Digital Landscapes addresses digital photography head-on with a comprehensive discussion of modern DSLR technology and techniques. Available now from Luminescence of Nature Press, this eBook can be yours for $24.99.

Website: Luminescence of Nature Press

Harman Technology has announced the winners of its student competition. Photography students across North America and Canada were invited to enter the contest, which supported the launch of Harman’s Crystaljet RC photographic inkjet media.The overall winner is Shaun Robinson of the School of Photographic Arts, Ottawa, for his image entitled “Double Bike”.

The Cosina Voigtländer APO-LANTHAR 90mm F3.5 SL II manual-focus lens, which was announced back in February, is now available in Canon, Nikon and Pentax fit. Constructed of 7 lens elements arranged in 5 groups, the APO-LANTHAR 90mm F3.5 SL II has 9 diaphragm blades, and comes with a lens hood and an add-on close-up lens that allows the photographer to focus down to 32cm and achieve a magnification of 1:1.8. The Cosina Voigtländer APO-LANTHAR 90mm F3.5 SL II is priced at €549.

Website: Voigtländer

Induro has announced a new series of panheads that provide photographers “with freedom for camera positioning never before available in a single product”. Offering dual tilt, base and top plate rotation and an Arca-Swiss style quick release system, these panheads allow photographers to have full repeatable indexing on five axes for maximum control and flexibility. Available in two sizes, the new PHQ panheads have load capacities of 11.5kg and 16kg. In Europe, the two versions are priced at €379 and €479, respectively. For more details or to find a dealer, visit the website below.

Website: Induro

The 2010 international Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards are now open for entries. To be more precise, print entries are now being accepted for the 2010 awards, and online image submissions can be made from July 1. TPOTY 2010 features three portfolio categories for amateur and professional photographers aged 19 and over. The category titles are Encounters, Amazing Places and World in Motion. In addition to portfolio winners, awards will be given for the best individual images in each of these categories. The overall winner of TPOTY 2010 will be the entrant who is judged to have submitted the strongest two portfolios. Also, there are two single image categories - One Shot (theme: Adventures), which is for experienced amateurs and professional photographers, and First Shot (theme: Festival of Colour), which is aimed at adult beginners. The New Talent award (theme: Sell It!) is for aspiring professional photographers, and the Young Travel Photographer of the Year is divided into two age groups for the first time - 14 and under and 15-18.  Each portfolio category costs £15 per entry, One Shot and First Shot cost £10 to enter, and New Talent £20. Young TPOTY is free to enter. Entries close on October 9th 2010 and the results will be announced in December.

The Prix Pictet and Musée de l’Elysée will present the first exhibition of the two winners of the main award, Benoit Aquin and Nadav Kander, and the two commissioned artists, Munem Wasif and Ed Kashi. Aquin and Kashi will exhibit work made this year in Haiti and Madagascar respectively, while Kander and Wasif will show work made in China and Bangladesh. The exhibition at the Musée de l’Elysée’s - taking place from 18 June to 25 July - is part of the museum’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

Pentax has posted five full-resolution sample photographs captured with a Pentax 645D medium format digital SLR camera. Taken using four different lenses, all of these sample images have a resolution of 7264×5440 pixels, and were shot at three different ISO settings; ISO 200, 320 and 800. EXIF data is available.

Website: Pentax 645D Samples

Kubota Image Tools has announced the general availability of its newly enhanced Dashboard 3 Pro software, as well as the brand new Kubota Texture Tools and the re-released Kubota Sloppy Borders. Dashboard 3 Pro is a floating palette within Photoshop that acts like a mini search engine for Photoshop actions, enabling photographers to manage and run their entire actions collection. The latest version of the tool includes the ability to keyword search for actions, update action descriptions and mark favorites for future use. Dashboard 3 Pro is available for immediate download through the Kubota Image Tools website. First time users can purchase the software alone for $79.

The LaCie Network Space MAX is a dual-disk Gigabit network storage and media server. It includes two large-capacity hard drives that can be configured for maximum security (RAID 1) or maximum capacity (RAID 0). LaCie Network Assistant software helps you set up the product within a few minutes. Additionally, with the LaCie Network Space MAX, the files stored on the hard drive are fully accessible outside your home from any connected computer using the remote access service. Available through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Corner, and LaCie Reseller+ starting at £249.

Carl Zeiss is organising a nano photography competition. The contest is open to all users of Zeiss electron and ion microscopes around the world. Images can be entered in any of four categories: SEM, TEM, CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) and Helium-Ion Microscopy. The image that receives the best score in each category will be honoured with a pair of Cinemizer Plus 3D video glasses from Carl Zeiss. Entries can be submitted from today until 29 August 2010.

Website: Carl Zeiss Nano Image Contest

Pixamba today launched the Pixamba Media Management platform, an affordable digital asset management service, specifically designed to help microstock photography users to manage their portfolio of licensed stock images effectively. With an entry price point of $4.99 per account for 3GB space, Pixamba’s service provides a range of features for microstock users, including centralised digital media storage and management, advanced fast search functionality, automated ‘Buy & Stock’ feature and original metadata retention, advanced version control, automated indexing, media rights tracking, fast image uploads, and more. Pixamba Media Management Service is available immediately. To sign up or trial the product, visit the website below.

Website: Pixamba Media Management

Nevercenter has released CameraBag Desktop 1.5, a free upgrade to their Mac and PC photo filter tool. The program, which emulates classic camera and film looks and processing techniques, is now capable of batch processing and allows the saving and sharing of custom filters. Version 1.5 also adds a new filter called Silver, which produces a vintage, tinted monochrome effect. CameraBag 1.5 is available as a free upgrade to registered users. New users can purchase it for $19 at the website below.

Website: Nevercenter CameraBag

Olympus have released a stop-motion promotional video for the E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera. 355 photos were taken with the E-PL1, then printed at billboard size and then photographed again to create the individual frames of the video. No tricks or computer animation were used at all, just good old-fashioned manual labour. Click through to watch this 1 minute 48 second homage to the E-PL1.

Casio Europe has just announced a new compact camera, the 12.1-megapixel Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z350. Featuring a 27-112mm equivalent zoom lens and a 2.7in, 230,400-pixel rear screen, the Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z350 comes with 23 scene modes anda YouTube Capture Mode for videos. The EX-Z350 is available now throughout Europe, priced at €149.

Tomorrow Ricoh will release function-enhancing firmware updates for the Ricoh GR Digital III digital compact camera and the Ricoh GXR system. The Ricoh GR Digital III firmware update will allegdly improve the effectiveness of the in-camera noise reduction, change the settings for auto exposure bracketing, introduce an in-camera trimming function, add a second Incandescent white balance setting, and introduce an optional shutter speed shift function, which overrides the user-selected shutter speed in Shutter Priority mode in cases when over- or underexposure cannot otherwise be avoided. These enhancements will also be implemented in the Ricoh GXR via its respective firmware update, which will bring about a range of additional improvements too. The firware updates will be downloadable from the Ricoh website from 19 May.

Self Publish, Be Happy Weekend at The Photographers’ Gallery is a unique showcase of exceptional contemporary DIY photo books selected by curator and founder of Self Publish, Be Happy, Bruno Ceschel. The weekend long event - taking place on 5th & 6th June 2010 - will offer art book lovers the opportunity to discuss, admire and be inspired by publications originating from around the world. A selection of the books will be for sale in The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop. Visitors will also be able to meet the authors/publishers in The Photographers’ Gallery first floor Café and Bookshop at various book signings throughout the weekend. The Photographers’ Gallery is located at 16 – 18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW.

Birmingham Museum of Art Gallery will host the first UK exhibition of legendary Magnum photographer Steve McCurry. The exhibition will include over eighty striking images that span a remarkable twenty-year career, including his world renowned portrait “Afghan Girl”, taken in 1984 with a Nikon FM2 camera and 105mm f/2.5 lens. The now iconic image of the young green-eyed girl appeared for the first time on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985, instantly becoming a symbol both of the Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation worldwide. To accompany the exhibition Steve McCurry will give a presentation about his twenty year career on Friday, 2 July. The talk will start at 6.30 pm in the Waterhall at Birmingham Museum of Art Gallery. Tickets are available priced at £10.

HP is demonstrating its new digital printing solutions at Ipex 2010, the major graphic arts tradeshow of the year. Highlights include the HP T200 Colour Inkjet Web Press (expected to be available in 2011), the HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press, the more affordable HP Indigo 3550 Digital Press, the HP Designjet Z5200 PostScript Printer (pictured), the HP Scitex large-format printers, and more. Ipex 2010, held in the N.E.C., Birmingham, opened today and runs until 25 May.