The Rollei Sportsline 50 is a highly affordable waterproof digital compact camera. Robust and waterproof down to a depth of 3 metres, the Rollei Sportsline 50 is otherwise a pretty basic snapper featuring a 5-megapixel sensor, a fixed-focal-length lens and a standard-definition VGA movie mode. Powered by a pair of AA batteries and compatible with SD memory cards, the Rollei Sportsline 50 can be yours for €49.95. Availability is slated for the end of May.

Leaf Imaging has announced that on 10 May 2010, it will assume full responsibility for service and technical support of all Leaf digital camera backs, including legacy Leaf products and Leaf AFi camera systems. Leaf Imaging has signed an agreement with Eastman Kodak Company, according to which all technical service and support responsibilities are being transferred from Kodak to Leaf Imaging. This agreement covers service and support both for systems that are under warranty and for those that are out of warranty worldwide. As a result, Leaf Imaging will become a single resource for service and support to the entire Leaf customer base.

Manfrotto has announced two new promotions. One of them is a £20 cashback offer on the newly redesigned Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod, which is available now for £139.95. The other offer is a free Manfrotto 234 or 234RC Monopod Tilt Head, worth £16.95 and £31.95 respectively, with purchases of selected Manfrotto monopods. Click through / read on for the full list of eligible models.

The new Epson Stylus NX420 is billed as the “industry’s first wireless All-in-One under $100”. Featuring individual ink cartridges and fade-, smudge- and water-resistant DURABrite Ultra ink, the Epson Stylus NX420 offers fast printing speeds, one-click red-eye removal, 2400dpi scanning and manual, two-sided printing. The Epson Stylus NX420 is currently available through major computer, office and electronic superstores, a variety of retail stores across the U.S.A., mail order, PC manufacturers, the Internet, and Epson’s own retail site. The estimated retail price is $99.99.

Website: Epson Store

Renowned photographer Denis O’Regan will be giving a rare presentation on shooting the legendary band KISS ahead of their upcoming Wembley shows. The lecture will take place on Tuesday, 11 May in the Apple Store (235 Regent Street, London, W1B 2EL). O’Regan will also be discussing how he works on the road and using Aperture as the hub of his workflow.

Pictures of the Year International (POYi), the oldest photojournalism programme in the world, has announced the “POYi Emerging Vision Incentive” for aspiring documentary photographers. The incentive will fund and showcase documentary work on social issues or political trends, and the Emerging Vision Incentive recipient will receive up to $10,000 to assist in developing a photo story that reflects daily life, social issues, cultural trends or news events. The POYi Emerging Vision Incentive programme is made possible through financial support from the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Annenberg Foundation. For more information about the programme or to enter, visit the website below.

Website: POYi

Ovation TV has brought back its week-long on-air programming event that is all about photography—Framed. This time around, Framed premieres The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn, a show featuring an encompassing mission during the early-1900s in which Albert Kahn commissioned photographers near and far to document the four corners of the world in colour using autochrome plates. Kahn believed that he could use the new autochrome process—the world’s first practical system of taking colour photographs—to promote cross-cultural understanding.  Kahn’s vast and legendary collection of autochromes remained relatively unheard of until a century after he launched his project. Today’s episodes of the show track the travels of Kahn’s team of photographers into Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine as well as Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and India. Tied to the airing of the show is a competition entitled, Framed Art Race 2010. This photography contest calls for photographers of all genres to document their world using a cell phone camera. The submission deadline is 8 May 2010. Winners will be showcased on TV in a My Art spot on Ovation.

Adobe has made available a prerelease version of its Lens Profile Creator utility for Windows and Mac OS. Adobe Lens Profile Creator generates custom lens profiles for use with the Lens Correction tool in Photoshop CS5. As Adobe puts it, “a lens profile describes the types of optical aberrations that exist in a particular lens and prescribes how to correct the lens distortions in an image captured from the same lens”. These optical aberrations include geometric distortions, corner shading and chromatic aberrations. You first need to capture a set of chequerboard images with your camera (provided as part of the application package), which you can then feed into the Lens Profile Creator utility. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: Adobe Lens Profile Creator

The new ‘On the Edge - Extreme Landscapes’ photography course from Photo Iconic takes participants off dry land and out to sea in a high-speed rigid inflatable boat. The adventure starts at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk and travels out to the off-shore gas rigs in the North Sea. The course also takes in the Suffolk Heritage Coast, the beautiful landscape of Orford Ness with its impressive lighthouse and deserted Ministry of Defence building, the prehistoric Benacre Lake, the seaside towns of Southwold and Lowestoft and the huge and impressive windfarm near Great Yarmouth, presenting the opportunity to photograph the giant turbines from close up. Limited to just five participants, the course costs £520 for two days - 3-4 July - including personal insurance and dinner, but excluding accommodation.

Website: Photo Iconic

Topaz Labs has unveiled “IntelliNoise,” a new proprietary noise reduction technology that specializes in removing image noise while recovering detail. “Removing noise is easy. The real challenge is to also recover details obscured by the noise,” explains Dr. Albert Yang, the primary innovator of IntelliNoise. “IntelliNoise analyzes patterns in the entire image to discover underlying detail and to recover it in the final result.” The new IntelliNoise technology makes its product debut in the newly upgraded Topaz DeNoise 4 plug-in, which works with a variety of host programs including Photoshop, Aperture, and Lightroom for Mac and Windows. Topaz DeNoise 4 with IntelliNoise is a free upgrade for existing DeNoise customers and retails for $79.99.

Website: Topaz DeNoise

The L-bracket is Aeca-Swiss’ newest product, which makes switching from landscape to portrait shooting easier for photographers who regularly use a tripod. The Arca-Swiss L-bracket is a universal solution, so it can be used with most any camera system. The recommended retail price of the Arca-Swiss L-bracket is €190+VAT.

Lensbaby is asking photographers to photographers can submit two of their best images taken with a Lensbaby lens and a homemade aperture disk for a chance to win a spot on the new Creative Aperture Kit product packaging. Lensbaby Creative Aperture Disks allow users to custom cut shapes onto blank aperture disks in order to add unique one-of-a-kind effects to their photos. These disks allow specular highlights in the out of focus area of a photo to take on the shape of the hole on the aperture disk. The aperture disks are compatible with the Muse, Composer, Control Freak, Lensbaby 2.0 and Lensbaby 3G lenses and with the Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic and Soft Focus Optics. In addition to submitting two photos, make sure to send Lensbaby a clear illustration of the aperture itself too.

Website: Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit Contest

The Epson Perfection V330 Photo is a new all-purpose, 4800x9600dpi photo scanner with a built-in transparency unit that enables it to scan slides and negatives. The Perfection V330 comes with Epson’s ReadyScan and Easy Photo Fix technologies on board, and features four customisable buttons for convenient one-touch scanning, copying, scan-to-email, and creating PDFs. Also introduced today is the new Epson Perfection V33, a scanner that is almost identical to the V330 except that it lacks the built-in transparency unit. Available from mid-June, the Epson Perfection V33 and V330 are priced at $89 and $119 respectively.

The 13 lucky winners of our Spring 2010 Newsletter Contest have been announced.

Paul Scrafton, Tommy Sadler, John Donnelly, Andrea Jefferson and Michelle Lam each win a Clickfree Transformer SE worth $79.99.
Roger Hughes, Ruel Penaloza, Chris Crafford, Paritosh Upreti and Colin Bolton each win a Blurb voucher worth £30.
Evgueni Damaskine, Burt Yust and Adri de Groot each win a copy of the Henri Cartier-Bresson: Collector’s Edition DVD worth $49.95 each (*US and Canadian subscribers only)

Subscribe to the weekly PhotographyBLOG Newsletter now.

The winners of the April 2010 Photography Blog Competition have been announced. The theme for April was “Rainbow” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
All the colours of ..... by Masiemay

Prize: X-Rite ColourChecker Passport
Kindly donated by X-Rite
http://www.xritephoto.com/

Olympus Europe has released a new online publication, entitled “PEN - The Magazine”. The first issue features six Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera users from all over Europe, including Tarjei Krogh from Norway, Britt Schepers and Eline Spanjaart from the Netherlands, Eduard Gimenez Cerda from Spain, Chris Mettraux from Switzerland and Björn Scheele from Bavaria. Aimed at popularising the new Olympus PEN E-PL1, the first issue of “PEN - The Magazine” offers interviews, photographs and videos plus links to the Flickr galleries and Facebook accounts of the six featured PEN users.

Website: PEN - The Magazine

Southern Explorations is offering a photography and hiking tour in Peru, called Peru Through the Lens. Under the guidance of professional photographer Carl Amoth, participants will visit Machu Picchu and other famous Inca sites. “Machu Picchu at dawn and a bird’s-eye view of the citadel from Machu Picchu Mountain are just two of the extraordinary perspectives you’ll experience during six unique hikes”. the organisers say. Taking place from 14 to 22 August, Peru Through the Lens costs $2,895-$3,250 per person.

Website: Peru Through the Lens

Zoner Software has just launched Zoner Photo Studio Free, a free program that helps users easily manage pictures, edit them, and share them online. Highlights include automatic redeye removal, cropping, horizon levelling, panorama creation, one-click Quick Fix and more. Zoner Photo Studio Free is free for personal and non-commercial use on single computers running Window XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Website: Zoner Software