The new Minox DC1211 is a twelve-megapixel digital compact camera featuring a metal body, 5x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation. Measuring 98.7x59.7x23.4mm and weighing in at just 128g, the Minox DC 1211 is compact and lightweight, and sports a multicoated, 34-170mm equivalent Minoctar lens. The camera has the usual feature set consisiting of face recognition, smile detection and the ability to shoot standard-definition VGA video clips. Framing and image review is done by way of a generous 3-inch TFT LCD screen. The maximum ISO sensitivity setting is limited to a sensible ISO 800. The Minox DC 1211 draws power from a Li-ion battery, and records photos and videos on SD cards, with 32MB of internal memory provided to fall back on, should your card fill up. The camera is becoming available from specialist dealers this month, at a suggested retail price of €199.

LaCie, in collaboration with world-famous designer Philippe Starck, announced the LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive and the LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive. Encased in sturdy aluminium, the LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive and LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive allegedly offer the most resistant choices for consumer hard drives on the market. The durable exterior protects the hard drives from shock and overheating, making them thoroughly dependable. The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive features a status LED in the form of Starck’s signature symbol. The symbol glows orange or green to indicate different activity. The LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive offers a built-in USB cable, uniquely placed for convenient storing and data accessibility. The LaCie Starck Desktop Hard Drive is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, and the LaCie Starck Mobile Drive in 320GB and 500GB capacities. The suggested retail prices are £109.90 for the Desktop and £84.90 for the Mobile (including VAT).

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management is hoping that the Environmental Photographer of the Year Exhibition, opening today, will persuade politicians to take the urgent and decisive action needed to combat climate change. In just its third year, the Environmental Photographer of the Year is one of the fastest growing photographic competitions in the world, with nearly 2,500 pictures entered from over 60 countries including Serbia, Jamaica, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Romania, India, South Africa, Australia, Israel, USA, China, Belgium, Vietnam and the UK. Over 40 images from amateur and professional photographers are part of this international showcase for the very best in environmental photography. The free exhibition is being launched simultaneously at 3 Bedfordbury Gallery, Covent Garden, London, from 7th until 18th October, and at the Bewdley Festival, Worcester, from 8th until 29th October. For more information on the exhibition, please refer to the website below.

Website: Environmental Photographer of the Year

Ontela released survey results today that are said to indicate the “imminent death of the traditional film camera” amongst U.S. consumers. The last three years of data have shown a steady decline in people who report owning a traditional film camera, decreasing from 67% in 2007, to 61% in 2008, and dropping all the way to 48% in 2009. Conversely, camera phones continue to grow in ubiquity, going from just 70% reporting that they owned a phone with a camera in 2007, to 78% in 2008 and 87% in 2009. Despite respondents’ growing ownership of camera phones and usage of data, their ability to get the pictures off their phones to their PCs or the web has stayed consistently low. When asked to upload a picture to the web, 74% of respondents failed in 2007, compared to 81% in 2008 and 61% in 2009. Users were frustrated, however, since 90% expressed a desire to upload pictures. Some of the top desired destinations included the user’s own computer hard drive at 71%, Facebook at 54% and Photobucket at 25%.

Western Digital has unveiled its new My Book Elite desktop external drives. The new My Book Elite drives feature automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare software and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. Like the My Book Studio drives also announced today, the My Book Elite family has a customisable e-label that’s always visible, even when the drive is unplugged, making it easy to know what’s on the drive and how much space is left. The e-label smart display on the spine of the My Book drives can be changed easily and as often as desired. It utilises e-paper technology which reads like ink on paper. Available now at select retailers and shopwd.com, the new My Book Elite drives are offered in capacities of 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. MSRP for the My Book Elite drives ranges from $169.99 to $279.99 depending on capacity.

Western Digital has announced its new ultra-portable My Passport Elite external hard drives featuring an illuminated capacity gauge and drive lock indicator so users can see at a glance how much space is left on their drive and whether their data is secure. Like the previously announced My Passport Essential drives, the My Passport Elite portable drives feature automatic and continuous backup with WD SmartWare software and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. My Passport Elite drives are available now in 3 colours - Metallic Red, Metallic Blue and Charcoal Metallic - and are offered in capacities of 320 GB, 500 GB and 640 GB. MSRP for the 320 GB My Passport Elite is $119.99, $159.99 for the 500 GB and $169.99 for the 640 GB capacity.

Western Digital today introduced its new My Book Studio desktop external drives with a customisable e-label that is always visible, even when unplugged, so it’s easy to know the contents of the drive. Designed for Mac users, the new My Book Studio drives are equipped with a FireWire® 800 interface to give users the speed they need for demanding tasks like photo and video editing and graphic design. The new My Book Studio drives are TimeMachine compatible, offer automatic, continuous backup with WD SmartWare software, and include 256-bit hardware-based encryption to provide a high level of security. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store, the new My Book Studio drives are formatted for Mac and offered in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. MSRP ranges from $149.99 to $299.99 USD depending on model.

Willard Sterling Boyle and George Elwood Smith, who co-developed the first charge-coupled device (CCD) for image capture, have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. They share the honour with physicist Charles Kuen Kao, who won the prize “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication”. Boyle and Smith have already received numerous awards for the invention of the CCD, including the Franklin Institute’s Stuart Ballantine Medal, the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award and the Charles Stark Draper Prize. CCDs are analogue devices and are used in both analogue and digital video cameras, digital still cameras, electron microscopes and a number of other apparatuses.

Bits & Coffee have released version 2.6 of BatchPhoto, their Windows-based picture converter software, which now enables you to automatically rotate hundreds of digital photographs in one session. The new version is fully compatible with Windows 7, and can take full advantage of multicore CPUs. Apart from the new Auto Rotation feature, which can be performed even without starting the application, directly from Windows Explorer’s contextual (right-click) menu, BatchPhoto can annotate, touch up, transform, apply effects, convert and rename hundreds of pictures in a single operation. It comes in two editions: Home and Pro priced at $29.95, and $59.95, respectively. BatchPhoto may be purchased securely online at the website below.

Website: BatchPhoto

Engelmann’s recently launched Photomizer software has just been updated to incorporate HDRi simulation using a single source image. Photomizer is a program that offers one-click automated image optimisation via clever algorithms that can intelligently recognise which parts and aspects of a photograph require adjustments. Version 1.20 adds a new feature that emulates the look of tone-mapped images created from multiple exposures. Prvate licenses of Photomizer are available for €29.99, while a business license costs €59.99. A free trial version is downloadable from the Photomizer website.

Website: Photomizer

Legendary British photographer Rankin has joined forces with blindness charity Sightsavers to highlight the fact that women are twice as likely as men to be blind. His striking photographs, produced in collaboration with six world-renowned makeup artists, are showcased on a recently launched Sightsavers microsite. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to be blind and I can’t even begin to comprehend the distress it causes. What is most upsetting is that so much is treatable, and people suffer unnecessarily. With so many women affected by blindness, the work of Sightsavers is of vital importance. They are reaching people who often have no access to help, and taking the inequality out of treatment,” Rankin says. To see his photos and to learn more, visit the website below.

Website: Sightsavers Microsite

Reallusion have launched iClone 4.0, the latest edition of their popular 3D filmmaking and animation software. iClone 4.0 introduces new features that combine video production with 3D real-time animation. New features include real-time video textures, drag-and-drop editing for rapid scene creation, HDR and image-based lighting atmosphere effects, and more. The Standard version is available at £69.99, whilst the Pro version sells for £139.99 at the website below.

Website: Reallusion

Bonhams, one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques, will organise its first-ever stand alone Photgraphy Sale on 20 May 2010. A beautiful early print by John French can be yours for as little as £500; a Parkinson or Beaton for £1,500; and Demarchelier can offer you Claudia, Elle, Cindy, Helena or Christy for a little more.

Nikon UK has teamed up with National Geographic in a partnership that aims to inspire wildlife and photography enthusiasts.  The channel sponsorship of National Geographic and National Geographic Wild & HD takes shape as a series of programme idents and three short vignettes, featuring renowned wildlife photographer, Andy Rouse. Given his impressive experience and expert eye, Andy is expected to inspire viewers of all photographic levels to get out and take pictures. To complement the television activity, Nikon will also be sponsoring an exhibition of Andy Rouse’s work, titled Vanishing Worlds, to be held at the National Geographic Store on Regent Street, London, from 16th October – 26th October.

Our Recent Nikon DSLR Reviews: D5000 | D3000 | D300s

Alexx Henry debuts a “Living Cover and Spread” with the October issue of Outside Magazine. The story features Chris Lieto in a pioneering moving-picture narrative of the tri-athlete. Designed with emerging technology in mind, Henry created the Living Spread as a contribution to a debate concerning the future of print, and to offer a scenario for its possible evolution. Currently, Henry’s Living Spread - created using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a RED camera - can only be viewed online, though not for much longer. While magazines have yet to widely implement the technology for motion photography spreads, that day appears to be imminent: display technologies such as E-ink and OLED screens continue to develop towards flexible screens that will make Henry’s imagining of a futuristic magazine possible within a few short years. A presentation of the Living version can be viewed at the website below.

Website: Living Cover and Spread

Steven Sasson, a retired research scientist for Eastman Kodak Company who is credited with inventing the first digital camera, will receive an “Innovation Award” from The Economist magazine in ceremonies in London on October 29. The invention of the digital camera began with a 30-second conversation when Sasson’s supervisor asked whether it was possible to build a camera with a new type of electronic sensor called a charge-coupled device (CCD). Sasson’s original prototype weighed eight pounds, recorded black and white images to a cassette tape, had a resolution of 0.01 megapixel and took 23 seconds to capture its first image. In 1978, Mr Sasson was issued a US patent for the digital camera and Eastman Kodak was the first company to develop a megapixel digital camera in 1986. For his achievements, the Economist is honouring Sasson in the category of Consumer Products and Services.

The Powermat, a new invention that can wirelessly charge up to three low-power electric devices simultaneously, is to hit the market in just over a week. While the Powermat itself does have to be plugged in, it requires a single mains socket only, while the devices you would like to charge simply need to be placed on the Powermat’s ultra-thin surface, without the need for additional cables and sockets. Given that existing mobile devices were not designed with wireless charging in mind, the manufacturer will also market a range of so-called “receivers”. These are basically cases with onboard RFID tags that allow the Powermat to determine how much to charge, so that the charging process can be terminated at the right time. Just place your phone, PDA etc. in an appropriate receiver and throw it on the Powermat, which will charge it using magnetic induction. Going on sale on 15 October, the Powermat will be available in two versions; one for the home/office, and a folding/portable iteration for when you are on the go.

Ricoh has just released a firmware update for the Ricoh CX2 digital compact camera. Version 1.13 fixes a couple of bugs related to the step zoom and manual focusing, Specifically, there were a few occasions when the camera would power off during zoom lever operation; and when using the englarger function in manual focus mode, the enlarged part sometimes blacked out - these are the issues fixed by the new firmware release.

Website: Ricoh CX2 Firmware 1.13