With effect from October 1, 2009, Sinar Photography will take over the Development, Sales, Service and Support divisions for the products of the Sinar brand. Sinar Photography originates from Tekno AG, which has already been marketing the Sinar products in Switzerland up to now. The German and Swiss markets will be served directly by Sinar Photography from Switzerland, with support from an existing service, repair and sales office in the Hamburg region. Additional sales support offices will be announced shortly. The ongoing product development at Sinar Photography will focus predominantly on the tried-and-tested analogue and digital camera systems. This includes the digital backs, the globally renowned Sinar view cameras for studio applications, and the specialist cameras for architecture and document photography. The continuation of the Hy6 medium-format camera is currently under negotiation, but the existing business alliance guarantees long-term technical support.

The ICON line of compact LED flashlights for photographers is now available. The new line comprises two models, both of which have two lumen settings, bright enough to paint and low enough to search your bag without ruining the frame. Ergonomically designed, the ICON lights have an open-architecture structure, allegedly never before seen in the consumer flashlight market. This design provides a solid grip, leaving hands cool and dry. The aerospace-aluminium body means it can be dropped, thrown and rattled around without any damage. The Rogue 1 design is smaller (4.5 inches), requiring only one AA battery, while Rogue 2 is longer (6.5 inches), and requires two AA batteries. The ICON line is available at www.opticsplanet.com and at Fry’s Electronics.

The Nikon D5000 digital SLR camera has won a DIWA Gold Award. The Nikon D5000 managed to convince the DIWA jury simply by its superior image quality, innovative functionality and user-friendliness. DIWA Awards are based on test results carried out in the DIWA Labs, and evaluations on more than 200 different criteria carried out by DIWA members.

Kenro has announced the release of a new 300 watt portable studio flash kit. This new addition to Kenro’s wide range of photographic equipment comprises two flash heads two 180cm air cushioned stands and two 70x50cm soft boxes. Each kit is also supplied with mains and synch cables plus 50 watt modelling lamps. The flash heads each have 300 watt output and feature stepless power adjustment from 1/16th to full power and have a recycling time of 0.8 -2.2 seconds. They also include an infra red sensor for auto synch with other flash heads. The 300 watt portable studio flash kit is available to buy now with an RRP of £369.85.

Stephen Shakeshaft: Liverpool People at the National Conservation Centre 18 September 2009 – 24 January 2010 features about 70 photographs including unpublished gems alongside award-winning images amassed since the 1960s over decades of great social change.In this new exhibition, Stephen also reveals some of the secrets of his personal archive, displaying his talent for immortalising ordinary fleeting moments and reflecting the personalities of his subjects. Stephen says: “Much of my work involved sport and news stories but there were often quieter periods when I might see an everyday scene making a great picture. The passing years have added to the atmosphere of these images.” The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, and admission is free.

The new JVC HD Everio GZ-HM400 is an HD camcorder that features high-speed video recording at up to 600 frames per second for slow-motion playback, and can also be used to take 9-megapixel stills at up to 15 frames per second. The HD Everio GZ-HM400, which records to an SD/SDHC card and includes 32GB of internal memory, features a 10.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that delivers nine-megapixel still images and 1080 TV lines of horizontal resolution for Full HD video. Optically, the GZ-HM400 features a Konica Minolta HD lens and JVC-developed optical image stabiliser that uses two active prisms to correct camera shake at the lens entrance before the image enters the lens. Three different high-speed recording modes are available for slow-motion video playback: 600fps, 300fps and 120fps. For still image shooting, up to 60fps 5.3-megapixel stills can be shot in a continuous burst of up to 11 images. Or, if preferred, continuous shooting of up to six nine-megapixel stills at up to 15fps is also possible. The JVC HD Everio GZ-HM400 is available immediately at $999.95.

Myrna Kresh, a well-known photography insider and agent, has developed a new agency and business platform for outstanding talent. Catering to knowledgeable creatives under the moniker of Myrna K Represents, her agency has formed alliances with strategic partners to raise the level of production and visual capabilities to where it must be in today’s marketplace. In s nutshell, Myrna K Represents is a dynamic photographers’ agency that melds the talents of professionals from multiple disciplines to support the company’s master photographers in developing outstanding visual art projects for its clients.

Website: Myrna K. Represents

The Nature Conservancy has just launched a new audio slideshow, in which the Nature Conservancy’s Director of Photography, Mark Godfrey, interviews Chris Helzer, master photographer of the American prairie. You can listen to the interview while watching Chris’ beautiful photographs. Besides being a photographer, Chris Helzer is also an Eastern Nebraska programme director for the Nature Conservancy, and he is a grassland ecologist. In the interview, he talks about how and when to take compelling macro photographs of insects and wildflowers, and highlights the challenges facing someone trying to capture the beauty of a flat landscape. Oh and did you know prairie fires were so important to grassland ecology that experts are now doing “prescribed burning” of prairies to keep them diverse? Chris’ photographs capture this too.

Website: Prairie Close-Ups on Mark Godfrey Selects

The SAA Photo Metadata Project is set to resume educating photographic professionals with more getMETAsmart events. All getMETAsmart events, which are designed to teach imaging professionals how to use metadata, are free to those who register in advance at www.photometadata.org. All who attend can also register for a free raffle featuring valuable professional software and services from Adobe, Microsoft, Camera Bits, Photoshelter, and now, liveBooks. The Chicago event held on 24 September 2009 at Prairie Production at 1314 W. Randolph Street, will fit between the American Society of Picture Professionals’ Midwest education day and an evening presentation by Judy Herrmann of the American Society of Media Photographers. While those events require an admission fee, the getMETAsmart seminar will be free to all registrants. Then, David Riecks will travel to Atlanta on Saturday, 10 October, to share the metadata message with Southeast professionals at Big Studio, 881 W. Marietta Street N.W.

Panasonic’s Living in HD community is looking for bloggers, video bloggers, photographers, podcasters and other content creators on the Social Web to participate in the Living in HD Insider programme. Living in HD Insiders will have the opportunity to see new Panasonic HD technology before products hit store shelves and spend time with Greg Harper, technology expert and Living in HD Answerman.  As part of the programme, one winner will receive a full content creator suite of Panasonic High Definition products to fuel their creativity, as well as the unique opportunity share their experiences with HD technology with community members. The winning Living in HD Insider will also receive a Panasonic LUMIX G1 camera to give away to their own online network to encourage their readers and followers to join the Living in HD community. To enter for a chance to become the next Living in HD Insider, people should visit www.livinginhd.com/lihdinsider/ until 9 October. Along with their application, entrants must also submit a video that compellingly and convincingly answers why they believe they should win the content creator suite and how they would encourage their community to get involved with LivinginHD.com.

Enlight Photo has announced the upcoming launch of a mounting bracket for the Orbis ring flash - the Orbis Arm. The Orbis is a photo lighting device that turns the harsh light of a regular photographer’s flash into beautiful, shadowless light especially useful in portrait photography. The Orbis Arm provides a solid mount for photographers who want to use their Orbis in its primary ‘ring flash’ position for extended shoots. The Orbis Arm will retail for £39.95 at www.orbisflash.com and all good camera stores.

Olympus has issued firmware updates for the Olympus E-P1 camera and the two Olympus-branded Micro Four Thirds lenses released so far. Version 1.1 improves the continuous autofocus (C-AF) performance of the camera and lenses alike. In order to install the firmware updates, hook up the E-P1 - with lens attached - to the computer, run Olympus Master and select ‘Update Camera’ from the Online Service menu.

Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus E-P1

SanDisk today introduced a new line of SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards, which feature a new SanDisk Power Core Controller, an advanced memory controller that enables read and write speeds of up to 90MB/s. This represents a doubling of from previous SanDisk high-end camera memory cards.  SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards feature RTV Silicone coating for added protection against moisture and humidity. The cards can withstand accidental drops of up to nine feet, and carry a lifetime limited warranty. SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash cards will be available in capacities of 16GB to 64GB and MSRP ranging from about $300 to $800 in the U.S. market.

Adobe Systems, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Nikon, Nik Software, Wacom and X-Rite have joined forces for a unique, nine-city Creative Alliance Tour. The tour has been set up to provide creative professionals with a comprehensive insight into a complete digital workflow. A full-day seminar will take place at each city stop, hosted by renowned photo professionals and evangelists - Robin Preston, Boudewijn Krijger and Guy Gowan, among others. The seminars will consist of inspirational presentations and in-depth technical workshops, with the opportunity to share questions and experiences with the experts. The Creative Alliance Tour will begin in autumn 2009, with stops in the Netherlands, UK, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. The next stops will be in Manchester on September 15 and in London on September 17.

Between 10.30am GMT on 14 September 2009 and 10.30am GMT on 16 September 2009, PhotographyBLOG readers can sign up for FREE for the London event by going to www.thecreativealliancetour.com and visiting their special London page.

Kyocera Corporation today announced that it has developed the world’s fastest inkjet printhead — the key component in inkjet printing equipment. Each nozzle in the new KJ4 Series printhead ejects ink at up to 60,000 dots per second (at 60kHz drive frequency); with 2,656 nozzles per head, the device is capable of printing approximately 150 million dots per second. The newly developed printhead sets new records for high resolution, full-color inkjet printing, offering the world’s fastest print speeds in any of three resolutions: 600×360dpi (330m/min. at 40kHz), 600×600dpi (200m/min at 40kHz), and 1200×1200dpi (150m/min at 60kHz). Kyocera will display the new printhead at the Japan Graphic Arts Show 2009 from October 6 through 10 at the Tokyo Big Sight.

North American visitors to fodors.com have until the end of this month to enter their favourite photos of America’s National Parks in the “Show Us Your National Parks” photo contest. Ten winners will receive a copy of The National Parks by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns as well as a Fodor’s guide of their choice. Photographs will be considered for inclusion in upcoming editions of Fodor’s National Parks guides and all winning photos will be featured in an online gallery. You must be an 18+ user of fodors.com and reside in the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) to be eligible to win. As usual, we encourage you to read the rules before entering your work.

Carl Zeiss today announced the pricing and availability of its Distagon T* 3.5/18 ZE ultra-wide lens for Canon EOS SLRs. The lens’s extremely wide 99°-angle view is suitable especially for full-frame sensor cameras, delivering an array of new creative possibilities. The Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE has a relatively compact design, especially when compared to zoom lenses. Internal focusing also helps to reduce its size while delivering extremely precise and smooth focus control, according to claims made by Carl Zeiss. Following the Planar T* 1,4/50 ZE and 1,4/85 ZE, the Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE is the first wide-angle lens with EF bayonet mount on the market. The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE will be available in autumn 2009 at a suggested retail price of €1,049+VAT.

For the ninth consecutive year, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops hosts 12 week-long workshops in San Miguel de Allende, a charming colonial town set in the northern highlands of central Mexico. Veteran photographers such Sam Abell, Joyce Tenneson, Greg Gorman, Ralph Lee Hopkins, and Eddie Soloway, inspire all levels of photographers in pursuit of personal vision, portraiture, documentary storytelling, and travel photography. Participants explore the soul of San Miguel amid the vibrant culture, rich heritage, private gardens, and Day of the Dead festivities. The three-week programme, occurring October 25 through November 15, is hosted on a private campus within walking distance of the main plaza of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. San Miguel remains a safe refuge for participants to grow creatively while capturing fireworks illuminating the gothic spires of the Parroquia, listening to strolling musicians in El Jardin, and making personal connections with local families. For more information on workshops in San Miguel de Allende, or other workshops offered by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, visit the website below.

Website: Santa Fe Photographic Workshops

The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has announced an in-depth interior and exterior tour of Wright’s Robie House, a photogenic building in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighbourhood. The tour, which will take place at 9 a.m. on Sunday, 18 October, presents wonderful opportunities for professional and amateur photographers to explore one of the most famous architectural landmarks in the United States. Wright’s Robie House is located at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. Tickets are $80 for Preservation Trust members and $90 for non-members. Advance ticket purchases are required, and possible via the website below.

Website: Go Wright