NewTech Infosystems (NTI) announced Media Maker 8, an all-in-one digital creativity suite that simplifies and complements today’s digital lifestyles by providing a single, low-cost solution for recording data, Blu-ray data, audio, photos and video on CD and DVD discs. For added value, NTI Media Maker includes a Video Converter to convert videos for playback on an iPod, PSP, Zune and other portable video players. With Video_TS split, the software can be used to create DVDs from the video collection stored on the user’s hard drive on one or more DVDs without losing any image quality. Media Maker also includes NTI Photo Maker which enables users to quickly import, edit and share their digital photos and slideshows. NTI Media Maker 8 can be used with Windows 2000/XP/Vista systems. Available at leading authorised NTI retailers worldwide as well as major online retailers and NTI’s online store at www.NTIus.com, Media Maker 8 has a suggested retail price of US$79.99.

Kubota Image Tools have announced Kevin Kubota’s 5th ‘Secret Italy’ professional photography workshop. The 2010 Secret Italy professional photography workshop attendees will tour Tuscany, Italy. The trip will begin with everyone meeting at the airport in Florence, Italy where attendees will then head west to Lucca. Highlights include excursions through Tuscany and then North along the Mediterranean Sea to visit Liguria and five coastal villages known as Cinque Terre, then Portofino and Genoa. There will be brief daily classroom time (1-2 hours) to discuss photo projects that will be assigned, talks about creativity followed by creative exercises, and the opportunity for participants to apply fine art Photoshop skills on their images. The cost of the 7-day trip is $2,995 for class attendees and $2,550 for non-class participants. The workshop will take place from 2-8 May 2010.

In the coming weeks, US photographers will have a number of opportunities to get hands-on experience with Phase One equipment. These include a Capture One for DSLR Users Seminar held in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco during the period 9 September - 2 October; an intensive two-day Capture One PRO workshop for intermediate to advanced users, held in New York; and a Phase One Master Class, an intensive location shooting road trip using Phase One digital cameras and Elinchrom lighting gear on a variety of locations in the Paso Robles area in California. Click through / read on for the details.

An advanced prototype of the Samsung NX camera and three lenses is being shown behind glass here at the IFA show in Germany. The NX camera looks more refined than the model that first made an appearance back at the PM show in March. At first glance the Samsung NX seems to be rivalling the likes of the Panasonic G1 / GH1 in terms of its size, despite having a larger APS-C sized sensor inside. Click through for some close-up shots of the high-end camera system that Samsung will be concentrating on for the immediate future.

The Fujifilm Real 3D camera was the centre of attention on the Fujifilm IFA booth. Looking very much like the finished product, the Fujifilm Real 3D is certainly a large device, being just about small enough to be held one-handed. The model name of Fujifilm’s first 3D camera may well be the Fujifilm Finepix W1, as the product box shown behind glass was prominently bearing that moniker.

The Samsung ST45 is a new ultra-slim camera measuring just 16mm thick. The 12 megapixel ST45 features an aluminium body, 2.7 inch LCD screen, ISO 3200 and digital image stabilisation. Samsung’s new “Smart Scene Recognition” technology offers 11 optimized picture pre-settings such as Portrait, Night portrait and Macro, and you can also use these settings when sorting through your photos. Face Detection, blink detection, smile mode and beauty shot are all present and correct, while the new Self Portrait & Frame Guide helps to capture better portraits. The ST45 is available in Red, Black, Blue and Grey from late September 2009.

The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG OS is a new image stabilized telephoto zoom lens. Incorporating Sigma’s original OS (Optical Stabilizer), the 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG OS offers the use of shutter speeds approximately 4 stops slower than would otherwise be possible. The lens has an overall length of 126.5mm (5.0”), maximum diameter of 76.5mm (3.0”) and weight of just 610g, making it well-suited to travel photography. The Sigma 70-300mm’s rounded 9 blade diaphragm creates an attractive blur to the out of focus areas of the photograph and it has a minimum focusing distance of 150cm throughout the zoom range. The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG OS will cost £399 and be available in late September for Sigma, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony cameras.

The Plustek OpticFilm 7600Ai, 7600iSE and 7400 are three new negative and transparency scanners. With a maximum resolution of 7200dpi, the Plustek 7400, 7600iSE and 7600Ai feature Multi Sampling to minimize noise, ACRTM (Adaptive Colour Restoration) to improve colour saturation on faded slides/negatives, and SRDTM (Smart Removal of Defects) to reduce and remove dust and scratch marks. For photographers looking for the best quality scans, the 7600 iSE incorporates an infra red scan to assist the infra red Smart Removal of Defects facility, whilst the 7600Ai version also incorporates Silver Fast Ai Studio software. The Plustek OpticFilm 7400, 7600iSE and 7600Ai are available now for £199.99, £269.99 and £379.99 respectively.

The palm size 6x4 inch Plustek SmartPhoto P60 photo scanner turns your prints and photographs into digital files in seconds. The Plustek P60 needs no warm up time or any complicated software and has a simple pop up user interface. Plustek’s SmartPhoto P60 is a simple way of digitizing your files so that they can be shared, or maybe transferred onto a digital photo frame for home or as a gift. The Plustek SmartPhoto P60 Scanner is available now for £89.99.

Canon USA has just launched the “Why Do You Love Football” Photo Challenge. Football fans are invited to express their love for football through photography and submit their best youth football photos, which could earn the winning photographer a trip to attend Super Bowl XLIV in South Florida. The amateur photo contest features two categories; “Action” and “Feature.” The “Action” category focuses on any image that captures football action during game play, while the “Feature” category comprises any football imagery outside of game action on the field. The closing date for entries is December 2, 2009.

The Master Photographers Association (MPA) has announced two workshop events with renowned wedding and portrait photographer, Yervant. The first three-day intensive tutorage workshop takes place in Dublin between 30 September and 2 October, followed by a London event which starts on 6 October and runs until 8 October. The cost for the Dublin event is 1,140 Euros while the London workshop costs £975.

The Nissin Di866 Professional Speedlite flashgun is now available in either a Canon or Nikon fitting. The Canon version is compatible with Canon Digital SLR and Powershot hotshoe cameras using ETTL and ETTL-2 systems, while the Nikon model fits Nikon Digital SLR and Coolpix hotshoe cameras using i-TTL. With a guide number of 60m (ISO 100 @ 105mm) the Di866 features Nissin’s original ‘My TTL’ user adjustable TTL light output level and is firmware upgradable thanks to an onboard USB port. The Nissin Di866 Professional Speedlite costs £369.95 in the UK including VAT.

The Portraits of Love Project is a volunteer effort aimed at sending 10,000 free family portraits to soldiers around the globe this holiday season. The project is utilizing the talents of over 275 volunteer photographers across the USA who are opening their studios this September, to offer free family portraits to military family members who have a soldier deployed overseas. The goal of the project is to send 10,000 free family portraits during the month of September. Those photographers interested in volunteering their time can sign up online at www.pmdaportraitsoflove.com .

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo is a new energy-efficient scanner for photographers. The Epson V600 has low power consumption for maximum efficiency and no warm-up time for instant scanning, plus 6400dpi optical resolution and 3.4DMAX optical density for film scanning. It also features a built-in Transparency Unit (TPU) that supports full panoramic medium format film and supports both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. The Epson V600 will be available from 5th October 2009 for £259.99 / $249.99.

The Samsung NX series of cameras will be launched in either late 2009 or early 2010. Samsung’s Michael Zoller revealed that the NX series is still in the “field test stage” at today’s Samsung IFA press conference.First announced in March 2009 and slated for release in the second-half of 2009, the NX Series utilizes an APS-C sized image sensor and replaces the mirror box of a DSLR with an electronic viewfinder, rivalling the likes of the Olympus E-P1 and recently announced Panasonic GF1. It also seems that the NX series will use interchangeable lenses, as Samsung were briefly showing 3 prototype lenses behind glass here at the IFA show in Berlin, Germany, alongside an NX body.

Samsung haven’t announced any more new cameras at IFA, but we were able to briefly try out the WB5000. As a reminder, the Samsung WB5000 is a new bridge camera with a 26mm wide angle lens and 24x optical zoom. The WB5000 (also known as the HZ25W) offers RAW shooting, aperture priority, shutter priority and two User defined Modes as well as full manual shooting modes. Click through to see a gallery of shots of Samsung’s first entry into the mega-zoom market.

Sony are showing their newly-announced PM1 camcorder at the IFA show, a new hand-held device that provides quick photo and video uploads to the web. A direct rival to the popular Flip Video range, the Sony PM1 features a unique 270 degree swivel lens, 1080p video and 5 megapixel still images. Click through for some close-up photos of the Sony PM1.

The Sony PM1 camera provides quick photo and video uploads to the web. Capturing 5 megapixel still images and recording 1080p HD video in MP4 format, the Sony PM1 features a unique 270 degree swivel lens that instantly switches on camera when rotated. The Sharemark button and built-in Picture Motion Browser (PMB) Portable software enable wuick and easy Web uploads. The Sony PM1 is available now.

The Kodak ESP 5250 and ESP 3250 are new All-in-One (AiO) printers which save an average of £75 a year on ink. Offering print speeds of up to 30 pages per minute in black and 29 pages per minute in colour, the Kodak 5250 and 3250 both feature colour LCD display screens, memory card slots, intelligent paper tray systems and a simple two-cartridge set-up. The ESP 5250 is enabled with built-in Wi-Fi and a a 2.4” colour LCD, while the ESP 3250 features a smaller 1.5” colour LCD. The Kodak ESP 5250 retails for £129.99 and the ESP 3250 for £89.99.