UK photographic retailer Jessops has reported a loss of £19.1 Million for 2008. This follows a loss in 2007 of £9.3m. Like for like sales for the year ended 30 September 2008 were down 6.5% year on year. The compact camera market was up 7.3% in volume but down 5% in value and the DSLR market was up 16.1% in volume and 19.3% in value. David Adams, Executive Chairman, said: “It is not clear when economic conditions will improve but the combination of our strong market position, solid relationships with suppliers and continuing cost reductions should ensure that Jessops is in the best position operationally to deal with the very difficult economic conditions in which we are operating.”

Kodak is cutting upto 4,500 jobs during 2009, after reporting a fourth-quarter loss of $133 million. Fourth-quarter sales were $2.433 billion, a 24% decline from the year-ago quarter. Digital sales for the fourth quarter were $1.779 billion, a 23% decline from the year-ago quarter, and traditional revenues were $652 million, a 27% decline from the year-ago quarter.

“The second half of 2008 will go down in history as one of the most challenging periods we have seen in decades,” said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eastman Kodak Company. “We built significant momentum following the completion of our corporate transformation and our business results were on track through most of 2008, with digital revenue up 10% in the first half of the year, following double-digit growth in the second-half of 2007. However, during the last three months of the year, we experienced dramatic declines in several of our key businesses due to the slowdown in consumer spending and significantly reduced demand for capital equipment.”

Website: Kodak Press Release

Panasonic is closing two factories in Malaysia and the Philippines with the loss of 560 jobs. Blaming a “a rapid change in the global electronics market,” workers at the electronics parts plant and battery factory are affected. In a separate development, the Nikkei paper has reported that Panasonic will report a a net loss of about 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for 2008/9, its first loss for 6 years.

Website: Panasonic to cut 560 jobs, close Asian plants

The GigaPan Epic capture detailed panoramas with almost any point-and-shoot digital camera. The Epic is a small robotic mount that automates the picture taking process, includes fully integrated software and works seamlessly with GigaPan.org. The GigaPan Epic, complete with the GigaPan Stitcher software, is available now for $379. The GigaPan Epic 100, available soon for $449, is a second model designed for larger point-and-shoot digital camera models.

The Hoodman HoodEYE is a new accessory eyecup for DSLR cameras that seals out ambient light for improved viewfinder viewing. HoodEYE is a rubber camera eyecup which easily replaces your digital SLR camera’s rubber eyepiece surround and provides improved viewfinder clarity by preventing stray light from entering. Currently available in the UK for Nikon cameras, the H-EYEN22R HoodEYE for Nikon round eyepieces (D3 and D2X) retails at £ 26.99. The H-EYEN22S HoodEYE for Nikon Square eyepieces for all other Nikon’s and the Olympus E3 retails at £ 26.99.

LG’s “Your moments. Shared” website aims to celebrate photography with regular competitions for the best football photographs. Each week the £1,000 prize will go to the person who takes the most memorable match-day image as voted for before by other users. To add an extra dimension to the competition, members are competing against a Pro Sports Photographer as part of Loop’s ‘Pro V Joe’ challenge. The Pro’s shots are submitted anonymously to avoid any favouritism and add excitement to the competition.

Website: LG Loop

Want to be able to shoot video on your DSLR, but don’t have the money to buy a Nikon D90 or Canon EOS 5D Mark II? Then some enterprising programmers might have just the (completely unofficial and at your own risk) solution for you. Canon Rumors has linked to a downloadable Russian program that apparently enables video on any Canon DSLR that has Live View, whilst Olivier Giroux has captured video using the Nikon D700 (pictured). The catch? (of course there’s a catch). The camera has to be connected to a computer via the USB port, which then captures the signal from Live View mode and converts it to video. So it’s not exactly the most portable video camera in the world. Still, it is free (and as we said before, completely unofficial).

Canon,the world’s biggest digital camera manufacturer, has just reported an 81% decline in quarterly profits, blaming the strong yen and slowing demand for cameras and office equipment. “A substantial recovery in the economy is unlikely in 2009. Our operating environment will be even harder this year than it was last year,” commented Canon’s Managing Director Masahiro Osawa. Digital camera sales are expected to fall by 7% from a year earlier to 23.9 million units in 2009. Canon now predicts that its operating profit will fall 68% to 160 billion yen in 2009, the lowest in the last 14 years. Canon is aiming to cut costs by 70 billion yen in a bid to cope with the current economic crisis.

Website: Reuters - Canon profit tumbles, predicts further slide

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate will be available for just £57 at this year’s Focus on Imaging show. “With the current economic environment putting additional pressure on finances, customers are looking for even better value for money than ever before. Visitors to the Corel stand at Focus on Imaging will be able to see for themselves that our products offer exceptional value,” said Chris Boba, product manager for Corel. Focus on Imaging takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, UK on February 22nd-25th.

The California Sunbounce Pro is a new reflector system for sports and action photography. The 51”x74 inch (130x190 cm) size Sunbounce Pro reflector can illuminate a space of 20x27 ft (6x10 meters) using only bright sunlight. The 3-dimensional frame is handcrafted in Germany and made from best aluminum,weighing less than a professional camera. Pricing for the California Sunbounce Pro starts at $364.00.

The 20 winning images in National Geographic’s “Visions of Paradise” photography contest have been selected. Each winner receives a customized edition of the National Geographic book “Visions of Paradise,” with their winning photograph as the cover image.

Popular UK online photo processor PhotoBox has just launched its new Pro Gallery service. Available to all Photobox users, PhotoBox Pro Gallery allows you to sell your photos online without any set up costs. As a gallery owner you get to choose the products and print sizes you want to sell and set the price you want to sell them at. PhotoBox then take care of all the printing, payment and delivery in exchange for a 10% commission fee on any sales.

Website: PhotoBox Pro Gallery

The 2009 Sony Campaign Award is a new football photography competition within the Sony World Photography Awards. Amateur photographers are invited to enter the Campaign Award with a single image that captures the beauty and spirit of football in unexpected places. The award is looking for originality amongst the thousands of typical images featured on the sport every year. The closing date for the Sony Campaign Award is 28th February 2009.

The new Olympus E-30 is the first mid-range DSLR camera from Olympus, positioned between the cheaper E-520 and more expensive E-3 models. Going head-to-head with the likes of the Canon EOS 50D and Nikon D90, Olympus have decided to try a different approach with the E30 by offering a number of creative possibilities built into the camera. The Olympus E30 offers six Art Filters (Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Colour, Light Tone, Grainy Film and Pin Hole), and there’s also a Multiple Exposure mode for combining images and nine separate aspect ratios, all of which can be previewed on the free-angle 2.7” LCD screen. Olympus certainly haven’t forgotten the more traditional features, with fast 11-point autofocus, 5fps sequential shooting, shutter speeds of up to 1/8000th sec, Supersonic Wave Filter dust reduction system and built-in image stabilisation all on offer. The Olympus E-30 retails at $1300 / £850 body only or £1200 with the new 14-54 Mark II kit lens. Mark Goldstein gets in touch with his artistic side in our latest in-depth review.

Website: Olympus E-30 Review

Sigma UK will increase its prices on all products from 1st February, blaming “currency fluctuations”. The devaluation of £ Sterling against the Yen by 40% since December 2007 is the specific reason. Also, Sigma’s press release doesn’t rule out future increases: “We hope that the UK pound makes a recovery against foreign currencies however it is not altogether impossible that further price increases may be forced upon us all.”

The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) has forecast falling camera sales in 2009. They predict that total sales will decrease by 0.7%, with point-and-shoot models suffering a 1.3% decline, while DSLR sales will actually increase by 6.8%. CIPA are blaming “the rapid economic slowdown since the autumn of 2008” for 2009’s tough outlook, with better news expected for 2010/11.

Leica have launched a special Safari Edition of the M8.2 digital camera. Limited to 500 units worldwide, the M8.2 Safari Edition includes an olive green painted M8.2 camera, silver LEICA ELMARIT-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH.lens, a Billingham camera case, and a carrying strap. The price for such exclusivity? The Leica M8.2 Safari Edition can be yours for just $10,000…

The Kodak Easyshare C180 is a new entry-level 10 megapixel point-and-shoot compact camera. Featuring a 3x zoom lens (32–96 mm), Face detection and Blur reduction, the Kodak C180 also offers Kodak’s Perfect Touch technology, ISO speeds up to 1250, a 2.4 inch LCD screen and 16mb internal memory. The Kodak Easyshare C180 will be available in red, blue, pink and silver in August for $119.95.

Analyses of the Panasonic Lumix G1 (pictured), Olympus E-420 and E-510 DSLR cameras is now available on dxomark.com. DxO Labs has added detailed RAW-based image quality data and DxOMark Sensor rankings for each camera. www.dxomark.com is a free online resource that delivers key objective sensor performance metrics measured directly on the RAW image.

Flickrista is a new website that highlights the best fashion photography from Flickr. The site features some of the most inspiring fashion photography from photographers on Flickr, handpicked by editor Andreas Climent. While Flickrista mainly focuses on fashion photography, any photo can appear on Flickrista if it is beautiful and inspiring. Well worth a visit if you’re short on inspiration.

Website: Flickrista