Bogen Imaging is holding a free webinar about taking successful product shots. Lastolite product managers will share tips on how to use the Cubelite, a quick portable lighting system, in order to get the most out of a product photo shoot. You will learn the importance of positioning and lighting and how to effortlessly produce high-quality, professional-looking product images. The course will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m EDT, on Friday, October 3rd.

Abbyy FotoReader turns photographed text into a computer file to store or edit on the PC. FotoReader converts the image of the text in the photo into Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF and other file formats. “ABBYY FotoReader takes the evolution of the camera and the photo one step further.  Cameras and photos become devices for capturing not just images but also important texts and documents, and in doing so, become a productivity tool.” explained Jupp Stoepetie, CEO of ABBYY Europe. Abbyy FotoReader is available now for £39.99.

During October Canon U.S.A. will contribute $150,000 to the American Cancer Society in recognition of breast cancer awareness month. Canon have teamed up with tennis superstar Maria Sharapova to create a special “bundle”, including a PowerShot SD1100 IS Digital ELPH camera and a SELPHY CP760 Compact Photo Printer, both in pink melody, a pink ribbon charm and a mammogram reminder magnet. “Breast cancer is an important issue that affects too many women and it is critical to generate awareness, educate people about this disease and the importance of early detection and yearly mammograms,” said Maria Sharapova.  “I am proud to partner with Canon on this cause.”

The new Sekonic Exposure Profile Target II is a 25 patch test target that produces total exposure accuracy. The Exposure Profile Target II requires only three shots to gather a wide range of exposure data from the camera’s imaging system. The Sekonic Exposure Profile Target II retails at £129.99.

Adobe is touring the UK to showcase its new Creative Suite 4 product line-up. With four different sessions to choose from – CS4 Design Premium, CS4 Web Premium, CS4 Production Premium and CS4 Master Collection – Adobe will be revealing hundreds of enhancements and new capabilities. Launching at CreativePro Expo on October 23 and running until November 27, 2008, the Creative Suite 4 Tour visits 7 other cities in England, Scotland and Ireland. There is no charge to attend the CS4 Tour 2008.

The catchily-named HD-0310 is the world’s first 1080P digital photo viewer. The HD-0310 is a compact, slim and easy-to-use device that allows you to view photos, enjoy video clips and music on a high-definition TV. The HD-0310 supports the 12 most popular memory card formats and can play back high resolution images, video clips and MP3 music files. It also has an extra HDMI connector which allows an additional HDMI enabled device to be connected.

Photokina is over for another 2 years, so we’ve looked back at some of the most notable developments from the World’s biggest photography show.

Leica S System
Undoubtedly the greatest surprise of this year’s Photokina was Leica’s announcement of the new S system. The German manufacturer did not simply launch a new, high-resolution camera with an assortment of lenses to go with it. They did not simply introduce a new mount either. Instead they announced a completely new camera format, something that hasn’t happened since the debut of the FourThirds system five years ago.

The winners of the September 2008 PhotographyBLOG Competition have been selected. The theme for September was “Sports” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
Beachvolley by Igor

Prize: Photobird.com one-year subscription with 500Mb of storage space
Kindly donated by Photobird.com.
http://www.photobird.com

ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 features new tools to help you keep your photos organized and ready for sharing. The new Import tool allows you to rename, back up, categorize and add keywords to images as they are acquired from a camera, card reader, CD/DVD or other storage device. ACDSee Photo Manager automatically saves and preserves the original image file when it is first opened for editing within the software. You can now add a custom border, drop shadow or edge effect, then share favorite images with quick uploaders to online tools like flickr. ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 is available for a free 30-day trial and for purchase for $49.99.

The new Sony Home Share stores your digital video, pictures, music and other data on a 1 terabyte (2 x 500GB) drive array. Transferring data from digital cameras, camcorders and phones can be done via the multi-card reader, USB ports or, using the Remote Home Access function, via your home network or remotely across the internet. “The new Sony Home Share offers our customers a simple proposition,” said Dipesh Sanghrajka, Product Manager, Sony VAIO UK. “Put all your pictures, music, video and files in one place and reach them from anywhere. The sheer amount of personal content many of us have now makes the Sony Home Share the logical next step in the digital home.” The Sony Home Share is available now for £499.

Western Digital ShareSpace is a high-speed network storage system that provides cost-effective, centralized storage for photographers, creative professionals, small offices and personal home networks. WD’s Share Space network-attached storage systems make it simple for small offices and workgroups to centralize storage for easy accessibility, both within the network and remotely via WD’s MioNet remote Web access service. Share Space allows you to establish a centralized network for easy sharing of music, movies and photos anywhere in their home, office or studio. WD ShareSpace with 2 TB costs $699.99, and with 4 TB is $999.99.

Olympus have released a firmware update, version 1.1, for the E-520 DSLR. The new update improves the brightness level of the optical viewfinder AF target points.

Website: Olympus E-520 Firmware Update 1.1

Olympus have released a firmware update, version 1.1, for the E-420 DSLR. The new update improves the brightness level of the optical viewfinder AF target points.

Website: Olympus E-420 Firmware Update 1.1

The world’s biggest photography show, Photokina, has now ended. We’ve just updated our comprehensive Photokina Report. There are 25 in-depth live reports from the show floor, over 100 listings of every significant new product announced before and at Photokina, and our Top 10 pick of the stars of the show. We’ll also shortly be adding a final wrap-up report looking back at what turned out to be a very interesting show…

Website: Photokina 2008 Report

The ATP GPS photo Finder mini is a new geotagging device, with no PC or software required. All users have to do is activate the Photo Finder mini while taking pictures, insert their camera’s memory card into the corresponding slot on the docking station and attach the Photo Finder mini, and then the geotagging process is carried out automatically. The ATP GPS photo Finder mini is universally compatible with any digital camera using JPEG image files. ATP’s GPS photo Finder mini is available now for $149.99.

Canon have announced cashback offers on three of their EOS DSLR camera range. Valid until 12th January 2009, there’s £30 / €40 off the EOS 1000D (pictured) with 18-55 IS kit lens, £50 / €65 off the EOS 450D, and £60 / €75 off the EOS 40D. Participants must be resident in the European Union, and the offer only applies to purchases made between Monday 15 September 2008 and Monday 12 January 2009.

Fujifilm has added four new Secure Digital (SD) cards to its memory card range, including a 16GB SDHC card. Available in October 2008 with pricing still to be announced, the new Fujifilm SD cards will be available in the formats below:

•          Secure Digital – 1GB SD, 2GB SD
•          Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) – 4GB SDHC, 8GB SDHC, 16GB SDHC
•          Micro Secure Digital – 1GB, 2GB
•          Micro Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) – 4GB,  8GB

Perhaps the most bizarre product on display at last week’s Photokina show was the Sony Alpha computer game for Playstation 3. “Harnessing the synergy” between the different divisions of the vast Sony empire, a 20 level version of the Alpha game is apparently available in Japan, although Photokina visitors had to make-do with the 2 levels that had been converted to English. From our brief glimpse of the game, players had to work their way through the Sony Alpha camera ranks by completing a serious of photographic challenges, starting off with a Konica Minolta Dynax camera and going on safari. This largely educational game is based upon a tie-in with National Geographic magazine, featuring stills and video from the NG archives, so is particularly well-suited to the younger members of your family. No word on when or if a full version Sony Alpha game for Playstation 3 will be released outside Japan.

Update: We have a gallery of photos of the Sony Alpha game for Playstation 3 - click the continue link below…

The Kodak Z1485 IS is a new 14 megapixel camera with 5x optical zoom lens. Quietly making its debut at last week’s Photokina show, the Kodak Z1485 IS features a focal length of 35-175 mm with optical image stabilization, ISO 100 to ISO 1600 (with 3200 and 6400 available at lower resolution), new Smart Capture feature which adjusts the camera settings for great pictures in just about any environment, a Manual mode that lets you choose both the aperture and shutter speed, and HD quality video recording. Available in black, blue and pink, the Kodak Z1485 IS costs $299.95 and is available now.

Update: We have a gallery of photos of the Kodak Z1485 IS - click the continue link below…

The 500GB HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA backups photos from memory cards on the go, without the need for a computer. Hyper fast UDMA 40MB/s backup speed ensures short waits between transfers, and ultra long battery performance allows 250GB of backups before recharging. The HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA features a 3.2” QVGA color screen and allows you to playback JPEG and true RAW images. Built-in memory card data recovery tools recover deleted, lost, formatted or corrupted data. When connected to a computer’s USB 2.0 port, the HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA operates like a normal hard drive. The 500GB HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA will be available from October for $599.

Update: We have a gallery of photos of the HyperDrive Colorspace UDMA - click the continue link below…