The Kodak P820 and P520 are two new digital picture frames featuring a touch sensitive border. The Quick Touch Border enables fun and interactive picture scrolling without the need for a remote control. Touch-sensitive controls allow for simple operation with a touch or slide of your finger, leaving the screen fingerprint-and smudge-free. Two colour-coordinated interchangeable mattes, in Cranberry Red and Silver, are included with the P820 and P520 frames to match a variety of home décor styles. The Kodak P820 and P520 will be available from October for £89.99 and £59.99 respectively.

Ricoh have released a new firmware update for the GX200 compact digital camera. Version 1.14 includes the following changes:

- In the Auto shooting mode, and with the Grid Guide is displayed in the LCD, and if you turn off the camera power and then turn on in the My Setting mode, a lacked grid guide will be displayed.
- With using AAA batteries, and in the shooting mode, if you click the Playback button to switch to the playback mode, and after the lens will be retracted automatically, if you press the shutter release to return the shooting mode, any key will not work.

Website: Ricoh GX200 Firmware Update 1.14

Power Retouche Pro is a comprehensive suite of plugins for professional photo retouching in Photoshop and other imaging applications. Power Retouche Pro supports both 8bit and 16bit images, and is compatible with all versions of Photoshop, plus Paint Shop Pro, Corel Draw, Illustrator, Fireworks amongst others. Plugins can be purchased individually, or the full pro package is available for just $175 / €113 / £88. Jon Canfield tries out all 25 individual Power Retouche Pro plugins in our latest review.

Website: Power Retouche Pro Review

The new PhotoFinder mini from ATP Electronics geo-tags all of your photos with no complicated software required. Simply turn the PhotoFinder mini on while you’re taking pictures, insert your card into the memory card slot on the docking station, and it will automatically geotag your photos. ATP’s GPS PhotoFinder mini is compatible with JPEG images from digital cameras of major brands and all memory card formats. Photos tagged by the ATP PhotoFinder mini can be used with any GPS compatible photo software or geotagged photo compatible sites such as Google Maps, Flickr, locr.com and Panoramio.

Website: ATP GPS PhotoFinder mini

Carl Zeiss are running a teaser advert for a brand new SLR lens mount. Already available for Nikon, Pentax and Leica M42, the un-named mount will be unveiled on September 15th. Speculation is growing that the Sony/Minolta mount is the most likely candidate, possibly coinciding with the Sony A900 pro DSLR…

Website: Carl Zeiss

The Jobo X7 is a new portable photo viewer and digital picture frame in one. Featuring a 7-inch screen and 1GB of internal memory, the wallet-like Jobo X7 is perfect for sharing your photos with family and friends. The X7 also has a solid rubber protection rim on all sides and protective Nappa leather cover. The Jobo X7 Portable Photo Viewer will be available from September for £149.99.

Transcend have introduced a 64GB version of the JetFlash V20 USB flash drive. The value-priced Transcend V20 features an attractively shaped pearlescent chassis with a semi-transparent color-band that lights up during use. Transcend’s free JetFlash elite software turns the V20 into a key to automatically log on to website accounts, or even temporarily lock the computer to prevent unauthorized access. The 64Gb JetFlash V20 is fully-tested to work flawlessly with Windows Vista and also supports Windows Me / 2000 / XP, Mac and Linux.

Canon have released a firmware update for the EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi. Version 1.0.9 includes the following improvements and fixes:

  1. Fixes a phenomenon in which AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) shooting does not operate normally under these conditions.
  When using AEB together with exposure compensation, the camera may fail to write the third shot to the SD card..

  2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Live View exposure simulation warning indication does not properly display during Live View shooting.
  Fixes a phenomenon in which the Live View exposure simulation warning indication, in which

would normally flash when the image is not being displayed at a suitable brightness level (under the conditions of low brightness and high brightness), does not display properly during Live View shootring..

  3. Fixes a phenomenon in which images cannot be played back after continuous shooting when a printer is connected to the camera or the video output terminal is used.

Website: Canon EOS 450D Firmware Update 1.0.9

Colour Confidence is taking the ColorMunki on the road, with a tour of major photographic resellers across the UK. ‘Visit the MunkiHouse’ is a free event featuring live demonstrations of the ColorMunki Photo, the first spectrophotometer-based solution in its price bracket.Events in London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham , Stevenage, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Burgess Hill have been confirmed so far. Attendance is free.

CameraTown have just reviewed Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.

“The layout in lightroom is one of the most intuitive that I have used. Unlike Photoshop that requires a degree in icon recognition, Lightroom is chock full of plain text and easy to use sliders, allowing you to easily learn as you go. The fact that all edits are non-destructive means you can experiment to your hearts content without worrying about image degradation.”

Website: CameraTown - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Review

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

1st Place
*The Great British holiday makers* by pudnpie

Prize: 1 x 24x24” or 24x18” Canvas Print of a Photo of Your Choice
Kindly donated by Photo Artistry.
http://www.photoartistry.co.uk

The six lucky winners of our fantastic August 2008 Newsletter contest have been randomly selected from the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscriber list.

Frances Heaton , Henryk Fibich, Melanie Hopgood, Stephan Konjer, Mick Durnall and Neil Morgan each win a Kata DC441 Shoulder Bag, worth £50 / $70 each.

The Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC is a new 15x zoom lens for Nikon DSLR cameras with built-in motors. Providing a focal length equivalent to 28-419mm, the Tamron 18-270mm lens is also equipped with a highly effective Vibration Compensation (VC) mechanism. Note that this lens is designed for exclusive use on digital SLR cameras equipped with smaller sized (APS-C sized) image sensors. The new Tamron 18-270mm lens for Nikon digital SLRs with built-in motors will be available in Japan from September 20th 2008.

The new Tamron SP AF10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) is a ultra wide-angle zoom lens for Nikon digital SLRs with built-in motors. The lens covers an extended focal length range equivalent to 16-37mm that is particularly wide for an ultra wide-angle zoom lens, while improving the aperture to F/3.5-4.5 and keeping the filter diameter to 77mm. Note that this lens is designed for exclusive use on digital SLR cameras equipped with smaller sized (APS-C sized) image sensors. The new Tamron 18-270mm lens for Nikon digital SLRs with built-in motors will be available in Japan from September 27th 2008.

Tamron have announced the launch date for 3 new Di lenses in the full-frame imaging format. The Tamron SP AF70-200mm F/2.8 Di lens (pictured) for Pentax and Sony DSLR cameras will be available in Japan on September 20th 2008, and the Tamron SP AF90mm F/2.8 Di lens for Nikon DSLRs with built-in motors will be available in Japan on September 27th 2008.

The Sinar Hy6 65 is a new 31 megapixel medium format camera system. The imaging area is almost twice the size of a full-frame 35mm camera, and it features the fastest flash sync speed for medium format cameras thanks to its leaf shutter system. The Sinar Hy6 65 offers access to a broad range of high-quality AFD lenses and is compatible with the manual focus and AF lenses of the Rollei 6000 camera system.

DIWA member LetsGoDigital have reviewed the Canon EOS 1000D, a new entry-level, 10 megapixel DSLR camera with Live View mode.

“The Canon EOS 1000D does undoubtedly succeed when it comes to its quality. It is clearly a product that has arisen from long years of EOS experience. The camera is simply well constructed and although not completely free of remarks, the Canon EOS 1000D truly is an extremely beautiful entry-level DSLR. The image quality is convincing, the operation logical and friendly, and its size that makes it pleasant to always carry the camera with you.”

Website: LetsGoDigital - Canon EOS 1000D Review

Website: Read our Canon EOS 1000D Review

Samsung have announced plans to launch a brand new camera system that’s a cross between a DSLR and a compact camera. Samsung Hybrid cameras will feature an APS-C sized sensor, removable lenses that are smaller than current DSLR lenses, and a framing combination of electronic viewfinder and rear LCD screen. According to the report by Amateur Photographer, the first Samsung Hybrid model will be based on the same 14 megapixel sensor that’s used in the Samsung GX-20 DSLR, and will be launched in Spring 2010. Samsung’s announcement comes just weeks after Olympus and Panasonic unveiled plans for Micro Four Thirds, a very similar system to Samsung Hybrid. ‘Although we want to make the new system affordable, we are concentrating on achieving professional quality with this system. The most important point is that this is very successful in the market. A difference between Samsung’s system and Micro Four Thirds will be that Samsung will have a much bigger sensor.’ commented Samsung Techwin Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee, who also clarified that Samsung’s Hybrid standard has no connection to Micro Four Thirds.

So what do you think? Is the announcement of the second brand new camera system in as many months a good thing? Who will win - Micro Four Thirds, Samsung Hybrid, or neither?

Website: Samsung reveals new Hybrid digital camera system to rival Micro Four Thirds

The Lowepro Flipside 400 AW is a new high performance camera backpack. The main compartment in the Flipside 400 AW will hold a professional DSLR with up to a 300mm lens. There is also room for four to six more lenses and accessories such as memory cards. Lowepro’s unique patented All Weather Cover provides weather resistance against rain, dust and snow. The new Lowepro Flipside 400 AW is available now in two colours – Black and Pine Green - priced at £119.

Digital Infrared Photography is a new book shows you how to record the invisible part of the light spectrum. This compact guide to infrared photography shows the beauty of infrared imagery while it teaches how to shoot these images with your digital camera. Digital Infrared Photography provides the basic theoretical background, information on cameras, filters and equipment, and lots of guidance on how to do infrared photography from image capture to post-processing. Digital Infrared Photography costs $24.95.