Samsung UK have announced Limited Edition versions of the NV4 and L100 digital cameras featuring the Chelsea FC team crest. Free luxury camera cases are also included. “Samsung is delighted to strengthen the Chelsea range with the launch of two new limited edition premium compact cameras which provide unrivalled image quality and innovative features to photographers of all levels” said Robert King, Director, Samsung Cameras UK. The Limited Edition Samsung NV4 Titanium is expected to retail at around £149.99 and the L100 at around £99.99. Both will be available from the Chelsea Megastore from the start of the season.

NTI Shadow 4 is the latest version of this always-on, data backup solution for PC, Mac and network users. Version 4 of NTI Shadow adds bi-directional sync, a graphical destination display, threshold capacity warnings and NTI Ninja tools for encryption/password protection. NTI Shadow with NINJA (Windows) is US $39.99 and $29.99 for the Mac Shadow 4 only version.

The Gitzo Series 5 Traveler is the World’s first monopod dedicated to sport photographers. It provides solid support for long lenses yet is ultra compact and easy to carry, extending from 41cm folded-up to 153.5cm when fully extended. The Gitzo Series 5 Traveler has a maximum load capacity of 25Kg yet weighs only 780g. The Gitzo Series 5 Traveler monopod is available now for £229.95, or £249.95 for the Olympic version featuring the “888” logo.

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth and Photo Rag Baryta are two new fine-art inkjet papers. Photo Rag Ultra Smooth features an incredibly smooth surface with a premium, silk-finish coating. Photo Rag Baryta has a glossy, finely structured coating which contains barium sulfate that imparts a uniquely stunning quality to any image. Both new products are archival-quality, acid-free papers ideal for producing beautiful, museum-quality prints in either black & white or color.

Picture Information Extractor 4.2 extracts the metadata from JPG and RAW formats of practically all cameras. It then automates general tasks such as transferring,renaming and rotating image files. Picture Information Extractor special EXIFcare technology ensures that no information contained in the file gets lost. The full version of Picture Information Extractor 4.2 costs $29, and a free evaluation version is available.

Canon is the official imaging partner for The Tour of Britain cycle race for the fifth consecutive year. This year’s Tour of Britain is the longest yet, taking place over eight stages from 7th-14th September. Andy Vickers - Managing Director, Canon UK and Ireland said “Canon has been involved with supporting British and European sporting events for over 30 years and we are delighted to continue our support for The Tour of Britain as one of the top events in the cycling calendar.” The Canon Photography Competition gives spectators to the race the opportunity to win Canon digital imaging equipment, by taking the winning image of the 2008 race.

Steves Digicams have reviewed the new Kodak Easyshare Z1012 IS digital camera, which offers 10 megapixel resolution and 12x optical zoom with optical image stabilisation.

“Our indoor samples also showed excellent quality from the Z1012 IS. The exposures both with and without the flash did very well. The colors were slightly different as seen on our samples page with the M&M man shots. The auto white balance produces a cooler image when using the flash than it does without. Our sample portrait shot was taken in “Portrait” scene mode, showing an excellent exposure with the lowest possible ISO, and natural looking skin tones. The built in pop-up flash has a range of approx. 25’ at the wide end and 14 1/2’ at the telephoto end. This is very powerful and can be very useful when taking pictures outside in low-light or inside in a large room. “

Website: Steves Digicams - Kodak Easyshare Z1012 IS Review

PCMag have reviewed the new and Canon Selphy CP760 compact photo printer, which offers a combination of lab-quality photo printing and ease of operation.

“When I reviewed the Canon Selphy CP740 last year, I said that if you were looking for a dedicated small-format photo printer at a bargain price, this one would be hard to beat. The shelf life on that statement has long since expired, but now Canon has come out with the Selphy CP760 ($99.99 direct), essentially an upgrade of (and replacement for) the CP740. The competition is a lot tougher now, so the CP760 isn’t the standout budget-price winner that the CP740 once was. Nonetheless, it’s a perfectly capable photo printer, an improvement on the CP740, and certainly worth considering.”

Website: PCMag - Canon Selphy CP760 Review

The new Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd ultra-zoom camera is a rather modest update of it’s predecessor, the S8000fd. New features include the inevitable increase in megapixels, up from 8 to 10, new Zoom Bracketing and Instant Zoom modes and some new continuous shooting modes. The S8100fd also offers the same CCD-shift image stabilisation system, 2.5-inch LCD monitor with a refresh rate of 60 frames per second, electronic viewfinder, Face Detection system and battery life of up to 400 pictures as the S8000fd. With a street price of less than £200 / $350, Gavin Stoker found out if the Fujifilm S8100fd can successfully undercut its main rivals without sacrificing features, performance or picture quality.

Website: Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd Review

We’ve teamed up with Bogen Imaging to offer six lucky winners the chance to win a Kata DC441 Shoulder Bag, worth £50 / $70 each.

The Kata DC441 is a comprehensive camera bag which features unique TST RIB structural protection and is designed with style to hold and organize your D/SLR and accessories. The main compartment holds a small D/SLR in top grip position while on the two sides you can store and protect lenses, flash or other accessories.

It’s simple to enter - just make sure you subscribe to the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter, and on Monday 1st September 2008, six names will be randomly selected to win these great prizes.

Website: Win a Kata DC441 Shoulder Bag

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

1st Place
The Bay Awakes by Hangin10

Prize: ShutterPoint.com one-year subscription with 100Mb of storage space
Kindly donated by ShutterPoint.
http://www.shutterpoint.com

In a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey, photographers were most satisfied with the Canon EOS and Nikon D series of DSLR cameras. Each received a score of 823 out of 1000 in the 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Study, with Canon being praised for picture quality, and Nikon for ease of operation, performance, and appearance and styling. In the other categories, the Fujifilm Finepix S series was the highest point and shoot model, the Canon PowerShot G series and the Lumix (Panasonic) DMC-TZ series tied in premium point and shoot, and Sony Cyber-shot T series topped the ultra slim segment.

The Sigma HC-11 is a new dedicated hard case for the Sigma DP1 compact camera. Th HC11 hard case is specifically designed to protect the DP1 from damage, and is made from genuine leather with accentuated red lining and stitching. The HC-11 conforms to the shape of the DP1 body, it provides good handling and does not hinder the operation of the camera when fitted. It is also possible to remove the case whilst the camera strap is still attached. Price and availability of the HC-11 Hard Case to be announced.

The ExpressDigital Template Marketplace is a new e-commerce solution which provides access to hundreds of graphic templates and borders. “ExpressDigital and its selected partners are thrilled to unveil the new ExpressDigital Template Marketplace, which puts the power in the hands of the photographers to increase their product offering with a variety of creative content,” said Graham McFarland, Founder and CEO of ExpressDigital.  “Templates are a proven way to turn photos into profits, and now we are providing a one-stop-shop to enable easy access to the best content out there and make them more accessible to professional photographers.” The ExpressDigital Template Marketplace is available in Darkroom v8.9.

The-Digital-Picture have reviewed the Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi, a 12 megapixel compact DSLR camera.

“The number of people moving up to digital SLR cameras has been amazing - but so are the images these cameras can deliver. Even compared to the not-very-old Canon Rebel XTi / 400D, the Canon EOS Rebel XSi / 450D delivers better image quality from a more attractive body with more features ... I’m very pleased (actually somewhat surprised) with the improvements delivered by the Canon EOS Rebel XSi / 450D. It will be a worthwhile upgrade for many XTi / 400D owners - it is a lot of camera for the money for anyone purchasing it. “

Website: The-Digital-Picture - Canon Digital Rebel XSi Review

Website: Read our Canon Digital Rebel XSi Review

Imaging Resource have reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix Z20fd, a new 10 megapixel compact camera with MPEG-4 video technology.

“The Fujifilm FinePix Z20fd is small and fun, and offers good capability for its tiny size. The 10-megapixel CCD picks up a lot of fine detail, and both color and exposure performance are generally good. Noise handling isn’t great at the highest sensitivity settings, but results are fine at the normal ISOs. Blurring in the corners of the frame will definitely detract from compositions with a lot of fine detail in these areas, but for average day-to-day snapshots, the Z20fd’s performance should be just fine.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Fujifilm FinePix Z20fd Review

The Sanyo DMX-HD800 is a new slim high definition camera that can shoot both stills and videos. The Sanyo HD800 (also called the Sanyo VPC-HD800 in some regions) records 1280 x 720p movies and 8 megapixel still photos on a 1/2.5 inch CMOS sensor with a new ‘3-dimension Noise Reduction’ filter. “The DMX-HD800 has not only has it been designed to be sleek and stylish, but it now offers our unique three-dimensional digital noise reduction (3DDNR) filter, which allows clear, beautiful images with simple operation of a dual camera offering high resolution stills and HD videos in a single unit.” commented Hideki Toyoda of Sanyo. The DMX-HD800 will be sold in Japan starting from August 22, 2008, price to be announced.

Adobe Photoshop Express has just been updated with a number of new features.

- New Photoshop Express Uploader powered by Adobe AIR that enables seamless photo uploading from the desktop of any Internet-connected computer.
- Adobe AIR technology bridges the real-time, dynamic capabilities of the Web with the computing power and data capabilities of the desktop computer.
- Users can now quickly browse through thumbnails of their photos and easily drag and drop their favorite selections directly from the desktop of their preferred photo management applications into Photoshop Express.
- Ability to print photos through Shutterfly, a leading online printing service provider, that is available to all Photoshop Express users and anyone who receives shared photos.
- To enhance dynamic slideshows, users can now incorporate music created exclusively for Photoshop Express. For organizing, the addition of tags allows for easy viewing and searching by name, party, venue, subject and anything else customers find useful.
- One-click Resize tool with presets for mobile, Web, e-mail or online profiles.
- Users can also download photos from anyone’s public album and keep a collection of their favorites.

Website: Adobe Photoshop Express

Nikon are now offering to upgrade the buffer of your Nikon D3 DSLR so that it can capture more shots with a single burst of continuous shooting. In the highest quality RAW format, the number of shots is increased from 16 to 36, quite a significant improvement. The service costs $500 plus state tax and all shipping costs in the US, and £352 in the UK, and will take up to two weeks to be completed. Requests for the Buffer Memory Expansion service will be accepted beginning July 30th, 2008.

Website: Nikon USA - D3 Digital-SLR Camera Buffer Memory Expansion Service

Website: Nikon Europe - D3 Digital-SLR Camera Buffer Memory Expansion Service

The Box That Changed Our Lives is a new photography contest aiming to raise awareness of the impact that container shipping has on our lives. Last year alone, the equivalent of about 141 million twenty-foot containers moved around the oceans loaded with goods. Aimed at amateur or ‘have-a-go’ photographers, the competition will run throughout August and September 2008. The overall best entry will be picked by a panel of judges, including US based professional photographer Nick Souza, and awarded the winning prize of a top-of-the-range Nikon SLR digital camera. Closing date for entries is Friday 12th September 2008.