Turn digital images into fun comics with Comic Life from plasq, now available for Windows as well as Mac. Use speech balloons, panels, captions and lettering to turn family, friends and pets into sensational comic book stars. Comic Life for Windows is compatible with XP Service Pack 1 & 2 and and Windows Vista. Comic Life Standard costs $24.95 and $29.95 for Comic Life Deluxe.

The Ilford Inkjet Photo Paper Range has been designed to encourage people to try out their artistic skills and produce stunning images at an affordable price. Available in a selection of sizes from 4x6 snapshot paper to share with your family and friends to A3+ for framing larger, special images, the collection is instant dry and compatible with all good quality inkjet, including borderless, printers. The ILFORD Inkjet Photo Paper Range is distributed in the UK through JP Distribution.

JAlbum users in the USA and Canada can now create, publish, share, market, and sell bookstore-quality photo books from Blurb. Blurb’s software lets anyone create bookstore-quality books by dragging and dropping images and adding text into hundreds of professionally-designed page layouts. “The JAlbum community is passionate about the presentation of their photos. Blurb’s devotion to quality and creative expression in books is therefore a great fit for us. Enabling our users to make real books opens up even more creativity in sharing images,” said David Ekholm, Jalbum’s founder.

Hasselblad has launched a comprehensive new Customer Care Program featuring special prices on product upgrades, refurbishment, and extended warranties and support. The first stage provides owners of Hasselblad H1 and H2 cameras with an extremely beneficial trade in or upgrade of their equipment to a number of the most recent model configurations. “...we have set up the Hasselblad Customer Care Program, which will provide a foundation for upgrades, trade-in and refurbishment programs, to ensure that all Hasselblad users have access to the most recent and most advanced products.” commented Christian Poulsen, CEO of Hasselblad.

Portfolio One from the Royal Photographic Society is a stunning ‘coffee table’ book covering current styles and trends within The Society and the photography of its members. Portfolio One features work from top contemporary practitioners, like Honorary Fellows David Bailey CBE, Art Wolf and Steven Pyke, to historical figures like Roger Fenton, first Secretary of The Society. Portfolio One comprises 240 pages (with dimensions 24 x 26.5cm) and is limited edition, full colour, high quality, hard bound and printed with a black cover. It is available for purchase from www.rps.org at a cost of £30 plus p&p.

The JetFlash T3 from Transcend is an ultra-tiny USB flash drive, measuring just 30.2mm x 12.3mm x 2.4mm and weighing 2 grams. Unlike other miniature USB flash drives which are fragile and bend or break easily, the JetFlash T3 is designed to be extra-rugged. It can be used as a mobile phone dongle or a keychain accessory, and can be stored safely in a wallet without risk of compression damage. The Transcend JetFlash T3 comes in 1GB and 2GB versions, and is made with brand-name NAND Flash chips to assure the highest possible quality. The T3 costs €10.00 (1GB) and €17.50 (2GB).

Kingston’s DataTraveler Mini Fun and Mini Migo USB flash drives are now available in capacities up to 4GB. The DT Mini – Migo Edition allows users the freedom to safely work across multiple PCs. “It’s a powerful drive in a small form factor that allows one to take their desktop to go while having the robust storage capacity to handle numerous as well as large data files.” said Joe Teng, Flash memory product manager, Kingston. Prices range from $16 to $62.

HP has announced that the company intends to outsource its digital cameras to a third party manufacturer under the HP brand. This shift in strategy is intended to enable HP to accelerate its investment in Print 2.0 initiatives, including home photo printing and online photo services. HP will continue selling its own cameras through the holiday season and intends to have the partnership arrangement in place in the first half of 2008.

CameraLabs have reviewed the new 12 megapixel Sony A700 DSLR camera.

“The Sony Alpha DSLR A700 is certainly a very capable DSLR which will greatly appeal to enthusiasts. The build quality and handling are very good, the controls well thought-out, the screen is superb and the image quality (with firmware 2.0) is also respectable – although some will prefer to increase the sharpening a little over the default settings.”

Website: CameraLabs - Sony A700 Review

The-Digital-Picture have reviewed the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM lens, which offers a a 114 degree angle of view and features the latest Ring-type Ultrasonic Motor (USM) for fast and near silent auto focus.

“The more I use ultra-wide angle lenses, the more I like them. I find it especially challenging to compose a pleasing 14mm full frame image as this angle of view takes a lot in. Keeping track of all the angles and subjects in a full frame 14mm shot is not easy. Keeping your fingers, feet and tripod legs out of the frame is just one issue you face. This focal length is especially good at emphasizing a foreground subject against an interesting background. Take in a wide landscape, capture architecture - both interior and exterior, shoot in ultra-tight spaces ... When you get everything right, the result can be spectacular. “

Website: The-Digital-Picture - Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM Review

Earth Shots is a photo of the day competition celebrating the beauty and diversity of our planet. Anyone can submit their photos and every day Earth Shots selects a winner to feature on the homepage. It is a non-profit website with advertising revenues being used to buy prizes for the winning photographers - if you win photo of the day 3 times you get $50. At the beginning of this month, Earth Shots celebrated their first birthday. A look through their reveals 365 days worth of amazing travel and nature images. The quality is exceptional and the fact that they have maintained such a high standard for an entire year is quite an achievement. Well worth a look!

http://www.earthshots.org/

Casio have released firmware updates for 10 different compact digital cameras. The full list of models is: EX-V8, EX-S880, EX-Z1080, EX-Z77, EX-Z15, EX-Z12, EX-Z8 (pictured), EX-Z7, EX-Z6 and EX-Z5. The new version number for all 10 models is 1.01.

Website: Casio v1.01 Firmware Updates

Fujifilm USA has reduced the price of the FinePix A900 to $169.95, the FinePix A920 to $179.95 and the F480 to $159.95. The FinePix A900 and A920 cameras pack an incredible punch with 9.0 megapixel power, a 4x Optical Zoom, Fujifilm’s Picture Stabilization, and provide the ease of use and versatility of multiple media formats. The FinePix F480 offers 8.2 megapixel power, a 4x Optical Zoom and an extra-large 2.7” LCD; along with Fujifilm’s Picture Stabilizaton technology, Lithium-ion rechargeable battery and slim design.

PCMag have reviewed the Fujifilm Finepix F50fd compact digicam, which has a 12 megapixel sensor, Dual Image Stabilization, and Face Detection 2.0 technology with a a new Automatic Red-Eye Removal feature.

“The Fuji FinePix Z50fd falls into place on the high end of the compact snapshot-camera market, with its 12-megapixel resolution and effective implementation of some of the latest point-and-shoot photo technology. With good image quality, a useful and flexible set of features, and a sturdy, ergonomically appealing design, it’s a pocket-size model that I would recommend to any photographer who doesn’t need advanced manual controls or a large zoom range.”

Website: PCMag - Fujifilm Finepix F50fd Review

Website: Read our Fujifilm Finepix F50fd Review

DPReview have reviewed the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 digital camera, which features a 18x optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28-504mm on a 35mm film camera.

“In summary the the FZ18 is a well built, well designed and very versatile photographic tool that offers an awful lot in a compact and easy to use package, and one that’s ideal for anyone not quite ready to commit to a bulky and expensive SLR outfit. The sensor performance struggles to live up to the rest of the package, but we say this so often it’s beginning to sound like a broken record.”

Website: DPReview - Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Review

Website: Read our Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 Review

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 is a 10 megapixel DSLR camera with a difference - it’s currently the only DSLR to offer a free-angle, swivelling LCD screen, Live View mode complete with focusing, metering and white balance adjustments, and Face Detection system. Looking like a Panasonic DMC-FZ50 ultra-zoom compact on the outside, Panasonic have abandoned the retro look and feel of their first DSLR, the L1, and opted for a much more conventional design for the DMC-L10. Based upon the Four Thirds standard, other significant features include the new Leica D Vario-Elmar 14-50mm F3.8-5.6 kit lens, Supersonic Wave Filter system to remove dust from the sensor, and full range of scene and more creative shooting modes. As with the L1, Panasonic have introduced a DSLR camera that is radically different to what’s on offer from the other manufacturers - but should you choose the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 instead of a DSLR from the likes of Canon, Nikon or Olympus? Mark Goldstein reviewed the Panasonic L10 to find out.

Website: Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 Review

The new JPEG XR image file standard proposed by Microsoft has just been approved by the countries participating in the Joint Photographic Experts Group. According to a report by CNET News, work will now begin on defining the standard, which will begin later this month. Formerly referred to as the HD Photo file format, JPEG XR (“extended range”) promises better image fidelity, higher image compression efficiency and flexible editing features.

Website: CNET News

Croydon-based photographer Mark Hughes has been named as the 2007 UK Event Photographer of the Year. His winning Monochrome of motorcyclist Valentino Rossi “getting wet” at the 2007 Donnington meet scooped the 2007 Event Award. The British Professional Photography Awards are the UK’s premier professional photographic ‘Oscars’, showcasing the work of the UK’s most innovative and successful photographers.

A beta version of the new Olympus E-3 has just survived a multiple hands-on test deep in the countryside of Derbyshire, England.

“A weekend photo safari was organised for Olympus users some time before the E-3 was formally announced. It struck the organiser, Brian Mosley, that it would be a wonderful opportunity for Olympus to glean ‘authentic’ user opinion by giving the group access to an E-3 for true ‘field’ testing. Olympus agreed. The company also agreed to allow publishing of the results from the weekend, the opinion of the camera and some of the results on a completely independent website, rather than any Olympus sponsored sites.”

Website: biofos.com - Many Hands on the E3

PhotoReview have reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T200, the first digital camera to automatically react to a person’s smile.

“We’ve covered the problem we had with the Smile Shutter setting, which links shutter triggering to detection of a smiling face, in the review of the T70, which was posted on the Photo Review website recently. This feature is more of a gimmick that a real benefit because smiles vary from one person to another, making it difficult to set the right detection level. Things get complicated with group shots because one person smiling can trigger the shutter before the others are ready.”

Website: PhotoReview - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T200 Review