A new industry report by Understanding & Solutions predicts that sales of lenses, bags, flashguns, supports and dedicated camera batteries will reach €1.1bn in 2009. “The lens segment is taking a leading role in the boom - accounting for $878m (€697m) last year, up from $600m (€476m) in 2005. Moving forward, we expect lenses to remain the most lucrative product segment, accounting for nearly 60% of the total aftermarket value by 2011.” said David Watkins, Research Analyst.

HARMAN technology has announced a UK photo contest to help promote its new HARMAN PHOTO MATT FB Mp inkjet paper. Entrants are asked to submit their images on the new HARMAN PHOTO paper. The winner will receive a comprehensive digital photography course with Les McLean and £150 worth of HARMAN PHOTO digital inkjet products. Deadline for entries is August 31 and the winners will be announced on Friday September 28.

For every red Canon PowerShot A460 digital camera sold in Tesco stores, Canon is donating £5 to the British Red Cross. The money raised will be spent on essential British Red Cross services in local communities in the UK. The Canon PowerShot A460 is a 5 megapixel entry-level camera with a 2 inch LCD screen and 4x zoom lens.

Pixinfo.com have reviewed the dust removal systems of 4 recent DSLR cameras - the Canon EOS 400D, Sony A100, Olympus E-300 and Pentax K10D.

“Our goal was to set up a controlled environment to get the image sensors of digital cameras dirty and test how effective the different cameras’ sensor cleaning technologies are. It is well known fact (and it is a bit over dramatized) that digital SLR cameras are very sensitive to the dust particles found in the air. These particles can settle on the image sensor, and will show up on the images as dark spots when the image is taken with a small aperture (high F number).”

Website: Pixinfo.com - Dust removal systems / sensor cleaning

Wolverine Data have released a firmware upgrade for the Wolverine ESP portable multimedia player that provides RAW file support for the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100, Canon 400D and Canon Digital Rebel XTi digital SLR cameras. The Wolverine ESP is available in four models, ranging in capacity from 80GB to 160GB, with prices starting at $379.00.

Light Crafts is offering LightZone Basic for the discounted rate of $99.95 to all Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Apple iPhoto users. Unlike traditional photo-editing software, LightZone enables users to retouch and enhance photos in a simple and natural way. “Light Crafts is fundamentally changing digital photo editing to reduce complexity and return control to photographers,” said Georges van Hoegaerden, chief executive officer, Light Crafts. “We’re introducing the power of visual photo editing to all photographers, independent of their photo management software environment.”

Sony have added a 4Gb model to its Micro Vault Tiny range of ultra-portable USB storage media. The pre-loaded Virtual Expander data compression software allows users to store up to 3 times more data than the native capacity of the drive. The Sony 4GB Micro Vault Tiny is compatible with Windows Vista and is available now.

Extensis have released an update for Portfolio 8.1. The Portfolio Raw Filter 3.2 update adds support for 32 cameras, bringing the total to more than 100. The Portfolio Raw Filter is powered by technology from Bibble Labs and the update is free of charge for registered Portfolio 8.1 users.

The Ilford Photo “Pioneers of Photography” exhibition records the progress of the black-and-white genre through 150 years of outstanding photography. All of the exhibits will be printed on Ilford’s new digitally-enabled photographic paper Ilford Galerie FB Digital. “Pioneers of Photography” will be staged at London’s HOST Gallery from 16 - 28 April 2007.

Our friends at DPNow are offering 20 UK readers an exclusive free training day at Adobe’s UK training centre in west London. Lunch will be provided, followed by an introduction to the new Creative Suite 3, then an intensive session on Photoshop CS3 and, finally a session on Lightroom. You’ll have to be quick as places are limited!

Website: Free Adobe Training Day with DPNow

CameraLabs have reviewed the new Olympus SP-550 UZ. This is the first digital camera to offer an 18x optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28-504mm.

“Shooting at massive focal lengths is of course pointless if you can’t keep the image steady, but the SP-550UZ’s sensor-shift system effectively eliminated any wobbles in our tests. Olympus has also done a great job in the design and construction of the camera: the rubber coating ensures a secure grip and the body is very comfortable to hold and use. We’d have loved a flip-out screen, but guess you can’t have everything at this price point.”

Website: CameraLabs - Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

Website: Read our Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

DigiCamReview have reviewed the new Olympus SP-550 UZ. This is the first digital camera to offer an 18x optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28-504mm.

“The camera is quite compact considering the massive 18x optical zoom lens, it is almost pocketable. Thankfully Olympus have added an anti-shake CCD shift system to help achieve the most from the lens. The camera is stylish with a black and dark grey rubber body. The camera has good 2.5” screen, with a good resolution, it also has a decent electronic viewfinder with diopter correction. The camera feels very well built, and is very comfortable to hold thanks to the extensive rubber cladding.”

Website: DigiCamReview - Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

Website: Read our Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

ePhotoZine have just reviewed the 10 megapixel Samsung NV10 digital camera.

“Unlike most cameras, there is actually some colour noise evident in the shadow areas of the ISO100 test shot. At ISO200 its slightly worse, the colour of the noise being stronger and there are also other artefacts beginning to appear. Curiously the ISO400 mode isn’t really any worse. The noise is still noticeable, the elements of random colour are larger but softer so have less impact. Black areas though are really, quite variable. The ISO800 shot shows a slight colour change in the red petals, becoming darker, but the noise becomes appreciable. The ISO1000 test, despite being only a slightly higher rating is a lot more noisy, showing that an ISO1600 mode would have been untenable.”

Website: ePhotoZine - Samsung NV10 Review

Website: Read our Samsung NV10 Review

Latest Prices / User Reviews

TrustedReviews have published the first online review of the 6 megapixel, 10x zoom Panasonic DMC-TZ2 digital camera.

“Finally we come to picture quality, and this is where I have previously had the harshest criticism of some Panasonic cameras. In the case of the TZ2 however I found much that I liked, especially the superb lens. It’s the first time I’ve seen a compact super-zoom lens with a 28mm-equivalnet wide-angle that also has no barrel distortion whatsoever at wide angle. Not only that but it has excellent corner-to-corner sharpness with no trace of chromatic aberration. In fact I’d go as far as to say that it may be the best long-zoom lens I’ve ever seen on a compact camera, and one that lives up to its Leica badge.”

Website: TrustedReviews - Panasonic DMC-TZ2 Review

Final Update: 17th March 2007, 10.00am GMT

Welcome to the Final version of my PMA 2007 Report. I’ve updated my PMA 2007 Report with the latest news. The Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Annual Convention and Trade Show takes place this year in Las Vegas, USA and runs from 8th - 11th March 2007. This is the world’s largest annual photo imaging trade show, where the major photography manufacturers will unveil their new product line-ups for 2007 and beyond. Just like last year, PhotographyBLOG will be covering PMA live from the show floor. Expect a lot of announcements both in the weeks leading up to PMA and during the 4 days of the show itself. To help you keep track of everything that’s going on, our PMA Report will contain links to all of the latest product announcements. You can also signup for our email Newsletter or subscribe to our RSS feed, which will keep you up to date with everything that is happening before, during and after PMA 2007.

Website: PMA 2007 Report

The Sanyo DMX-CG65 hybrid digital camera uses the leading Web movie format MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, offering 10 hours total recording time for movies and a 6 megapixel sensor for still images. In addition four major web companies (SEEBOX, Mlog, Six Apart and VOICE-BANK) have agreed to jointly develop the “Xacti 2.0 Project” with Sanyo, with the aim of integrating high-resolution digital movie content on the Web.

The BenQ P860 is an 8 megapixel digital camera with a 6x optical zoom lens, full range of manual exposure modes and optical image stabilization. There’s a 2.5 inch LCD screen, ISO 50-1000 and 12 scene modes for beginners. The BenQ P860 has limited availability - only in Italy, Spain, Russia and China, released at the end of March.

FujiFilm have released a new firmware update, v1.04, for the S5 Pro DSLR.

The firmware update v1.04 incorporates the following issues.
1. Better white balance when setting FLASH-mode for the WHITE BLANCE.
2. Better white balance when setting AUTO-mode for the WHITE BLANCE and using Nikon non-CPU lenses.
*It requires to set the maximum aperture according to the FinePix S5 Pro Owener’s Manual(p.121-p.124).

Website: FujiFilm S5 Pro v1.04 Firmware Update

Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl (320 gsm) is a new fineart inkjet photo paper particularly well-suited to black and white photography. This natural white paper is 100% cotton and features a high Dmax and large colour gamut. Hahnemühle Photo Rag Pearl is extremely age resistant and conforms to the highest conservation requirements.

The latest Apple Mac OS/X 10.4.9 update adds support for the Leaf RAW file format. Adobe also recently announced that Leaf RAW files will be supported by Lightroom. Leaf are the first medium format photography company to encourage third party software developers to support their RAW files.