PMA 2007:Norcent announces new additions to their current line of flash media products. New Secure Digital and Compact Flash memory cards plus its SD Duo, SD Trio cards, Micro SD Reader/Adapter and USB Drive products will be at the PMA show this week. The CF, SD, SD Duo and Trio formats provide our customers with dependable media for almost every device,” stated Dennis Robinson, Norcent CFO.

PMA 2007: Norcent will showcase their 3 lines of digital cameras at this year’s PMA Show. The new Xias (pronounced Kí-as) camera line features a unique, sleek and ergonomic high-end design, whilst the 25 Series camera is an elegant silver color with a brushed metal finish and features a large 2.5” LCD display. The new 50 Series digital cameras will offer a large 3” color LCD screen, 3x optical zoom, Face Detection and Anti-Shake Reduction.

Pentax have released a firmware update, v1.11, for the Pentax K10D DSLR camera.

The following functions has been added in version 1.11:
  1. Correspond to development in the RAW data camera when multiple exposing.
  2. When built-in flash is used the luminescence control by the trailing-shutter-curtain sync was corrected.

Website: Pentax K10D v1.11 Firmware Update

A new firmware download for the LEICA M8 camera is now available. Version 1.092 includes user interface changes and enhanced operational reliability. Note that the planned adjustments for using the specialized UV/IR filters has not been included in this release. Firmware version 1.10 is expected to be available by the middle of April 2007.

The Archos 704 WiFi Portable Media Player is the only PMP with a 7 inch touch-screen and full wireless capabilities. The 704 WiFi offers 802.11g wireless networking, 80GB hard drive, 800x480 pixel resolution with 16 million colors, a touch-screen for simple navigation using fingertips or the included stylus, and video editing capabilities for trimming recorded video directly on the device. The Archos 704 WiFi will be available for $549.99 U.S from mid March.

PMA 2007: Image Trends DustKleen simplifies the removal of dirt and dust from scanned images, whilst Image Trends SensorKleen removes dust from DSLR camera images with SensorKleen. Both DustKleen and SensorKleen will be Windows based stand alone applications initially and cost $49.95 US each. They are also available now for a free trial download. Also announced is the fully automatic SensorKleen Pro, which will follow later in 2007. Initial purchasers of SensorKleen will receive a credit of their original purchase price toward the purchase of SensorKleen Pro.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust has launched a photography competition in colloboration with Nikon. The competition has three categories: ‘WWT Nikon Photo of the Year’, ‘WWT Nikon Junior Photo of the Year’ and ‘WWT Nikon Digiscoping Photo of the Year’. The main rule is that all photos submitted must have been taken at one of the nine WWT centres in the UK. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust competition is now open and the closing date for entries is Monday 27th August 2007.

PMA 2007: SeeFile 3, a web-based creative collaboration tool, allows the individual lab owner or professional photographer to take control of their online sales. SeeFile 3 introduces side-by-side image comparisons, onscreen annotations, and color-coded collections for each user. This is a free release for owners of earlier versions of the software with an annual upgrade contract.

Possible news of a Canon EF 24-70mm IS USM lens is buried within a revised press release for the new EOS camera kits. It contains the following enigmatic entry:

EOS 5D Standard Zoom Kit - £2,999.99
- EF 24-70 IS U Lens

Could a new EF standard-zoom lens be on the horizon? I’m currently checking this out with Canon UK to find out if it’s a simple mistake or not.

Pricing has now been confirmed for all the new Canon EOS related products that were announced at the end of February at the Spring Launch event. Availability TBC on all products listed below.

- EOS 1D Mark III DSLR camera priced at £3049.99 RRP inc. VAT.
- EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens is priced at £1319.99 RRP inc.VAT
- Speedlite 580EX II flashgun is £399.99 RRP inc.VAT
- Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E2 is £649.99 RRP inc.VAT
- Original Data Security Kit OSK-E3 is £599.99 RRP inc.VAT.

PMA 2007: The Nikon D40x DSLR features a 10.2 megapixel sensor, producing 3,872 x 2,592-pixel images, 3D Colour Matrix Metering II system and 2.5 inch LCD screen, all in the most compact Nikon DSLR ever. The D40x offers near instant power-up and a continuous shooting mode of 100 jpeg images at 3 frames per second. The Nikon D40x is fully compatible (autofocus is supported) with AF-S and AF-I Nikkor lenses which are equipped with an autofocus motor. The D40x and AF-S 18-55mm DX lens kit will cost £599.99 / $799 and be available from 29th March 2007.

PMA 2007: The Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED is a compact telephoto zoom lens featuring Vibration Reduction at a budget price point. This new 3.6x (82.5-300mm) zoom lens is designed specifically to work with the new Nikon D40x and existing D80 / D40 DSLR cameras. The Silent Wave Motor promises quiet autofocusing, whilst an ED glass element helps minimize chromatic aberrations. The Nikon AF-S DX VR 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens costs £249.99 and will be available from 29th March 2007.

PMA 2007: PhotoShelter now offers one terabyte of redundant storage at a cost of $1,000 per year to all Standard and Professional PhotoShelter account subscribers. The PhotoShelter system allows for 24-hour online accessibility, while simultaneously serving as a sales platform that enables photographers to create galleries, determine fair market value, sell images, add search capabilities to personal sites and create RSS syndication feeds. This extra storage space can be added to any of these accounts at the following prices - One Terabyte of storage: $1,000 per year, or 500 Gigabytes of storage: $600 per year.

After the Beta version was released back in December 2007, Adobe have now unveiled the official launch date for Adobe Creative Suite 3. March 27th 2007 is the date to add to your calendars. Adobe will be celebrating the global launch at an event in New York City that will be webcast live at 8.30 pm UK time on that date. On March 27th, Adobe will reveal in detail the features and suite configurations that make this the largest software release in Adobe’s 25 year history. As with major new product launches recently (or so it seems), Adobe have posted a promotional CS3 YouTube video, which doesn’t give too much away…

PMA 2007: The Olympus P-1 professional DSLR is on its way - that’s the message from Olympus ahead of this year’s PMA show, as official photos and a tentative “later this year” target for the DSLR camera have been released today. The much anticipated Olympus P1 was first shown in early prototype form at Photokina in the Autumn of 2006, so perhaps March 2007 was always going to be a little too early for the full launch. After news of the consumer E-510 and E-410 DSLRs yesterday, Olympus have sought to underline their committment to the professional side of the E-System by issuing these P-1 photos, which looks quite a lot different to the E-1, with a rotating/flip-out screen, chunky battery grip and lower height. There’s also news of the development of 4 new Zuiko Digital lenses, 3 of which feature the new Supersonic Wave Drive focusing system. Exciting times for pro-Olympus DSLR users, if you can bear to wait another 6 months or so…

PMA 2007: The development of four new Olympus ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses and a 2.0x teleconverter have also been announced ahead of PMA. Interestingly three of the lenses will feature newly-developed, high-speed SWD (Supersonic Wave Drive) autofocusing system, bringing Olympus inline with other competitor’s systems (Canon’s USM, for example). The 14-35mm (28-70mm) f/2.0 offers a standard zoom with extremely fast constant aperture, whilst the non-SWD 70-300mm is equivalent to 140-600mm! Olympus have also briefly stated that the introduction of the successor to the E-1, named as the P-1, is scheduled for later this year, disappointing all those Olympus users who are patiently waiting for the company’s pro camera to be launched.

Olympus UK plan to create a dedicated division focussed on the DSLR market, announcing the appointment of Greg Connell as General Sales Manager for Digital SLR from April 2nd. Olympus UK’s Sales Director Andy Cochrane commented “Olympus are committed to photography of the highest standard and are putting in place the products and people to achieve our goals.”

PMA 2007: The new Ricoh R6 is (still) the the world’s slimmest digital camera with a 28mm wide-angle, 7.1x zoom lens. Changes from the older R5 model, include a larger 2.7 inch LCD screen, new face recognition mode (following the trend set by most other 2007 compact cameras), a slimmer body at just 20.6mm thick and 54Mb internal memory. The R6 otherwise retains the stand-out features of its predecessor, including a 7.24 megapixel CCD and vibration correction function. The Ricoh R6 will be available in mid-March 2007 in Silver, Black and Red for £229.99 (inc. VAT).

I’ve just arrived in Las Vegas for PMA 2007, to find the news that Focus on Imaging, Europe’s largest annual photography show, has got even bigger this year with record numbers of visitors. More than 32,000 visited the UK-based show during its 4 days, an increase of 3700 over the 2006 total. The show, which took place at the NEC between February 25th and 28th, featured well over 200 individual exhibitors. You can read my Focus 2007 Report to remind yourself of what happened.

PMA 2007: Digital Foci’s new Photo Safe portable hard-drives come in 40GB, 80GB, 120GB capacities with built-in memory card readers. Photo Safe provides the fastest copy speed on the market as compared to similarly priced products. Priced starting at $139 and available in in April 2007, Photo Safe is a lower-cost alternative to the Digital Foci Picture Porter Elite.