Forces Mutual, a not-for-profit financial services company committed to improving the lives of the UK Armed Forces, has launched the Genuine Moments photography competition for photography enthusiasts in the military family to win almost £4,000 in prizes. Themes for entries include Everyday life on duty, Everyday life working with the UK Armed Forces personnel, R&R on base, My life as part of the military family and Animals in the military. Eligible photographers include serving members of the UK Armed Forces, civilian contractors, children aged under 16 with one or more parent or sibling who is a fulltime or reserve member of the UK Armed Forces and family members of serving UK Armed Forces. Entries must be submitted before 30 November 2016 to be in with a chance of winning nearly £4,000 in prizes including £750 photography vouchers to the overall winner and a further 13 category prizes ranging from £50 Amazon vouchers to £300 photography vouchers.

Akvis have rolled out Version 9.0 of their Magnifier application. Available as a plug-in or a standalone application, the software is claimed to “deliver good results” when ‘uprezzing’ a photo to create poster-sized enlargements. “Resizing pictures with Akvis Magnifier yields a much higher quality image than simple bicubic interpolation,” the company says. Version 9.0 offers enhanced configurability and customisation options including an expanded pixel limit, new resolution values, support for Ultra HD displays, and other improvements. The update is free for users who bought Magnifier within the last 12 months.

SkyPixel is calling for all creators to enter its 2016 annual aerial photography contest in conjunction with DJI. The competition, which runs from 26th October to 30th December, is open to all entrants and features both “enthusiast” and “professional” groups to which users can submit their photos. Entrants can choose between the categories of “beauty”, encompassing natural landscape and urban architecture and “360-degree aerial panorama,” which showcases immersive 360-degree views from above, aided by Virtual Reality (VR). Photos can be taken with any aerial equipment. A final category, “Drones In Use,” features photos taken from any device of drones in flight. This year’s Grand Prize will be a DJI Mystery Box, a DJI Mavic Pro, Epson Moverio BT-300 smart glasses and Epson SureColor P400 Wide Format Photo Printer and a one-year Adobe Creative Cloud Photography membership.

The Lomographic Society has announced a new holiday edition of the Lomo'Instant Wide instant film camera. Inspired by the city lights of the spectacular skyline seen from Hong Kong island’s highest mountain, the Lomo’Instant Wide Victoria Peak stands out from the crowd with a navy blue colour and a glittering silver detail. Like the original Lomo'Instant Wide, the Victoria Peak Edition comes equipped with a 90mm lens, a built-in flash with a guide number of 13 (in metres) and a motorised ejection mechanism. The Lomo’Instant Wide Victoria Peak is available now for £179.

Nikon UK has launched its Winter Cashback promotion offering up to £510/€600 on selected Nikkor lenses and DSLR cameras. The promotion runs from 27 October 2016 – 15 January 2017 and all claims must be received by 13 February. Simon Iddon, Head of Product Management at Nikon UK says: “Our Winter Cashback promotion is designed with Christmas shoppers in mind, as it’s the ideal promotion for those looking for that special gift for a loved one this year.” Click through / scroll down for the details.

Apple today introduced a significant update to its professional video editing app, Final Cut Pro X. This new edition adds new editing features for the Magnetic Timeline, support for the new Touch Bar on the latest-generation MacBook Pro and a redesigned interface with full support for wide-colour workflows. The Touch Bar replaces the keyboard’s traditional function row with a Retina-quality Multi-Touch display that dynamically adapts to Final Cut Pro X by putting intuitive, context-sensitive controls right at the user’s fingertips. “This is our biggest update to Final Cut Pro X since we completely redesigned it five years ago,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Apps Product Marketing. “The new version features a sleek interface and adds powerful new editing features that go far beyond what’s possible with traditional, track-based video editing apps; and integration with the revolutionary Touch Bar gives professional video editors a whole new way to interact with Final Cut Pro X.” Apple also released updates to Motion and Compressor. All of these upgrades are free for new users.

Apple today introduced the thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever, featuring a new Retina display supporting a wider colour gamut plus, on selected models, a Retina-quality Multi-Touch display called the Touch Bar. The Touch Bar places controls right at the user’s fingertips and adapts when using the system or apps like Adobe Photoshop or Apple's own Final Cut Pro. Additionally, the new MacBook Pro features an entirely new enclosure design and all-metal unibody construction. The 13" MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar starts at £1,449/$1,499, features a 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage, and ships today. The 13" Touch Bar model starts at £1,749/$1,799, and boasts Touch ID functionality, a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz, 16GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage, and ships in two to three weeks. The Touch Bar-equipped 15" MacBook Pro starts at £2,349/$2,399, and features a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz, 16GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage, and will be available in two to three weeks.

Colorama has announced the launch of Translum, a polypropylene backdrop-cum-diffuser designed to transform light. Lighting Translum from behind creates a soft, white background with an even, smooth look similar to seamless paper. Photographers can also position a subject and lights behind Translum to create a silhouette. When not being used as a backdrop, Translum’s versatility as a diffuser means it can be hung from ceiling to floor to create a large softbox, placed in front of a window or doorway to diffuse natural light, or easily cut into any shape or size from the roll. Because it bends, Translum can be manipulated into nearly any configuration needed – and can even be used to tailor the correct sized tent needed for your shoot. Translum comes in three grades; Lightweight, Medium and Heavy, and is available to buy as a roll, or as a set of 6 sheets including 2 of each of the different grades.

A new fundraising photography competition is challenging individuals across the UK to take and submit images that Celebrate Life in the Face of Death. The goal of the contest is to encourage people to engage with death, dying or bereavement through photography. Competition judge and celebrated photographer Rankin says “Art is a different way of seeing and talking about things we’d rather not discuss. The challenge of this competition is to look at the reality of death for all us, and then to celebrate the life we have. We all carry cameras with us these days, so I hope people will bring all their imagination, joys, fears and creativity to this. I hope to be astonished by the responses.” As this is a fundraising competition, it costs £15 for each photograph entered, with no limit on the number of entries. There will be a first prize of £1,000 for the best photograph, one runner-up prize for amateur photographers and another for professionals, and ten highly commended photos. The prizes donated include the opportunity to observe a photography shoot with Rankin, a visit to an advertising shoot, portfolio reviews, a day in a professional studio, a Polaroid Camera+ packs of Impossible Project film, and photography handbooks  The winning and highly commended photographs will become an exhibition, which will tour nationally.

Schneider Kreuznach have announced that their Xenon 18mm T2.4 Full-Frame Prime lens is now available to preorder. Adding to the current Full-Frame Prime line-up, the 18mm is available in feet and metre scales, and in Canon EF/Nikon/PL/Sony E Mount fittings. Weighing 1530g, the 18mm lens is the fastest in the market at T2.4 with a close-focus point of 0.4m. It is identical in size to the rest of the Full-Frame Prime lens range, which allows for quick swapping of the lenses with no adjustment to the rig. The 18mm Schneider Xenon Full-Frame Prime lens carries a recommended retail price of £5499.95.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX15 compact camera has just arrived with us for testing. The new Panasonic LX15 (also known as the Panasonic LX10) is the latest premium compact camera to hit the market, boasting an f/1.4 high-speed lens and a 1-inch MOS sensor. Before we bring you our full Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX15 review, here's a look at what's inside the box...