From 13-17 October 2015, Magnum Photos will host two 5-day workshops with Nikos Economopoulos and Richard Kalvar, and one 3-day masterclass with Patrick Zachmann in Munich, Bavaria. Aimed at photographers with a good understanding of photographic practice, Nikos Economopoulos will lead his workshop through a daily programme of shooting, reviews, group critiques, mentoring, editing sessions and the opportunity to develop a photographic project under his guidance. Candidates will spend the five days alongside the photographer developing visual language, photographic identity, practical, technical and conceptual skills and the expertise required to compete in a changing marketplace. Richard Kalvar will try to help each person get closer to his or her instincts, feelings and intentions, and become more sensitive and reactive to the world outside. He will also examine how formal considerations like composition, framing, focus and depth of field enhance or limit the effect of a photograph on the audience. The Magnum masterclass with Patrick Zachmann will comprise editing sessions, sequencing, portfolio reviews, group critiques and mentoring. Click through / read on for the details.

The Nikon D5500 has been named the "European Consumer DSLR Camera of 2015-2016” by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA). "With extensive manual controls and built-in Wi-Fi, the D5500 includes everything enthusiast photographers need to make and share superb images," the jury said. You can read our review of the Nikon D5500 here.

Pixbuf has just launched into public beta, and introduced photographer's analytics. Creating a platform for aggregating data from all available services, Pixbuf gives photographers an idea of who likes their pictures and what communities they are from. Acting as a photographer’s hub for automated sharing on various services, Pixhub enables you to easily upload your pictures, set up sharing and head out to take more pictures. “We want to give photographers back the time for photography,” says Filip Molcan, founder of Pixbuf. “Making an exceptional picture is very difficult today. Standing out from the crowd on the Internet is even harder and that’s where we want to help.” Pixbuf is available for free at the website below.

Broncolor have unveiled the new Broncolor Beautybox 65 light shaper. Billed as a portable alternative to the beauty dish, the Beautybox 65 includes a reversible gold/white centre counter reflector, providing two options for neutral colour, or a warming effect. Optional accessories include a translucent white counter reflector for more direct light, as well as a front diffusion screen and fabric grid to control light spread. The suggestted price is $296.

World renowned adventure and commercial photographer and Explorer of Light Tyler Stableford will host a Canon Live Learning EOS Destination Workshop at Maroon Bells in the Rocky Mountains in Aspen. Designed for advanced amateur photographers, The Art of Dramatic Landscape and Action Photography with Tyler Stableford will provide attendees with an opportunity to shoot side-by-side with Tyler and learn some of his tricks. Attendees will learn techniques to help capture high-action images and environmental portraits including better understanding composition and light, working with Canon Speedlites to enhance outdoor portraiture, improving images with Lightroom and much more. The fee for the two-day workshop is $1225.

Fantasea have launched the Radiant 2500 and Radiant Pro 2500  video lights, which offer a variety of quality lighting options for enhancing colour and light in underwater videos and photographs. Featuring an ergonomic design and durable construction, these lights can be comfortably integrated into any underwater photo system. A battery power indicator light around the power switch enables easy monitoring of the battery power. Adjustable power output allows controlling the intensity of the beam in various compositions and diving conditions. The Radiant Pro 2500 ($500) makes use of 12 powerful LEDs, which provide an ultra bright, wide and even beam. The light offers a variety of operation modes, which make the light suitable to light a wide range of classic and creative compositions. Operation modes include wide angle white light (120 degrees), narrow angle white light (15 degrees), red light, UV and blue light and two flashing modes. The Radiant 2500 ($390) makes use of 6 light emitting diodes, which provide an ultra bright, even and wide output. A wide beam angle of 120 degrees makes the light suitable for lighting a wide range of compositions. Both models are depth rated to 100 metres / 330 feet.

Iridient Digital has released Iridient Developer 3.0.4 for Mac OS X. This update includes further improvements to the v3.5 noise reduction specifically for monochrome conversions and lowers the minimum sensitivity levels for Colour, Colour Aliasing and Luminance Grain Smoothness when using monochrome processing. This update also includes general performance enhancements, updated file export libraries for TIFF and JPEG formats and support for 10 new cameras including the Sony A7R II, RX100 IV and RX10 II, the Canon PowerShot G3 X., the Panasonic DMC-GX8, DMC-FZ300 and DMC-FZ330, the Olympus AIR-A01, the Ricoh GR II and tje Kinefity KineMAX 6K. For customers who purchased a new or upgraded license after 14 April 2013, this update is free.

We've teamed up with DxO to give away DxO Optics Pro 10, Film Pack and Viewpoint!

Danny Johnson is the lucky winner - congratulations!

DxO Photo Suite - The ultimate combination of power and creativity integrated in a unique and intuitive interface

DxO Photo Suite includes:

DxO Optics Pro - Thanks to DxO OpticsPro’s exclusive technologies, instantly correct all the optical defects of your equipment, remove digital noise even at high sensitivities, recover fine details and textures in dark or burnt areas, and bring out all the nuances of color in your images. With DxO OpticsPro’s outstanding performance, bring out the best in your RAW and JPEG photos in just a few clicks, regardless of shooting conditions.

- Prime denoising technology

- Clearview haze removal

- Smart Lighting exposure optimisation

- Automatic optical corrections

DxO FilmPack - Rediscover the style, the colors, and the grain of more than 80 legendary analog films, faithfully thanks to DxO’s exclusive calibration process. Combine many original renderings with filter, vignetting, blur, texture, frame, or light leak effects to give your photos a unique look. Preserve the quality of your digital images thanks to support for RAW format and benefit from DxO’s unsurpassed powerful processing.

- 120 styles, 80 of which are legendary analog films

- Black & White conversion

- Designer presets for creative control

DxO ViewPoint - As a standalone application and as a plugin, DxO ViewPoint offers simple visual tools for making spectacular corrections, along with advanced controls for unrivaled precision.

- Resolve the most complex perspective problems

- Correction of volume deformation

- Distortion correction

As complementary plugins, DxO ViewPoint and DxO FilmPack integrate perfectly within DxO OpticsPro. All their features are directly accessible in integrated palettes, allowing you to apply your corrections to any RAW or JPEG image being processed. Further, you don’t have to change anything about your workflow: DxO OpticsPro is completely compatible with Lightroom.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Show of Hands by photographer Tim Booth is an inspiring collection of the hands of Britain. A display of intricately striking monochrome images, the book was inspired by Tim Booth’s grandmother when he photographed her 94 year hands and found inspiration in the stories they could tell. Now spanning 20 years of photography, the labour of love has continued into a collection of over 110 hands dedicated to an art, job or tradition in the UK. Each portrait – shot only in natural light - is accompanied by a short story and quote from the sitter to put the hands in context of the history behind them.“I flick through this book and even now I feel humbled at the people I was able to meet and talk to and the memories these hands evoke,” explains Tim. “What started with my grandmother has taken me on an incredible and fascinating journey and I’m delighted to be able to share the hands of these wonderful people.” A Show of Hands will become available on 6 October 2015.

The Impossible Project has announced an instant film collaboration with Skateistan, an international not-for-profit organisation that uses skateboarding to change kids' lives. Starting out as a grassroots 'Sport for Development' project on the streets of Kabul in 2007, Skateistan has become an award-winning, international NGO with projects in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Influenced by Afghan textiles, the special-edition, black-and-white Skateistan instant film features eight white frames decorated with the signature Skateistan details. “Having enjoyed working with Impossible last year we were excited to further cement our relationship,” said Skateistan founder and Executive Director Oliver Percovich. “It is a fantastic feeling to think that people will be shooting our film all over the world and in turn creating more opportunities and empowering the young people that we work with.” The film is available online from the Impossible website for €21.

Hasselblad has announced the appointment of a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Effective 12th October, Johan Åhlén, a former brand, marketing and sales expert with Scandinavian Airlines assumes responsibility for Hasselblad's marketing initiatives. "As a marketeer it is an honour for me to accept this new role at Hasselblad and become an integral part of this iconic brand," Åhlén said. "This company has a stunning history, with its cutting edge products used by some of the best photographers in the world. It will be a joy to develop new marketing initiatives and business potential together with the Hasselblad team."

Gitzo have announced a completely new range of Center Ball Heads. Dedicated to pros and advanced amateur photographers, the new Gitzo Center Ball Heads have been developed to be the ideal complements to Gitzo’s top-of-the-range tripods. Available in three sizes, the new ball heads are coated with tungsten disulphide, which provides comfortable friction onto the ball, meaning it can be locked with minimal effort while avoiding unwanted deforming or drifting. All three models feature an independent pan lock, making it possible to take panoramic photos or make horizontal adjustments for perfect framing. The quick-release plate is locked with a screw-knob, which makes the system compact, light, and intuitive, while being flexible to accept most Arca-Swiss style plates. Prices start from £264.95.

Gitzo have unveiled their new Traveler Tripod range featuring state of the art “Carbon eXact” tubes. Stiffer than the antecedents’ Carbon 6X tubes, the new tubes include High Modulus carbon fibre, and have larger tube diameters. The new tripods also boast a new, compact leg lock system called Traveler G-lock. The new, curved external form provides good grip, whilst the internal O-ring achieves softer operation and reduces dust and grit entering the locks. The new range includes six tripods (priced from £559.95) plus a monopod (£239.95). Click through / read on for the details.

NYC-based fashion photographer Emily Soto has shot a series of photographs with the Lomography Petzval lens, which will be on display at the Lomography Gallery Store Soho from 20th August - 10th September. Soto is known for her unique style and professional aptitude and she is one of the top names requested by fashion editors.. Concurrent with her "Petzval Portraits" exhibition, she will discuss her work and experience using the New Petzval Art Lens in her work onThursday 27th August at 6pm. The Lomography Gallery Store Soho is located at 3 Newburgh Street, London, W1F 7RE.

Elinchrom, Phottix and Sekonic have announced plans to launch the "most revolutionary lighting control system ever." The integration of select existing technologies as well as the joint development of new ones from this global alliance carries the promise of creating a creative lighting toolkit allowing photographers to dramatically expand their repertoire. Currently, Phottix and Elinchrom design engineers are collaborating on enhanced features for the next generation of the Skyport transmitter, which will include hyper-sync functionality. Additionally, photographers using the Phottix Indra 360 TTL (pictured) or Indra 500 TTL lighting systems will soon have the ability to use the broad range of Elinchrom light-shapers. Sekonic is collaborating with both Phottix and Elinchrom to finalise two new 478-series LiteMaster Pro flash meters; one for Elinchrom featuring in-meter power control and one for Phottix that allows for triggering of groups from the meter.

This week we've been busy testing out the new Sony A7R II full-frame mirrorless camera with a variety of native lenses from Sony and Zeiss. We've published sample images from no less than 13 different lenses:

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 16-35mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 24-70mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Zeiss Batis 25mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 28mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 55mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 70-200mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Zeiss Batis 85mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 90mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 28-70mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Zeiss Loxia 35mm Sample Images

Sony A7R II with the Zeiss Loxia 50mm Sample Images

Most of these lenses were supplied by our friends at Hireacamera - they're definitely worth checking out if you want to hire or rent camera kit in the UK.

EIZO USA have announces the new ColorEdge CS270/CS240 Professional Photo Kit – an all-in-one colour-managed display solution package for photo professionals. The kit consists of an EIZO EX2 photometer, a copy of EIZO's ColorNavigator 6 software and either an EIZO ColorEdge CS270 or an EIZO ColorEdge CS240 monitor (pictured). It also includes a 20% discount coupon for Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography Plan. EIZO USA will launch the Professional Photo Kit through authorised resellers and will begin shipping on 24 August 2015. The price of the kit is $964 for the 24" option and $1,214 for the 27" one.