MAC Group will be taking on the sales, marketing, distribution and service for Elinchrom in the United States. “There were many factors that made our decision easy,” said Chris Whittle, Elinchrom President. “The previous success MAC Group accomplished when building a lighting company into a world class brand could be a marketing case study at Harvard. The superb relationships MAC Group has built among dealers and influencers, and their commitment to marketing, brand building, education and content made MAC Group’s team simply feel like a perfect fit for us.”

Triggertrap has unveiled a brand new “Wearables” mode for its Triggertrap Mobile app, photographers to use a smartwatch to trigger a DSLR camera. This latest update supports the current range of Pebble smartwatches, as well as the upcoming Pebble Time. Support for Apple Watch will be added to the app in the coming weeks. The update is available to download on the iOS app store, and the Triggertrap app for Pebble is available on the Pebble App Store.

PicsArt, the largest mobile creative community, has announced an update that enables users to collaborate on work via Facebook and generate timelapse videos that showcase their unique editing techniques. “We believe PicsArt provides users with the best tools to express themselves and now we are giving them more ways to share that expression,” said PicsArt’s founder, Hovhannes Avoyan. “Everyday our users are creating expressively heartfelt work with PicsArt’s tools. We want to make sure we are also giving them equally expressive ways to share that work.” PicsArt’s latest iOS and Android app update also brings enhanced social features that make collaborating and giving feedback more immediate and fluid. A new “Open” button on images makes sharing and commenting on artwork easier than ever. PicsArt users are also able to "like" images by double-tapping them and stay updated with pop-up notifications that alert users of new work from their favourite artists.

Iridient Digital has released Iridient Developer 3.0.2. This update adds support for the Nikon 1 J5, the Olympus TG-4 and Stylus 1S, the Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246), the Canon EOS 760D (Rebel T6s, 8000D), EOS 750D (Rebel T6i, Kiss X8i) and the EOS M3. Additionally, it includes further improvements to the v3 noise reduction introduced in version 3. Both Luminance and Colour noise reduction adjustments in particular are now much more effective with some forms of noise, especially when strongly increasing shadow brightness and with high ISO images. The maximum strength of noise reduction has also been increased to give smoother, lower noise output when set to high levels while still retaining good detail and colour fidelity.

SnapSelect (read review) is now free on the Mac App Store, for just one week. Usually priced at £15.99, Snapselect is an easy-to-use app that makes choosing your best images from hundreds or thousands taken super simple and very fast. Starting by importing photos from your photos folder, library or external drive, Snapselect uses patented image recognition technology to automatically group similar images and duplicates, as well as sort all photos by the time they were taken for convenient viewing. You can easily browse through images, compare one photo to another, separate bad images from great images, and instantly export the best picks to a custom folder, library and popular photo editing apps, or share via Facebook, Twitter & other social networks. “SnapSelect is already helping thousands of people who want to be able to select their best images quickly and easily,” Paul Muzok, CEO of Macphun says. “This special promotion, limited for just a few days is great way of helping many more. It’s the perfect opportunity to see how simple Macphun’s apps for photography are to use.”

Nest has announced two new professional cine/video tripods. The Nest Vantage M10 and M20 both feature aluminium double-tube extension legs for greater load capacity and greater torsion stability, and adjustable rotating clamp locks which turn 90 degrees around a centre axis, with variable tension. Both the Vantage M10 and M20 come with a 360-degree continuous, fluid dampened pan head. A padded carrying case is also supplied as standard. Both tripods have a maximum load capacity of 5kg. The Vantage M10 folds down to 760mm and extends to 1575mm, whereas the M20 has a maximum height of 1920mm. Pricing is £149.99 for the M10 and £199.99 for the M20.

Please note that Mylio no longer supports X-Rite.

X-Rite has today announced that MyLO will be integrating X-Rite ColorTRUE into Mylio, its mobile app, to deliver the first true colour-managed mobile photo editing solution. With the integration of X-Rite ColorTRUE into the Mylio photo management environment, colours in photos will appear the same regardless of the device on which they are viewed, and colour-managed photo editing will now be available to everyone on their mobile devices as well as their desktops in the Apple and Windows environments. Talking about ColorTRUE and the importance of mobile colour accuracy, Geoffrey Clements, Managing Director at X-Rite Photo Europe said. “We are seeing photo and video editing applications offer their users a seamless integration between desktop and mobile devices. It’s exciting and reflects the way photographers are now working. The truth is however, editing photos on your tablet without having a colour profile could well render all of that work incorrect or damaging. We are calling on all photo editing solutions to integrate the ColorTRUE app into their development, so that their users benefit from accurate colour as they shift from desktop to mobile devices.”

Sony today announced a sponsorship of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain’s Inter Federation Cup exhibition and competition. The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) co-ordinates specific activities for photographic clubs through 15 geographical regions known as ‘Federations’. The PAGB Sony Inter Federation Cup will be open to all of the PAGB’s 15 Federations – each group will hold its own competition where they will shortlist 30 - 40 entries to submit to the national final. All of the finalist’s work will be shown at an exhibition that will open in Kent in July, move to the West Midlands in October and Wales in November.

The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) has announced the winner and runners up of their recent Monochrome Portraiture photo competition. Kati Fichtelmann from Manchester has won 12 months Digital membership to the Society. “Kati’s image delivers the theme of the competition perfectly, a beautiful portrait with a pleasing monochromatic feel,” says CEO Phil Jones. The Runners-up Martin Leckie and Angela Adams have both won 6 months membership to the SWPP organisation, respectively.

Tamron have announced their 2015 eBook series. The first book is "Road Trip Across the Southwest," a gorgeous pictorial journey with photographer Ken Hubbard through the mountains, tufa towers, and slot canyons of the American Southwest. In this edition, Hubbard and fellow Tech Team colleague André Costantini take the Tamron Tailgate Tour van on a side trip to test-drive the new Tamron SP 15-30mm F/2.8 Di VC lens, the world's first F/2.8 ultra-wide-angle zoom lens with image stabilisation (pictured). The second eBook, "Sports Photography: A Guide to Camera Setup and Exposure" with Tamron Pro Photographer, Jillian Bell, was also posted last week. Four more eBooks are in the works and will be posted in May, June, July/August and September.

Canon today launched a series of downloadable and app-based city guides that offer fresh and unique perspectives of six cities across Europe - London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Milan and Amsterdam. The introduction of the city guides is part of Canon’s continuing ‘Come and See’ brand campaign, the latest iteration of which features two freeclimbers who explore cities around the world from unique perspectives and breathtaking vantage points. The city guide series offer a more everyday look at cities, inviting people to take a fresh look at familiar landscapes and encouraging the discovery of hidden locations from unexpected angles. “In a world full of fascinating stories, breath-taking views and hidden gems, it’s natural that in the hustle and bustle of life we overlook and at times take our surroundings for granted," says Nigel Taylor, Consumer Imaging Marketing Communications Director, Canon Europe. "At Canon, we want to help consumers enjoy cities across Europe in all their unique glory. We hope that people will relish the opportunity to seek out new perspectives and in turn capture that beauty on camera or video to cherish forever.” All six city guides are now available to download via Canon’s dedicated 'Come and See' website.

Samsung have launched two new memory card lineups, PRO Plus and EVO Plus. Available in 64GB and 32GB storage capacities, the PRO Plus microSD and SD cards are equipped to handle storing and transferring professional-grade photos and 4K UHD video content created from high-end DSLRs, smartphones, tablets and modern action cameras. With their higher read and write speeds of up to 95MB/s and 90 MB/s respectively, the PRO Plus SD cards and microSD cards satisfy both UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3) and Class 10 performance levels. The new EVO Plus memory cards are also available in SD and microSD form factors, and have read and write speeds up to 80MB/s and 20MB/s respectively that provide UHS-I Speed Class 1 (U1) and Class 10 performance, boasting a much more advanced read performance compared to the existing EVO lineup.

JP Distribution has announced the UK launch of the Westcott Ice Light 2 LED light. The new Ice Light 2 is engineered with patented new LED technology offering 1,740 lumens of daylight-balanced light while maintaining a compact housing. Unlike traditional LED panels, the Ice Light has a built-in diffuser that is custom-designed to protect the LEDs and provide a 73° beam angle. Daylight-balanced at 5500K and rated for 50,000 hours with a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of 96, the Ice Light 2 provides flicker-free output and stable light consistency. The redesigned handle offers a dedicated on/off power slider with an 18-step range and a light output memory which remembers your last power setting between uses. Battery indicator displays the current battery level using illuminated blue lights. Both ends of the Ice Light 2 include 1/4"-20 thread`s to mount to a light stand, tilter bracket or tripod. The Ice Light 2 is available for £549.

Adorama has just inked a deal with world-renowned camera adapter manufacturer Kipon, making the New York-based retailer the official US outlet for all Kipon products. On the Adorama website, customers can browse through more than 400 varieties of camera lens adapters including macro adapters, electronic adapters, adapters with integrated glass, optical focal reduction adapters, adapters with built-in aperture control, tilt/shift adapters, tilt adapters, and shift adapters for cameras such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Leica and more. Additionally, all Kipon products will also be available to other resellers at wholesale pricing through Adorama.

Apple has posted a Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update, which adds system-level support for raw image files generated by the Canon EOS 5DS, 5DS R, 750D and 760D, the Fujifilm X-A2, the Hasselblad CFV-50c and H5D-50c, the Leica C (Typ 112), the Nikon 1 S2 and D7200, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, the Panasonic Lumix CM1 (pictured) and GF7, and the Pentax MX-1.