Sigma UK have announced the recommeded retail price and availability of the Sigma dp3 Quattro large-sensor compact camera. Incorporating a newly developed Foveon X3 direct image sensor and a 75mm (eq.) f/2.8 lens, the Sigma dp3 Quattro offers superior handling and highly intuitive operation thanks to its ergonomic design and well thought-out controls. When the dedicated conversion lens FT-1201 (optional) is attached to the camera, it extends the focal length of the lens by a factor of 1.2. The Sigma dp3 Quattro will be available from the end of March at an RRP of £899.99. The FT-1201 1.2x conversion lens will set you back £149.99 .

Leica has announced the new Leica M-P ‘Safari’ special edition set. Containing a Leica M-P digital rangefinder camera in olive green safari-look and a Leica Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 ASPH. lens in silver chrome finish, the kit is limited to just 1,500 sets for the worldwide market. The top and base plates of the Leica M-P are finished in rugged and resilient olive green enamel that offers comfortable grip and lends the camera its distinctive look. The finishing touch to the safari-look of this special version of the Leica M-P is provided by its colour-matched, olive green leather trim. Silver chrome controls set a contrasting counterpoint in the colour scheme of the camera andreflect the finish of the Leica Summicron-M 35 mm f/2 ASPH. and its classic round metal lens hood. As an homage to previous editions in olive green finish, the camera of the Leica M-P ‘Safari’ sets bears the classic Leica script and the engravings ‘Leica Camera AG’ and ‘Wetzlar Germany’ on its top plate. The recommended retail price of the Leica M-P ‘Safari’ special edition set is £7,850.

Showfy is an online media sharing service from Magix which allows users to upload and view pictures and videos from practically anywhere. Media uploaded to showfy are saved to so-called streams (galleries in the cloud). Users can be create and manage streams, and add them to a multitude of devices and operating systems. "Whether on your PC, smartphone, tablet or television, showfy supports more devices and platforms than any other sharing program," the company claims. "The showfy apps are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, and showfy supports the latest devices from LG, Philips, Toshiba, Panasonic and Samsung. Users can also easily share vacation and wedding albums with friends and family in their own living rooms via the smart TV app and Google Chromecast." Showfy users can grant access to anyone by sending invitations via email. Magix guarantees that only the people they invite — and no one else — can view their favourite photos and videos. The basic showfy account is free, and offers every user 2GB of storage space for their media. Users that require more space can upgrade to showfy Premium for $1.99/month to increase their cloud storage to 25GB.

Canon UK and Irelad today launched its spring promotion allowing customers to claim up to £100/€120 cashback on selected products. These include three dSLR cameras, seven lenses, two flashes, three compact cameras, two digital camcorders and four printers. Those that purchase two products in Canon’s cashback offer can also claim a free hdbook photo book worth £99/€120. The offer runs from 5th March 2015 to 6th May 2015 for eligible products purchased from UK or Republic of Ireland retailers.

Miniaturesque, a major new exhibition by Slinkachu, will launch at Andipa Gallery on 12 March 2015. Slinkachu is a street artist who photographs his miniature street installations of 1"-high figures in various hidden enclaves of the wild within the city of London. His new body of work draws upon our desire to seek out and recreate the natural world amongst the urban metropolis. Using tropes from art and popular culture, Slinkachu’s new works employ irony, humour and a healthy dose of reality; despite their fantastical situations, the miniature figures we observe are not so dissimilar to ourselves, living in the shadows between the real and artificial. Miniaturesque will feature 17 new images on paper and aluminium as well as new sculptural pieces, one of which is Slinkachu’s biggest yet featuring over 200 miniature figures in a recreation of The River Thames. Prices range from £650 - £7,800 GBP with a special limited edition Exhibition Set available for £150.

Up and coming photographers have until Wednesday 11 March to get their entries in and have a chance at winning the first-ever D&AD Next Photographer Award. Created in partnership with Getty Images to find the best new photographers and promote them back to the creative industry, the D&AD Next Photographer Award will provide shortlisted entrants with international exposure for their work through D&AD and Getty Images, the chance to win the grand prize of a D&AD Pencil, a place in the Annual and a $5,000 prize fund from Getty Images towards a dream photography project, plus mentorship from a wide portfolio of acclaimed photographers, agents and agencies. To enter, new photographers are asked to submit three pieces of photography (still or moving image), either from a series or produced individually. Entries cost £20, and the shortlisted works will be revealed in early April and put on display as part of a public exhibition set to take place during D&AD Judging Week. The overall winner will then be announced at the D&AD Professional Awards Ceremony on Thursday 21 May.

The 6th edition of Exploring Color Photography: From Film to Pixels by Robert Hirsch is now available from Focal Press. Billed as "the thinking photographer’s guide to colour image making," this pioneering text clearly and concisely instructs students and intermediate photographers in the fundamental aesthetic and technical building blocks needed to create thought-provoking photographs with digital and film cameras. The book offers a number of stimulating assignments which encourage readers to be adventurous and to take responsibility for learning and working independently. "Colour photography continues to evolve as a flexible and permutable amalgamation of aesthetics, business, culture, psychology, and science," Hirsch says. "The book keeps striving to provide a stimulating introduction and commentary to the approaches, images, techniques, and history of color photography.” The 388-page paperback is avaiable for $59.95 / £37.99.

Manfrotto has launched its new XPRO Geared Head. Designed for architectural and macro photographers, the Manfrotto XPRO Geared Head is described as a portable support that offers extreme precision in framing control. Weighing only 750g the XPRO can support up to 4kg of payload, while the geared movement allows you to precisely frame the picture one micro step at a time on all three axes. The XPRO Geared Head is available now, priced at £169.95.

Panasonic today announced it will have a 4K themed stand at The Photography Show, which is taking place from 21-24 March 2015. The company' Lumix branded cameras will be available to explore including the DMC-CM1, the world’s only 1"-type sensor camera with an Android operating system and smartphone functionality. Panasonic will be offering in-depth product demonstrations on the DMC-CM1 and GH4 throughout the show for those looking to gain an extensive insight. The company has also announced a competition: visitors need to look out for the CM1 chocolate bar at the entrance of the show and if they find the ‘Golden Ticket’, they’ll receive a free CM1.

Sony today announced the launch of the four full-frame E-mount lenses that were first shown at Photokina 2014. These include the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS ($1100), FE 28mm F2 ($450), FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS ($1000) and Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA ($1600). In addition, the company has unveiled the SEL057FEC Dedicated Fisheye Converter ($300) and SEL075UWC Ultra-wide Converter ($250) for full-frame cameras, plus the VCL-ECU2/VCL-ECF2 Ultra Wide & Fisheye converters ($160/$180) for E-mount cameras with APS-C sensors. Click through / read on for the details.

From Darkroom to Daylight is a collection of personal narratives and portraits by photographer and filmmaker Harvey Wang. A beautiful and engaging book that explores how the dramatic change from film to digital has affected photographers and their work, From Darkroom to Daylight is organised into five chapters starting with "The Darkroom," where practitioners remember their early darkroom experiences and the magic of seeing an image come up in the developer tray, followed by "Materials: The Endangered and the Extinct," which addresses the early history of photography through the birth of Kodak roll film, to the recent demise of Kodachrome film beloved by so many photographers, and the disappearing photographic papers based on the silver-gelatin process. The third chapter, "The Digital Revolution in Photography," covers the invention of the digital camera and Photoshop, and chapter four, "Bridging the Divide," shows practitioners seeking to reconcile old and new work methods. The heart of the book is "Perspectives of the Digital (R)evolution," where photographic luminaries speak candidly about how the digital age has impacted on their careers and the photography world at large. The 180-page hardcover will hit the shelves in May.

BitTorrent have just launched Version 2.0 of Sync, their file hosting/sharing/synchronisation tool for Free BSD, Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Updates are also being rolled out to Android, iOS, Kindle and Windows Phone devices. "All of the core functionality we introduced in version 1.4 last August still exist in 2.0, letting you securely share folders across all platforms, with visibility into who has access," says Erik Pounds, Vice President of Product Management for BitTorrent Sync. "A bunch of new functionality has been added, from enhanced user interfaces across desktop and mobile platforms to a new certificates-based security model with even greater control and ease-of-use." The company has also introduced a Pro tier that adds additional functionality for business workgroups and individuals that need more capabilities and control. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: BitTorrent Blog

Issue 38 of David Noton's Chasing the Light online magazine is now available.In the Behind the Lens feature and Video Blog, David relates his adventures in the Republic of South Africa.In this month's Field Trial, Davidputs the Canon EOS 5DS and its whopping 50MP through its paces, laying out his own conclusions on its remarkable capabilities. And for Part Four of hisLow Down series on Exposure, David explores the vagaries of contrast and the tricky balancing act required to tame it.In Hoddinott’s Hangout, Ross Hoddinott takes us on a road trip all the way from his base in Cornwall, England north to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, whilefor this month’s Guest Feature world-class motorsport photographer Frits van Eldik talks about his career to date. Do note that the full contents of the magazine is available to full f11 subscribers only. Non-members can purchase individual issues of the magazine at a price of £4.20.

Wacom has announced the Cintiq 13HD touch 13" graphics tablet, which is essentially a 13HD with multi-touch gesture support. While the bundled Pro Pen - offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt recognition - drives the overall creative experience on the Cintiq 13HD touch, it is the newly added multi-touch integration that allows the user to navigate the desktop or rotate and zoom in and out of an image or illustration in an intuitive fashion. The new Cintiq 13HD touch is priced at £799.99 and is scheduled to be available in early March.

Bowensl and its videography and broadcast subdivision Limelite, are putting finishing touches to Stand G81, Hall 5 at The Photography Show at what will be the company’s biggest ever presence at any show or convention in its sixty eight year history. In addition to a new-look stand, Bowens will also run a new ‘Studio and Technique Stage’ area alongside the ‘Bowens networking lounge zone’ for professional photographers and trade visitors. An all-day, every-day, non-stop timetable of free lighting demonstrations and stage-set masterclasses from #TeamBowens photo-ambassadors Wayne Johns, Jake Hicks, Trevor and Faye Yerbury, Nick Webster, Christina Lauder, Bruce Smith and Christian Hough will cover a wide range of creative lighting techniques and applications embracing the comprehensive portfolio of Bowens/Limelite lighting equipment and light-shaping tools, over the four day event.

Lowepro today announced the Echelon series, the company’s first high-end collection of photography bags designed for the fashion-conscious professional. The limited edition, three-piece Echelon series includes a roller, attaché and laptop brief with high-end features such as custom-cast metal hardware and saddle-stitched, premium leather handles. The bags feature accessory pockets and removable organisation panels trusted to keep valuables and essential items organised and secure. The Echelon Roller’s high-impact-resistant molded interior construction protects valuable gear from shock and vibration. Its special-edition MaxFit System and highly engineered trolley with encased wheel build maximise volume, fitting up to two professional DSLRs, 6-8t lenses, flash and lighting gear, a 15-inch laptop and additional accessories. Also featuring the MaxFit System, the Echelon Attaché can hold a professional DSLR, 2-3 lenses, flash, a 13-inch laptop and necessary accessories. The attaché opens wide, similar to a classic doctor’s satchel, offering swift access to equipment. The Echelon Brief offers a moulded interior construction for protection as well as a trolley pass-through for travel ease. Able to fit a 15-inch laptop, pen tablet, portable hard drives and other business essentials, the brief also includes a memory card holder.

The Profoto B2 is a lighter, more portable counterpart to the existing Profoto B1 TTL Off-Camera Flash. Comprising a battery pack and a head, the Profoto B2 is five times as powerful as the average speedlight. The battery pack can be put on the shoulder or hip, while the head is small and light enough to be mounted onto a monopod or a bracket on the camera. Naturally, both the pack and head can be mmounted on a stand and the B2 can be wirelessly controlled from the camera. “Our ambition when we first started designing the Profoto Off-Camera Flash system was to create a solution that pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved on a fast and hectic on-location shoot,” says Product Manager Johan Wiberg. “We closely observed the needs of wedding and portrait photographers and decided to try to make their jobs a little easier. Now, looking at what we are offering, I dare say we’ve succeeded.”

Panasonic UK today announced that following a successful initial launch phase of its Android-based, raw-capable Lumix CM1 camera phone (read review), it will now be widely available nationwide from mid-April. The Panasonic CM1 is unique in that despite its slim profile, it packs a 1"-type 20-megapixel sensor and a Leica branded 28mm (eq.) f/2.8 lens with a physical iris diaphragm. The smartphone/camera hybrid will be available from CameraWorld, Dixons Travel, Harrods, Jessops, London Camera Exchange, Park Cameras, Warehouse Express and Wilkinson Cameras. Furthermore, Panasonic has revealed that the DMC-CM1’s current Android 4.4 KitKat operating system will be upgradeable to the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS in May, giving users access to many new features including notification control, battery management and extra security.