X-Rite Photo Europe's prize draw, launched in September, offers photographers a truly unique workshop travelling across Iceland. The prize includes an all-inclusive, eight-day trip to the country, including return flights to Reykjavík from European locations, training and advice from a world leading photographic trainer, and great opportunities to capture Iceland’s stunning landscape. The promotion is for European residents only, and runs until 31st March 2015. To enter, no purchase is necessary, simply complete the form at the website below.

Kenro has announced a new entry-level two-head lighting kit for photographers wishing to set up a low-cost home studio. The Reflecta VisiLux StudioKit 130 comprises 2 x 130Ws flash heads, 2 x lighting stands, 2 x 92cm octagonal softboxes, 2 x sync cables and a carry bag. Recycle time is between half to 3 seconds and each light comes with a modelling lamp (maximum 50W). The trigger methods are: sync cable, sensor, test button and remote control. The suggested price is £227.94 including VAT.

Kenro, the UK and Ireland distributor of Reflecta imaging products, has announced the immediate availability of the new Reflecta 3-in1 scanner. Equipped with a 5-megapixel area-array CMOS sensor with 3 white LEDs, the Reflecta 3-in1 scanner digitizes your 35mm slides, negatives or photographic prints in 2 seconds. The included holders accommodate 9x13, 10x15 and 13x18cm prints, film strips of up to 6 frames or 3 mounted slides. Images can be viewed on the 2.4inch display and the scanned files then  saved on SD(HC), MemoryStick and MemoryStick Pro cards, and transferred to a PC via USB 2.0. The suggested retail price is £106.38.

UK landscape photographer Greg Whitton has emerged as the winner of the Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2014 contest. The news was announced at the Outdoor Photographer of the Year awards ceremony on Sunday 15th February at the Telegraph Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show, London Excel. Greg’s photograph was taken during a six-day wild camping trip in Iceland with four other photographers. He says: ‘I took this picture on the last night of the trip. We hadn’t had a moment of really good light during the whole six days. When we reached the top of this particular peak there was thick cloud blocking the sun. My camera battery was running out and I didn’t have any spare in my pack, so I started to make the descent back to basecamp. After making my way about 50 metres down the mountain the clouds started to part slightly. The light only lasted a few minutes. I’ve got other photographs when the light became really epic, but for me this image, where the light is building, is more successful.’
 

Photographers looking to enter the Hasselblad Masters 2016 competition will have until 31 May 2015 to submit three images in the Art, Landscape/Nature, Wedding, Portrait, Fashion/Beauty, Products, Architecture, Wildlife
Project//21 and Street/Urban categories. Now, for the first time ever each winner will pick up a brand new high-end medium-format Hasselblad camera alongside the honour of becoming an elite Hasselblad Master. "We have made some changes to the 2016 Competition - which reaches out to both professionals and young, ambitious and aspirational photographers, " says Perry Oosting, Hasselblad CEO. "We look forward to supporting all photographers with our new competition platform." As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Akvis have rolled out a major update to Akvis Magnifier. 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 8 enables users to print super high resolution images on multiple pages, adds Dropbox to the list of publishing services and support for more raw image formats (standalone version), and fixes bugs. Registered users of Magnifier can upgrade to version 8 free of charge.

The winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year Award have been announced. The overall winner is Magdalena Wasiczek, who convinced the jury with her photo entitled The Ballerinas (above). "I like photographing the dry hydrangea flowers on a background of colourful autumn leaves in the beautiful sunset," Magdalena says. "The sun shone through the few remaining leaves on trees forming a nice bokeh in the background. Category winners include Carol Casselden, Marianne Majerus, Patrick Goujon, Leonardo Battista, Duncan Herring, Mark Gray and Albert Ceolan.

Thomas Cook have announced their newest photoblogging challenge, Explore the Elements. "We’re looking for bloggers to publish photographs they’ve taken which best represent one of the four elements," the company says. "All the categories are open to your interpretation, so you can be free to take a picture of anything you feel showcases your chosen element." Entrants are invited to submit their photographs representing Earth, Air, Fire and Water for a chance to win a £5000 travel fund and other goodies including a Fujifilm X-T1, an iPhone 6 with Bose noise-cancelling headphones and a MacBook Air notebook.

ACD Systems are hosting a Valentine’s Day Giveaway offering the ACDSee iPhone App to be downloaded from the App Store for free until 11:59 p.m. PT on February 15. The ACDSee iPhone app is designed to help users capture and perfect photos all from their iPhone. The app provides a professional-grade camera, a powerful photo editor and a creative collage maker all in one app with unique features such as the advanced Selfie Mode. ACDSee’s Selfie Mode includes a front-facing camera with a front flash and Skin Tune, which smoothes and brightens skin tone enabling users to take the best selfie. The app also includes light, colour and tone equalizers based on ACD Systems’ patented Light EQ technology. The ACDSee iPhone app is optimised for iOS 8.1 and the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to take advantage of the latest technology.  It also works with iPhone 4S, 5 or 5S with iOS 8.1.

Tamron is displaying samples of a tripod mount ring for its SP 150-600mm Di VC USD at CP+ 2015. Compared to the supplied tripod mount, the new long-type design provides an extended base surface. This extra space not only makes it possible to add a second screw hole for secure mounting, thereby enhancing stability and versatility, but also makes it easier for users to hold the base surface and carry it around. Price and availability are to be communicated.

Jessops invite you to join them at Glasgow Caledonian University on Saturday 16th May for advice and coaching from Michael Wayne Plant and Damian McGillycuddy. Plant will be demonstrating the abilities of the Sony Compact interchangeable lens cameras, specifically exploring street photography and some of the advantages this system can present. Olympus UK’s Principle Photographer and Educator Damian McGillycuddy, winner of 5 UK Master Photographer of the Year awards (pictured), will show how well the Olympus cameras work in portrait scenarios, shooting using simple lighting for great results. The session will run from 13.00-16.00. Tickets are £8.00 in advance. You can book your place online at the website below.

Restrap have embarked on a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the commercialisation of their newest product range, the 'Shoot' camera strap. Promising "unbeatable strength and flexibility through the power of magnets," the Shoot’s magnetic connection system (“SNAPS”) is capable of bearing 100kg and allows any camera to be carried with unfailing security. The SNAPS are a pair: one side attaches to the camera, the other to the strap. The result is a seamless connection. Cameras are fastened, removed, swapped and fine tuned with unbeatable ease. The strap comes in two versions. The Shoot (£35) secures the camera around the photographer’s neck or in a sling style, whilst the Shoot Mini (£20) attaches around the wrist – either right or left – to keep the camera closer to hand. Interested readers are encouraged to pay a visit to the project's Kickstarter page for more information.

Ricoh has unveiled updated versions of its lens roadmaps for Pentax K, Q and 645 medium-format optics. For K-mount cameras, the company is planning to release a DA wide zoom, a D-FA large-diameter standard zoom, another D-FA standard zoom and a D-FA large-diameter wide zoom this year (or later). For the Pentax Q series, Ricoh will introduce a telemacro lens, and the line-up of Pentax 645 lenses will be expanded with a standard zoom and a telezoom. The actual focal ranges of these zooms have not been specified, but from the charts it looks like the DA wide zoom might be a 14-35mm, the D-FA arge-diameter zoom is likely to be a 24-70mm, the D-FA standard zoom could be a 28-100mm, and the D-FA large-diameter wide zoom may be a 18-36mm. The Q-mount telemacro lens could be anywhere between 85mm and 105mm, whereas the Pentax 645 series standard zoom and telezoom lenses appear to be 45-85mm and 95-180mm, respectively.

The FUJIFILM Xseries Japan Facebook page has published a photo of all the new XF lenses. Shown in the image are the XF 16mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2, 90mm f/2, 120mm f/2.8 Macro, 100-400m (apertures tbc), and the 1.4x tele-convertor. The photo confirms that the 16mm, 35mm and 120mm lenses will all be weather-resistant (but not the 90mm).

The upcoming Fujifilm XF 16mm f/1.4 R lens will be weather-resistant. The Fujifilm X World Facebook page has published an image of the Fujifilm XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR lens with "WR" included, which denotes "weather resistant" on other Fujifilm lenses.

They also comment "And in 2015 there will a be a new addition, XF16mmF1.4 R. It is wide angle large diameter lens, and yet compact in size. It takes the full advantage of X-mount being a mirrorless system, and it will certainly be optimized for the X-Trans CMOS sensor. The lens will be a favorite for many."

We take a look at the latest 256GB SDXC UHS-I U3 memory card from Transcend...

We take a look at the brand new Nikon Coolpix P610, L840, L340, S9900, S7000, AW130, S33 cameras in our detailed hands-on preview...

Foap is a mobile app (iOS and Android) and website that connects brands with a vast library of authentic, high-quality, user-generated images. The Foap process is simple: users upload their photos via the mobile app, tag them with relevant keywords and submit them for approval. Once rated by five other users, the photo appears in the Foap marketplace where brands and agencies can purchase it for their editorial or advertising purposes. Users make $5 on every photo they sell. Brands seeking photos for a specific campaign or purpose can even host Foap Missions, a call for entries for users to submit photos that fit the brand’s requirements.Mission winners receive a cash prize if their photo is selected, and all other photos remain in the brand’s library for future purchase. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: Foap