Calumet UK has launched a new 12 month student membership scheme to offer incentives and discounts for photography academics. The 12-month membership costs £25 per student and includes free sensor cleaning. a free 1:1 session with a Calumet expert, free standard delivery, a £50 rental voucher, and various discounts. Plus, students will also receive £25 worth of free gifts which includes a Selvyt cleaning cloth, an 8GB USB memory stick, a Brilliant paper sample pack and a 24-exposure roll of Ilford FP24 Plus 135 film. Students who purchase the membership will also be entitled to three free entries to the Student Photographer of the Year competition, launching later this year, with prizes totalling up to £5000. Students can join online at the website below.

Spider Camera Holster have announced the launch of their first ever Tilt crowdfunding campaign for their newest product, the SpiderPro Hand Strap. “Over the years, our loyal customers have regularly sent us feedback on what they desire in a hand strap. We listened, and we’ve come up with a strap design that fits our customer’s needs while also meeting Spider Holster’s rigorous product standards,” said Shai Eynav, founder and president of Spider Holster. “We’re incredibly excited to be this close to making the SpiderPro Hand Strap a reality, and this Tilt campaign will make it possible for us to begin putting them in our customers’ hands as early as the 2014 holiday season.” The campaign has just started, but the company has already raised more than $20,000 of their $50,000 goal. Interested readers are encouraged to pay a visit to the project's Tilt page for more information.

BenVista have released their new photo resizing software, PhotoZoom Pro 6. "In PhotoZoom Pro 6, we have reinforced our S-Spline Max algorithm with improved detection of tiny details and subtle edges. During enlargement, these are now being reconstructed in a smart way, yielding extremely true-to-nature results. The improvements are particularly spectacular with low resolution originals, which often contain lots of delicate details," says D.S. Schoolwerth, CEO at BenVista. "Moreover, PhotoZoom Pro 6 comes with a new option to enhance the vividness of photos. This comes in very handy when enlarging originals that look a bit dim or lacklustre. PhotoZoom Pro 6 will not only turn them into perfect enlargements, but can also bring these photos to life by adding some extra sunshine." PhotoZoom Pro 6 is available for €169. Upgrade options are available for existing PhotoZoom users.

A number of Canon Cinema EOS digital cameras and lenses have been selected by IMAX Corporation for a mission to capture 4K footage in space. The IMAX production team picked Canon EOS C500 EF digital cinema cameras, Canon EOS 1D-C digital SLR cameras, and a selection of Canon Cinema Zoom and Prime lenses for the project.The cameras and lenses left Earth Saturday on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The equipment will arrive at the International Space Station, where astronauts will capture 4K content for the upcoming new 3D film, tentatively titled 'A Perfect Planet.' A Perfect Planet will be shot over the course of the next year with multiple crews of astronauts conducting principal photography.  The film is tentatively set for release in early 2016.

Microsoft today announced the availability of the Lumia 735 in the United Kingdom. Featuring a 6.7-megapixel main camera module and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with a 24mm equivalent lens, the Lumia 735 comes with Windows Phone 8.1 on board, and sports a 4.7-inch HD OLED display with "Super Sensitive Touch" for glove and nail usage. Contract pricing is expected to start at £19.99.

Pompidoo has announced the Amsterdam Camera Bag as part of the Pompidoo Homme (PH) collection. Made of premium, aged and distressed leather, the PH Amsterdam boasts vintage-looking nickel hardware accents and can hold an SLR camera with lens attached and one or two additional lenses / flashes, a tablet or small laptop, as well as your phone, wallet, memory cards and other personal items. The Pompidoo Honme Amsterdam is available for $447.70 through the website below.

Adobe has released Version 13 of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. Featuring four new Effects Variations; Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 adds new Intelligent Crop Suggestion and PhotomergeCompose tools and three new Guided Edits for black-and-white photography. Adobe Premiere Elements 13 features new Video in Titles and Favourite Moments tools, a new Video Story creator and an enhanced Shake Stabiliser. Elements Live (eLive) is a new feature available from both programs, which gives users access to a huge collection of Web-based tutorials, software updates and news. Photoshop Elements 13 and Premiere Elements are available now for £81.08 / $99.99 each (£63.43 / $79.99 for upgraders), or £122.11 / $149.99 as a bundle.

The Contour ROAM3 action camera is waterproof up to 30 feet without a case and features a quick-photo mode that can be set for single frame or multiple burst shots. Other product highlights include a rugged, impact-resistant aluminum housing, a 270-degree rotating lens, Full HD movie recording at 30 frames per second or 720p at 60fps, a built-in laser level, and a locking switch that keeps the camera from turning on or off accidentally. It comes complete with a fully charged lithium-ion battery, an 8-gigabyte memory card and two low-profile mounts. The ROAM3, priced at £189.99, is now available at retailers worldwide.

Nikon USA has announced the upcoming schedule for its new Nikon School programme, which will now feature a wider variety of classes and a more interactive experience for photographers of all levels. The new courses focus on specific styles and techniques and include Travel and Landscape, Creative Lighting, Action and People and Video Production.Full-day and half-day sessions will now be available to make classes more accessible for photography lovers across the US. Additionally, Nikon School will now be structured as a more visual and interactive learning experience for students, with more enhanced content that demonstrate how to get the most out of a camera. The school will host more than 50 classes from September 2014 to June 2015 in 25 locations. For more information, visit the website below.

Canon today announced five models in the new Maxify series of wireless inkjet printers: the Maxify MB5320 Wireless Inkjet Small Office AIO printer ($399.99), the Maxify MB5020 Wireless Inkjet Small Office AIO printer($299.99), Maxify MB2320 Wireless Inkjet Home Office AIO printer ($199.99), Maxify MB2020 Wireless Inkjet Home Office AIO printer ($179.99, pictured) and Maxify iB4020 Wireless Inkjet Small Office printer ($149.99). Designed with small and home office users in mind, these Wi-Fi enabled printers offer enhanced features including high-quality, low cost per print, quick first print and cloud printing capabilities. Canon's Maxify Cloud Link feature enables documents and photos to be accessed and printed at any time from a compatible mobile device or tablet by connecting to several of the most popular online social platforms and services, such as Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Photobucket. Click through / read on for more information.

The Canon Pixma iP110 Wireless Mobile Printer, which was unveiled a month ago in Europe, is now available in the US. This printer builds on the features of its predecessor, the Canon Pixma iP100, with a 9600 x 2400 dpi maximum colour resolution, and fits easily onto a desk with limited space or into a carry-on bag. Also featured on this printer is Wireless PictBridge, a technology that allows digital camcorders and cameras to connect and then print directly without using a computer. With Access Point Mode, users can connect their compatible mobile device to the printer directly through Wi-Fi without a router. The Canon Pixma iP110 Wireless Mobile Printer has a one-picoliter droplet size for colour printing allowing business professionals to produce photo-quality prints. Available for an estimated selling price of $249.99, the Pixma iP110 Mobile Printer features the cloud-based Pixma Printing Solutions app, a user-friendly platform, allowing easy access to the cloud directly from compatible smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices.

Epson has announced that 13 of its latest mobile printers have gained Mopria-certified status. By becoming certified, Epson’s printers will work with the Mopria Print Service and the built-in Printing Framework in Android v4.4 or later. From today, Mopria-certified mobile devices will be able to automatically detect the following Epson Mopria-certified printers through their Wi-Fi connection, Expression Home XP-322, Expression Home XP-422, Expression Home XP-425, Expression Premium XP-520, Expression Premium XP-620, Expression Premium XP-625, Expression Premium XP-720, Expression Premium XP-820, Expression Photo XP-760, Expression Photo XP-860 (pictured), WorkForce WF-2630, WorkForce WF-2660 and WorkForce WF-2650.

Adobe has acquired Aviary, a developer of mobile SDKs for the delivery of creative apps. “Aviary has an exceptional team and technology platform, as well as expertise serving a robust developer ecosystem. We're thrilled to leverage Aviary's technology to make our Creative SDK even more powerful for app developers,” said Scott Belsky, vice president of Creative Cloud Ecosystem & Behance at Adobe. “This is great news for developers because thousands of mobile apps will have the opportunity to become compatible with industry-defining desktop tools like Photoshop CC, as well as new Creative Cloud services."

Akvis has updated its AirBrush software to version 2.5. This release adds a new Share feature, an option to reverse background and paint colours, a new interface theme, support for additional raw image file formats, and compatibility with Photoshop CC 2014. Registered users of AirBrush can upgrade to version 2.5 for free.

Athentech Imaging has released Perfectly Clear Plug-Ins 2.0 and LAB 5.0. Perfectly Clear Plug-Ins 2.0 feature re-engineered algorithms, a new noise engine, a new Beautify filter that gives you 10 ways to look your best, an opacity slider that lets you blend your before and after images to your preference, Import / Export presets that let you easily share presets with your friends, and much more. The reengineered LAB 5.0 for Business software features a new raw engine that supports more raw file types, betterr control over PDF image processing, and the same speed, noise & new Beautify upgrades as Plug-Ins 2.0. Perfectly Clear Plug-Ins 2.0 is now available for only $149 (individual package) and $199 (bundle). LAB 5.0 is now available for $495/quarter.

Nikon Europe has announced the 35th annual Nikon Photo Contest is now open for entries. Held annually since 1969, the prestigious Nikon Photo Contest has been expanded with four new challenges and will be judged by a globally diverse panel of 17 judges. The overall winner of the Grand Prize in the Photograph and Video categories will receive a trophy, a certificate for Nikon products valued at ¥1,000,000 and a ¥500,000 cash prize. First place winners in each themed category will receive a trophy, certificate and Nikon products valued at ¥500,000 in cash. For details of prizes for all categories, visit the website below.

Metz has announced a compact LED panel for smartphone and tablet photographers. Fitting into the headphone jack of your smart device, the new mecalight LED 72smart lighting panel features a swivelling base and provides up to 72 Lux of illuminance for mobile photographers. The tiny video light has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which means it can also be used off-camera for more creative lighting angles. Using a button on the back, the light function can be set to 3 levels: full output, reduced output, and flashing. The Metz mecalight LED 72smart will be available in five colours: black, white, pink, green and blue. Pricing has yet to be confirmed.

Panasonic and Leica Camera have extended their partnership agreement and agreed to expand and strengthen their technological cooperation in the digital camera field. "Based on this agreement, Panasonic will be able to commercialise digital camera products with Leica lenses over the next five years, from October 2014 to September 2019 while Leica will be able through the expansion and strengthening of technological cooperation to utilise Panasonic's digital technology in its own product development," the companies said in a joint statement. "The agreement will allow both companies to boost product competitiveness by combining Leica's optical technology and Panasonic's digital technology."

Canon has issued a firmware update for its EF300mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF400mm f/2.8L IS II USM, EF500mm f/4L IS II USM and EF600mm f/4L IS II USM lenses. Version 1.1.1 changes the control algorithm of the focus drive, and enhances the drive’s responsiveness for more precise focus and adjustments. In particular, the new firmware enhances the AI servo AF capability of the lenses to track erratically moving subjects such as players at a sports event. This firmware update will be performed by Canon Service Centers. This update is for lenses with Firmware Version 1.0.0 - click through / scroll down to learn how to find out if your copy is affected.