CyberLink has just launched its latest version of PhotoDirector Mobile – an easy-to-use, powerful photo editing application for touch-enabled Windows 8 tablets. The new version incorporates a number of additional options allowing users to compile photo collages, express with text bubbles and add finishing touches with photo frames. Users can quickly and easily personalise their works using touch-optimised controls and share them via Facebook and Flickr. Existing users will receive the update free of charge.

Panasonic has announced a collaboration with Ian Berry and Thomas Dworzak,  two members of Magnum Photos, to put the new Panasonic GX7 compact system camera to the test. "“The prospect of walking around with a camera like this and just a pocketful of lenses is just extraordinary," said Ian Berry, who used the new GX7 to capture images in Rome. "It has an incredible dynamic range. It holds up the highlights brilliantly when I assume they would have been lost but also holds up the shadows, so you can work with this extreme contrast." Another project saw Thomas Dworzak sent to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he was assigned to visually record its rich culture of people, movement and colour from new angles and found the GX7’s silent shutter function perfect for street photography. Ian and Thomas will be at Berlin’s IFA International show (6th-11th September) to officially reveal their images and give presentations about their experiences.

Ricoh has posted a firmware update for the Ricoh GR Digital IV professional compact camera. Version 2.30 introduces a number of new fluorescent white balance presets, adds a Multi AF/Spot AF toggle to the list of Fn button pair options, enables target selection to be activated by pressing and holding the macro button, and adds a "very weak" vignetting option to each of the Hi-Cntrast B&W, Cross Process, Positive Film, and Bleach Bypass menus. Additionally, the firmware update addresses a couple of bugs related to the flash and AE bracketing. You can download the firmware upgrade from the website below.

Website: Ricoh Global

Fujifilm has announced the winner of its 2013 Student Awards. The theme for this year's Award was 'The Colour Of....' with students being briefed to capture an image that illustrates how colour lights up their world. The awards were open to all students in the UK. The winner is Nick Linnett of Leicester College, who will be presented with £200 worth of Fujifilm films, a trophy, plus a professional quality portfolio by Metroprint. Nick's image, a double-exposure shot of traffic lights against a bright building (above), impressed judges with its technical ability and striking colours. Explaining the inspiration behind his image, Nick said: "It’s a building many consider to be an eyesore, however I wanted to show it in a different way so decided to take some multiple exposures using my trusty Canon... I chose Fujifilm Superia 200 as I wanted something flexible for the variety of different shots I was planning and I found Superia 200 gives great results in just about every situation."

The Casio EX-ZR800 is a new, raw-capable 16-megapixel compact camera with 18x optical zoom and a five-axis image stabilisation system. Like its predecessor the EX-ZR700, the new Exilim EX-ZR800 boasts a 25-450mm equivalent lens fitted elegantly into a compact body. The new camera also features other enhanced shooting functions. This is the first Exilim model to have a Time Lapse function and a “sparkling shot” filter effect. In addition, Casio has accelerated the frame rate in the auto focus mode and optimised the camera’s lens drive control, image sensor control and AF algorithm for parallel processing of AF operations and high-speed continuous shooting. The Casio Exilim EX-ZR800 will be available from the end of September, priced at €399.

The Olympus PEN Art Edition is a luxury kit including two Olympus PEN E-P5 camera bodies (one custom painted), half a dozen Micro Four Thirds lenses, an FL-600R flash, a leather body jacket, neck strap, large PEN street case and... a hand-painted Vespa LX-50 scooter with matching hand-painted helmet! "By twinning a stunning high-end camera with an effortlessly cool custom painted white Vespa, this project sumptuously succeeds in being a true ‘one off’," Olympus says. "It’s a uniquely collectable first collaboration between urban artist Susie ‘Suzko’ Lowe and fashion photographer Jay McLaughlin."  Jay has documented the whole customisation process of the first Art Edition Kit for a limited edition perfect bound catalogue available on request in store. The luxury kit is available for £16,000 exclusively at Harrods Technology.

Birds & Blooms — America’s #1 bird & garden magazine — has launched its annual Backyard Photo Contest. The competition invites readers to submit pictures of their beautiful backyard birds, butterflies and flowers for a chance to win $1,000. The submission deadline is 1 September 2013. In order to help entrants achieve the best results, the magazine's team of top photographers have compiled a list of useful tips, which you can read below.

Elliott Erwitt's Kolor is a new title from teNeues. The 448-page hardback includes 250 carefully selected colour photographs from Erwitt's vast archive of slides shot on Kodachrome and Ektachrome film stock. "Dating back as far as the 1950s, Erwitt’s lens has captured rare, iconic moments with the likes of Marilyn Monroe in that famous white halter dress over the subway grate, and portraits of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, among others," the publisher says. "Evocative and diverse, this collection presents the most special of his color photographs and is a historical account of the world for the last half of the 20th century." The book is available from September, priced at $125.

Photodex has released a new version of ProShow Web with an array of new features and enhancements that allow users to create video slideshows online with more precision and control than the previous version. Newly released features allow users to set timing control for effects, add captions to photos, offers 20-minute long videos for Plus and Premium subscribers and more. New features are available online now and are free for all ProShow Web customers. New users can sign up for a free account by visiting the website below.

Nearly four years after producing the first prototype, Professor Shree Nayar's BigShot DIY digital camera is now available to the general public. The main parts of the camera include a gearbox, a lens wheel, a printed circuit board with a 3-megapixel sensor and a 1.4-inch LCD panel, a LED flash, a rechargeable battery, a dynamo and a hand crank providing an option to use the camera when the battery is fully depleted. The final product is an improvement over the prototype, which made do with a 2-megapixel imager and no LCD screen at all. The lens wheel has three optical modules that allow you to take three types of photos -  a "regular" lens with a horizontal angle of view of 40°, a wide-angle lens and a stereo lens for 3D photography. The BigShot camera is primarily intended to be an educational aid targeted at schoolchildren, with the kit being available for $89+shipping.

Website: BigShot

Phase One  has announced a series of three free webinars for August. Inspired by stories of professionals working in Landscape (August 15), Architecture (August 21) and Portrait (August 28) photography using Capture One Pro 7, this series of webinars focuses on raw conversion and asset management techniques. Participants are encouraged to send questions throughout the presentation part and each session concludes with an extended Q&A period. For more details, and to register, visit the website below.

Olympus has released a firmware update for the Olympus E-P5 compact system camera. Version 1.2 incorporates certain modifications to the transfer mode settings for Eye-Fi cards. The firmware can be updated by connecting your camera to a computer with a working Internet connection and using the free Digital Camera Updater utility.

Nikon has issued a firmware update for the its Coolpix P7100 premium compact camera. Version 1.1 fixes a few bugs related to image playback, auto rotation, and self-timer shooting. You can download the firmware upgrade from the website below.

Website: Nikon Europe Customer Support & Downloads

Cinematographer and director Mark Toia has released a short film captured with a RED cinema camera equipped with a 6K "Epic Dragon" sensor. The five-and-a-half-minute sample movie, which was posted on the RED User forum along with a lengthy user report, demonstrates an excellent dynamic range and a very film-like, gentle highlight roll-off that's not at all similar to the harsh highlight clipping produced by most other digital cameras. "RED Dragon now has the best highlight fall off I have ever seen from any digital camera," Toia says. "Beating film! Big call I know, but after shooting film and pushing it around in telecine chains for more than a decade, I can categorically say that this new sensor has a better range than film ever had... The images out of the Dragon are so smooth now… so so smooth, like low ASA large-format film."

The Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR is a new "travelzoom" lens for Nikon digital SLR cameras with DX sized sensors. The optical formula comprises 17 elements in 12 groups, including one extra-low dispersion glass element and one aspherical lens element. Other highlights include Vibration Reduction (VR), a Silent Wave Motor (SWM) for quiet auto focus, and an iris diaphragm with 7 rounded blades. The Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR is available for $599.95/£579.99.

The Nikon SB-300 is a compact and simple flash unit with a tilting head. Offering a guide number of 18 (in metres at ISO 100/21°), the Nikon SB-300 is compatible with the manufacturer's i-TTL flash exposure control system, and boasts an FV lock function with which flash volume is determined based on monitor flashes and saved so that composition may be changed while maintaining the flash value (this function works with certain cameras only). It also has a thermal cutout function, which prevents damage to the flash due to overheating during high-intensity firing. The Speedlight SB-300 will be available later this month for $149.95/£139.99 / €169.00.

The Nikon Coolpix L620 is a new, AA battery powered camera with a 18.1-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and 14x optical zoom. The lens covers a 35mm equivalent focal range of 25-350mm and comes with Vibration Reduction (VR) on board. In addition, the lens is able to focus on subjects as close as approximately 1 cm for macro photography. Other features include Target Finding AF, 6 Special Effects, 8 Filter Effects, 1920x1080/60i videos with stereo sound and an HS Movie function that can be applied to record movies that play back in slow motion at 1/2 normal speed for more dramatic movies, or high speed at twice the speed of normal playback. Movies recorded with the camera can also be played back on a TV by connecting the camera to the TV's HDMI port. The Nikon Coolpix L620 will be available next month for approximately $250/£200.