The Association of Photographers (AOP) has revealed the line-up of judges for its 30th Awards programme. Each judging panel is made up of five industry professionals and includes a Chair, who will also present the Awards on the presentation evening. In addition, the AOP exhibition will be open to the public for four days. Both the Photographers' Awards and the Open Awards will be displayed at the exciting Truman Brewery venue, Loading Bay & B3, within the heart of London’s East End.  The Photographers Awards presentation evening and party will take place on Thursday 17 October and the Open Awards presentation will be on Friday 18 October.  Both exhibitions will be open Friday 18 – Monday 21 October, 10am – 6pm. Click through / scroll down for the complete list of judges.

Hasselblad has announced the discontinuance of the Hasselblad 503CW, the last V system camera in its portfolio. The decision, which comes into immediate effect, brings to an end over a half century of evolution of the company’s original camera line. Hasselblad has confirmed that the last 503CW has rolled off the production line but the company will continue to provide V System accessories while stocks last.  V System support will also still be available through "current channels."

Blitz: WWII in London is an upcoming exhibition of vintage photographs from the 1940s, going on display on 31st May in the Daniel Blau gallery in London. The Blitz lasted from 7 September 1940 to 21 May 1941. In this time, Germany attacked London 71 times, rendering more than 1.4 million people homeless. The main air offensive against British cities diminished after May 1941, but sporadic and lethal raids continued for several more years, with the V-1 and V-2 rockets deployed between 1944 and 1945 killing nearly 9,000 civilians. The exhibition Blitz: WWII in London will be on show from 31 May - 29 June 2013 in the Daniel Blau gallery, 51 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6PB.

Nero has released a new, free Windows 8 client for its NeroKwik mobile photo sharing service. Allowing a fully integrated photo sharing across mobile devices and social networks, NeroKwik maintains a cloud-based catalogue of “thumbnail” images of the user’s photos. The original, full-size images stay where they were originally stored. This makes it possible for every photo – even ones that were just taken – to be instantly and automatically available on any device through NeroKwik. The app is also available for Android, MacOS,iOS, Windows Phone and Amazon devices. “Syncing smartphones and tablets with PCs manually is a time consuming process. Users expect their mobile devices to give them full access and control over all their content,” said Nero Chief Product Office Martin Stein. “NeroKwik solves that problem and is the only mobile service that truly puts your entire photo library in your pocket.”

The exhibition An American story, photographs by Gordon Parks is currently on display at the Forma gallery in Milan. Curated by Alessandra Mauro, the exhibition held at Forma is the largest European retrospective to be dedicated to Parks's work, to his profound poetry, to his classic, powerful and highly cinematographic photography. Open until 23rd June, the exhibition is on show at the Forma gallery, Piazza Tito Lucrezio Caro, Milan, Italy. Admission is €7.50.

Bowens International is fifty years old and the company has just launched a celebratory competition for photographers. Photographers have until the end of May to submit a photograph to Bowens using the theme ‘50’. The Bowens Litebook team will shortlist its favourite images which will then appear on the Bowens Facebook page. The public at large will then choose a winner who will pick up £600 worth of Bowens lighting equipment.

SF Photo School has just launched a new product called Photo Studio Templates. "We're very proud to launch Photo Studio Templates for photographers who are struggling to brand and market their business," says Uzair Kharawala, creator of Photo Studio Templates. "These templates are affordable & inexpensive and any photographer can customise the templates with their logo, company information, colours, fonts & images." The recommended retail price is £225. Photographers can get started by downloading two free templates and a 80-minute video on branding & marketing. For more information, visit the website below.

SanDisk is sponsoring The Coldest Journey, an expedition across Antarctica where voyagers will attempt take on one of the last remaining polar challenges. During their voyage, the team will undertake a number of scientific tests to capture images and data with the goal to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the true effects of global warming on the Antarctic continent. In order for the team to capture this journey while storing and sharing content on the move, SanDisk is providing the expedition team with SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC memory cards and SanDisk Extreme SSDs. Veteran explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, expedition leader of The Coldest Journey will be leading the team from the UK. “The team will stretch the limits of human endurance, covering 2,000 miles in six months at temperatures approaching minus 90°C,” Fiennes said. “When you’re looking to succeed in nature’s extreme margins, you need to have absolute trust in all of your equipment. We knew that when it comes to flash memory, be it SSDs to store our video, or SD memory cards to record the adventure, SanDisk is the ideal partner to have on board for The Coldest Journey.”

Blurb has launched its new Designer Collection, a series of free-to-use book templates that promise to "instantly transform simple photo books into professionally designed and beautiful productions." Users can choose from a series of six versatile templates to quickly and easily create a Small Square (7"x7") book. Additional customisation options allow book-makers to play around with photos, add captions, include personal messages, and easily switch between templates without having to start again. The Designer Collection templates have been created exclusively for Blurb by acclaimed designer and photographer Laura Brunow Miner, founder of Pictory, an online photography magazine. The templates are free to use, while the books start from £8.99. To get started with creating your own instant photo book with the Designer Collection templates, visit the website below.

The Red Bull Illume Image Quest, which is billed as the world’s greatest photography contest for action and adventure sports, is closing for entries on 30th April. Photographers can submit images to 10 categories: lifestyle, playground, energy, spirit, close up, wings, sequence, new creativity, experimental and illumination. The overall winner will receive the new Leica S camera, while category winners will each receive a Leica X2. Other prizes will include broncolor’s new Move, their portable flash, and the latest strap system from Sun-Sniper. Photographers can enter their images online at the website below.

Canon U.S.A. has announced the 2013 “Project Imaginat10n” Film Contest, which will provide the public with a unique opportunity to showcase their cinematography skills. Helmed by Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard, filmmakers of all skill levels will each have the chance to embark on the same creative exercise as five celebrity directors – Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, Biz Stone, Georgina Chapman and James Murphy – all of whom are directing short films inspired from ten Project Imaginat10n winning photographs. Selecting from the same pool of 91 winning photos, the challenge is to create a short film inspired by ten crowdsourced photos and based on ten storytelling themes: Character, Mood, Goal, Backstory, Setting, Obstacle, Relationship, The Unknown, Time and Discovery. Submissions will begin on 4th June at the website below.

The MAC Group has launched a new promotion that offers a free PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController ($79 value) to photographers who purchase a new PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 or two FlexTT5 radios for either Canon or Nikon. The PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 radios can be used to trigger any combination of TTL or manual flash units placed wherever desired, to illuminate the subject or scene being photographed. The PocketWizard AC3 ZoneController is the finishing touch that provides simple, finger-tip control of light output from three separate zones (A, B, C) of flashes or groups of flash units mounted on Flex TT5 transceivers, in either automatic-exposure or manual control. Running until 19th April, the MAC Group's mail-in programme is available only in the USA. For more information, check out the website below.

The Fujifilm Finepix JZ700 is a new 14-megapixel compact camera with a stabilised 24-192mm equivalent lens,  8fps continuous shooting (for a maximum of 8 frames) and Full HD movie capture. The body is only 18.6mm deep at the thinnest point, making the Fuji JZ700 an eminently pocketable shooter. Other highlights include a 360°Motion Panorama mode, 200fps video recording for slow-motion playback, high-speed multi-frame processing for high-dynamic-range imaging and a number of advanced filter effects. Pricing and availability have yet to be communicated.

Intro2020 has announced availability and pricing details for the Samyang T-S 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC tilt-shift lens in the United Kingdom. Manufactured in Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony A. fittings - with Canon M, Fujifilm X, Samsung NX, Pentax and Sony E-mount versions coming soon -, the lens has an optical formula comprising 16 lens elements in 11 groups, including two aspherical lenses and two Extra-low Dispersion (ED) elements. Each optical component has been covered with multi-layered, anti-reflective UMC coatings, which are claimed to provide superb light transmission, high contrast and natural colours. The tilt-shift function in the Samyang T-S 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC allows for tilt and swing movements up to +/-8.5° and enables shift, rise and fall movements of up to +/-12 mm. The Tilt-Shift section may be rotated left by 90° (with 30° adjustment), while the lens mount may be rotated both ways by 90° (in 30° increments). The Samyang T-S 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC tilt-shift lens will be available from mid-May, at a suggested retail price of £949.99 including VAT.