Canon has issued a firmware upgrade for the Canon PowerShot S100 digital compact camera. According to the company, Version 1.0.2.0 “fixes a phenomenon in which the focal length may not change when the control ring’s function is to control the step zoom, and the control ring is turned slowly, click-by-click.” You can download the firmware update from the website below.

Website: Canon Powershot S100 / Canon U.S.A.

From 2 March - 26 May 2013, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of the works of Edith Tudor-Hart. As one of the most important female photographers to have ever worked in the UK, Edith Tudor-Hart lived through and documented some of the most significant political events of the 20th century,  covering inter-war Vienna, Britain during the Great Slump of the 1930s and post-WW2 child welfare in the UK. The exhibition, “In the Shadow of Tyranny,” contains more than 80 images, many of which have never been shown before, and includes film footage, Tudor-Hart’s scrapbook and a selection of her published stories in books and magazines. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery is located at 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JD.

Announced in October 2012, Cokin’s new Pure Harmonie range of filters are now available for purchase in the United Kingdom. Billed as the lightest and thinnest photo filters in the world, Cokin Pure Harmonie filters are multi-coated with EVERCLEAR 5 Coating Technology boasting Water Repellent, Anti-Oil, Anti-Dust, Anti-Soil and Scratch Resistant characteristics. With a thickness of 3.3mm for the Multi-Coated Anti-UV (UV MC), 4.5mm for the Circular Polarizer (C PL) and 9.5mm for the Variable Density Neutral Grey (ND X), Cokin Pure Harmonie filters are super-lightweight and cause no vignetting. Pricing starts at £39.99 for the UV filters, £79.99 for the circular polarisers and £154.99 for the variable-density neutral grey filters.

Adobe has launched a new version of its Photoshop Touch app, optimised for smartphones. Inspired by the existing Photoshop Touch for tablets, the phone app brings core features of Photoshop desktop software to mobile devices and offers similar intuitive, touch-based gestures and features. “Adobe Photoshop Touch for phone offers great depth and value with layering and blending features,” said Richard Gray, mobile photographer, educator and blogger, iphoggy.com. “I’ll be using Photoshop Touch for phone in class with my students this year as we look at the more artistic end of the creative process with dreamscapes and surreal images.” Adobe Photoshop Touch for phone is immediately available in the Apple App Store and Google Play for £2.99.

Canon Europe is participating in a number of initiatives as part of its official sponsorship of London Fashion Week and London Fashion Weekend. Highlights of the Canon initiatives are captured in behind-the-scene insights revealed in a series of Canon video interviews by seasoned fashion blogger Andy Torres from StyleScrapbook.com. Leading professional photographer Clive Booth also explains what it means to be a fashion photographer and the creation story behind British designer Henry Holland’s look book. Canon will also provide a range of photography opportunities and experiences to student photographers and the 2012 winners of the Canon Professional Services’ ‘Best Shot’ competition. London Fashion Week (15-19 February) is the biggest event on the British fashion calendar, with over 5,000 visitors at this year’s event.  It is followed by London Fashion Weekend (21-24 February) London’s largest and most exclusive designer shopping event open to the public biannually.

Adobe has posted version 7.4 of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and version 4.4 of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom as Release Candidates. These updates add support for the Canon EOS 1D C
Casio Exilim EX-ZR700, Fujifilm X100s, Fujifilm X20 (pictured), Hasselblad Lunar, Leica M, Nikon 1 V3, Nikon 1 S1 and Pentax MX-1 cameras; and includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Fujifilm cameras with the X-Trans sensor.  This specifically impacts the Fujifilm X-Pro1, Fujifilm X-E1, Fujifilm X100S and Fujifilm X20 models.

The winners of BergHind Joseph’s International Photographic Competition have just been announced. The overall winner is Erkan Kalenderli of Turkey. His winning entry called ‘The former type of leader’ (above) pictures a shepherd with his flock. Anna Marriage from the UK came in second with her photo, ‘Leading by example, the ballerina,’’ and in third place was Doron Talmi with the image ‘Female Leadership’. The winning images were selected by a prestigious judging panel including Margaret Clarke, picture editor of The Times, Professor Paddy Professor Paddy Miller, one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, BergHind Joseph’s Director of Design Excellence, Smith Joseph and Director of Creative Delivery, Michael Hirschl. As well as a cash prize of £500, Erkan will be offered a year of portfolio mentoring sessions with BergHind Joseph’s creative team. Last year’s winner, Zoltán Balogh from Hungary, took up the mentoring sessions last year and as a result is building his reputation,  portfolio, and establishing himself as a professional photographer.

Intro 2020 has launched a new Tamron UK Facebook page. Offering plenty of news and editorial content as well as regular competitions, reviews of Tamron products, galleries of inspirational images and exclusive offers for fans; the page went live on Monday, 25th February 2013. To celebrate the launch month there will be a different themed photo-competition each week for the next four weeks – with a total of four Tamron 18-270mm PZD lenses up for grabs.

Akvis has released version 3.0 of Akvis Refocus, a program that improves the sharpness of out-of-focus images. This update offers brand new image processing modes and allows users to actually add lens blur and bokeh effects to their photos. The program now runs in three modes, refocus, miniature and iris blur.  The refocus mode is the same as before, making blurred photos sharp and clear (within limits, of course). The miniature mode - which Akvis calls “Tilt-Shift” even though it cannot emulate everything you can achieve with a real tilt-shift lens - leaves a sharp strip in the image while adding gradual blur at the edges, giving objects in the photo a miniature/toy look. Finally, the Iris Blur mode creates a shallow depth-of-field effect, blurring the background while keeping the subject in focus. Registered users of Refocus can upgrade to version 3.0 free of charge.

Everyday Objects / Cultural Treasures by Vadim Gushchin is a new title from Schilt Publishing. ‘An ode to the Russian Suprematist tradition, Gushchin’s photography reveals the fundamental duality of culture: the abstract nature of objects in it and the specificity of colour,’ the publisher says. “Gushchin offers us an image of the object that moves away from the banal mythology of the commodity. His photographs show us that fine line beyond which the ideal object mutates into a household item.” The 96-page volume is available for £45/$60/€50.

The next Magnum Professional Practice seminar will be held from 13th – 14th April in Newport, Wales. In this two day event, hosted in partnership with the University of Wales, leading figures of the photographic industry will deliver presentations and advice on the best means in engaging with and the realities of working in their sectors. Confirmed speakers include Sophie Batterbury, Emily Graham, Harry Hardie, Joni Karanka, Peter Marlow, Stewart Mungeam, Fiona Rogers and Hannah Watson. The tuition fee is £150 (+VAT) including lunch and refreshments but excluding transport and accommodation. 10 bursary places are available for photographers aged 16-25 years for the subsided rate of £50 (+VAT).

Visual artist Tina Remiz (pictured) today launched a mission to help some of the world’s poorest people. She will photograph, film and record the voices of Zambians – many of whom lost their jobs through austerity measures – who now struggle to survive on little more than £1 a day as market vendors and street traders. War on Want - the charity that supports these Zambians - will use her material in campaigns which press British and foreign ministers for policies which put the poor before multinational companies’ profits. Tina, 24, who lives in London’s Bromley-by-Bow, said: “I am not only excited about this commission, but feel lucky for a chance to do a story on a subject which is both important and under-represented in the media.”

Ikelite has revealed a TTL-enabled underwater housing for the Nikon D5200 digital SLR camera. Depth rated to 60m, the housing features controls for all critical camera functions and offers a clear view of the camera and o-ring seals to facilitate easy assembly and operation. Lens ports can be removed and replaced quickly with a simple positive locking system which provides visible assurance when the housing is assembled properly. Ikelite proprietary circuitry allows direct communication between the camera and current Ikelite DS Substrobes for accurate through-the-lens metering control of a n off-camera flash. The Ikelite housing for the Nikon D5200 is currently in production for early-March release through Cameras Underwater. The recommended retail price is £1279.99.

Nero has released a new, free iPhone and iPad app 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, Windows, Windows Phone and Amazon devices.

From 5th March - 13th April, Margaret Street Gallery will be hosting a photographic exhibition by Jim Naughten, entitled “Costume and Conflict.” The exhibition features Jim Naughten’s extraordinary colour portraits of the Herero tribe in Namibia. Photographed in the blazing Namibian desert, the Herero tribe members are adorned in 19th century European dresses and paramilitary costumes that hark back to the region’s German colonisation. Naughten’s book of this work, Costume and Conflict: The Herero Tribe of Namibia,was published a week ago by Merrell Publishers. Margaret Street Gallery is located at 63 Margaret Street, London, W1W 8SW

Photographers visiting Focus on Imaging at the Birmingham NEC (3rd - 6th March) will be able to test drive the new Hasselblad H5D medium-format camera as it makes its first major UK appearance. On the same stand (N9), broncolor will be showcasing its brand new ‘lightweight athlete’ lithium Move battery power pack. Mark Witney, Hasselblad UK Marketing and Communications Supervisor said: “We’ve got a brand new stand design this year and our joint presence with broncolor means visitors can gain easy access to the best cameras in the world for ultimate image quality, colour and detail - and at the same time browse products from the leading brand worldwide for precision and high quality lighting systems.

Phase One has released Capture One Express 7. Offering the essential tools to import, convert, organise, adjust, share and print superior-quality photographs in a fast, intuitive workflow; Capture One Express 7 includes many of the advanced features found in Capture One Pro 7, like noise reduction when shooting in low light, the ability to recover details in shadows and highlights, plus fast black-and-white conversions. Improved OpenCL support means faster image processing. New and improved adjustment tools - e.g. Clarity, HDR - offer greater control for more creative possibilities. Phase One Capture One Express 7 for Windows and Mac is available now for $99 or €69 through the Phase One online store.