The Olympus PEN E-P3 is the new flagship of the digital PEN fleet, offering ultra-fast AF, a pop-up flash, a comprehensive set of manual controls and a 610,000-dot touch-sensitive OLED screen. Olympus says it has implemented the world’s fastest auto-focus system in the PEN E-P3, making it “a genuine alternative to bulkier and more expensive SLRs”. Other highlights include a metal body, a 12.3-megapixel High Speed Live MOS sensor with a top sensitivity setting of ISO 12800, 3fps continuous shooting, 1080i/60fps high-definition video recording with stereo sound, a flash hot-shoe, an accessory port, an electronic level gauge and no less than 3 customisable buttons for easy operation. The new OLED touchscreen offers fingertip scrolling and enlarging of photos as well as control of the shutter release, AF points and the pop-up Live Guide. The Olympus E-P3 will be available from August for £799. This price includes the camera body and a 14-42mm kit zoom.

The Olympus PEN E-PM1 (also known as the PEN Mini) is a small and lightweight 12-megapixel compact system camera featuring what its manufacturer claims to be the world’s fastest auto-focus system, with 35 AF points and an AF assist light. Other notable features include in-body image stabilisation, a top shutter speed of 1/4000th second, a 5fps continuous shooting mode, a top sensitivity setting of ISO 12800, a hot-shoe, an accessory port and the ability to record 1080i high-definition videos with stero sound, with the capability to apply one of 6 Art Filters to videos as they are being captured. The Olympus PEN E-PM1 is available from early autumn 2011 with pricing to be confirmed.

The new Olympus PEN Lite (also called the Olympus PEN E-PL3) is a 12-megapixel compact system camera with a tilting LCD screen and extremely fast auto focus. Like the other two Olympus Micro Four Thirds system cameras announced today, the Olympus E-PL3 boasts what its manufacturer calls the world’s fastest AF system; with 35 AF points, low-light AF Illuminator and out-of-picture AF Tracking. Unique to the E-PL3 is a 3” tiltable LCD screen that makes it easy to take ground-level or above-the-head shots. Other features include sensor-shift image stabilisation, 5fps sequential shooting, 1080i HD video recording, a maximum sensitivity of ISO12800, a hot shoe and an accessory port. The Olympus PEN E-PL3 is available from autumn 2011 with pricing to be confirmed.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 is a fast portrait lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. Offering a similar angle of view as a 90mm optic on a 35mm camera body, the new M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 is a large-aperture telephoto lens featuring the company’s MSC (Movie & Stills Compatible) focusing technology for tracking fast-moving subjects quietly and effectively. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8 lens costs under £300 and will be available in September.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 is a high-grade, fast wide-angle lens for the Micro Four Thirds system. Courtesy of built-in depth of field and distance indicators, the lens is ideal for zone focusing - but it also offers quiet and fast Movie & Stills Compatible auto focus for those that prefer to use AF over manual focus. With a close-focus point of 0.2m and a maximum aperture of f/2, this lens allows users to play with perspective and depth of field in rather unusual ways. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 lens features a metal barrel and an enhanced multi-layer lens coating which, according to Olympus, halves the effects of ghosting and flaring compared to conventional comparable coatings. The lens will be available for around £700 from early July, 2011.

The Olympus FL-300R a new flash for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras. With a guide number of 20 (in metres at ISO 100), the Olympus FL-300R flashgun features an approximately 75° angle of coverage (equivalent to the diagonal angle of view of a 14mm lens on FT/MFT or a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera). A built-in wide panel allows the flash to be used with ultra-wide lenses such as the M.Zuiko Digital 9-18mm f/4-5.6 (read review), although it does reduce the range by some 40%. This extremely compact unit measures only 56.4mmx89.2mmx26.9mm (WxHxD), weighs just 97 grams, and runs on two AAA sized batteries. The flash, which can also be used as a master or slave in wireless mode, comes with its own stand and soft case, and is available for approximately £140.

Camera Control is a new Capture Pilot option that lets photographers operate their cameras remotely via their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Using Camera Control, you can wirelessly view, zoom and pan high resolution DSLR and medium format RAW, JPEG and TIFF images while you are shooting. Camera Control is available now as an in app purchase for USD14.99 / EURO11.99. Capture Pilot is a free app available from the Apple store that works with Phase One’s Capture One Pro.

The VueScan Bible is the missing manual for both new and experienced users of VueScan. VueScan is one of the world’s most widely used software interfaces for digitizing film and prints on flatbed and film scanners. The VueScan Bible costs $34.95.

Delkin Devices have started shipping the fastest SDXC UHS-I memory card in the world. The new Elite 64GB 633X rated card is designed for streaming HD and 3D video applications where speed and capacity are imperative. The Delkin Elite 64GB 633X card is available worldwide for a retail price of $539.99.

DPAddict.com is a new website that offers quick and honest feedback on your photography. DPAddict hides all information about images until after an image has completed a “Showdown”. DPAddict just recently exited beta and is growing day by day.

Photography Blog has partnered with Bing to give away an exclusive collection of five signed prints from Dizzee Rascal’s curation of Bing’s homepage to launch its www.your-britain.com national photography competition. The images show the different places around Britain that have inspired Dizzee on his personal journey into making the music we love today.

The competition has now closed - Dan Chippendale is the winner of the five signed prints from Dizzee Rascal.

If you feel inspired by Dizzee’s collection and want to enter the Your Britain competition with your photography of Britain, please go to www.your-britain.com where you can also win £10,000 and have your image displayed on the BING’s home page to over 16 million people.

Both competitions closed at midnight on Friday 24th June.

Cute Logic has released an update to Cute Slideshow, an easy-to-use slideshow app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app uses a simple and intuitive interface to make it easy to create slideshows from the device’s photo library. Version 1.1 gains the ability to export users’ slideshows as movies (requires iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch). Cute Slideshow is available now on the App Store for $2.99.

Lytro says it will soon be launching “light field” cameras that can capture all of the light rays in a scene to offer photographic capabilities never before possible, such as focusing a picture after it’s taken. Unlike conventional cameras, which can only record a scene in two dimensions, light field cameras can capture all of the light travelling in every direction through a scene “in four dimensions”. A light field picture taken with a Lytro camera can be manipulated after the fact in ways not possible with editing software. The company says the new light field cameras will be available later this year. An interactive demo gallery is available at the website below.

Ohanaware has updated its HDRtist Pro software to version 1.0.3. HDRtist Pro is an advanced HDR imaging tool that is able to wield and manipulate 128-bit floating-point images and can work with multiple exposures as well as single raw image files. The new version improves the speed of generating the full size image and support for colour profiles throughout the application. It also fixes a bug related to modifying/saving locked or read-only files and another one that concerns exporting the same file twice to the same editor. HDRtist Pro 1.0.3 is a free update for all customers, for new customers HDRtist Pro is $29.99 / £19.99. The application is available for purchase in the Mac App Store.

Canon has issued a firmware update for the Canon EOS 500D / Rebel T1i. Version 1.1.1 fixes incorrect indications in the Arabic and Portuguese menu screens. You can download the update from the website below.

Website: Canon EOS 500D / Rebel T1i Drivers & Software

Canon has released a firmware update for the Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera. Version 1.0.8 incorporates the following improvements and fixes:

1. Improves the writing/reading speeds when using UDMA 7-compatible CF cards.
2. Fixes incorrect indications in the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai and Turkish menu screens.

Website: Canon EOS 50D Drivers & Software

The new and stabilised Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro is now available for purchase in the USA. Announced in February, the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM features a maximum magnification ratio of 1:1, a Super Multi-layer Coating to reduce flare and ghosting, a HyperSonic Motor (HSM) for quiet auto focus and Sigma’s own Optical Stabiliser to combat motion blur resulting from shaky hands. The lens carries an MSRP of $1,400.

Photo-games site Phoozl.com today launched the “Summer” edition of the “Alphabetography Photo Challenge: the Four Seasons” contest. The challenge runs for approximately 45 days to its conclusion on 7 August. The concept is the following: photo enthusiasts submit photos that apply or relate to the current letter that’s in play. So during the “S” letter period, for instance, participants upload photos that are associated with a word starting with the letter “S”. When the gameplay moves to “U”, “U” photos are submitted. And so on through the six letters of the word “Summer”. Contest participants need only a Facebook account to enter, and they must be at least 18 years old. Photo submissions are acceptable from anywhere in the world, and there are no restrictions on when photos are taken or if they have been manipulated.