Canon has won the accolade of “Best Photography Brand” at this year’s Which? Awards. The awards were launched in 2007 to reward the very best businesses in the UK and publicly recognise those companies that consistently ‘get it right’ for consumers. Over the last year Canon has won 22 Which? Best Buy awards across the EOS, Legria, IXUS, Powerhot and Pixma ranges and during voting, Which? members scored Canon highly in both customer satisfaction and reliability. They were “impressed by the Canon HS-System which helped to deliver exceptional image quality with the IXUS 300 HS and IXUS 1000 HS - the former received the highest overall picture quality rating that Which? had ever given to a compact camera”.

Epson America has announced a new version of Epson iPrint, an iOS app optimised to print photos and web pages from an Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to any wireless Epson All-in-One device. Advanced features include the selection and batch printing of multiple photos, borderless printing, easy switching between colour and greyscale printing and more. Epson iPrint is free and available worldwide on the Apple App Store.

Light & Land has announced a one-day workshop to be held on location in the Cotswold lavender fields with landscape masters Charlie Waite and Antony Spencer. The company has been granted special permission to shoot at Snowshill, right in the heart of the Cotswolds. The workshop will run from 11am, right through to sunset, on 5 July 2011 – in order to capture the best of the day’s light. The cost of attendance is £149, which includes hands-on tuition, teas, coffees and light lunch. You can find more information at the website below.

PhotoShelter today released the newest e-book in their ongoing series of business and marketing resources for photographers, The Photographer’s Guide to Selling Like a Pro. “Through a series of in-depth interviews with veteran salesmen from across various industries, this e-book offers solid sales advice and concrete tactics, giving photographers an in-depth look at how to succeed in sales using the proven strategies of the pros,” says PhotoShelter’s Deborah Block. You can download the e-book free of charge from the website below.

X-Rite has announced a new trade-in programme available to customers in the US and Canada who purchase a new X-Rite ColorMunki Display or i1Display Pro. Running until 30 September 2011, the promotion enables photographers and other imaging professionals to receive up to $40 cash back when they trade in their old monitor calibration system, be it an X-Rite, PANTONE, competitor or private label colorimeter. Those who send in a colorimeter and buy a ColorMunki Display receive $25 cash back, while the $40 offer is valid on purchases of the i1Display Pro.

Leica is looking into producing compact system cameras (CSCs) to compete with the mirrorless systems of Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. In an interview given to Amateur Photographer (AP), Leica CEO Alfred Schopf and chairman Dr Andreas Kaufmann revealed that the company is planning to announce a compact system camera featuring “an imaging sensor at least as large as an APS-size” at Photokina 2012. The news comes as a surprise, especially given that a number of Leica-designed (and -branded) Panasonic lenses are already available for the Micro Four Thirds system, including the Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH. Mega O.I.S: (read review) and the brand new Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH. From the interview, you can also learn - among other things - whether Leica is still considering the introduction of a digital R system and whether they are outsourcing the production of Leica lenses to China.

Source: Amateur Photographer

At the launch of the Leica M9-P in Paris, Leica presented a new project resulting from the company’s cooperation with Magnum Photos. “It is an account of a young gondolier in Venice shot by Magnum photographer Alex Majoli, who has been a full member of the prominent photographers’ co-operative since 2001,” Leica said in a statement. “The images are much more than the simple documentation of a profession steeped in tradition, which still plays an important role in everyone’s image of the city today. They tell a vivid story. Vital, authentic and brimming with the essence of real life – it is a story captured with the Leica M9-P.” A video showing the making of this portfolio can be viewed on the Leica website.

The Leica M9-P is a new, re-styled variant of the Leica M9 full-frame digital rangefinder camera. Billed as the “new ultra-discreet version of the Leica M9”, the Leica M9-P loses the famous Leica ‘red dot’ logo and M9 lettering that decorate the M9’s front plate but the top plate is now engraved with the Leica name in classic script form. In addition, the Leica M9-P includes a scratch-resistant, sapphire crystal covering on the LCD screen. As a result, the sapphire glass LCD cover is extremely resistant to wear and almost unbreakable. The external covering of the body of the Leica M9-P, finished in vulcanite leatherette, features a more coarsely-textured finish that ensures a steady grip when shooting. Otherwise the new model is identical to the M9. The Leica M9-P, which will sit alongside the Leica M9 in the company’s rangefinder camera portfolio, is scheduled to be available in the UK from June 2011 from authorised Leica dealers at £5,395 including VAT.

The Leica Super-Elmar M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH.is a new, compact ultra-wideangle lens for the M system. The lens’ retrofocus-like construction comprises 8 elements including one element with two aspherical surfaces and four lens elements made of glass types with anomalous colour dispersion (partial dispersion). The aperture range goes from f/3.4 to f/16, and is set with a traditional aperture ring with click-stops at half-stop increments. The lens’ closest focusing distance is 0.7m. As with other recent M-mount lenses, 6-bit lens identification is provided for digital bodies. The suggested retail price of the lens is £2025.

Creative Review Magazine is running a Photography Annual competition. The contest, which is open to professional photographers and agencies, aims to be the “definitvie collection of the best work of the year in commercial photography”. There are several categories including Personal, Advertising, Conceptual, Design, Editorial and Moving Image. The deadline for entries is 22 August 2011. Please note that entry fees apply (£50 for a single entry, £70 for a series of up to 6 related images).

Website: Creative Review

Brett Ratner, one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, producers and photographers is inviting aspiring photographers to work with him on a photo shoot with Treats! Magazine in Los Angeles. If interested, submit one original portrait photograph displaying your creativity through the Talenthouse website. The submission deadline is 25th July. Online voting starts the next day and lasts until 1st August. Brett Ratner and Treats! Magazine will choose the winner from all qualified submissions with special consideration for the top-voted entries. As always we suggest that you read the terms and conditions and submission guidelines before entering your work.

Website: Talenthouse

Apple today announced Final Cut Pro X, a new version of its professional video editing software. Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Final Cut Pro X is a 64-bit app that uses multi-threaded processing and the GPU on the graphics card for fast background rendering and real-time playback. The new Magnetic Timeline lets you edit on a flexible, trackless canvas; while Content Auto-Analysis categorises your content upon import by shot type, media and people. Moreover, Final Cut Pro X also includes powerful tools for audio editing and colour correction.  The program is available today for £179.99 from the Mac App Store. Two companion apps, Motion 5 for professional motion graphics and Compressor 4 for advanced media encoding, are available from the for £29.99 each.

CyberLink today released PhotoDirector 2011, a brand new photo editor for Windows that allows users to efficiently manage, enhance and share their digital photographs. PhotoDirector 2011 introduces a fast, intuitive workflow and a wide array of dynamic adjustment tools that can be applied in a non-destructive editing environment. Additionally, it offers several other features, such as “native rendering” of raw image files from Canon and Nikon cameras and the ability to share user-defined presets through CyberLink’s online community, DirectorZone. CyberLink says that over 75,000 people from all over the world participated in the three-week Beta programme, giving PhotoDirector 2011 an overall product satisfaction score of 4.2 out of 5. The software is available for £79.99/$99.95.

The MAC Group has announced the collaboration of Mamiya, Leaf, Phase One and Schneider Kreuznach in the US market. New Mamiya DSLRs and digital backs range from 22 megapixels up to the exciting 80 megapixel version. Mamiya / Leaf digital backs, also available separately, are compatible with Mamiya 645, Mamiya RZ, Hasselblad V and H series, Contax 645 and most view cameras. Camera bodies and lenses are manufactured by Mamiya, digital backs are manufactured by Leaf under the Mamiya/Leaf name, Capture One software is made by Phase One, and new leaf shutter lenses are designed and certified by Schneider Kreuznach. Both customer and repair service for Mamiya and Leaf products will be provided by factory-trained technicians at MAC Group.

The Nokia N9 is a new smartphone / camera phone with an 8-megapixel image sensor and a Zeiss-branded wide-angle auto-focus lens. Nokia claims the N9 has “the fastest camera on any phone ­– from launch to focus to capture”, with features like Touch AF, a 3.9” AMOLED screen and an f/2.2 maximum aperture. In addition to capturing eight-megapixel stills, the integrated camera can also record HD-quality video with smooth continuous AF. Running on the MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan operating system, thee Nokia N9 will be available in three colours - black, cyan, and magenta - with 16GB and 64GB storage options. The N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with availability and local pricing to be announced closer to the sales start..

Canon U.S.A. has launched the Canon EOS Rebel T3 + EF 18-55 IS II Lens Kit in three new colour variations - red, brown and metallic grey, in addition to the standard black version. Available exclusively at the Canon Online Store, the new kits are priced at $599.99, but an $50 instant rebate lowers the price to $549.99.

The new Sony firmware updates promised for today are now available for download. The ?33 and ?55 firmware upgrades add support for the ‘Picture Effect’ function featured on the new ?35 model. The firmware upgrades also bring revised menus and a new mode that lets users switch shooting parameters overlaid on-screen for clear, uncluttered composition. The Sony A33 and A55 cameras’ Digital Level Gauge can also be displayed when shooting via the optional CLM-V55 external LCD monitor. Frequently used features can now be custom-assigned to the D-RANGE button. The A55 firmware update also enables high-speed synchronisation for compatible flash units during wireless operation. The firmware updates for the Sony NEX-3 (pictured) and NEX-5 cameras adds the new ‘Picture Effect’ function as introduced on the new NEX?C3 and also introduce a ‘Peaking’ function in MF mode.

Websites: Sony A33 | A55 | NEX-3 | NEX-5 Firmware Upgrades