Kenro has announced the UK availability of four new Benro Gimbal heads. These have been developed to allow the user to manipulate heavier cameras with large telephoto lenses more comfortably than with a standard tripod head. The mechanism on Benro Gimbal heads operates on the principle of manipulating the lens using its own centre of gravity. The four new heads range from 0.47kg to 1.76kg in weight, 15 to 25kg in load capacity and £220.00 to £584.99 in price. Stockist information is available on Kenro’s website.

Hasselblad has announced a bonus incentive plan for customers buying a new Hasselblad H4D series camera or a CFV-39/CFV-50 digital back. Anyone buying one of these cameras or backs before the end of July will be awarded a Bonus Cheque worth 10% of the net MSRP of the product they have purchased. The customer then simply redeems the Bonus Cheque with their Hasselblad dealer, spending the total value on any photographic item of their choice. The offer is not restricted to Hasselblad products - the Bonus Cheque can be .used toward any photo equipment the dealer sells. Click through for more information and a list of participating retailers.

Pentax UK has announced the availability of the Pentax K-r DSLR in five new colours. These include yellow, pink, blue, purple and metal chocolate. The new colours will be available to purchase from July, in a standard K-r kit which includes the K-r body plus a DA-L 18-55mm lens. The recommended retail price is £529.99.

Legacy Learning Systems has launched the sixth edition to its popular instruction series, Learn & Master Photography. The series is available as a set of 15 instructional DVDs containing 24 sessions, two photography sample CDs with hi-res images for editing and experimentation, an exclusive Lesson Book highlighting each session and access to a free online student support site. The Lesson Book is full of photographs and illustrated photo techniques to add to a user’s visual learning. It contains information on all the assignments in the video sessions so it can be read at the user’s own pace. There is also a glossary of photography terms. The course costs $249.+ shipping.

The new Velbon Ultrek UT-43D is a full-height tripod that folds down to 29.5cm for transport. This feat is accomplished through the use of six-section reverse-folding legs. The Velbon Ultrek UT-43D tripod comes complete with Velbon’s QHD-53D ball head, a quick-release plate and a two-section telescopic centre column. Weighing in at 1.17kg and extending to a full height of 156.6cm, the tripod has a load capacity of 3 kilograms and carries a suggested retail price of £179.99.

Lastolite has announced that it has been chosen as the UK distributor for the SMDV Flash Wave III. The new Flash Wave III is a compact radio slave system for wireless triggering of cameras, battery-operated and studio flash units, providing 16 individual radio frequency channels on a 2.4 GHz frequency band. A compatible shutter release cable allows you to remotely focus and trigger your camera using a two-step triggering button. The Flash Wave III has a built-in hotshoe, and also comes with a number of accessories including a PC Sync, 3.5mm mini jack cable and 3.5 – 6.3mm converter. The SMDV Flash Wave III is available now for £125.

onOne Software has just launched Perfect Layers 1.0, an application that gives photographers the ability to easily create and work with layered files in their workflow application of choice. Hitherto available as a Public Preview, Perfect Layers supports the creation of layered files that can be opened and edited by Adobe Photoshop and can be used directly from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Bridge and Apple Aperture. Perfect Layers 1.0 is available as a standalone product at the special introductory price of $99.95 until the end of this month. From 1 July 2011, Perfect Layers will be available for $129.95 and included as part of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5. Owners of Plug-In Suite 5 can upgrade to Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, which will include Perfect Layers, at no additional cost.

As part of global celebrations for Day of the African Child, Sony Europe has today unveiled photographs from the sixth Sony Eye-See initiative, an annual workshop held in partnership with UNICEF, giving vulnerable African children the opportunity to learn about photography and tell their stories through images. UNICEF photographer Giacomo Pirozzi led the group in an intensive week-long workshop, equipping them with a Sony digital camera and teaching them the core photography techniques necessary to go out and shoot the pictures. Click through / scroll down for an image gallery.

Lomography has launched a new super wide-angle film camera called La Sardina. Inspired by the design of sardine cans, La Sardina is a point-and-shoot camera equipped with a plastic wide-angle lens shooting regular 24x36mm frames on 35mm film. Initially, there will be four models available: El Capitán, Fischer’s Fritze, Sea Pride and Marathon. All of these come with a 22mm f/8 lens that has an angle of view of 88 degrees. El Capitán and Fisher’s Fritze are also equipped with Fritz the Blitz, Lomography’s newest and most powerful flash, which comes complete with 3 unique distance settings that allow you to regulate the flash output to suit your needs. This flash is also packaged with yellow, red and blue filters. El Capitán and Fisher’s Fritze are priced at £89/€89, while Sea Pride and Marathon can be had for £49/€49 each.

David Noton will be running a workshop in the Yorkshire Dales this autumn, whose participants will be invited to submit an image into a competition, with the winner receiving a Giottos Carbon Fibre 8261B MTL tripod with a MH5001 3-way head. Taking place from 7th - 9th October, the course will comprise a 2-night stay at High Trenhouse near Malham with 2 full days of photographic tuition, excursions in the Yorkshire Dales, tutorials and demonstrations. The cost of attendance is £765. To book your place, visit the website below.

Sony UK today announced the launch of PR!NT, a new online photo printing service powered by PhotoBox. The service, which has been developed to help photo lovers do more with their digital photographs, will evolve over time to provide new ways for customers to get the most out of features unique to Sony such as Sweep Panoramas. It will also offer an unlimited online storage for a secure back-up of their photos. The service can be accessed through the website below. Note that there is an introductory offer of a free 30-page Square Spiral photo book for all new registrants.

Ricoh has announced that it will release a function-enhancing firmware update for the Ricoh G700 and the Ricoh G700SE cameras. The update brings the following enhancements to the G700: images stored in camera memos can now be viewed using playback zoom, complete with scrolling, allowing any part of each image to be viewed in detail; camera memos can now be disabled, plus there are new Picture Quality options and support for Aztec bar codes. Ricoh G700SE owners who have both an optional GP1 unit and a Bluetooth-equipped GPS unit can now choose the device used to supply the compass heading and specify whether compass data are corrected for magnetic declination. Also, the G700SE now displays location data during movie recording and a Degrees option has been added to the Compass Heading in the expanded settings menu. The update will be available from the Ricoh website starting tomorrow.

Light & Land has launched a luxury photographic tour to the Isle of Sark. Hosted by tour leaders Phil Malpas and Clive Minnitt the trip is based at the sumptuously luxurious Stocks Hotel, which is conveniently located in the centre of the Island. The aim of this workshop will be to help guests create a body of work suitable for a self published artist’s book. The tour, which will run in April 2012, is also timed to coincide with the abundance of wildflowers present on the island in early spring. Priced at £1,950 the workshop is limited to 14 participants. For more information, visit the website below.

DxO Labs today released DxO Optics Pro v6.6 for Mac and Windows. The new version provides improved image correction, along with raw image file support for five hitherto unsupported digital cameras including the Nikon D5100, the Olympus E-5, the Panasonic GF1 and GF2, and the Pentax K-r. Additionally, more than 100 new DxO Optics Modules are now available to DxO Optics Pro users, covering numerous Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax, and Sony cameras. All DxO Labs customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro since 1 June 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 6.6.

Casio has released a firmware update for the Casio TRYX digital compact camera. Version 1.01 brings the following enhancements and improvements:

• Adds a LED light [Auto] mode.
• Adds an icon to the REC mode screen for switching to PLAY mode.
• Changes the REC icon and PLAY icon designs.
• Adds a function for displaying the remaining number of shots and movie recording time.
• Improves connection with Mac OS9.

Website: Casio TRYX Firmware Update

Lomography is now able to offer film processing by mail order, to anywhere in the UK. The LomoLab opened on 11th March and initially offered on-site processing only - today Lomography announced that the lab now offers processing, scanning and printing services to every analogue photographer living in the United Kingdom. Housed in the basement at the Lomography Gallery Store East London, the LomoLab can process and scan 135 and 120 format transparencies and print films. Processing options include C41, E6, cross-processing and traditional black-and-white film development. For more information, check out the website below.

Casio has released a firmware upgrade for the Casio Eximilm EX-H20G digital compact camera. Version 1.03 improves the quality of connection with old Mac computers running MacOS 9. The firmware upgrade can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Casio EX-H20G Firmware Update

The Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP) is reminding interested photographers that the deadline for the FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards 2011 is 31st July. There are six categories, including wedding; commercial; portrait; reportage; landscape and illustrative, plus there are separate sections for non-European photographers and students. For more information visit the website below.

Website: FEP Federation of European Professional Photographers