Canon USA has launched a new multi-dimensional marketing campaign, “Long Live Imagination,” which centres on a unique collaboration with one of Hollywood’s most influential directors, Ron Howard. Photographers of all levels are invited to submit their most imaginative photographs based on a series of movie themes for “Project Imagin8ion,” the first user-generated photo contest in history to ultimately inspire a Hollywood short film. “I’m known as a narrative storyteller, so when Canon approached me to partner on the ‘Long Live Imagination’ campaign, I was moved by the opportunity to collaborate with the masses, tapping into consumers’ creativity and using their photos as building blocks to produce a film,” said Howard. You have until 14th June to submit photos to inspire eight movie themes:  Setting, Time, Character, Mood, Relationship, Goal, Obstacle and the Unknown.

Kingston today announced it is shipping a 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, adding to its family of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB Class 10 cards. The cards come as a standalone, with an SD adapter or as a Mobility/Multi-Kit which includes the card, SD adapter and USB card reader. Backed by Kingston’s lifetime warranty, the new 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card costs £80.35 (£80.50 with the SD adapter and £81.90 in the Mobility Kit). These prices do not include VAT.

ACDSee Pro 4 is now available for purchase. Featuring patent-pending LCE (Lighting and Contrast Enhancement) technology, ACDSee incorporates single-exposure HDR imaging algorithms that work on raw image files, allowing photos to more accurately reflect the subject.  Lighting and exposure problems, including high contrast and backlit scenes, insufficient flash, dull images, and under and overexposure are corrected in seconds, the company claims. ACDSee Pro 4 is billed as a complete solution that offers raw conversion, photo editing, file management and easy photo sharing in a single product. The program is available now at $239.99. Those who own an ACDSee product can upgrade for $167.99

Deadly Instinct by Melissa Farris is a new photography book from National Geographic. “[The book] brings readers the ultimate in shocking predatory behaviour through vivid and candid pictures of animals in the wild fighting for survival,” says Carrie Engel, National Geographic Society. Priced at $26, Deadly Instinct features interviews with world-renowned National Geographic photographers such as Chris Johns, Joel Sartore and Brian Skerry who discuss their adventures photographing animals in their natural habitat and the dangers they face to get the best shot. The 192-page hardback is available for pre-order now, and will start shipping on 1st June.

Leaf today announced that its latest release of Leaf Capture software delivers a newly designed touch screen GUI (Graphic User Interface). Designed with the needs of professional photographers in mind, it offers improved workflow processes and quicker access to important tools through its new menu. The new Leaf GUI’s outdoor theme also makes exterior shooting much easier by improving visibility in high glare and reflection situations. The new Leaf GUI is available for all models in the Leaf Aptus-II series.

NoiseControl is a new noise filtering application released by The Plugin Site. Currently available as a plugin to IrfanView, Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint and PhotoImpact (and many other pieces of software), NoiseControl will also be sold as a standalone product. This software solution can be used to reduce noise in photos captured with digital cameras as well as grain and grain aliasing artefacts present in film scans. NoiseControl is presently available for Windows only, but a Mac OS X version is in the making, The Plugin Site says. The plugin is available for $49.95.

BenQ has released a new 14-megapixel, 5x zoom digital camera in its S-series. Featuring a 26-130mm equivalent lens, optical image stabilisation and a 3” monitor with a resolution of 460,000 dots, the BenQ S1430 comes with a range of creative shooting modes, including “Toy”, “LOMO”, “Colour Accent” and “Fisheye”. Functions like HDR imaging, skin softening and “de-blemishing” are also on board to help users capture pleasing photos. Pricing to be confirmed.

The Casio EX-Z3000 is a 16.1-megapixel digital compact camera with 8x optical zoom and a 3.2” touch-sensitive LCD screen. Users can activate the shutter simply by touching the screen: with a single touch, the camera focuses on that point in the scene and captures the image. The Casio EX-Z3000 also features CCD-shift image stabilisation and high-speed autofocus (0.14s at the wide end of the zoom).  The EXILIM EX-Z3000 is available in four colours: silver, pink, brown, and red. Pricing to be confirmed.

Ohanaware has updated its HDRtist Pro software to version 1.0.2. 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 fixes two display issues that some customers were having, adds support for 16-Bit Photoshop files, fixes a bug with dragging in HDRP files, and brings a couple of other improvements. HDRtist Pro 1.0.2 is a free update for all customers, for new customers HDRtist Pro is $29.99 / £19.99.

Corel has announced CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 Limited Edition, a graphics collection that combines four design essentials to expand the user’s creative toolbox. The package includes the full CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 plus Corel Painter 11, a selection of high-quality and royalty free stock photos and vector images from Fotolia’s vast collection and a Wacom Intuos 4 small tablet. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 Limited Edition is available now in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech and Russian at the SRP of £618 for full version and £366 for upgrade customers. All prices include VAT.

The Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD lens has won the Lens of the Year award at the Camera GP 2011 Awards hosted by the Camera Journal Press Club of Japan. Sporting an ultrasonic Piezo AF motor and vibration compensation, the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD is the world’s lightest and smallest 15x travel zoom for DSLR cameras with an APS-C sized sensor.

The Lomo LC-Wide is a new film camera with a fixed ultra-wide lens and the ability to shoot three different formats on 35mm film. Featuring a 17mm Minigon glass lens, the Lomo LC-Wide is billed as “a passionate celebration of the ultra-wide-angle”. The user can choose from 36x24mm full frame, 17x24mm half frame and 24x24mm square formats. The camera is available now, in limited quantities, in the online Lomography shop for €/£349.

To celebrate the launch some London Lomographers got together and shot a stop motion video on the LC-Wide, which you can view below. The two-minute video is entirely shot on the LC-Wide, and took 35 rolls of film to make.

Picaspot.com was created with the purpose of sharing detailed information about the specific spot where a photo was taken so other people can find it easily and be able to create their own photographs at that location. “The main value offered by our website is information about the exact location where a picture was taken,” said co founder Juan Jose Reyes. “Information, such as exact location, how to get there, map, parking, fees, subway stops, things to avoid,  the best times to get pictures at that location etc, is the main value offered by our website and is what differentiate us from photo websites.” Users can search posted spots either by geographic location, category or keywords.

The new Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader is a high-performance card reader that enables photographers and videographers to maximise their workflow efficiency with “blazing-fast” transfer speeds. The memory card reader leverages USB 3.0 technology and supports UDMA compliant CompactFlash media as well as SDXC and UHS-I compliant SDHC cards, in addition to being backwards compatible with standard CF, SD and (non-UHS-I) SDHC memory cards and USB 2.0 devices. The reader is available now for purchase on the Lexar website, and will be available from leading photo retailers in June, with an MSRP of $49.99.

Sigma has announced the availability and pricing of the Sigma SD1 digital SLR camera, whose first prototypes were shown at the Photokina trade show held last autumn. Featuring a new, 15x3-megapixel Foveon x3 sensor and a splash-proof body, the Sigma SD1 provides “high-end photographers with an alternative to very expensive medium-format cameras and digital backs”, the company says. The imaging chip has approximately 15.3 million photosites and three vertically stacked colour filters for a resolution that is claimed to equal that of an imaginary 46-megapixel Bayer sensor. In addition to the resolution hike, sensor size has also increased from 20.7x13.8mm in the SD15 and its predecessors to 23.5x15.7mm in the current model.  The Sigma SD1 features a 3” rear screen with a resolution of 460,000 dots and an autofocus system with 11 shifted twin cross type AF points. Available from June, the Sigma SD1 will sell for an MSRP of $9,700.00 in the USA. The UK price is £6,199.99 including VAT.

Nature and wildlife photographers Rebecca Jackrel and William Burrard-Lucas have launched a new conservation project to raise awareness and support for the ongoing efforts to save the endangered Ethiopian Wolf. They will be going to Ethiopia to photograph the wolves and document the serious threats that they face. In the hope that the project can be funded through donations from the public, Rebecca and Will have set up a Kickstarter page and created a dedicated website. Interested readers are encouraged to visit these pages to learn more about the project and how they can help make it happen.

Accomplished photographer and Editorial Director of MOTO magazine, Adam Duckworth, has announced a one-day workshop on dirt bike photography. Offering expert tuition and a unique access to pro riders on a top motocross circuit, the workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to learn how to use off-camera flash lighting for dramatic effect and get sharp action shots every time. “Some of the world’ s best riders will perform for your camera in controlled but spectacular action,” Adam says. “Pupils will get expert tuition and the chance to take some once-in-a-lifetime shots that could kickstart their career in contributing to magazines. Or simply fantastic pictures for their porfolio from this unique opportunity.” The number of participants is limited to 12. Taking place on 30th June in Fat Cat Motoparc near Doncaster, the workshop is £249 per person.

Lomography and the online cinema platform, MUBI, are heading to the Croisette to host the Lomography Mini Movie contest for movie directors at the Short Film Corner. The companies ask the directors of the Short Film Corner to tell them an imaginative concept for a mini movie snapshot and to present it to their Analogue Art Juror at the MUBI & Lomography booth. If the juror likes it, they will receive a free Lomography multilens camera and film and start to shoot their mini movie sequence at Cannes. The grand prize winner will be presented with a 3-day trip to Vienna, Austria to visit the Lomography Headquarters and the first working copy of the newest - top secret - Lomography camera, which will be launched summer 2011.

Camera Plus Pro invites its fans to participate in the Metamorphosis iPhone photography contest. “Metamorphosis is an exciting opportunity for both new and existing users of Camera Plus Pro to win an iPad 2 and thus sweeten their holiday season,” the company says. In this contest, users are required to capture photos and transform them into beautiful creations using Camera Plus Pro’s newly released filters.  The contest is open for submission until 22nd May. The winner will be announced on the 30th. For more details, visit the Global Delight website.