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.

The Switronix XP-DV-CH is a power adapter cable for Canon’s EOS 5D, 7D and 60D digital SLR cameras. Featuring a regulated 7.9V battery paddle and an inline female p-tap connector for 12V DC, housed in an enclosure, it also includes both red and green LED indication to display battery power status. The cable can be used in association with a Switronix accessory or used solo with a PRO-X series lithium-ion battery product.

Panasonic has developed a new-generation 1/2.33” type 14-megapixel MOS image sensor boasting best-in-class sensitivity for low noise. Intended for use in digicams, camcorders and camera phones, the new sensor provides a sensitivity of 3050 el/lx/sec/?m², while the new light-focusing structure employed “significantly expands the incident light angle, ensuring uniform and high picture quality” and enables the production of slimmer cameras, the company says. Mass production is scheduled to start in December.

Apple has issued a Camera RAW compatibility update to add support for five - mostly - new digital cameras. These include the following models:

Fujifilm FinePix X100
Nikon D5100
Olympus E-PL2
Olympus XZ-1 (pictured)
Samsung GX-1S

These and all previously added digital cameras benefit from system-level raw file support in Mac OS X v10.6.

Website: Mac OS X v10.6: Supported digital camera RAW formats

Rocky Nook’s newest title, Painting with Light: Light Art Performance Photography, is now available in the UK. Released last month in the USA, Painting with Light introduces readers to the art of LAPP, or Light Art Performance Photography. Unlike other types of light painting, LAPP doesn’t just involve illuminating existing objects; it also requires the photographer to create and capture new subjects constructed entirely of light. Real-world surroundings are combined with transient, light-based elements to produce spectacular effects. This book describes the evolution of LAPP, while the middle section goes on to present a gallery of images. The final section offers some basic steps and tips to give you a starting point for creating your own artworks. The 224-page book is available now for £27.50.

Canon has once again been voted Europe’s ‘most trusted’ camera brand by readers of Reader’s Digest. The Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands Survey is an annual pan-European survey of consumer attitudes to brand products and services. Canon came out on top in 13 of the 16 countries surveyed. This is the eleventh consecutive year that Canon has been voted as Europe’s top camera brand.

Point of Interest is an upcoming exhibition of images taken by Magnum photographer Peter Marlow. The twenty-seven colour photographs and ten black-and-white prints are from a body of work comprising several thousand photographs that have been made alongside major projects. “It is photojournalism turned inside out, where the geography of where he is in the world, and the narrative context, becomes an irrelevant and unnecessary detail,” the organisers say. “The title Point of Interest is surely ironic – these images capture the overlooked, the abandoned, the derelict and the detritus of contemporary life and would rarely be the focus or centre of anyone’s point of interest. It is Marlow who places them centre stage in a sequence of masterly but disturbing photographs.” Running from 24 May - 2 July 2011, the exhibition is hosted by the Wapping Project Bankside gallery, 65a Hopton Street, London, SE1 9LR.

“Full Exposure: Images to Change the Future” is a photography symposium featuring acclaimed photographers Daniel Beltrá and Molly Steinwald, presented by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and sponsored by National Camera Exchange and Tamron USA. The lecture-style symposium will meet from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, 11th June, in the Arboretum’s Oswald Visitor Center. The symposium fee is $40 for Arboretum members and $50 for non-members. To register, visit the website below.

Photowrap is a brand new series of online workshops on documentary photography. The three-week course begins on 6th June and goes on until the 26th. Participants from around the world can log in on the private Flickr Photowrap group to take part in live discussions, upload their photographs and follow the tasks given every other day. Skype will be used for a series of one-to-one sessions that will regularly take place to tailor the tutoring around the students’ needs and time-schedules. In addition to that, special-guest reviewers will provide feedback on participants’ images. Once the course is finished, the photographers’ photo-essays will be published in the ever-growing Photowrap website, through which they will receive international exposure. The cost of attendance is £500.

Website: Photowrap

The London Street Photography Festival launches this summer to celebrate the time-honoured genre. Taking place from 1st-31st July 2011, the festival features curated exhibitions alongside a diverse events programme. Highlights include the first UK exhibition of the incredible archives of mysterious Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier at the German Gymnasium, as well as a newly discovered body of work by previously unknown British photographer Walter Joseph. (Chicago nanny Vivian Maier died in 2009, leaving behind an incredible archive of over 100,000 negatives, prints, and home-made films only discovered shortly before her death, while Joseph was a Darmstadt-born Jewish refugee and a dedicated amateur and semi-professional photographer who photographed London markets and street traders
after the Second World War.) The festival will also present the first ever International Street Photography Award, alongside a student category, celebrating the best work undertaken today from thousands of submissions received from around the world.

GeoPhoto 2.0 is an iPad app that lets users virtually travel around the world by finding geotagged pictures. It’s just a matter of selecting an area of the world map and clicking the search button. Shortly afterwards the screen will be filled with the best images found in that area. Version 2.0, which adds a brand new user interface and sharing options, is available on iTunes for $0.99.