The Prix Pictet and Musée de l’Elysée will present the first exhibition of the two winners of the main award, Benoit Aquin and Nadav Kander, and the two commissioned artists, Munem Wasif and Ed Kashi. Aquin and Kashi will exhibit work made this year in Haiti and Madagascar respectively, while Kander and Wasif will show work made in China and Bangladesh. The exhibition at the Musée de l’Elysée’s - taking place from 18 June to 25 July - is part of the museum’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

Pentax has posted five full-resolution sample photographs captured with a Pentax 645D medium format digital SLR camera. Taken using four different lenses, all of these sample images have a resolution of 7264×5440 pixels, and were shot at three different ISO settings; ISO 200, 320 and 800. EXIF data is available.

Website: Pentax 645D Samples

Kubota Image Tools has announced the general availability of its newly enhanced Dashboard 3 Pro software, as well as the brand new Kubota Texture Tools and the re-released Kubota Sloppy Borders. Dashboard 3 Pro is a floating palette within Photoshop that acts like a mini search engine for Photoshop actions, enabling photographers to manage and run their entire actions collection. The latest version of the tool includes the ability to keyword search for actions, update action descriptions and mark favorites for future use. Dashboard 3 Pro is available for immediate download through the Kubota Image Tools website. First time users can purchase the software alone for $79.

The LaCie Network Space MAX is a dual-disk Gigabit network storage and media server. It includes two large-capacity hard drives that can be configured for maximum security (RAID 1) or maximum capacity (RAID 0). LaCie Network Assistant software helps you set up the product within a few minutes. Additionally, with the LaCie Network Space MAX, the files stored on the hard drive are fully accessible outside your home from any connected computer using the remote access service. Available through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Corner, and LaCie Reseller+ starting at £249.

Carl Zeiss is organising a nano photography competition. The contest is open to all users of Zeiss electron and ion microscopes around the world. Images can be entered in any of four categories: SEM, TEM, CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) and Helium-Ion Microscopy. The image that receives the best score in each category will be honoured with a pair of Cinemizer Plus 3D video glasses from Carl Zeiss. Entries can be submitted from today until 29 August 2010.

Website: Carl Zeiss Nano Image Contest

Pixamba today launched the Pixamba Media Management platform, an affordable digital asset management service, specifically designed to help microstock photography users to manage their portfolio of licensed stock images effectively. With an entry price point of $4.99 per account for 3GB space, Pixamba’s service provides a range of features for microstock users, including centralised digital media storage and management, advanced fast search functionality, automated ‘Buy & Stock’ feature and original metadata retention, advanced version control, automated indexing, media rights tracking, fast image uploads, and more. Pixamba Media Management Service is available immediately. To sign up or trial the product, visit the website below.

Website: Pixamba Media Management

Nevercenter has released CameraBag Desktop 1.5, a free upgrade to their Mac and PC photo filter tool. The program, which emulates classic camera and film looks and processing techniques, is now capable of batch processing and allows the saving and sharing of custom filters. Version 1.5 also adds a new filter called Silver, which produces a vintage, tinted monochrome effect. CameraBag 1.5 is available as a free upgrade to registered users. New users can purchase it for $19 at the website below.

Website: Nevercenter CameraBag

Olympus have released a stop-motion promotional video for the E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera. 355 photos were taken with the E-PL1, then printed at billboard size and then photographed again to create the individual frames of the video. No tricks or computer animation were used at all, just good old-fashioned manual labour. Click through to watch this 1 minute 48 second homage to the E-PL1.

Casio Europe has just announced a new compact camera, the 12.1-megapixel Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z350. Featuring a 27-112mm equivalent zoom lens and a 2.7in, 230,400-pixel rear screen, the Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z350 comes with 23 scene modes anda YouTube Capture Mode for videos. The EX-Z350 is available now throughout Europe, priced at €149.

Tomorrow Ricoh will release function-enhancing firmware updates for the Ricoh GR Digital III digital compact camera and the Ricoh GXR system. The Ricoh GR Digital III firmware update will allegdly improve the effectiveness of the in-camera noise reduction, change the settings for auto exposure bracketing, introduce an in-camera trimming function, add a second Incandescent white balance setting, and introduce an optional shutter speed shift function, which overrides the user-selected shutter speed in Shutter Priority mode in cases when over- or underexposure cannot otherwise be avoided. These enhancements will also be implemented in the Ricoh GXR via its respective firmware update, which will bring about a range of additional improvements too. The firware updates will be downloadable from the Ricoh website from 19 May.

Self Publish, Be Happy Weekend at The Photographers’ Gallery is a unique showcase of exceptional contemporary DIY photo books selected by curator and founder of Self Publish, Be Happy, Bruno Ceschel. The weekend long event - taking place on 5th & 6th June 2010 - will offer art book lovers the opportunity to discuss, admire and be inspired by publications originating from around the world. A selection of the books will be for sale in The Photographers’ Gallery Bookshop. Visitors will also be able to meet the authors/publishers in The Photographers’ Gallery first floor Café and Bookshop at various book signings throughout the weekend. The Photographers’ Gallery is located at 16 – 18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW.

Birmingham Museum of Art Gallery will host the first UK exhibition of legendary Magnum photographer Steve McCurry. The exhibition will include over eighty striking images that span a remarkable twenty-year career, including his world renowned portrait “Afghan Girl”, taken in 1984 with a Nikon FM2 camera and 105mm f/2.5 lens. The now iconic image of the young green-eyed girl appeared for the first time on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985, instantly becoming a symbol both of the Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation worldwide. To accompany the exhibition Steve McCurry will give a presentation about his twenty year career on Friday, 2 July. The talk will start at 6.30 pm in the Waterhall at Birmingham Museum of Art Gallery. Tickets are available priced at £10.

HP is demonstrating its new digital printing solutions at Ipex 2010, the major graphic arts tradeshow of the year. Highlights include the HP T200 Colour Inkjet Web Press (expected to be available in 2011), the HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press, the more affordable HP Indigo 3550 Digital Press, the HP Designjet Z5200 PostScript Printer (pictured), the HP Scitex large-format printers, and more. Ipex 2010, held in the N.E.C., Birmingham, opened today and runs until 25 May.

Imagenomic has released its Portraiture 2 plugin for Adobe Photoshop CS5, CS5 Extended, and Elements 8. This new version adds native 64-bit support for running Portraiture from CS5 on Mac OS X, and complements Imagenomic plugin support for 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7. This is a free update for registered users of Portraiture for Photoshop. New users can try the Portraiture Plugin for Photoshop CS5 and Elements 8 on a 15-day free trial basis.

Website: Imagenomic

The Samsung Blu EX1, a new digital compact camera with a 24-72mm equivalent f/1.8-2.4 lens (also known as the Samsung TL500) has officially been launched in South Korea. Featuring a 10-megapixel 1/1.7” CCD imager, the Samsung Blu EX1 also boasts an articulated, 3” AMOLED screen that lets you properly compose your self-portraits. A front control wheel and a control ring around the lens allow users to change settings quickly and efficiently. An anti-shake system, a pop-up flash, a flash hot shoe and raw support round off the features list. The Samsung Blu EX1 is available in Korea in black and silver, priced at 599,000 won. The US price was set at $449.99 when the camera was first announced back in February.

Website: Press Release (in Korean)

Corel UK today announced a two-day Spring sale running from May 19th to May 20th that includes offers on key products across Corel’s digital media, graphics and productivity software range. The offers include 50% off the regular price of Corel Digital Studio 2010, and 25% off Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 as well as Corel Painter 11. The two-day sale extends to other products in its software range for current Corel users such as Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Upgrade and Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 Upgrade with 10% off the upgrade price.

Website: Corel UK Store

From June 8 through October 17, 2010, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950-1980. A master of classic American street photography, Leon Levinstein (American, 1910–1988) is best known for his candid and unsentimental black-and-white figure studies made in New York City neighbourhoods from Times Square and the Lower East Side to Coney Island. Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950-1980 features 45 of his photographs, drawn exclusively from the Metropolitan Museum’s collection.

A new website, Stockphotorights.com, aims to unravel the complexities and expose the potential legal pitfalls of image use online. Set up by Getty Images, the site has been launched in response to a new survey which has identified a lack of understanding among some image users. Almost half of the respondents (48%) said they did not fully understand legal protection or indemnification, for instance. The need for a one-stop online resource for information surrounding licensing issues was identified by many of the image users surveyed. Stockphotorights.com was developed to act as this online resource for image users to better understand the complex issues surrounding image licensing. The content featured on Stockphotorights.com includes frequently asked questions, case studies, an image licensing checklist, a short educational video, a rolling feed of relevant news, informative links and a forum where users can discuss related topics.

Website: StockPhotoRights