Adobe Creative Suite 5 is a new release of the industry-leading design and development software. Creative Suite 5 product line brings full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools while delivering significant workflow enhancements to designers and developers, focusing on interactivity, performance and maximising the impact of digital content and marketing campaigns across media and devices. The new lineup is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, which includes, in a single package, all of Adobe’s renowned Creative Suite tools, which includes more than 250 new features. Adobe Creative Suite 5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, priced at £2,303 for Master Collection CS5, £1,509 for CS5 Design Premium, £1,429 for CS5 Web Premium, £1,509 for CS5 Production Premium and £1,032 for CS5 Design Standard.

Several industry experts have been invited to discuss Adobe Photoshop Project Manager John Nack’s video, Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek. “Content-Aware Fill” is a feature that will make its way into Photoshop CS5 later this year, and Photoshelter asked the experts about the pros and cons of this time-saving tool, what it could mean for photographers and how it could impact image security online. The list of those who answered includes Vincent Laforet, Dr. Bob Carey, Mike Davis, James Estrin, Davide Marchionni, Jim Goldstein, Steve Best, David Sanger and John Harrington. Interested readers are encouraged to follow the link below to find out what each of them had to say.

Website: Wider Angles: Photoshop Content-Aware Fill

Transcend offers a range of splash- and shockproof storage devices, including a USB flash drive and two portable hard drives. Offered in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities, the Transcend JetFlash V70 flash drive is constructed of durable eco-friendly silicone rubber that provides a pleasant tactile feel and makes the drive highly resistant to excessive shock, splashes and dust. The anti-slip and shock resistant Transcend StoreJet 18M and 25M portable hard drives feature a sophisticated dual-stage shock-dampening system that incorporates internal suspension technology and a vibration-absorbing silicone outer shell. Transcend’s 1.8-inch StoreJet 18M mini portable hard drive sports a 120GB storage capacity, while the StoreJet 25M-R (Red) is available in 250GB, 320GB and 500GB, and the StoreJet 25M (Black) is offered in capacities of 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB.

Website: Transcend

Marketing Essentials International (MEI) and Bourne Media Group (BMG) have announced the formation of GoingPro, a totally new programme providing educational opportunities and business advice for emerging professional photographers. Created by MEI’s Skip Cohen and BMG’s Scott Bourne, GoingPro is a year-long annual programme dedicated to educating professional and aspiring professional photographers through a soon to be published GoingPro book, educational workshops, national conferences, free webinars and podcasts, blog and training DVD.

Website: GoingPro

Paradigm Global Partners, an investment company, has announced its acquisition of Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH. The Paradigm acquisition will maintain the financial stability of the company and provides a sound platform to manage future challenges, the company said in a statement. Reflecting on the change in ownership Lars Sommerhauser, Chief Operating Officer, commented: “The last few years have been tough for the imaging business as a whole, including ILFORD. This announcement has injected a renewed sense of energy and excitement within the company and provided the business with focus and direction. We are committed to servicing the global market where there is a demand for the premium quality products that we manufacture and this will necessitate a strengthening of our business units in the USA and Asia.”

Fujifilm has issued a firmware update for the Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 digital compact camera. Version 2.00 adds a new size, S 16:9, to the Image Size options in the F-Mode menu. Images taken with this setting fill the screen completely, with no black bar on either side. To download the firmware update, visit the website below.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix REAL 3D W1 Firmware 2.00

Ricoh has released a firmware update for the Ricoh CX3 digital compact camera. Version 1.08 fixes a bug with the playback of HD videos. You can download the new firmware update from the website below.

Website: Ricoh CX3 Firmware

Nevercenter’s CameraBag, a photo filter app for the iPhone, has come to the iPad and is proving popular once again. Currently one of the top five apps in the Photography section and one of the top 100 of all paid iPhone apps in the App Store, CameraBag has filters that “instantly emulate photography’s most beloved and iconic cameras, films, and processing techniques”. At any point users can double-tap to “Vary” the current filter, offering a slightly different take on that effect for infinite variations. Besides the new Vary button, CameraBag for iPad introduces other features such as the ability to pick and choose between borders and aspect ratios for each filter. High resolution photos are also supported.

Website: CameraBag for iPad

imsense has released a major upgrade to its imphoto iPhone applications. The new versions allegedly introduce “new standards in quality and colour accuracy” and come with a new version of the eye-fidelity engine is included in both versions, as well as improved output options with an «Extreme Quality» mode for the Pro edition. The Standard edition offers increased export size for optimal display on the iPad. By popular request, it is now possible to remove the watermark from the processed photos. The application retails at $1.99 for the standard edition and $5.99 for the pro edition and is available now in the App Store.

Website: imphoto

Dominion Riverrock has announced that registration is open for this year’s Digital Photo Contest. The second annual Dominon Riverrock sports and river life festival will be held from 14-15 May in Richmond, Virginia, and photographers are encouraged to capture the activities, competitions and venues taking place there. Entrants must submit their five best images as jpeg files via email by midnight Sunday, 16 May.A panel of judges will be looking for the overall images that capture the spirit of Dominion Riverrock. Cash prizes beginning at $500 will be awarded to first, second and third place contestants. The winning photos will also be featured in SBQ Magazine and displayed on the Dominion Riverrock website. There is a registration fee - $10 for online registrations made until 12 May, and $15 for on-site registrations made until 6pm on Saturday, 15 May.

Website: Dominon Riverrock

Pentax has announced plans organized by worldwide Pentaxians for another global photo shoot scheduled for Saturday, 17 April. Forum members at www.PENTAXforums.com plan to shoot locally on that day and submit images to a central gallery. The photos must be taken with a Pentax camera (film or digital, SLR or compact). The global shoot “Pentax World Day” is not intended as a competition, but it is designed for the satisfaction of shooting and sharing images with other forum members. Photos may be submitted to the pentaxforums.com User Photo Gallery. As an added twist this year, two Pentax K-x cameras are being given away in celebration of the 1 millionth post on the forum; these will be awarded to the two forum members who have posted the largest number of forum messages between April 8 and the end of the week in which the 1,000,000th post is made.

Website: Pentax Forums

The third annual International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) exhibition opens on 1 May 2010 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The exhibition comprises over 100 inspirational garden and plant images from all over the world in a unique outdoor setting. The International Garden Photographer of the Year Collection 3 book will also be published on 1 May, and will be available to buy in Kew’s Victoria Plaza shop as well as online. The exhibition runs until 26 September 2010.

Website: IGPOTY

Picmeta Systems has released version 3.5 of Printstation, a photo printing applicagtion designed to deliver fast results. In the new version there are three dedicated layout modes available, “Simple Page”, “Fixed Photo Size” and “Flexible Grid Layout”. In all modes, it is now possible to zoom and pan individual images within their assigned area. The operation of the program has been improved by a clearer structure of the settings and by an accelerated page generation. Printstation 3.5 can be downloaded from the Picmeta website. It runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. The update to Printstation 3.5 is free for all registered users. The full version of Printstation costs US$ 39.

Website: Printstation

Manchester Art Gallery will be staging A World Observed 1940 - 2010, the first major retrospective of the London-based photographer Dorothy Bohm. Born in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1924, Bohm has lived in England since 1939. A World Observed 1940 – 2010 opens with a selection of Bohm’s work as a student at Manchester College of Technology (from which she graduated in 1942) and of the portraits she produced while working first at Samuel Cooper and then, from 1946, in her own Studio Alexander in Market Street, Manchester. The next section charts her discovery of open air photography, whiile a smaller section will be devoted to a transitional period in her career, in which she explored the potential of Polaroid photography. Finally, the exhibition also includes her work taken on Kodak colour film, and some of the cameras Bohm used in the course of her long career will also be on display. The exhibition opens on 24 April and runs until 30 August 2010. Entry is free.

X-Rite has announced a free webinar dedicated to the use of its ColorChecker Passport. Taking place on Thursday, 15 April 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT and 3:00 PM EDT, these one-hour webinars will show ColorChecker Passport users, or those curious about the product, how to easily bring accurate colour to their digital photography to a new level, X-Rite says. “ColorChecker Passport provides photographers that are passionate about colour accuracy with a near-effortless tool to capture colour correctly and instantly enhance their images,” said Liz Quinlisk, X-Rite’s Director of Marketing Strategy, Photo. “This ColorChecker Passport webinar will show online attendees how they can achieve greatly improved colour results saving them significant time and effort after a photo shoot.” To register, visit the website below.

Website: X-Rite Photo

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), joined by other trade associations and individual photographers, has filed a class action copyright infringement suit against Google. The suit relates to Google’s allegedly illegal scanning of millions of books and other publications containing copyrighted images and displaying them to the public “without regard to the rights of the visual creators”, ASMP says. The trade associations decided to file the class action after the Court denied their request to join the currently pending $125 million class action that had previously been filed primarily on behalf of text authors in connection with the Google Library Project.

Three Stage National Tour from Resource Magazine and Hasselblad has been launched across the US. Three Stage celebrates the release of Hasselblad’s new H4D line of cameras, featuring the innovative TrueFocus technology, and offer photographers a hands-on and interactive experience with this and other selected equipment, from computer to lights to photo software. The event will include “Three Stages”, three separate interactive shooting spaces hosted by world class photographers from different fields of photography. Read on / click through for the upcoming Three Stage events.

Website: Three Stage Tour

iStockphoto, the micropayment pioneer in stock imagery, has just turned 10. iStockphoto kicks off the celebrations with a 10th anniversary microsite, including detailed timelines and iStock history, and asked site members to upload self-portraits for the “Faces of iStock.” More than 3200 people have participated from 89 countries. “The stock multimedia business model has transformed in the last decade, and although the model has changed, make no mistake, the demand for artistic stock is strong,” said Kelly Thompson, COO. “With the decline of print, publishers who embrace new technology and understand its potential will not only survive, but flourish. As the leading e-commerce platform for affordable royalty-free stock imagery, video and sound, iStock is uniquely positioned to help these pioneers change the way people consume media.”

Website: iStockphoto 10th Anniversary Microsite

Canon Europe has re-launched its after-sales support scheme for professional photographers and videographers, the Canon Professional Services (CPS) programme.  The new CPS introduces multiple levels of membership, allowing a greater number of professional photographers to qualify. There are Silver, Gold and Platinum membership types available, depending on the qualifying equipment registered with the scheme. Existing CPS community members are invited to validate and update their details through the CPS website in order to ensure the correct CPS membership has been registered. All existing, unvalidated memberships will expire in June 2010. After this, a new registration will be required and new cards will be issued.

Website: Canon Professional Services