Tamron USA has announced the second in its series of four photo contests for 2010: Backyard Wildlife. This quarter’s contest asks entrants to submit photographic portraits of their local wildlife, whether found in their own backyard, local parks, or other urban and rural neighbourhood areas. Running from 1 April to 30 June 2010, the contest is looking for local wildlife indigenous to the photographer’s home town, so photos from zoos, aquariums and the like will not be considered. The Grand Prize Winner of Contest Two 2010 will receive his/her choice of one of these Tamron lenses: SP AF60mm F2 Di-II 1:1 Macro; SP AF10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di-II; SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 Di-II VC (pictured); or AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II VC.

Website: Tamron Contest Page

PhotoXpress.com has just been re-launched, offering 10 times more images than before. Image downloaders now have the option to upgrade to either a PhotoXpress Lite or Premium subscription. With a PhotoXpress Lite subscription, users can download over 15,000 royalty-free images per month, for $9.99/month. The new Premium Library has nearly 6,000,000 high-quality, royalty-free photos, and the site offers a number of other new features such as bulk download, advanced search options, a Lightbox Dashboard that enables users to save and sort images quickly, and a drag-and-drop feature that interacts with images and the Lightbox Dashboard.

Website: PhotoXpress

DxO Labs have announced the addition of 70 new lens & camera combinations to its library of DxO Optics Modules for its DxO Optics Pro automatic image enhancement software. This new release brings the total number of available DxO Optics Modules to over 1900. DxO Optics Pro 6.1.2 for Windows is available from both DxO Labs’ e-store and selected resellers priced at $169 / €149 / £99 (Standard Edition) and $299 / €299 / £199 (Elite Edition). DxO Optics Pro 6 for Mac is scheduled for release in May 2010 and will be available as a free upgrade to customers who have purchased version 5 or higher after June 1, 2009.

Website: 70 New DxO Optics Correction Modules

Unified Color Technologies today announced the Unified Color “True Vision HDR Photo Contest.” U.S. photographers of all experience levels are invited to submit their finest images created using Unified Color Technology’s HDR PhotoStudio software, a free download available at Unified Color’s website. Images can be submitted in one of three categories: nature, architecture or “freestyle,” an open category for any image that does not qualify for either of the other categories.Awards and prizes will be presented in each category three times throughout the year followed by a grand prize announced on 1 December. The first round of awards will be announced in mid-May and entries should be submitted by 12 May. The three category winners will each receive a photo prize pack valuing nearly $2,000 including a Nikon D90 kit, Gitzo carbon fibre tripod, the new Lowepro Slingshot 202 AW and a Lexar Professional Class 10 8GB SDHC memory card. The grand prize winner will choose from a selection of dream photography workshops offered through National Geographic Expeditions and will also receive a 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Website: Unified Color’s True Vision HDR Photo Contest
Recommended Reading: How to Create High Dynamic Range Photos by David J. Nightingale

Kenro has been named as the official UK and Ireland distributor for the acclaimed range of Benro tripods. The range consists of four tripod models (Travel Angel, Quick Lock, FlexPod and EX Series) with aluminium and carbon fibre versions available. The Benro range also includes five models of ballheads and two HD Series 3-Way heads and accessories. To view Kenro’s full range, visit the website below.

Website: Kenro

Adobe has officially unveiled the worldwide launch date of Creative Suite 5. The company will release Adobe CS5 on 12 April, and encourages everyone to attend the global launch event online via a dedicated website. The launch time is 5pm CET / 11am EDT / 8am PDT.

Website: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Launch

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Carl Zeiss lenses. While Carl Zeiss was founded in 1846 in Jena, in its early years, it manufactured microscopes almost exclusively. The first photo lenses were launched at the end of March 1890. Throughout the anniversary year, the company will be celebrating its breakthroughs in photographic technology with activities for both customers and the public. “Carl Zeiss lenses helped write photographic history. They have truly stood the test of time,” says Winfried Scherle, head of the Camera Lens Division. Zeiss submitted a patent for the Tessar lens (pictured), invented the anti-reflex coating in 1935, and developed MTF charts in 1943. The shots of the 1969 moon landing were taken with Carl Zeiss lenses, as were numerous Oscar-acclaimed films, such as Barry Lyndon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Slumdog Millionaire.  Sony has been using Zeiss lenses in its compact cameras and camcorders since 1996, while Nokia camera phones have had integrated Zeiss lenses since 2005. Today, Carl Zeiss manufactures high-quality SLR lenses for Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony mounts.

Zenfolio has released its new iPhone application, myZenfolio. This free application, available immediately for download on the iTunes Store, allows photographers to easily manage and share photos hosted on Zenfolio. Developed and supported by the Zenfolio team, myZenfolio for iPhone provides users with a mobile front-end to professionally manage their photographs while on the go. To download the new myZenfolio iPhone application, visit the iTunes App Store.

LensFlare ia a new iPhone app that, as its name implies, mimics the effect of lens flare. Using this application, you can position the simulated flare by simply tilting your device, or tap the lock icon to use touch positioning. You can control the brightness of the flare, choose from various lens coatings or use anamorphic lens effects. LensFlare for iPhone is available via the App Store.

Eye-Fi has launched new wireless memory cards including the Eye-Fi Connect X2 and the Eye-Fi Explore X2. The “X2” family of Eye-Fi cards are claimed to have faster-than-ever wireless photo and video uploads, improved performance, and virtually endless storage capacity with Endless Memory mode. This lets users choose to have Eye-Fi automatically make space available on their memory card after photos and videos are safely uploaded to the computer or Web.In the US, the new product line-up is available today starting at $49.99. In the UK, the new cards will hit the shelves at the end of April, starting at £49.99.

Research released by Nikon today to celebrate the launch of its new range of Coolpix compact cameras shows that 47% of Brits can remember the scent associated with a photograph. Even more surprisingly, just under a quarter said they would actively take a picture of something based purely on the way it smells. The results also show that British women are more likely to pay attention to the scent of their surroundings when taking a picture than men, with over a quarter stating they would capture a photograph of something that smells appealing. When asked to rate a list of scents that were most likely to trigger a memory, over 53% of Brits named the smell of freshly cut grass as their top ‘Memory Scent’. The research was conducted to mark the launch of the new range of Nikon Coolpix compact cameras, including the S8000, the S4000, P100 (pictured), L110, L21 and L22.

Nikon UK has announced that it will be presenting at this year’s The Gadget Show Live. The show is the UK’s fastest growing and most exciting consumer electronics show, held at the Birmingham NEC from 7th-11th April. Nikon will be taking to the stage as part of The Gadget Show Photographic Masterclass Theatre, demonstrating how its latest camera technology is used for creating impressive special effects in film production. Visitors to the show will see how these techniques can also be used at home to improve their own photography. Click through / read on for the exact dates and times at which the Nikon presentations will be held.

International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) has announced the winner of the first photo contest in its ‘4 seasons’ series. The winners are Tom Wundrak (for his image, “Frozen Beauty”, reproduced above), Elspeth Briscoe and Anthony Beck. The overall winner receives a £500 cash prize and all the finalists will receive a copy of ‘International Garden Photographer of the Year Collection 03’ published by David and Charles. The images can be seen at the website below.

Website: IGPOTY Winter Photography Competition Gallery

JVC today announced the availability of a new high definition Everio camera with built-in Bluetooth wireless technology, allowing the camera to work with a variety of other wireless devices. Among the capabilities the camera’s Bluetooth technology offers is control of the camera using a smartphone, geo-tagging of videos and stills and use with a compatible Bluetooth headset. In addition, the JVC HD Everio GZ-HM550 features a 10.62-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor for recording high quality Full HD video and nine megapixel digital stills to its internal 32GB flash memory. The integrated Konica Minolta HD lens is currently one of the world’s smallest and slimmest HD lenses, and offers 16x dynamic zoom without any degradation of picture quality, the company says. The GZ-HM500 is also equipped with both an LED light and a flash for shooting in dark situations. The JVC HD Everio GZ-HM550 Bluetooth enabled camera is available now for $799.95.

A new nature photography contest, open to all Facebook users around the world, has just been announced. To enter, simply upload your photographs anytime up until 30 November 2010 to Burrard-Lucas Photography’s Facebook fan page photo gallery. Prizes to be won include a Canon EOS 7D digital SLR camera (pictured), a SmugMug Pro account and two SmugMug standard accounts. There is no entry fee.

Website: Burrard-Lucas Photography: Facebook Photo Contest

The first ever Hear the World photography competition, entitled “Joy of Sound”, is now open to amateur and professional photographers with a prize package worth over £2,000. Hear the World educates on the consequences of hearing loss and informs people about the solutions that are available. To celebrate hearing, and to illustrate how essential it is to our experience of the world around us, judges from Hear the World and Digital SLR Photography Magazine are looking for an original photograph that best depicts The Joy of Sound. As always, we recommend that you read the rules before applying via the website below.

Website: Hear the World

Israeli Photographer Atalia Katz presents her solo premier exhibition, Voice of Ethiopia, from 8-30 April at ZONE: CONTEMPORARY ART in New York City. Voice of Ethiopia captures the day to day life of Ethiopian Jews, considered by many to be one of the lost tribes of Israel. Katz was introduced to the Beta Israel community in January when she travelled to Ethiopia on a spiritual journey. Katz’s photographs of the makeshift, metal-hut synagogues of the transit camps reveal vital centers of faith and social life. A grid of nine photographs on display at the gallery will spotlight the religious rituals and daily experience of this unique cultural enclave. ZONE: CONTEMPORARY ART is located at 41 West 57th Street, NYC.

Delkin has announced four new SDHC cards ranging from 4GB to 32GB. Capable of up to 163x transfer speeds, these Class 10 rated cards all exceed the SD Association Specification data transfer rate requirement, the company says. Every card is manufactured with high grade NAND flash, advanced controller design, and quality control guidelines based on ISO 9001:2008 standards.  Additionally, a built-in write-protect switch prevents accidental data loss. Priced from $39.99 for the 4GB card to $219.99 for the 32GB variant, the new Class 10 SDHC memory cards all come with a lifetime warranty.