Kodak has announced that it is ceasing production of its Ektachrome 100 Plus Professional (EPP) and Ektachrome 64T Professional (EPY, pictured) film emulsions. The company cites “significantly decreased sales volumes” as the cause of discontinuance in both cases. The suggested alternative for EPP is Ektachrome E100G. There is no suggested alternative for EPY. Based on current usage demand, both discontinued products are expected to be available in the market through early 2010.

LaCie today introduced its most complete HD multimedia hard drive player, combining Full HD 1080p playback, allegedly unsurpassed format compatibility and DLNA media server functionality – LaCinema Classic HD, design by Neil Poulton. According to claims made by LaCie, LaCinema Classic HD will play all your files without concern – from the most popular DivX format to high-quality MKV H.264 video format via its HDMI 1.3 connection. You can use it as an external hard drive to load media from your Mac or PC. Then, simply connect the LaCinema Classic HD to your HDTV for instant playback. Finally, the LaCinema Classic HD also features the option of connecting a USB Wi-Mark,Fi 802.11N adapter (sold separately) for wireless access to the home network. LaCinema Classic HD is available through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Reseller+ and LaCie Corner, starting at the suggested retail price of £199.

Website: LaCie

PhotographyBB announced today the release of the 22nd edition of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. The November 2009 edition theme is all about “how-to” with some great tutorials and photography techniques to get your photographic creative juices flowing. This month examines some basic macro photography tips, keeping wildlife (and yourself) safe during nature photography sessions, and a new “Evolution of an Image” series where the creation of a photograph is examined from start to finish. The issue also looks at the ins and outs of the Library Module in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta. Finally, the Photography Around the World feature takes readers to Cabo San Lucas, which lies in the southern tip of Baja California Sur, a province of Mexico. PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website.

Website: PhotographyBB Magazine

Apple has just updated its photo management software, iPhoto. Version 8.1.1 addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy. It also fixes minor bugs in the areas of book ordering and iPod touch support. Important: If you imported photos of people while using iPhoto 8.1, there’s an extra step you should take after installing the 8.1.1 update. Select all those photos, Control-click to open the contextual menu, and then choose Detect Missing Faces. This will re-detect the faces in those photos and correct any face recognition issues introduced in iPhoto 8.1. You should not quit iPhoto during the Detect Missing Faces process.

Website: About the iPhoto 8.1.1 Update

By visiting California Sunbounce’s website every day from 1 to 24 December, professional photographers and semi-pros are giving themselves the exciting opportunity to win a bundle of prizes consisting of the famous Sunbounce reflectors or Sniper-strap camera straps. California Sunbounce will open a new door on its virtual calendar every day in December making a new offer available. The promotion idea is taken from the Lutheran tradition of the advent calendar, which is used to count or celebrate the days of advent in anticipation of Christmas. You will find the virtual advent calendar from 1 December at the website below.

Website: California Sunbounce

muvee has announced version 8 of muvee Reveal, its home movie-making software. muvee Reveal version 8 boasts features including music trimming on multiple music tracks, direct YouTube and Facebook upload options, and personal branding through logo insertion on your movies.  It is also optimised for NVIDIA CUDA Graphics Processor Units (GPUs), enabling up to 8X faster saving times and superior video preview performance, the company says. muvee Reveal version 8 comes complete with 10 styles, including a new Kinetic style. Styles allow the user to enhance the mood of their home movies with special effects and transitions. Additional stylePacks can be purchased at the manufacturer’s website. muvee Reveal version 8 is available for $79.95.

Website: muvee

Engineering students in the Newcastle and Kidsgrove District have been asked to design, produce and market a photography-related product. Once complete, the products will be assessed by Newcastle-under-Lyme College and JP Service Solutions (JPSS) for their engineering and commercial viability. JPSS have extended their support to the students by setting up a dedicated email address that the students can contact the team on should they have any queries during their time on the course.

Panasonic has released firmware updates for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 camera and five Micro Four Thirds lenses. Version 1.1 of the GF1 firmware enables the use of the manual focus assist feature by pressing the rear dial when an MF-only third-party lens is attached to the camera via an adapter, improves autofocus performance during video capture, improves high-ISO image quality, auto white balance accuracy, and autoexposure accuracy in a couple of scene modes. The lens firmware updates, which concern the Lumix G VARIO 7-14mm, 14-45mm & 45-200mm, Lumix G VARIO HD 14-140mm and Lumix G 20mm lenses, improve AF performance in movie recording, and enable AF in full HD mode on lenses that had previously not had this feature.

Website: Joint Update Service

Online digital accessory specialist, Picstop, has relaunched its website, which it claims “sets new benchmarks for online trading in the sector”. A new ‘product finder’ option enables customers to browse tens of thousands of items including cameras, phones, PDAs and camcorders – and instantly provides information about all compatible products such as memory cards, batteries, chargers and cables. And within weeks the new-look site will also allow customers to make instant price comparisons with competitors and access totally independent reviews of its trading efficiency.

Website: Picstop

JP Distribution has announced the new Tilthead Bracket with Locking Shoe Mount from Lastolite. The new bracket, which will be offered alongside the original Tilthead, eatures an adjustable ‘screw locking’ shoe mount, which offers an additional locking mechanism to work alongside the built in method used on the flashgun. The suggested retail price is £22.99.

Website: Lastolite

Hasselblad’s Chief Executive Officer, Christian Poulsen, has left the company. According to Amateur Photographer, Poulsen will remain as the Swedish firm’s Strategic Technology Adviser, but as CEO, he is replaced by Chairman Larry Hansen. Poulsen had founded Imacon in the mid-1990s, and has been leading Hasselblad since the merger of the two companies in 2004. At around that time, Poulsen was quoted as saying, “They finally realized there was no future. It was impossible to keep Hasselblad alive without digital.” Since then Hasselblad has introduced the H1D, H2D, H3D, H3D II and H4D system cameras, among other products aimed at digital photographers.

A selling exhibition of David Bailey’s iconic images of the 1960s will be hosted by Bonhams in New Bond Street. David Bailey’s name is an integral part of the 1960s, and he captured images which remain a pictorial reminder of all that was best about it. The `Pure Sixties. Pure Bailey.’ exhibition will be on view at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, from 7th March – 7th April, 2010.

Adobe Photoshop.com Mobile for Android, released on 6 November 2009, is now available globally in all countries with Android Market. Based on customer feedback, this release also includes improvements to the user experience around launching and exiting the application. The Android application equips consumers with quick and easy image-editing tools, colour adjustments and instant photo-sharing capabilities. After making edits on their Android device, users can upload photos from their phone to their Photoshop.com account to view and retrieve their images at a later time from any Internet-connected computer.

Website: Photoshop.com Mobile for Android

Greetings card company, Fluppet.com, is offering photographers, artists, cartoonists and illustrators the opportunity to earn a regular income though royalty payments. There is no cost to submit images and if the pictures are considered suitable, the originator stands to earn 5p each time it is chosen by a Fluppet.com customer.  Professional artists and photographers are also able to licence their work through Fluppet.com.

Transcend has introduced the latest addition to its StoreJet external hard drive lineup, the Transcend StoreJet 35T. About the size of a hardback book, the black streamlined StoreJet 35T offers up to 1.5TB capacity. Its slender design allows it to be placed upright, thus occupying a smaller footprint to save precious desk space. The StoreJet 35T features Transcend’s TurboHDD USB technology that enhances write speeds from 33MB/s to an average of 42MB/s—an increase of nearly 30%. Additionally, the StoreJet 35T bundles with StoreJet Elite software that offers 256-bit AES file and folder encryption with compression options to maximise the storage space and protect data at the same time. The 1TB version has a list price of $195, the 1.5TB variant is available for $264.

Website: Transcend

Those who subscribe to the monthly newsletter of the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP) will receive NYIP’s Three Guidelines and Six Tips for Great Photographs. A colourful collection of ideas and eye-catching photographs that will quickly and easily help photographers take better pictures, the document is available as a PDF download to all new subscribers. To subscribe to the monthly NYIP newsletter and receive the free download of NYIP’s Three Guidelines and Six Tips for Great Photographs, visit the website below.

Website: The New York Institute of Photography

Kenro have released two new ranges of photo frames, Rio and Whisper. The Rio collection features a dark wooden surround with a wide 40mm moulding and is supplied with a white mount. The Whisper frame range is aimed at the photo and gift market. It features a stylish black glass mount with elegant 5mm polished silver surround and is supplied in a gift box. Recommended retail prices of the Rio frames range from £14.90 to £23.90, while the Whisper frames are priced from £9.90 to £17.90.

Website: Kenro

Crash Taylor, recently voted one of the UK’s top ten winter wedding photographers by Professional Photographer magazine, will return to Calumet Nottingham for a wedding photography seminar. Crash is known for his use of location, light, artistic eye and unobtrusive style. The six-hour seminar will take place on Friday 21 May 2010, and is limited to 35 delegates. The cost is £95. To book your place, call 0115 9586888 and refer to the seminar code ZSMNOT0047.

Colour Confidence have teamed up with a number of their key dealer and manufacturer partners to announce the ‘True Colour, True Prints 2’ roadshow. The tour is a perfect opportunity to see the very latest products from onOne Software (Plug-in Suite 5), X-Rite (ColorChecker Passport) and Nik Software (Viveza 2) and will be touring the UK during November and December. ‘True Colour, True Prints 2’ is also a great chance for attendees to enjoy professional face-to-face advice, see product demonstrations and image enhancement techniques, workflow management and all things colour. The ‘True Colour, True Prints 2’ roadshow will be held in a variety of locations around the UK during November and December 2009. For a full overview of venue and date details, visit the website below.

Website: True Colour, True Prints 2