Solis Energy has announced the Power HotSpot, a portable solar power source that “provides remote power anywhere it’s needed”. The new solar-powered product can run small 12 volt “non-critical” electronics in remote locations or anywhere grid power isn’t available. All that’s required is an electronic device with a car power adaptor (cigarette lighter interface) and the sun. “There are literally hundreds of products that can be powered with this product,” said Solis Energy Founder and CEO Robert Reynolds, adding, “Solis Energy has provided our corporate clients with rugged and reliable solar power solutions since 2005, and that gave us the expertise to develop a product for consumer use”. The Power HotSpot retails for $375.

A group of British photographers have submitted an e-petition to Downing Street 10, calling on the Government to abandon plans, announced on 29 October 2009, to allow free and unhindered reproduction of photographs without payment or credit on non-commercial websites. The e-petition reads, “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abandon plans to amend copyright protection for photographers which effectively amount to nationalisation of photography.” The petition creator, Darren Hector, argues that the new plan is “completely at odds with the Government’s stance on file sharing of other forms of intellectual property… and raises the prospect of crippling thousands of small businesses while protecting large corporate interests.” Interested readers can read the petition - and sign it if they wish, provided they are legal residents or citizens of the United Kingdom - at the website below.

Website: Petition

Adobe has announced the availability of new Release Candidates (RCs) of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), DNG Converter and Lightroom. Release Candidates are software versions that have been thoroughly tested, but could still benefit from user feedback. Version 2.6 of Lightroom and version 5.6 of ACR / DNG Converter add support for a range of new cameras and digital backs, including the Canon EOS 7D, Canon Powershot G11, Canon Powershot S90, Mamiya DM22 / DM28 / DM33 / DM 56, Nikon D3s, Olympus E-P2, Pentax K-x, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38, Sigma DP1s, Sony Alpha DSLR-A500 / A550 and A850 cameras and the Leaf Aptus II 5, Mamiya M18 / M22 & M31 medium format backs.

Website: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 Release Candidate for Mac & Windows
Website: Adobe Camera Raw & DNG Converter Release Candidates for Mac & Windows

Photovisi is a free new service that lets you create photo collages easily. At photovisi.com you first select one of the many collage templates, add your photos and then customise the collage by dragging photos around. After the collage is finished, it’s available for download or print on merchandise such as posters and mugs. If you’ve always wanted to create photo collages but did not know how to get started, pay a visit to the website below.

Website: Photovisi

The new Casio EX-G1 is the World’s slimmest shock-resistant, waterproof, dustproof digital camera. The 12 megapixel EXG1 measures just 0.78-inch thick and can be used at depths at 10 feet / 3 meters for 60 continuous minutes, survive falls from seven feet / 2.13 meters and withstand temperatures as low as 14°F / -10 °C. Other key features of the Casio EX G1 include interval shooting and multi-image capture, useful for active sports such as snowboarding or cycling, 3x zoom lens (38-114mm), and 2.5 inch LCD screen. The Casio EX-G1 will be available in December 2009 priced at $299.99 in black and red. In the UK the Casio EX-G1 will cost £279, available from January 2010.

Professor Shree Nayar at the Computer Vision Laboratory at Columbia University and his team have come up with a prototype for a DIY digital camera. Though the BigShot camera is primarily intended to be an educational aid targeted at schoolchildren, we think it could be a potential hit with a large group of adults, too. The main parts of the camera include a gearbox, a lens wheel, a flash, a circuit board, a battery and… a dynamo! Since the Bigshot does not have an LCD of any sorts, it does not need too much power to take a photo - which means the battery is only needed if you want to use the flash. Otherwise you can use a hand crank, connected to the dynamo via the gearbox, to generate the necessary power to capture a shot. The Bigshot’s 2-megapixel sensor is mounted onto the circuit board. The lens is probably the most interesting part of the camera - while the primary lens is also fixed to the circuit board, the BigShot comes with three optical modules, which are built into a polyoptic lens wheel. “Switching lenses” is done by way of turning the wheel. Each optical module has a matching viewfinder module on the opposite side of the polyoptic wheel, so the photographer looking through the optical viewfinder can see (almost) the same view as the taking lens. Given that the BigShot does not have an LCD, using it is a lot like using a film camera, as you cannot review your photos until you download them to your computer via USB. Currently, there are only prototypes floating around and being used in workshops worldwide - there is no information as to when the BigShot will be available commercially.

Website: Bigshot: A Camera for Education

VSO Software has released version 3.0.0.140 of VSO Resizer, a program targeted primarily at digital photo frame owners. New features include a smart digital frame transfer assistant, new filters, new algorithms and a new resize method called seam carving. This embedded seam carving technology is a smart “content aware” resizing method to keep the full content of an existing picture without distorting the image. The program runs on Windows 7, Vista and XP. VSO Image Resizer is currently available at $14.99.

Website: VSO Shop

The prestigious Lange-Taylor documentary photography award is now calling for entries. Named after photographer Dorothea Lange and writer Paul Taylor, whose 1941 book, American Exodus, was a milestone in documentary studies, the Lange-Taylor award “was created to encourage collaboration between documentary writers and photographers”. In that spirit, the award is offered to a writer and a photographer in the early stages of a documentary project. Now in its twenthieth year, the Lange-Taylor award comes with a $20,000 cash prize. The 2009 winners, Christian Parenti and Teru Kuwayama won the prize for their project exploring the “human landscape” of Pakistan. Entries for the 2010 award are to be submitted between 1 and 31 January 2010.

Website: The Lange-Taylor Prize

Via The British Journal of Photography
Photo by Teru Kuwayama

Two Pilots have released a new version of Exif Pilot, a program that allows users to view, edit or even create EXIF data. In the new version of Exif Pilot, the list of supported image formats is significantly expanded. Now the program allows reading and editing the following file formats: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, DNG, NEF, PEF, CRW, and JP2. Read-only support is provided for these formats: PSD, RAF, CR2, MRW, ARW, and many others. The program also allows you to export data to an Excel table for analysis and storage. Batch editing is available with the Pro version. Exif Pilot Lite is free, Exif Pilot is $29.95, while Exif Pilot Pro costs $39.95. All three versions are Windows only.

Fujifilm announced that effective 1 January 2010 it is creating a new organisation, Fujifilm North America Corporation. The new corporation will merge Fujifilm U.S.A., Inc. and Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A. Inc. Fujifilm Canada Inc. will become a subsidiary of the new company as of 1 April 2010. Fujifilm North America will bring together five operating divisions: photo imaging products including digital photo processing equipment and services supplying commercial and consumer customers; graphic systems products and services supplying the printing industry; consumer digital cameras; motion picture films; and the Canada Division which markets multiple Fujifilm products.

Somerset-based professional photographers Anita Corbin and John O’Grady have photographed eleven British scientists, and the portraits are now on display in London, for the first time ever. Anita Corbin of Corbin O’Grady Studio in Wellington, explains, “The colour portraits were taken in 1989 for the series ‘Science in Profile’ commissioned by The British Council. The pictures were taken by my partner John O’Grady and me over a three month period. There were 24 in total and the resulting set of portraits was exhibited in the early nineties all over the world but never in Britain. The large colour prints will form part of the photographic archive of significant Britons at The National Portrait Gallery and are currently on display at the Gallery.”  The display, entitled “Science in Focus” runs until 17 January 2010.

Website: National Portrait Gallery

Build a Better Photograph, a new book by Rocky Nook, is an excursion into the creative process of an experienced professional photographer. Author Michael Stern demystifies the creative process he has successfully employed for over two decades in the fields of environmental portraiture, product photography, 3D scanning, and compositing techniques. How do artists conceptualize? Where do they get their ideas? How do they incorporate those ideas into their work? These questions and others are explored during actual assignments, along with discussions about the technical and business skills needed to succeed in commercial photography. Build a Better Photograph is available for $34.95 / £22.99.

Swains International has introduced shop4filters, the first dedicated website for purchasing your Tiffen filters online. The shop4filters website will include the full Tiffen filter range, and will also feature several ‘centres of excellence’, selected Swains stockists that will provide the same special offers and prices as the website. There is also a range of interesting articles on using filters. The website will also provide great before-and-after shots using the Tiffen filters which will help to show you the effects you can achieve.

Website: Shop4filters

Retired Kodak research scientist Bryce Bayer, whose invention of a colour filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture colour, is today being honoured by the Royal Photographic Society with its Progress Award at a ceremony in London. Bayer invented the colour filter array that bears his name (the Bayer filter), which is incorporated into nearly every digital camera and camera phone on the market today.  The red, green, and blue colors of the Bayer filter are fabricated on top of the light-sensitive pixels as the image sensor is manufactured. In addition to his work on digital colour imaging, Bayer developed widely cited algorithms for storing, improving, and printing digital images.

Pandigital today announced the addition of two new portable photo scanners to its PhotoLink line. The new Pandigital PhotoLink One-Touch 5x7 Scanner allows consumers to scan 5x7-inch (13x18cm, or smaller) traditional prints onto a memory card or directly to a PC. The Pandigital PhotoLink Personal Photo Scanner (see picture above) enables consumers to digitise slides, negatives and smaller prints. The digitised photos have a resolution of 1800x1200 pixels. Both scanners can output the files onto a variety of memory cards, and both come complete with a 512-megabyte SD card. The PhotoLink One-Touch 5x7 Scanner has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $129.99 and is available now at various retail locations. The PhotoLink Personal Photo Scanner also has an MSRP of $129.99 and is available exclusively on QVC through December 5, 2009.

The the Ilford Inkjet Photo Paper Range offers a complete selection of photo papers for home printing. Specially created for the expanding home printing sector, the ILFORD Inkjet Photo Paper Range offers a variety of papers and sizes. Ideal for studio quality portraits, the Premium Plus paper (270 gsm and 290 gsm) is designed to showcase specially selected photos. For photo albums or holiday snapshots, the Premium Photo paper (250 gsm) is the perfect pick, the manufacturer claims. Free ICC profiles are available for both the Premium Photo Plus and Premium Photo ranges at Ilford’s website. The the Ilford Inkjet Photo Paper Range is distributed in the UK through JP Distribution.

Website: Ilford

Dell today introduced the mini-sized InspironTM Zino HD desktop computer, which is versatile enough to handle tasks from basic computing chores to driving a big-screen, high-definition video media centre, the company claims. Starting at £299 including VAT and delivery, the Inspiron Zino HD includes standard HD-capable integrated graphics, HDMI output and built-in networking. The economical Inspiron Zino HD, with optional additional memory (up to 8GB RAM), hard drive storage (up to 1TB), combo Blu-ray Disc player, wireless remote control and Microsoft Windows 7 Media Player, can be configured into a powerful home media centre computer. In that capacity, the Inspiron Zino HD displays high-definition content from the Internet, and stores and delivers music, video and photos. The Inspiron Zino HD is available today directly from Dell with a choice of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional operating systems.

Website: Dell

Sony has announced the launch of the new Microvault line of ‘keyring’ USB flash drives. The Sony Microvault will hit the shelves in January 2010 offering storage capacities ranging from 4GB to 32GB. Created to combine value with functionality, this Microvault features a retractable connector so there will be no more lost caps. Ease of use is also built in, with drag & drop operation for any type of data format and full compatibility with Windows 7, the company claims. The high-capacity 16GB and 32GB versions are particularly suitable for anyone dealing with large quantities of high-resolution images or large video clips. Pricing to be confirmed.

Lomography has announced a special contest that gives you the chance to turn the Lomo LC-A+, billed as a “classic, iconic snapshot wonder”, into your very own masterpiece The Lomo LC-A is a simple, plastic 35mm film camera that has been around for 25 years. The LC-A+ is an improved version of the original LC-A, and Lomography is now asking you to download the Lomo LC-A+ template from its website, cut it out like a paper camera, customise the paper camera according to your tastes, and either upload your customised templates or send them by post to the Lomography headquarters in Vienna. Submissions must be received by 10 January 2010. The winning design will go to actual production as a limited edition model, and the winner will be awarded with an opportunity to travel to the Lomography HQ in Vienna, with flight and accommodation paid. He/she will also receive five of the limited-edition Lomo LC-A+ cameras they had designed.

Website: The Lomography Blog