AKVIS Software has released version 9.0 of AKVIS Sketch, its application that converts photos to colour and B&W pencil drawings and watercolour paintings, for Windows and Macintosh. Version 9.0 of AKVIS Sketch has a new improved algorithm for photo-to-sketch conversion (the option to use the old algorithm remains). The program has a new parameter field for edge definition. Now it is possible to manipulate the thickness and sharpness of the outlines. The new version also adds the possibility to change the saturation of colour strokes when using colour pencil drawing mode. AKVIS Sketch is available as a stand-alone application, as well as a plugin to a photo editor. AKVIS Sketch Home License (plug-in or standalone) sells for $72 USD or 55 Euro,  downloadable from www.akvis.com. Registered users of the previous versions can ugrade to version 9.0 for $39.

Phottix, a global manufacturer of photo accessories, announced the official opening of its Distributor for UK and Ireland today, Phottix UK Ltd. Phottix professional photo accessories have long been popular in the UK and Ireland, but prior to the establishment of the UK distribution partnership customers had to make their purchases from unofficial overseas websites. The new company, Phottix UK Ltd, will provide an official channel for Phottix quality photo accessories, and will greatly enhance customer service experience and product support, the company says. The Phottix product range includes unique units like the Phottix Hero wireless camera remote control (pictured),which operates over a video link, the Phottix GeoOne GPS camera geotagging unit, the Phottix O-Flash affordable ring light, the Phottix Nikos digital timer remote release and the Phottix Cleon II wireless/wired remote shutter release, as well as comprehensive replacement accessories ranging from camera grips to batteries, flash accessories, filters and complete studio lighting systems.

Website: Phottix UK

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Young Photographer Awards is stuill open for entries, but the final submission deadline is getting closer and closer. The overall winner of this year’s competition will win £1,000 worth of Olympus vouchers. This is in addition to the range of Olympus cameras on offer to the winners of categories including under 12 years, 12 to 18 years, pet personalities and the Olympus portfolio prize. The overall winner, picked from those who scoop the category titles, will also be given the chance to join the RSPCA’s award-winning chief photographer Andrew Forsyth on an exclusive photoshoot. Previous winners have been able to capture the magic of a seal release with their new cameras, while last year’s overall winner 12-year-old Molly Armiger enjoyed a day out helping release rehabilitated ducks and hedgehogs at the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre. The deadline for entries is midnight on 7 September, 2009, for those submitted via www.rspca.org.uk/ypa or 5pm on 24 August, 2009, for postal entries.

Businessman Simon Brown is urging keen photographers to take a different view of London, by joining one of the new CameraTrails tours, starting at the end of this month. Suitable for either beginners or intermediate photographers, Simon says that both tourists and Londoners alike will be both startled and inspired by gaining a different perspective of the city. Three main tours will shortly be available, focusing not only on the main tourist hotspots of London but also on the lesser-travelled routes, exploring aspects of urban decay and regeneration, culture and diversity. The first tour takes place on Sunday 23 August at 12pm, and focuses on the South Bank region, whilst the second is on Friday 28 August at 9.30am, concentrating on a different perspective of London’s greatest monuments.  Prices are £70 per person.

Website: Camera Trails

iPhone app publisher, Unique Apps, has recently released a new iPhone application called PhotoScatter; which allows users to submit photos to most of the top photo sharing sites on the Internet. Version 1 of PhotoScatter supports the following sites: Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly, PhotoBucket, Picasa, and Twitter (TwitPic). More photo sharing sites will be added to future versions, the company says. Currently retailing at $0.99, PhotoScatter can be purchased in the iTunes App Store.

Home Is Where You Make It, a Walker Arts Center residency project by artists Lauri Lyons and Tish Jones is raising public awareness about the homeless youth population in the Twin Cities. The interactive installations provide an opportunity for homeless youth to develop and display their artwork to a broad audience, and are paired with a three-week long series of artist led workshops where homeless youth will write personal narratives and shoot black and white portraits. The portraits will then be digitally enlarged and mounted onto cardboard and assembled by the teens into 5’ x 7’ ‘houses’ on the street. The resulting structures will challenge common perceptions of the homeless population and literally bring a face to the issues they encounter daily. Home Is Where You Make It runs until 21 August 2009.

JP Distribution has just announced the Ilford Galerie Back to School offer for 2009. Available as of 1 September, they will be offering three packs of A4 sized Ilford Galerie inkjet photo paper for £25. The offer includes 50 sheets of Smooth Heavyweight Matt paper, plus 25 sheets of Smooth Gloss and 25 sheets of Smooth Pearl. Furthermore, customers will also receive an extra 10 sheets free of each of the Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss inkjet papers, making a total of 120 sheets.

The DigiDude is a community designed, funky, portable camera tripod and keychain. Simply screw off your dude’s head and pull out his retractable legs for an on-the-go camera mount. DigiDudes are easily attached to your keychain or camera bag and will mount most point and shoot cameras. All DigiDudes come fully equipped with retractable and bendable legs for adjustable camera height & grip as well as a key ring for easy portability. The Quirky Community added some personality to the Dudes. Choose from one of the five: Pinky Scorsese, Snot Buster, iChomp, G-bling-Money-Son, and BoltBot, each with their own style and attitude. DigiDude is the eighth product designed and developed by the quirky community since quirky’s launch on June 2nd. quirky gives everyone the chance to get product ideas out of their heads and onto shelves. Each week quirky’s community collaborates to select and produce one new product idea. This week ends the development of the DigiDude and it is now available for sale at quirky’s online store for $19.99.

Website: The Quirky Store

Jessops have introduced their range of quality photo inkjet paper, which comes in matt, satin or gloss, and offers vivid colours, high whiteness and a smudge-resistant instant-dry finish. The range of Jessops photo quality gloss and satin inkjet papers have been developed to provide the combined benefits of a high white base colour with extended light stability. These new grades provide up to a 30% improvement in base paper light stability when compared to Jessops previous grades. Jessops quality gloss and satin inkjet papers start from £6.50 for a pack of 50 sheets.

The Lightbank 350 is a powerful mains operated continuous lighting kit with 7 x 50w compact fluorescent bulbs in each head. The bulbs are 5400k balanced daylight compact fluorescent bulbs so are perfect for both photography and videography. There are three switches on the back of the unit that allow bulbs to be turned off. You can turn off one, two or four bulbs or any combination giving complete flexibility on the amount of light output. Included in the kit are two Lightbank 350 heads with fourteen 50w compact fluorescent lightbulbs, two diffusers and two light stands. The Lightbank 350 studio lighting kit has an introductory price of £289.99.

Website: Lightbank 350

S-t-r-e-t-c-h your talent and take your photographic abilities to new heights with Photo Iconic’s Mountains & Panoramas photography course in the Tatra Mountains in October. Focusing on horizontal and vertical panoramic photography, and on landscape and black and white images, this tour will venture into the Tatra Mountains National Park with hand-picked locations specifically chosen for panoramic photography. This stunning region of Central Europe offers amazing opportunities for photography, with emerald lakes and valleys, waterfalls and the high Tatra and low Tatra peaks. The course is open to just seven guests, and will cater for all levels of photographic skill. It is suitable for digital and film photographers and for 35mm, medium or large format users. The week-long holiday costs £985, with everything included. And for every booking made, Photo Iconic and Mountain Paradise will donate £100.00 to the Tatra Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation set up in conjunction with the Animals on the Edge program of Living Earth to provide funding for conservation initiatives throughout Tatra Mountains National Park.

VICE Magazine have teamed up with Olympus to stage a special photography project that aims to showcase the hidden creative talents of four cultural icons. This project celebrates the 50th birthday of the design of the classic Olympus Pen and marks the release of its digital successor, the new Olympus E?P1. For Stories of the Eye, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal, Miquita Oliver and Lovefoxxx will document their lives through the “eye” of the E?P1, according to their chosen themes. Over the course of six?weeks the girls will upload their photos to the campaign’s home, where users can browse the photos. The project is accompanied by a photographic competition, in which entrants upload their own photographs and each of the girls will be judging the submissions to find a winner for their theme. Each winner will be awarded a brand new Olympus E-P1 worth £699, and the opportunity to exhibit their photos next to Daisy, Alice, Miquita or Lovefoxxx’s photos at the Stories of the Eye exhibition.

Website: Stories of the Eye
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus E-P1

Samsung has unveiled the 12.2-megapixel Samsung ST1000 camera with built-in geo-tagging, Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity. Offering consumers an ‘always on’ experience, users can now send and post pictures almost as quickly as they take them, whilst the GPS capabilities will keep track of exactly where each picture was shot. Using Bluetooth 2.0 technology, users can wirelessly beam their favourite images to other compatible mobile phone devices. With the Wi-Fi technology, users can email photos direct from their camera and upload their photos or videos to selected popular social networking websites including Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, without needing to connect to a PC. Smart Touch AF is on board to let you quickly change the position of the active AF point. Equipped with a 5x zoom lens and available in silver/red, black/black, red/black, black/gold and blue/grey colours, the Samsung ST1000 allows users to capture twelve-megapixel stills and 720p high-definition video clips. UK availability is slated for late August. The US version of the ST1000 is called the Samsung CL65, and can be yours for $399.99 from September onwards.

Samsung Digital Imaging today announced the arrival of the ultra slim, 12.2-megapixel ST550 and ST500 compact cameras, which boast a ‘world first’: front and back LCD display technology for easy self-portraits. The hidden 1.5” LCD located on the front of the camera allows consumers to take accurate portraits using the front image as a guide – whether it’s a group shot with friends or a snap of yourself on holiday. There is no need to even press the shutter button – a big smile is enough to trigger the cameras to take the picture. On the reverse, the Samsung ST550 features the world’s highest resolution 3.5” wide touch screen LCD. A Smart Gesture User Interface with built-in orientation sensor, means a simple tap or hand gesture allows users to access key features quickly. Furthermore, the ST550 and ST500’s One Touch Auto Focus feature allows you to focus on a user-defined part of the frame by simply touching the desired area. Both the ST500 and the ST550 come with a 27-124mm equivalent zoom lens. 720p video recording at 30 frames per second rounds off the feature set of the new cameras, the difference being that only the ST550 also features HDMI connectivity via an optional adapter. The ST500 will be available in silver, red and blue colours, and the ST550 will come in black, gold, orange and purple from late August. The US versions of these cameras are called the Samsung TL220 and the Samsung TL225, and will hit the shelves in September priced at $299.99 and $349.99, respectively.

Samsung has issued a firmware update for its GX-20 digital SLR camera. Version 1.03 improves the accuracy of the mechanical shake reduction system. You can download the Samsung GX-20 firmware update from the website below.

Website: Samsung GX-20 Firmware
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Samsung GX-20

The new Phantom Miro eX series from Vision Research offers users a custom-designed CMOS sensor capable of shooting 500-1,200 frames per second, and is available in resolutions of 640x480 (Miro eX1, Miro eX2) and 800x600 (Miro eX4). The Phantom Miro eX also offers super-fast exposure times as low as two microseconds (1/500,000 second), allowing users to freeze fast-moving objects and eliminate blur from their video. Maximum sensitivity is ISO 1200 for colour capture and ISO 4800 for monochrome. The Miro eX features a conductive fiber filled polycarbonate body, which reduces the camera’s overall weight to 1.5 pounds (without lens). Vision Research also redesigned the grip to allow the camera to be more comfortable in the hand. All controls are accessed directly through the Phantom Miro eX’s advanced 3.5 inch touch-screen LCD. A built-in triggering system allows users to program the Phantom Miro eX to automatically begin recording as soon as motion is detected within a specific point in the frame (available on Miro eX2 and Miro eX4). The Phantom Miro eX will be available with options of 1GB, 2GB or 4GB of internal memory (1GB only on Miro eX1) and is also compatible with CompactFlash cards. The Phantom Miro eX1 model is priced at less than $10,000 - or you can rent it for two days for $750 - and is available for online ordering only at the website below.

Website: Vision Research

Shoot it!, LLC, today announced the launch of its postcard messaging application for the iPhone. Available on the iPhone App Store, the shoot it! application allows users to take a picture, create a personal message and have it mailed as a real postcard from anywhere to anyone in the world (US & Western Europe open now - other countries soon). Available for 99 cents at the iPhone App Store, shoot it! comes with one free postcard.

Adventure Collection, an alliance of ten premium adventure travel companies has launched an adventure travel photo contest, “Adventures of a Lifetime”. The competition celebrate the launch of the alliance’s new website, AdventureCollection.com.  Grand prizes include five extraordinary trips - Adventure Collection journeys for two to Tibet, the Czech Republic, the Galapagos and other locations around the world. All adventure travellers are invited to enter their best adventure travel photos at Adventures of a Lifetime Photo Contest. Five contest finalists will be selected each month from August through November by popular vote. The winner will be chosen by a panel of distinguished travel journalists, editors and photographers, including Conde Nast Traveler consumer news editor Wendy Perrin, renowned photographer Robert Holmes, Jim Benning, founder and editor of the Travel Channel’s WorldHum.com, Los Angeles Times travel editor Catharine Hamm, and Adventure Collection editor in chief Don George. We recommend that you read the rules thoroughly before entering.