Allegedly, Leica is finalising a new, limited-edition version of its digital rangefinder camera. Luxist has it that an all-white Leica M8 - or, more probably, M8.2 - is on its way to become available in “extremely limited” numbers. There is no info on pricing yet, but if the olive green Leica M8.2 Safari Edition is anything to go by, expect it to cost at least double the price of the standard all-black version (which isn’t exactly the cheapest digital camera on the planet to begin with).

Website: Special Edition All-White Leica M8 At Luxist.com

Update (15 April 2009): photoscala reports that the Leica M8 White Edition will cost €7,000 in a bundle with a silver-coloured Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, and should be available from mid-June.

Rocky Nook has published a new photography technique book, entitled Photographic Multishot Techniques. Written by Jürgen and Reiner Gulbins, Photographic Multishot Techniques is a hands-on guide to exciting multishot practices like High Dynamic Range imaging, super-resolution, stitching and depth-of-field extension via focus stacking. Throughout the book, the authors use tools such as Photoshop, PhotoAcute, Photomatix Pro, FDRTools, CombineZM, DOP Detail Extractor, and Helicon Focus to illustrate the workflow with detailed, step-by-step instructions. The price of the book is $34.95 in the USA, £26.99 in the UK and €28 in the euro zone.

Corel have announced the imminent release of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 Small Business Edition. This edition allows small businesses and start-up companies to install the software on three individual systems at a significant discount over the combined MSRP of three individual licenses. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 Small Business Edition will go on sale tomorrow, at an RRP of £399 excluding VAT.

Nik Software have announced that their Silver Efex Pro software is now compatible with Lightroom 2.3. This comes after a similar announcement concerning Color Efex Pro, another program by the same manufacturer. Silver Efex Pro features Nik Software’s patented U Point technology to selectively apply enhancements without the need for any complicated masks or selections. Furthermore, Silver Efex Pro offers you a collection of 18 emulated black-and-white film types. All current owners of Silver Efex Pro for Photoshop or owners of the Complete Collection for Photoshop are eligible to receive this update for free. Others can download a free 15-day demo version to see if the plug-in meets their needs.

Review: Read our review of Silver Efex Pro

Eastman Kodak Co. has announced that it has recycled 1.5 billion single-use cameras since the beginning of its recycling programme in 1990. Laid end-to-end, the 1.5 billion cameras would stretch 120,000 miles, which is enough to circle the earth five times or reach more than halfway to the moon. According to Kodak, they now recycle 84% of their own disposable cameras in the USA, which is claimed to be “the highest rate of recycling of any consumer product “.

Shutterfly has introduced Shutterfly for iPhone, a new free photo sharing iPhone application that lets you upload, view and share your Shutterfly photos while on the go. Photos taken on the iPhone can be uploaded to your existing Shutterfly account and stored for free, at full resolution. Additionally, you can create a new Shutterfly account directly from your iPhone. The application, also compatible with the iPod Touch, is available free of charge at the Apple App Store.

GeoSpatial Experts are now offering the Nikon Coolpix P6000 bundled with their GPS-Photo Link Express software. “Nikon believes GPS technology wedded with photography not only has recreational applications, but as GeoSpatial Experts has proven to us, it has industrial, commercial, engineering and other specific business applications,” said Scott Crawford, Manager of Special Markets and OEM Accounts for Nikon USA. The bundles start at $750.

Review: Read our in-depth review of the Nikon Coolpix P6000
Review: Read our Canon G10 vs. Nikon P6000 head-to-head test

PhotoShelter has released a free guide to getting photography websites listed on search engines. The PhotoShelter SEO Toolkit offers internet marketing guidance for serious photographers looking to grow their businesses online. The primary content is PhotoShelter’s SEO Cookbook – a 30-page, step-by-step e-book covering every tactic, on and off the photographer’s web page, that can be employed to garner better search engine results. The toolkit can be requested here: http://pa.photoshelter.com/mkt/seo-kit-for-photographers.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company have jointly launched “This Place Matters,” a Web-based photo sharing campaign. ‘This Place Matters’ is meant “to empower Americans to weigh in on places that they feel are architecturally or culturally significant”. People are invited to go to www.preservationNation.org/thisplacematters, download a “This Place Matters” sign (pictured above), take a picture or video of themselves with the sign in front of a place that matters to them, and then post it to the “This Place Matters” Web site.

Website: This Place Matters

FotoBridge has announced new photo scanning packages for those with a very large archive of negatives, transparencies and/or prints. Prints are scanned at 300, 400 or 600dpi, whereas for slides and negatives, you can choose from 2000, 3000 and 4000dpi packages. Prices start at $39.95 for prints, $89.95 for slides and $99.95 for negatives. The new ‘Super Value 5000’ photo scanning package is available for $439.95 for up to 5000 prints, $969.95 for the same amount of slides and $1195.95 for negatives.

Proud Central will be hosting an exhibition of Sam Shaw’s iconic photographs of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. This exhibition, showing at Proud Central between 30th April and 26th July, will be his first UK show to feature both actresses. Alongside the well-known photographs, some never-before-seen shots will also be on display. This exhibition has been specially put together for Proud
Galleries by the Sam Shaw Archive and will not be able to be viewed anywhere else after its time at Proud Central. The address is 32 John Adam Street, London. Admission is free.

Photo © Sam Shaw

The first event in the series ‘The Real Thing? Staging, Manipulation and Photographic Truth’, organised by The Royal Photographic Society, will take place on Saturday, 25 April. This education workshop will be held in Cayley Lecture Theatre, Westminster Business School, Marylebone Road, London; with registration starting at 10:30am. Lecturers include Dr David Bate, Andy Golding, Mitra Tabrizian, Colin Jacobson, Dr Sophie Triantaphillidou and Dr Eugénie Shinkle. To book, contact The Royal Photographic Society’s reception on 01225 325 733 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

Website: The Real Thing? Staging, Manipulation And Photographic Truth Workshop

Photo Credit: Mitra Tabrizian

Firmware version 1.01 is now available for the Casio EX-S12 ultra-compact digital camera. The update brings to you the following improvements:

Dynamic Photo:  Improved cropping accuracy when shooting a solid color background
Eye-Fi:  Improved data transfer rate for wireless communication

Website: Casio EX-S12 Firmware Update Software

ISTEGO Distribution GmbH has announced the world premiere of the Vosonic DPA4000 digital photo album. Manufactured by Taiwanese company Vosonic Technology Corporation, the DPA4000 is an external storage device boasting 4GB of memory and an 8” TFT LCD with anti-reflex coating. The Vosonic DPA4000 comes bundled with a charger, a USB and an audio cable, headphones and a genuine leather case. Owing to the latter, the Vosonic DPA4000 resembles a traditional photo album when “closed”. When “open” and powered on, the DPA4000 can show you the photos stored on it in a conventional photo album layout, but can also present them as slideshows with background music. The integrated Li-ion battery has enough capacity to power the device for about 2.5 hours straight. Availability in the EU is slated for 19 April. The price will be €249 including German VAT.

Website: ISTEGO Press Release (in German)

Data Robotics has unveiled the new DroboPro, billed as ‘the first business class storage array that manages itself’. Although the DroboPro is targeted mainly at small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it can also be useful to photographers producing a large bulk of work that has to be stored digitally. DroboPro is currently available starting at an entry price of $1299 MSRP, with multiple configurations to $3999 for a 16- terabyte rack-mountable solution.

Although it seemed that Patriarch Partners had won the auction for Polaroid, a judge has ruled that the top two bidders be given a second chance to submit improved bids. This comes after complaints by Polaroid’s creditors that the bidding had been flawed. Polaroid had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008, and despatched the last shipment of instant film to a New Jersey-based wholesale distributor last month.

Via The Minneapolis Star Tribune

EU3C Company Ltd. announced that the company has officially been granted patents in both Japan and Taiwan on its proprietary standalone film scanning technology. EU3C has patents pending for the Standalone Film Scanner in the USA, the European Union, South Korea and China as well. EU3C’s standalone Filmscan II has been available since November 2008. It incorporates a 5 million pixel CMOS array sensor and a 2.4” TFT LCD display, and scans 35mm film at a resolution of 1800ppi, without the need to be connected to a computer.

KepMad Systems have released version 4.0.0 of their Image Buddy software. Image Buddy is a digital image layout program designed especially for use on the Mac, supporting MacOS X v10.4 and v10.5. A demo version is available free of charge, whereas a single-user licence costs $19. Click through / read on to find out about what’s new in version 4.0.0.