USA Today and DiscoverAmerica.com have announced a photography competition, starting today. Amateur and professional photographers are asked “to serve as unofficial U.S. ambassadors by submitting iconic images of America that will attract foreign visitors to the USA”. The best submissions will be featured at pictureamerica.usatoday.com as well as at DiscoverAmerica.com, and the winner will be treated to four nights of double-occupancy hotel accommodations in Las Vegas, New Orleans or Orlando. Other prizes include a Kodak ESP 7 All-in-One inkjet printer and a $500 American Express gift card. The contest entry period ends at 11:59pm (E.T.) on May 8, 2009.

Website: Picture America Contest Details At USAToday.com

The 3rd F/STOP International Photography Festival will take place in Leipzig, Germany between 1 - 7 July, and you have until 20 April to send in your work(s). The theme of the competition is “Where Do We Go from Here?”. You can submit up to 3 individual photographs or 3 series on a CD, in JPEG format. The entry fee is €20 per submission.

Website: F/STOP International Photography Festival

Festimage International Image Festival, a photography event / competition promoted by the City Council of Chaves, is now accepting entries from all over the world. There are no set topics or themes, and all photographic “genres, styles and concepts” are welcome. Each contestant may submit one work only, in digital form. Works must be sent in from 8 April to 14 May. The winners will be announced on 15 June.

Website: Festimage 2009 Rules

FotoMaps Pro, the commercial version of FotoMaps, can now be yours at half price. FotoMaps is a photo gallery built with flash and XML that lets you put your photos on a map. Use of the software requires no knowledge of Flash or coding. While FotoMaps is free for non-commercial uses, those intending to use the software for a commercial site are required to purchase FotoMaps Pro. The Pro version also offers some extra features to extend the user experience of your photo gallery. PhotographyBLOG readers can now purchase a FotoMaps Pro commercial licence at a 50% discount by typing in photoblog in the “discount code” field at the URL below:

Website: http://www.fotomaps.net/download.html

Coke Zone is giving away a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270 each day throughout April. All you need to enter the draw is two Coke Zone points, which you’ll get for free upon registration.

Website: Coke Zone

Avanquest Software has released Avanquest SendPhotos, a new tool that enables photography enthusiasts to organise an entire photo collection online. This tool has three components, Avanquest SendPhotos Mobile, Avanquest SendPhotos PC and Avanquest SendPhotos Web. The software is currently in beta mode, and is available as a free download. Additionally, users get 1GB of online storage space at no extra cost.

Ricoh have issued a firmware update for the Ricoh CX1 compact digital camera, which earned a ‘Highly Recommended’ rating in our recent review. Version 1.16 has corrected a part of the information on a file in the MPO / JPEG format to comply with the Multi-Picture Format and fixed the following bugs:

•  If you take pictures with M-Cont. Plus, an MP file may be recorded with missing a partial frame(s).
•  In Focus Bracketing, a self-timer feature may not work properly.

Website: Ricoh CX1 Firmware Update Page
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Ricoh CX1

The Photron Fastcam SA5 - allegedly the world’s fastest high-speed camera, which can shoot 7,500 frames per second at a resolution of 1,024x1,000 pixels - will be exhibited and demoed at the National Broadcasters Association Show. Held in Las vegas, NV, the NAB Show will take place between 18 and 23 April. The Photron Fastcam SA5 has a new CMOS sensor which can shoot at 7,500fps at full resolution, and even faster at reduced resolution settings. Photron even quote a dazzling one-million-frames-per-second shooting speed, although a quick glance at the product sheet reveals that this latter figure is valid only at a resolution of 64x16 pixels.

Corel have announced a limited-time special offer on Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 (standard version). UK users can now purchase a license for £29 including VAT, instead of £47.50, a saving of £18.50. The offer is valid until 30 April for purchases made via the Corel website.

Website: Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Pentax have released a firmware update for their top-of-the-line DSLR, the Pentax K20D. Version 1.03 is claimed to improve the accuracy of the Shake Reduction (SR) apparatus. Shake Reduction is the Pentax approach to sensor-shift image stabilisation.

Website: Latest Pentax K20D Firmware Update
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Pentax K20D

Olympus have issued a firmware update for the Olympus E-3, their flagship professional DSLR. The company claims that version 1.4 improves the auto-focus performance of the camera (without specifying exactly which aspect of AF performance gets a boost).

Website: Olympus Firmware Updates
Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus E-3

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.