The Casio W63CA is a new 8 megapixel camera phone complete with 9-point auto-focus and a 3 inch LCD screen. Only announced in Japan so far, the W63CA takes a typical Casio Exilim compact camera as its starting point, and then designs a camera phone around that, rather than trying to cram photo features into a mobile phone. The Casio W63CA features a 3.1 inch OLED screen with 480 x 800 pixels, face detection, anti-shake and Casio’s now standard YouTube video mode. The W63CA will be available in Japan in early-November.

Website: Engadget - Casio’s 8.1 megapixel W63CA with 480 x 800 pixel OLED flips out in Japan

Website: Casio Japan

Enter Canon USA’s “Why do you love football?” photo contest to win a trip to Super Bowl XLIII. Two winners, one adult (over 18) and one teen (13-18), will each win a trip for four plus a Canon Digital Rebel XSi camera kit (pictured) - just submit your youth football photos to enter. The contest is open now and runs until December 3rd 2008.

Website: Canon “Why do you love football?” Photo Contest

The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers is a new book that explains how to use only the critical tools you’ll need most often. Author Derrick Story teaches you how to quickly and efficiently organize and edit your photos without compromising the originals. “CS4 is going to be a game-changer for many photographers using Photoshop. For the first time, Adobe has included all the tools necessary to build a non-destructive workflow from upload to output. The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers walks you through each step of this process showing you best practice techniques along the way.” explains Story. The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers is available now for $24.99 / £15.50.

Parrot Specchio is a new designer digital photo frame from contemporary French artist Martin Szekely. The Parrot Specchio frame by Martin Szekely becomes a mirror when it is turned off. “If you look in the mirror, your left is on your left and your right is on your right. On the photo, your left is on your right and your right is on your left. So, this object is both a mirror and a photo,” explains Martin Szekely. Very cryptic. The Parrot Specchio digital photo frame will be available in the UK for £300.

Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper was rated top in a silver halide print longevity test by Wilhelm Imaging Research. It had the highest Display Permanence Rating amongst silver halide colour prints made with digital minilabs’ lasting 40 years under glass. In comparison, the equivalent Kodak paper managed just 19 years, and the worst performer in the test managed just 4 months. Food for thought when you next have your photos printed at a minilab…

Transcend’s StoreJet 25C and StoreJet 25M portable hard drives are now available in 500GB capacities. Combining huge storage capacity, great looks and compact mobile convenience, Transcend’s high capacity 2.5” portable hard drives are an excellent way to effectively ensure ample storage space for backing up, transferring, and storing important data. In addition, Transcend’s 2.5” portable hard drives offer vastly-improved storage productivity with the bundled StoreJet elite software package.

Gary Eastwood’s photo “Barney on a jetty in December, Hove beach, East Sussex” is the winner of the Take a View - Landscape Photographer of the Year 2008 contests. Now in its second year, the UK’s prestigious Take a View competition challenged photographers to capture the diversity and beauty of the British landscape. The finalists’ works will premier in a free exhibition at London’s National Theatre between 18 November 2008 and 17 January 2009, all printed using the new Epson Stylus Pro 9900 large format printer.

Nikon has released a new version of its RAW codec, which lets you view NEF files within Windows. Version 1.4.0 now supports NEF (RAW) images taken with the D90 DSLR camera (pictured).

Website: Nikon RAW Codec 1.5.0

The Canon iPF6200 is a new 24-inch wide, 12-colour large format printer. The iPF6200 utilizes Canon’s LUCIA color pigment ink, offering an extremely large color gamut and optimized for printing digital photographic imagery. The iPF6200 includes a professional-grade software RIP and an 80GB internal hard drive. “Building upon the foundation set by our award-winning iPF6100, the new imagePROGRAF iPF6200 will offer photographic and graphic arts printing professionals an affordable printing solution without compromising quality or speed,” said Jim Rosetta, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. The Canon iPF6200 printer is available immediately for $3,495.

Epson America has introduced the 24-inch Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and the 44-inch Epson Stylus Pro 9900. Almost twice as fast as previous models, the 7900 and 9900 feature Epson’s MicroPiezo TFP print head and new Epson UltraChrome HDR Ink technology with all-new Orange and Green inks. Also new to the Epson Stylus Pro series is an optional high performance, in-line spectrophotometer for commercial proofing applications. The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900 will be available in November 2008 for $3,995 and $5,995 respectively.

Sony has just launched its professional photographer program at the PhotoPlus Expo tradeshow in New York. Andy Katz, David McLain, Christina Mittermeier, Brian Smith and Matthew Jordan Smith are the five professional photographers to be included in Sony’ first-ever professional photographer program. Each of the photographers created the images in a gallery that is on display today at the PhotoPlus Expo.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One is a new book by Deke McClelland. It includes step-by-step text lessons, DVD-video demonstrations, and real-world projects. “I covered all the new stuff and added several brand-new exercises. Plus I doubled the amount of video content. There’s more than 4 hours now! The best training system for Photoshop is now that much better.” commented McClelland. Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One is available now for $49.99 / £30.99.

Genuine Fractals 6 adds several new features designed to help photographers get the best enlargements possible. The improvements include include texture presets, gallery wrap function, batch processing, tiling for smaller printers and support for Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. Available in November, Genuine Fractals 6 is available in a Professional Edition and a Standard Edition for $299.95 and $159.95 respectively.

PhotoTools 2 is a new Photoshop CS4 plugin that provides a wide range of imaging tools including effects, corrections and production automation in a full-featured interface. Available in January 2009, version 2 offers an expanded range of photographic effects and a significantly improved user experience through a new effects library and additional new features. PhotoTools 2 offers an easier way to search for, access and preview over 270 included photographic effects. PhotoTools 2 is available in a Professional Edition and a Standard Edition for $259.95 and $159.95 respectively.

Plug-In Suite 4.5 from onOne Software includes new versions of PhotoFrame, PhotoTools and Genuine Fractals, plus Mask Pro 4, PhotoTune 2.2, and FocalPoint 1.0. “In addition to brand new versions of PhotoFrame 4, PhotoTools 2 and Genuine Fractals 6, the new Plug-In Suite 4.5 adds support for Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2 and Aperture 2.1 so users can seamlessly integrate these valuable products into their existing workflow.” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. Plug-In Suite 4.5 will be available in January 2009 to new users for $499.95 - a savings of $799.75 if purchased separately.

Kubota RAW Workflow for Lightroom 2 is a new DVD tutorial from professional photographer Kevin Kubota. Kubota RAW Workflow for Lightroom 2 takes digital photographers step-by-step through proper organization, efficient editing and enhancing, and final image presentation. More than just another Lightroom “Manual”, this interactive instructional DVD is based on a proven workflow system used daily by busy digital studios. The Kubota RAW Workflow for Lightroom 2 tutorial is available now for $99.

The Kubota Image Tools Dashboard is a new quick-launch interface for more than 280 Kubota Photoshop Actions. Users can now quickly and easily launch and apply selected Kubota Actions. “For me,” says Kevin Kubota “the most exciting feature of the new, more powerful Dashboard is that it is intuitive. For example, some images I want to appear ‘romantic’, others, ‘edgy’ or ‘funky’. I can type these words into the search bar of the Dashboard and a list of Kubota Actions will show up that will enhance my image to create the feeling I wanted to capture when I took that photograph.” Each individual Kubota Action Pak, with approximately 50 Actions each, is sold separately for $179.

The NEC MultiSync P221W is a new professional grade, wide-screen desktop LCD monitor. Featuring hardware color calibration using the optional NEC SpectraviewII kit, the NEC P221W delivers accurate color in a simple to use and affordable package. The NEC MultiSync P221W features a 3-year limited warranty and will be available for December 2008 for $636.90. The SpectraViewII color calibration kit will cost $374.99.

UK wedding photographer Crash Taylor has started a new site interviewing photographers from across the globe. Aiming to turn it into the biggest interview site in the UK, every week Crash interviews a photographer whose work pushes the boundaries of the wedding profession. Well worth checking out if you’re even remotely interested in wedding photography (or you’re just looking for a wedding photographer!).

Website: Crash Taylor Photographer Interviews

OWC has launched the Mercury Pro Blu-ray drives, the first Blu-ray external drives to offer a “Quad Interface” of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA. OWC Mercury Pro drives feature 4x write speeds, a data transfer rate up to 150MB per second, and compatibility with both Windows and Macintosh systems. Mercury Pro Blu-ray drives read and/or write virtually all optical media, including Blu-ray, HD-DVD, DVD-RAM, and CD-R/RW. Pricing starts from $499.