The Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W3 camera can shoot high-resolution 3D photos and movies in 3D HD at 720p. The new Fujifilm W3 also has a Mini HDMI port for easy playback on most 3D television systems. The 3.5” high resolution Autostereoscopic 3D Widescreen LCD with 1150K resolution displays high contrast images and movies that can be viewed in 3D without the need of 3D glasses. The Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W3 digital camera will be available in early September 2010 at a retail price of $499.95 / £399.99.

“From Prep to Page” is a new microdocumentary showing adventure photographer Graeme Murray shooting on location with the Orbis ring flash. Orbis inventor James Madelin shadowed Graeme on a six-hour photo shoot for mountain-bike magazine SPOKE into the heart of the New Zealand rain forest. The film “from Prep to Page” gives unique behind-the-scenes insights for photographers interested in outdoor location photography and seeing how published work gets made.

Website: from Prep to Page

Mississauga based online photo printing service Kwikpix has announced a new, 4x7” print format that has an aspect ratio of 16:9. The introduction of this new print size allows printing of wide-format still photographs without cropping, and is ideally sized for printing out individual frames from Full HD movies at about 270 pixels per inch. Until 2 September 2010 the new 4x7 “HD” prints are available at the introductory price of 10¢ each, provided you place an order for at least 50 prints.

Website: Kwikpix

Medical Solutions has announced its first ever ‘Cutest Pet Photo Contest’ asking US healthcare professionals to submit photos of their beloved pets to be voted on by their friends, family and general public. The submission deadline is 12th September. Contestants can enter any number of pets and anyone can vote for as many photos as they like, however those voting can only vote once per photo. Entries are being judged on a five-star rating system and winners will be selected by a panel of judges at Medical Solutions who will choose the winning photos based on the number of votes, average rating and preference. Entrants are encouraged to share their pictures through as many social networking sites they may belong to in hopes of drawing more attention to their pictures. The three winning pet pictures will be eligible for over $800 in e-gift certificates from PetSmart. As always, we recommend that you read the rules before entering your work.

Website: Medical Solutions’ Cutest Pet Photo Contest

Manfrotto Distribution and Datacolor have just announced a free webinar entitled, “How to Get Great Prints!” which explains how to use Spyder3 products. Taking place on wednesday, 18 August from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT, the webinar will cover the following topics colour management and control, soft-proofing in Photoshop, tips for photographers that send their prints to a lab for printing and ways that monitor calibration and printer profiling can eliminate expensive and time consuming trial-and-error testing. Webinar participants will have access to a number of exclusive advantages, including one?on?one interaction with the guest speakers, and automatic entry in a raffle to win one of the three exclusive prize giveaways. The prizes include a Datacolor Spyder3 Elite valued at $249 and two Spyder Cubes valued at $59 each. Advance registration is required.

The European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has announced the winners of its 2010-2011 Awards. In the Photo category, there were 16 sub-categories from best photo software (Apple Aperture 3) to best zoom lens (Tamron SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD). Other award-winning products include the Canon EOS 550D and EOS 7D, the Nikon D3S (pictured) and AF-S Nikkor 300mm F2.8G ED VR II, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 and TZ10, the Olympus µ Tough-8010 and M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4-5.6, the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM, the Sony ? NEX-5 and Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V, the Samsung EX1, the Fujifilm Finepix HS10 and the Epson Stylus Pro 3880. For more information including product descriptions, head to EISA’s website.

Website: EISA Photo Awards 2010-1011

Olympus PEN E-PL1 for Dummies is a new guide to using one of the most affordable interchangeable-lens system cameras available today. Topics covered include exploring the on-board controls, shooting in auto mode, working with lenses, dialing in exposure and lighting controls, manipulating focus and colour controls, situational shooting, and more. The book’s author, Julie Adair King, has penned six editions of Digital Photography For Dummies and several digital SLR camera-specific guides in the For Dummies series. Olympus PEN E-PL1 for Dummies is available now priced at $29.99.

DXO Labs have posted new data for the Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro lens. Measurements have been carried out on ten Canon and eleven Nikon SLR camera bodies. To view test results and scores for the lens, follow one of the links below.

Website: Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro on 10 Canon Bodies
Website: Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro on 11 Nikon Bodies

Pentax Imaging has announced the launch of beige, chocolate, olive green and pink versions of the Pentax K-x digital SLR camera to the US market. After this move, the number of available body colours will be increased to 12, as the new options join the existing black, white, red, navy blue, bright blue, orange, green and purple offerings. The multicoloured Pentax K-x cameras are available via the Pentax Web Store priced at $649.95 including a kit zoom.

Local online photography hub, “The Sussex Photography Project” has launched its new annual photography competition and exhibition “My Sussex”. Sussex Photography Project co-founder, Simon Courcha says: “Through the site and the ‘My Sussex’ competition and exhibition we aim to encourage and feature some great local photography. Thanks to the support of our sponsors RedBox Cameras, competition entry is free and we are delighted to be able to stage an exhibition of the best entries as part of the inaugural Crowborough Arts Festival.” The first prize is a Ricoh CX3 digital compact camera, while the second prize winner will win a place on a creative photography course provided by UK Photo Courses. Third prize is a range of photographic papers provided by Online Papers. Open to amateur and professional photographers alike, the competition is open for submissions until 2nd September 2010.

Website: My Sussex

From 23rd October 2010 to 24th April 2011, the Annenberg Space for Photography will be hosting “Extreme Exposure”, a group exhibit featuring arresting imagery from five unique talents in photography. ” These photographers have made careers of capturing some of our planet’s most extreme environments, while dangling from a helicopter or immersed in alligator-infested waters; enduring freezing temperatures for months or braving an angry volcano,” the organisers say. “Extreme Exposure” will showcase lush jungle photography by Michael Nichols, swamplands captured by Clude Butcher, Donna and Stephen James O’Meara’s vibrant photos of erupting volcanoes and Paul Nicklen’s transfixing photos of the alien landscapes found in polar regions and the rare animals inhabiting these isolated environments. The Annenberg Space for Photography is located at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, California.

This Autumn, a set of large platinum prints from four of Elliott Erwitt’s best known images will be available for purchase in the UK for the first time at Magnum Print Room, London. Shown in the context of a broader selection of fine photographs drawn from Erwitt’s distinguished career, the selection includes photographs of racial segregation in North Carolina (1950), a kiss reflected in the wing mirror of a car (California, 1955, above), glamorous movie star Marilyn Monroe (New York, 1956), and one of his best loved pictures of the relationship between man and dog, Felix, Gladys and Rover (New York, 1976). Using a new technique developed by the specialist printmaker Arkady Lvov and digital printing expert Gabe Greenberg over eight years, Erwitt’s platinum prints were produced using the latest Large Format Photo Negative application from HP. Other well-known images by Erwitt included in this exhibition as signed silver gelatin prints include portraits of Marlon Brando (1954), Grace Kelly (1956), Sophia Loren (1962) and Che Guevara (1964), a selection of his best known dog images and evocative, stolen moments, such as, a couple dancing in the kitchen in Spain (1952), a dove taking flight (1955), and a mother and baby (1953).

Adobe has rebranded its Photoshop.com Mobile application to Adobe Photoshop Express, and released an iPad version alongside the iPhone and Android variants. Photoshop Express for iPad has the same Crop, Rotate and Flip features as well as the same filter effects and one-touch adjustments as the iPhone app, but goes beyond these by offering iPad-specific features such as sequential editing and simultaneous upload of multiple images, or the ability to change screen orientation from landscape to portrait and vice versa. Adobe Phtooshop Express for iPad/iPhone can be downloaded from the App Store free of charge. The Android version has also been updated and rebranded, and is available now in the Android Market.

Website: Adobe Photoshop Express

Easypano Holdings has released a Beta version of Panoweaver 7 for the Macintosh platform. Panoweaver is a professional photo stitching tool, which can combine photos into high-quality full 360-degree or partial panoramic images. It supports HDR creation and manual stitching for inserting matching points. Output formats include Full screen Flash VR (based on html), QTVR, standalone swf, and Java-based player. In version 7 of the software, you can insert hotspots in panoramas and add actions to them, remove tripod marks, add buttons to the scene viewer etc. Panoweaver 7 Beta can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Panoweaver 7 Beta

The f/508 Photography Place, located in Brasília, Brazil’s capital, will host the first f/508 Week of Photography – I Love Film event. From 19 to 29 August, f/508’s head office will become a place of sharing and learning, were workshops, lectures, exhibitions and projections will take place, among other activities. Three exhibitions will open the f/508 Week of Photography (Semana f/508 de Fotografia): “Pinhole photography”, “Historical Photographic Processes” and “Aesthetics of Chance”. Participants will be encouraged to practice historical analogue processes such as daguerreotype, cianotype, vandyke, albumen prints, saltprints and pinhole photography. For more information, visit the website below.

Website: f/508 Photography Place

Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 by Adobe Certified Instructor Steve Laskevitch is now available in the United Kingdom. Released last month in the US, this 291-page handbook is designed to get you working quickly in the latest version of Photoshop and its companions Bridge, Camera Raw, and Lightroom. Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 is priced at £30.99 in the United Kingdom and €32 i the euro zone.

Nik Software’s Viveza 2 plugin (review) has been updated to support 64-bit versions of both Macintosh and Windows. If you are currently running a workflow that supports 64-bit operation, such as Adobe Photoshop CS5 and/or Macintosh OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), you are encouraged to download this update from Nik Software’s website. However, for those currently using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and/or Macintosh OS 10.4 (Tiger), which do not run natively in 64 bits, the company does not recommend the installation of update version 2.003.

Website: Nik Software Updates

Sony Japan has announced pricing and availability of the 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OSS lens for the Sony E mount. Compatible with the Sony NEX-3, NEX-5 and Handycam NEX-VG10 products, the Sony E18-200mm f3.5-6.3 OSS lens will be released on 10 September 2010 in Japan, priced at 99,750 yen. Weighing in at 524 grams, this 27-300mm equivalent ultra-zoom lens features optical image stabilisation, smooth and quiet autofocus and stepless aperture control, as well as an aluminium alloy exterior barrel with high-quality finish.