Here he takes to task the draconian rules regarding sharing photographs taken at the forthcoming Olympic Games, whilst children in the birth place of the Olympics are suffering from the consequences of a recession not of their making, James West gives us a frank solution – and a position that goes far beyond photographers and their rights.

There's a general view in the professional photography industry that any pictures featuring the Olympic logos will (and does) result in the threat of litigation from seriously well resourced lawyers representing the Olympic brand, regardless of the merit of their claims.

The democratisation of video has resulted in a rapid rise in the numbers of students enrolling in film and television courses and the Sony HXR-NX5P has become the introductory camera of choice for educational institutions across Australia.

The HXR-NX5P is the biggest selling model in Sony’s popular NXCAM family of camcorders, sitting between the weatherproof HXR-NX70P and the NEX-FS100P Digital Super 35mm models. It records 1920 x 1080 images at 24Mbps using the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 codec and features relay recording to dual memory slots.

Its three 1/3” Exmor CMOS sensors deliver the image quality required for industry acceptance, without the cost of higher end technologies.

One of the outcomes of the recent purchase of Brisbane’s digital fine art and photo media specialist, Image Products by DES Pty. Ltd. will be the display of Hahnemuhle medias on the DES Stand at this year’s Digital Show. Image Products’ Ross Coffey indicated that the transition will enable visitors to view the entire Hahnemuhle range of fine art papers including a new OBA-free bright white canvas to be launched by DES. The OBA-free roll out demonstrations will utilise DES’ 610 mm wide Daguerre, to be printed on an Epson 7900. The printing process will utilise EFI Fiery XFRIP and Photoshop.

Four photographers – Chris Budgeon, David Manley, Tracey Nearmy and Louise Whelan – walked away with one of the most recognised accolades in the Australian photographic industry at the launch of the 2012 Head On Photo Festival at Sydney’s Customs House last Friday night.

Three of the photographers – Chris Budgeon (Elsternwick, Victoria), David Manley (Darlinghurst, NSW) and Tracey Nearmy (Bondi, NSW) – have been determined equal winners of the Head On Portrait Prize as judged by multi-award winning photographer Tamara Dean, Monash Gallery Director Shaune Lakin, ABC broadcaster and collector Robbie Buck and Head On curator Moshe Rosenzveig.

Olympus Imaging Australia has today announced it will resume the direct distribution of its imaging products to New Zealand.

Olympus Imaging Australia’s managing director, Marc Radatt, is looking forward to fostering closer business relationships with New Zealand customers. Olympus will look to build upon the success that HE Perry Pty Ltd, its imaging product distributor for the last seven years, has delivered for the brand.

“The opportunity to deal directly with the New Zealand photographic market is very exciting and we are working with HE Perry to ensure a seamless transition between the two businesses,” Radatt said.

Epson Australia is proud to be the principal sponsor of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP) state awards which recognise and reward the work of the AIPP’s more than 3000 members across Australia.

The AIPP Epson State Photographer of the Year attracts photographers from around Australia looking to have their work reviewed by a professional panel of judges and compared with their industry peers. Since its inception, the awards have been the launch pad for the successful careers of acclaimed Australian photographers Yervant, Jerry Ghionis, Peter Coulson, Nick Ghionis and Ryan Schembri here in Australia and abroad.

Neil Cash (Vic), Jonas Peterson (QLD), Jessica Ross (NSW) and Kelly Tunney (ACT) are all first time winners of the 2012 AIPP Epson Photographer of the Year in their respective States.

Leading accessories distributor Maxwell International and specialist digital imaging trade website Photo Counter (www.photocounter.com.au), have partnered in a trade-only photo competition, Tamron Best Shots, with an accompanying exhibition at The Digital Show, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, May 25 - 27.

ID Stations has delivered a simple, fully compliant passport photography package for retailers and corporate/government human resource departments.

After working closely with multiple Government Authorities and Standards Bodies, ID Station has created ‘BIOMETRICS Business in a Box’ – the first ever package that provides absolutely everything required to take ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) compliant passport photographs.  Most importantly, the package contains a simple software programme that ensures each photograph meets the very complex and stringent ISO/ICAO criteria stipulated in this new era of high-level security. 

Nikon CCP Members' Evening with Bruce Postle 
Wednesday 16 May 2012

CCP and Nikon Professional Services (NPS) will present a members' evening with special guest, multi-award winning photojournalist, Bruce Postle. With a career spanning five decades, he is one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century who has chronicled Australia's social, political and sporting life. This is a rare opportunity to hear from Bruce as he looks back over the highlights of his monumental body of work.

Alamy aims to break the mold with video the way it did with stills

International stock imagery company Alamy has today announced its move in to the stock video market. Coming 12 years after Alamy’s game changing entry into the photo stock world, the company aims to bring the same radical shake up to the provision of moving images.

With over 100,000 video clips from the most respected stock video agencies and videographers from across the world,  Alamy’s offering is wide and deep and will meet a range of needs from high-end, full production advertisements, interactive education resources and those of online publishers. The company aims to expand its collection rapidly over the next 12 months and develop an encyclopaedic collection of video the way it has with stills.

Olympus Imaging Australia is celebrating its tenth year bringing innovative products to Australians. Throughout its decade-long history in Australia, the company’s reputation as a technological trendsetter has helped to maintain its standing as a leading digital camera brand.

As one of the first companies to market digital compact cameras in 2002, Olympus is now a well-known brand name amongst consumers and retailers in Australia. Its ground-breaking “Tough” and “PEN” camera series, as well as its range of precision Zuiko Digital lenses, are considered to be the leading products of their kind. The success of these product ranges stems from a passion for innovation within Olympus. This year, the highly anticipated OM-D compact system camera, a reinvention of Olympus’ original and iconic OM series of 35mm SLR cameras, harks back to the company’s global history as a pioneer in imaging technology. 

Sony’s Open Platform gains wide support from production equipment manufacturers

Sony’s F65 CineAlta camera delivers true 4K image resolution—the highest resolution currently available in the digital motion picture production industry. At last September’s IBC, Sony announced that the camera’s SRMASTER recording formats (F65RAW files and 2K/HD MPEG-4 Simple Studio Profile) would be promoted to the market as an open platform. Since that time, Sony has worked to gain the industry’s broad support for these formats by providing technical specifications and development assistance to content production equipment manufacturers.