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Sony Will Be the Major Player in the Photo Industry, Says Sigma’s CEO

Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki has done quite a good job at boosting his brand's reputation in the world of photography over the past few years, as the company's Art series of lenses has drawn rave reviews for their optical quality, solid build, and relative affordability.

In a new interview, Yamaki shared a bold prediction about the future of the camera industry: he believes that Sony will emerge as the major player.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Was Shot on Film, and Kodak May Be Profitable in 2016

Back in July 2013, we shared how major filmmakers had banded together to rescue Kodak by committing to purchasing film from the company. One of the big names was J.J. Abrams, the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opens this week.

The new Star Wars was shot on Kodak film, and thanks to a number of other major productions using Kodak as well, Kodak says it may be profitable starting next year.

Adobe Doubles Profits Thanks to Growth in Creative Cloud Subscribers

Adobe announced its quarterly results last Thursday, and investors are happy: the company beat market expectations by doubling profits from a year ago thanks to a huge growth in Creative Cloud subscribers. It seems that the shift from boxed software to digital subscription plans is paying off big time for the San Jose, California-based company.

Yahoo May Sell Flickr and Its Core Internet Business

Flickr could soon find itself with a new owner. Yahoo is reportedly considering a sale of its struggling core Internet business, in which the photo sharing service Flickr -- acquired back in 2005 for around $25 million -- is just a small piece of the pie.

Bye Bye Gura Gear: Company to Sell All Camera Bags Under the Tamrac Brand

The Tamrac brand of camera bags has been around for nearly 4 decades now, and it looks like it will continue to live on much longer. Gura Gear, on the other hand, ends here.

When Tamrac went bankrupt last year, Gura Gear swooped in and acquired the company's brand and assets. Now, a year later, Gura Gear has decided to drop its own brand name in favor of the older Tamrac brand. Thus, Gura Gear will be no more.

Is Samsung Shuttering its Camera Business?

Rumors have been swirling around in the photo industry the past couple of months about Samsung pulling out of the camera industry. Samsung hasn't announced anything new in recent times, and its camera division has reportedly been bleeding money every year since the NX system was announced in 2010.

SanDisk Acquired by Western Digital for $19 Billion

SanDisk just succeeded in its mission to get bought out. Hard drive maker Western Digital announced today that it has agreed to acquire SanDisk in a deal worth about $19 billion in cash and stock. If all goes well, the deal will close in the third quarter or 2016.

SanDisk is Trying to Get Bought Out, Report Says

SanDisk is a huge name when it comes to memory cards used by photographers, but it's actually a relatively small company compared to other heavyweights in the memory chip industry -- one of the biggest of which is Samsung. A new report says that SanDisk is actively exploring the potential sale of its business, with at least two competitors expressing interest in the deal.

Hasselblad Says the Lusso is Its Last Rebranded Sony Camera

Hasselblad is a legendary brand name in the photo industry, but over the past few years the company has taken a hit in the eyes of some photographers by choosing to sell luxury, rebranded versions of Sony cameras. Starting with the Lunar back in 2012, Hasselblad made a habit of taking a popular Sony camera, redesigning the body with luxury materials, and then selling the "new camera" for multiples of the original price.

But things are going to be different moving forward: Hasselblad is saying that it will no longer be spitting out rebadged Sony cameras in the future.

GoPro Camera Drone Will Be Released in 2016

GoPro is officially getting into the camera drone industry. After rumors had been swirling since late last year, GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman announced yesterday that the company is building its own quadcopter, and that the drone is set to launch in the first half of 2016.

DJI Raises $75 Million in Funding and Is Now Valued at $10 Billion

The world's largest drone maker is quickly becoming one of China's most powerful homegrown companies. DJI announced today that it has raised another $75 million in venture capital funding, and recent talks with investors have reportedly pegged the value of the company at a whopping $10 billion.

Photoflex Returns From the Grave, Says It’s Back in Business

Well-known lighting gear manufacturer Photoflex may live on after all. No, its original April 1st announcement that it was closing shop wasn't an ill-conceived April Fool's Joke or a bizarre marketing stunt -- the struggling company is reportedly working on a deal that will allow the brand to live on.

Getty Images is Burning Through Cash as Its Earnings Shrink

Photographers often grumble about Getty Images taking too big a slice from each stock photo sale, but it turns out the company hasn't been lining its pockets with mountains of cash generated by its contributors -- in fact, it hasn't been doing so hot financially as of late.

VSCO Gets a Massive $40M Investment to Build Out Its Photo Community

Known most for their film emulation presets, mobile app, and creative network, Visual Supply Co. has taken the photography world by storm since their inception in March of 2011. Releasing VSCO Film, VSCO Keys, VSCO Cam, VSCO Grid, and their VSCO Journal, they’ve shown that they aren’t only a company looking to sell products – they’re a company striving to build an entire community by creating and establishing effective resources for photographers.

And as of today, there’s proof in the form of dollars that others believe in their endeavors. $40 million dollars worth of belief to be precise.

Rumor: Shutterfly Aquiring Photo Sharing and Backup Company ThisLife

Over the last year, almost every time we've heard the word "acquisition" it's been preceded by the word, or rather company, Shutterfly. That's because Shutterfly has been very busy buying up companies and galleries and, fortunately for users, putting them to work in real ways.

It was less than two weeks ago that the new Shutterfly Mobile app was announced, a result of its Penguin Digital acquisition. And now, in time to steal a little bit of thunder from all of the CES rumors, sources claim that the photo storage and sharing site is acquiring yet another start-up.

CrowdOptic Discovers Islands of Popular Photo Subjects in Oceans of Images

We live in a world that's teeming with digital photographs. More photos are now uploaded every two minutes than were created during the entire 1800s. Facebook is seeing thousands of photographs uploaded to its servers every second of the day, and Instagram was flooded with 10 storm-related photos per second during Hurricane Sandy.

With such a large quantity of photographs flooding the web, it's clear that visual data mining will be an in-demand market in the coming years as more and more people look to glean valuable images from the torrent of useless pixels. One of the companies trying to occupy this space is CrowdOptic, a San Francisco-based startup that's building some pretty interesting location-based photo curation technologies.