From 2027, Koelnmesse and RINGFOTO GmbH & Co. KG are joining forces to jointly host and further develop the established event for photography, video and content creation, debuting Sept. 24-26, 2027, at the trade fair grounds as "Imaging World inspired by photokina".  Through this partnership, Koelnmesse says it is expanding its portfolio with a powerful platform for hands-on technology, creative practice and personal exchange across the imaging industry. RINGFOTO will remain closely involved as a key partner, contributing in-depth market expertise, a strong network across the industry and specialist retail, as well as established elements of the event concept.

Waldo Photos announces the completion of a SOC 2 Type II audit. The completion of this audit provides the schools, camps, churches, professional photographers, and other organizations using Waldo with an independent assessment of the controls supporting our platform. “Families and organizations trust us with the moments they care deeply about,” said Rodney Rice, CEO of Waldo Photos. “Completing this audit is an important step in showing how seriously we take that responsibility.” A SOC 2 Type II audit evaluates a service organization’s controls against applicable Trust Services Criteria established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. a provider of expressions announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell PersonalizationMall.com and Things Remembered to PlanetArt, LLC, for approximately $45 million in cash, subject to customary closing conditions. Claranova completed the sale of its PlanetArt division for $169.5 million to General Atlantic Credit's Atlantic Park fund and the PlanetArt management team in June 2025 The transaction represents another step in 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.’s ongoing efforts to simplify its business, increase its focus on its primary brands, and allocate resources toward the opportunities it believes offer the greatest potential to drive sustainable, profitable growth and long-term shareholder value, the company said.

Perfectly Clear announced it is teaming up with IMG.LY to bring automatic, one-click image enhancement directly into IMG.LY’s CE.SDK. The result: exposure, contrast, color, tint, skin tones, sharpening, and noise reduction, all corrected in a single pass, no sliders required, the company said. IMG.LY builds CE.SDK, a creative editor SDK and API that companies use to add photo, video, and design editing to their own products. Instead of building an editor from scratch, teams drop in CE.SDK and get a fully functional front-end, ready to customize. It is used across print, e-commerce, digital asset management, and social platforms.

Retail sales rose for the 12th straight month in September even as gas prices put pressure on shoppers’ budgets, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released by the National Retail Federation. “Retail sales rose again last month as consumers continued to spend following a solid back-to-school shopping season,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Households remain budget conscious, concentrating on everyday essentials even as higher gasoline prices continue to absorb a larger share of family budgets. Retailers continued to prioritize affordability, leaning on promotions and value pricing to keep everyday products within reach.”

This year’s drawn-out peak shipping season appears to finally be ending, with import volume at the nation’s major container ports starting to slow down compared with persistent high numbers over the summer, according to the Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. “Even with any fluctuations in final data, we’re likely past the busiest part of the year,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “The truth is that the peak season started early and was stretched out through the summer and early fall, with the difference from month to month often amounting to little more than a rounding error.

Tamron announced of the 20-40mm F/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A062), a fast-aperture standard zoom lens, compatible with Nikon Z mount full-frame mirrorless cameras. The lens will be on sale on Oct. 22 for Nikon Z mount at $729 USD / $999 CAD. The 20-40mm F/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A062) is a fast-aperture standard zoom lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. Perfectly balancing portability and exceptional rendering, it delivers class-leading[1] compactness and light weight. It is the go-to lens for everything from daily snapshots and travel to dedicated creative work.

Shutterfly announced "Joy to the Moment," its 2026 holiday campaign designed to celebrate the memories, traditions and relationships. The campaign is anchored by the stories of three creators and their families: mom, designer and TV Host Nabela Noor, newlywed, reality television personality and podcast host Giannina Gibelli, and cookbook author and lifestyle creator Kit Keenan with her mom fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and sister Gigi Powers. Each family was intentionally selected to bring a distinct perspective to the campaign and reflect the range of audiences Shutterfly seeks to reach.

Your computer is packed with stories you cannot find. Video clips named DJI003, endless B-roll, meeting recordings, marketing footage, client projects, school photography archives, and personal travel memories all pile up until searching feels impossible. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with Dr. Henry Kang, founder and CEO of Clipto.AI, to talk about a different approach: Local-first AI that indexes and understands your media on your own machine, so you can search your library in plain English without uploading terabytes to the cloud. He digs into the real advantages of on-device AI for content creators and businesses, including faster workflows, no upload waiting, fewer cloud token costs, and a much cleaner privacy posture for sensitive work under NDA.

FUJIFILM North America Corp., Business Innovation Division, announced the first U.S. installation of its flagship FUJIFILM REVORIA PRESS PC2120 at National Color Graphics (NCG), based in Spokane, Washington. “As a customer who has relied on Fujifilm’s print quality and overall reliability for over 20 years, we’re excited and proud to be the first U.S. based printer to acquire PC2120,” said Chris Knobel, owner, National Color Graphics. “Like Fujifilm, being on the cutting edge of printing technology is critical to our success, especially around color control and consistency. With PC2120’s added color capabilities including its Pink and Green specialty toners, we are able to cover the majority of the PANTONE Formula guide Solid Coated library, which gives us an important competitive advantage in our local printing market.”

U.K. electronics retailer AO World plc completed the acquisition of Jessops, a leading specialist photography retailer, from Peter Jones CBE, the "Dragon's Den" host who bought the retailer in 2013. The chain was founded in Leicester in 1935 by Frank Jessop. By 2023, the company reported revenues of £19.97 million, a decrease of 7.5 per cent on the previous year leading to a £1.2 million loss, which it faced tax trouble. The acquisition, funded from existing cash resources, supports AO’s strategy of expanding into adjacent categories, giving customers and…

Laowa announced the ACRIS 35mm f/2.8 1X AF Macro APO lens, its =first full-frame autofocus 35mm lens featuring true 1:1 life-size magnification. Engineered for photographers who demand absolute precision where every micron counts, the ACRIS 35mm combines true macro magnification with an environmental wide-angle perspective, a fast f/2.8 aperture, hybrid focusing control, and an advanced Apochromatic (APO) optical design, the company claims.= Unlike conventional close-up lenses that stop at 0.5X, the ACRIS 35mm f/2.8 captures subjects at full 1:1 scale with extraordinary detail. While traditional telephoto macro lenses (such as 90mm or 180mm) isolate subjects by completely eliminating background context, the 35mm focal length preserves a natural field of view.

Pic-Time, a leading gallery platform built for photographers and videographers, announced the latest expansion of its gallery design capabilities, introducing new customizable Grid options that give photographers greater control over the visual rhythm, sequencing and presentation of their work, the company says. At the center of the latest update is a significantly expanded Grid experience designed to give photographers more ways to control how a story visually unfolds. Pic-Time galleries previously offered a single primary Grid format. Now, photographers can choose from seven Grid types, including new vertical and horizontal layouts and four new Editorial Grids designed for more expressive presentation.

Snap Inc. continues to try and make its augmented reality spectacles  a viable category. The company announced partnerships with Salesforce, Nvidia and Amazon Web Services to bring business applications to its $2,195 Specs augmented-reality glasses. Nvidia technology will help the glasses interpret what a worker sees, while Salesforce and AWS integrations are intended to provide company information and voice-controlled assistance. Snap introduced SPECS Intelligence, a new anticipatory AI service designed to work across iPhone, Mac, and SPECS augmented reality (AR) glasses, helping you manage what needs attention today while making progress towards your longer-term goals.

LayflatXpress announced a partnership with Photobook.ai, bringing together its layflat bookbinding technology with a mobile-first ordering experience. LayflatXpress provides the specialist layflat bookbinding technology that delivers the high-quality, seamless spreads expected from premium photobooks. Photobook.ai complements this with an intuitive mobile platform designed to simplify the journey from capturing memories to creating and ordering a finished book.

U.K. personalized product company Popsa launched an AI curation feature on its iOS and Android app called Memories to rediscover forgotten photos Memories launches in two collections: Popsa Rewinds, which curates highlights from the past month or year into one story, and Popsa Journeys, which instantly resurfaces forgotten holidays and day trips.  The Memory Economy report, Popsa's survey of 8,000 global consumers conducted earlier this year, found that: 70% of smartphone photos are never revisited Only 16% have looked back at even a quarter of their own camera roll in the past year…

Most businesses fail to grow for a simple reason: The owner is stuck selling the obvious thing, while the customer is buying something deeper. When Kenneth Kollasch tells us what it’s like to grow up inside a multi-generational ballroom and Latin dance studio, the lesson lands fast. Dance lessons were never just about steps. They were about confidence, relationships, identity, and feeling at home in a room full of people. That “hidden product” idea maps directly to the photo imaging world too, where prints and gear are really about memories and self expression.

U.K. kiosk maker Alimpix Limited has announced a patent-pending photo advertising system designed to connect printed photographs with relevant local and national advertising through a proprietary Multi-Dimensional Context Advertising Model (MDCAM) with AI-powered photo analysis. The system introduces a new approach and a new advertising channel by analyzing the context of a photograph and using that information, together with other contextual dimensions, to identify suitable advertising opportunities. A small QR code advertising link is incorporated into the printed photograph, allowing customers to access the associated advertisement directly from their phone.

Imagen launched its newest update, featuring Intelligent Studio, an adaptive post-production workspace, removes that order entirely. Photographers can cull first, start editing before making final selections, pull together a client preview from a handful of key moments, or move between all three as a project develops. At the core of the new version is an editor that brings full manual editing directly into Imagen for the first time. Photographers can work with RAW and JPEG files, with the same range of manual control they'd expect from a dedicated editing program: tone and color, detail and clarity, lens and perspective corrections, and creative finishing touches.

For Henrik Müller-Hansen, the future of printing starts with a deceptively simple question: Who is the business built around, the machine or the customer? In an interview with The Dead Pixels Society, the Gelato founder and CEO described a market moving away from production organized around specific equipment and toward a software-driven model of production on demand. “I think that the industry consists of two sides in a marketplace,” Müller-Hansen said. “You have the creators and the consumers, and you have the producers.” GelatoConnect, he said, aims to be the “glue” connecting creators and makers, reducing friction through software.

Nikon Inc. announced the new Z5IIC, a compact, everyday-carry mirrorless camera. Built on the proven performance of the Z5II, the Z5IIC combines a sleek, flat-top design with features such as Scene Modes, helping those beginning their photography journey achieve satisfying results without first mastering complex settings. Users can stay present and confidently capture spontaneous everyday moments with rich color, natural depth and sharp detail, even in low light or motion-filled situations where smartphones may struggle. The Nikon Z5IIC will be available in mid-October 2026 for a suggested retail price of $1399.95 for the body only, or $1699.95 packaged with the NIKKOR Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lens.

Adobe completed its acquisition of Topaz Labs, an AI company specializing in industry-leading video and image enhancement models. Topaz Labs will continue as a standalone brand, and Adobe and Topaz will bring advanced capabilities directly into the tools and workflows creative professionals and enterprises already use. Adobe’s mission is to empower everyone to create and that means giving our customers access to the industry's top AI models alongside our leading creative tools — all in one place. Topaz Labs has earned the trust of filmmakers, photographers and designers for technology that recovers detail, improves clarity, maintains temporal consistency and produces video and image results that feel authentic.

MyHeritage announced it has added AI editing tools to its MyStories platform, which turns family stories into a keepsake book. The new features include: AI Editor, a writing assistant built right into the story editor Audio QR codes, which allow you to listen to recorded stories in your loved one’s own voice straight from the printed book A dedication page you can add at the front of your book The ability to arrange multiple photos side by side, and to rotate photos AI Editor is a writing assistant built directly into the MyStories editor that helps the user polish their text without ever leaving the page.

Vanguard Digital Printing Systems, a Durst Group Company, unveiled the Cumberland, a new flatbed printer at the 2026 PRINTING United Expo. Cumberland offers advanced automation, easy and quick media handling, and reliable performance, increasing production capacity and unlocking new opportunities in today’s fast and demanding market, the company claims. “Cumberland is yet another step forward in Vanguard’s ‘Productivity Redefined’ evolution,” said Jim Peterson, Founding Partner and COO of Vanguard Digital. “We understand that our customers are constantly looking for ways to produce more, improve efficiency and take on new opportunities, all while reducing costs and risks.

Retail sales rose modestly in August, marking the 11th consecutive month of gains, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions, released today by the National Retail Federation. "Retail sales climbed steadily once again in August," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Supported by low unemployment and steady wage gains, households remained budget-conscious but took full advantage of back-to-school promotions to stretch their dollars. Retailers stayed committed to affordability, keeping everyday products accessible for American families." Total retail sales, excluding automobile dealers and gasoline stations, were up 0.22% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 3.87% seasonally adjusted year over year in August, according to the Retail Monitor.

The Photographic Research Organization (PRO) held its annual fall convention last week at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. As a private buying group, the happenings at the meeting are not made public; The Dead Pixels Society attends as a guest. As a result, a detailed show report is not done. There are, however, several trends that have become apparent after attending years of events. Camera dealers are adapting to a market in which growth no longer depends on simply stocking the latest bodies and lenses. Presentations at the PRO convention showed retailers expanding through film services, used equipment, education, digital tools, inclusive marketing, and stronger customer relationships.

Portfolio DAM, LLC, a leader in on-premise digital asset management systems, and ICS Color, a leader in digital color proofing solutions, are teaming up to provide a set of bundles for packaging and commercial printers, consumer product goods companies, and creative and premedia providers. Both companies have been delivering best-in-class solutions to their customers for many years. The Portfolio turnkey systems include all needed software and server hardware, and lets any team in the creative supply chain be fully equipped to search, manage and approve the color of their output.

Epson announced the new SureColor F370, a purpose-built dye-sublimation printer designed to make high-quality personalization more accessible. Epson also introduced its new Sublimation Primer for Cotton, a liquid solution that enables sublimation on white and light-colored cotton garments, expanding customization opportunities beyond traditional polyester applications. Together, these solutions help businesses diversify their product offerings while leveraging the durability, color vibrancy and efficiency of dye-sublimation technology, the company said. “Today’s creators and small businesses need solutions that are easy to adopt, versatile and capable of supporting growth,” said Tim Check,

Insta360 officially opened its first flagship retail store outside of Asia on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, occupying a location at 1515 Broadway in New York's Times Square. The store opening marks a major milestone in the global imaging brand's international expansion, underscoring its maturity, scale, and long-term commitment to supporting the U.S. market. The launch is also part of a broader physical retail strategy that includes a flagship store opened in Tokyo in August, dozens of authorized stores across Asia, and planned European expansion into cities such as Munich. "Reaching 10 million cameras shipped worldwide is a milestone we owe to our community, but opening in Times Square is about building lasting roots," said…

Your customer doesn’t order a “file” they order a memory, and nothing kills that moment faster than a print that looks worse than the phone screen. We sit down with Servi Pieters, CEO of Viesus, to unpack why modern photo printing faces new traps: HDR smartphone displays, print workflows, heavy social media compression, and low-light computational photography that looks fine on glass but falls apart on paper. Pieters gets specific about what an automatic image enhancement layer actually does inside high-volume labs and print providers. Pieters shares a real-world KPI wake-up call: One company saw complaint rates jump when Viesus was inadvertently disabled, then drop by 58% when it was turned back on.

Evoto announced Evoto 8.0 at its annual launch event, featuring enhancements to its Evoto Desktop, Evoto App and Evoto Video products, as well as introducing a new Asset Hub. Highlights of the feature enhancements include portrait retouching directly inside DaVinci Resolve, story-based culling for high-volume shoots, reusable workflow templates, and an SDK for production teams. "Evoto is built to give photographers the most speed and the most value in the industry, without asking them to give up their judgment. That creative call on every image is what a photographer brings to the work, and this release is built to protect it," said…

HP Inc. unveiled at PRINTING United 2026 the HP Latex R530 AI Printer, a compact, all-in-one rigid-and-flexible large-format printer powered by both cloud and on-edge AI, designed to simplify production while helping print service providers expand into higher-margin rigid applications. HP also debuted new AI capabilities in HP PrintOS Production Hub, including AI Order Intake, which turns a customer email or file into an order in seconds and reduces average order creation time by 90%, and AI Upscale, which improves low-resolution files in one click. HP PrintOS Production Hub, HP’s integrated large-format software for order management, job submission and remote print control, now adds new AI capabilities.

Ricoh Company, Ltd. announced plans to construct a new facility at its Atsugi Manufacturing Site in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, to accelerate the growth of its inkjet business and strengthen its supply capabilities to meet growing demand for high-quality inkjet heads. Construction is scheduled to begin in November 2026, with completion planned for the first half of fiscal 2028. As a core manufacturing hub for Ricoh's inkjet business, the new facility will provide the capacity to more than double current inkjet head production over time, the company said. By combining Ricoh's strengths in ultra-precision manufacturing and quality engineering with automation, AI and digital manufacturing technologies, the company will build a next-generation manufacturing platform designed to deliver high quality, productivity and supply reliability.

Mediaclip, the leader in enterprise-grade product personalization software, and RPI Print, the global AI-enabled technology platform behind the world’s leading creative brands, announced a strategic partnership combining Mediaclip’s scalable personalization technology with RPI Print’s digital print and white-label fulfillment capabilities. The collaboration connects the digital personalization experience with global production and fulfillment, giving businesses a flexible way to offer personalized products without building their own personalization technology or investing in manufacturing and logistics, the company said. “Personalization needs to scale beyond the front end,” said Marion Duchesne, president and CEO of Mediaclip.

To commemorate the 30th annniversary of the RICOH GR1 film camera, Ricoh Corp. has introduced an anniversary edition of the RICOH GR IV featuring a shutter release button and rear buttons with a color scheme themed on the first-generation GR1. It also comes with a special-edition ring cap with a diamond-cut finish inspired by the area around the lens of the GR1. The ring cap is specially designed so that the diamond-cut surfaces catch the light when the lens is retracted, without causing unwanted reflections on the subject during shooting. This camera also features a special power-off graphic that appears when the camera is turned off.

DIVEVOLK announced the SeaTouch 6 Pro, its patented full-touchscreen underwater smartphone housing. Rated IPX8 to 60m, it lets divers use the phone's native touchscreen to take photos and videos, switch lenses, run third-party apps, review footage, access GPS, and even make surface emergency calls. The SeaTouch 6 Pro delivers six upgrades, according to the company: A sixth-generation touchscreen membrane, included snorkelling red filter, desiccant pad slots, expanded phone compatibility, redesigned dome lens structure, and improved swipe-up gesture support. The new membrane boosts swipe endurance to 150,000 cycles while enhancing sensitivity and edge control.

Viltrox announced the launch of its full-frame Air Series lineup for L-Mount, including four compact autofocus prime lenses – the Viltrox AF 14mm F4.0 Air L, Viltrox AF 20mm F2.8 Air L, Viltrox AF 40mm F2.5 Air L, and Viltrox AF 50mm F2.0 Air L – to photographers and creators using L-Mount cameras. The launch marks the ongoing expansion of Viltrox’s L-Mount lineup, bringing more compact full-frame prime options to L-Mount users, including Leica and Panasonic photographers and creators, across a versatile range of focal lengths.

Consumer spending on Halloween is expected to reach $13.5 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)’s annual consumer survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. The figure maintains the strong spending level of last year’s record $13.1 billion and reflects consumers’ continued enthusiasm for the holiday. “Consumers continue to make Halloween a spending priority, but they are also approaching the season with affordability in mind,” NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights Allison Zeller said. “For more than two decades, NRF’s Halloween survey has tracked how consumers celebrate the holiday, and this year’s results show that shoppers are being thoughtful and strategic, looking for ways to maximize value throughout the season.

The Board of Management of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA resolved to buy back up to 150,000 own shares with a volume of up to 18 million euros via the stock exchange between Sept. 15, 2026 to April 16, 2027, corresponding to around 2.0 percent of the company’s share capital. The company said the buy-back is based on the authorization given by the Annual General Meeting on June 15, 2022, to acquire treasury shares representing a total of up to 10 percent of the capital stock. According to MarketScreener, the buyback announcement boosted CEWE shares to their highest level in in four years: "Shares in the photo services provider jumped by almost five percent in early trading, reaching €111, their highest level since February 2022.

Myseum.AI, Inc. , a privacy-first agentic AI and social media technology company, announced it has partnered with FUJIFILM North America Corp., to bring print-on-demand products to users of the Company's Picture Party platform. The new service, available later this month, allows users to seamlessly choose and order everything from classic photo prints to mugs, canvas prints, totes, puzzles, coasters, pillows, and hundreds of other customizable products. Unlike most social media platforms, the Picture Party private social network allows users to share and organize high-resolution photos without degrading image quality, making it an ideal platform for a printing partnership with Fujifilm.

Kodak didn’t “miss digital.” What really happened is more interesting and a lot more useful if you work in photo printing, photo labs, or photo software. Gary Pageau of The Dead Pixels Society sits down with longtime marketing leader Rocky Bowles to trace the real arc from the film era to early online ordering, and then into the current moment where AI content, social commerce, and collapsing attention spans are rewriting how people buy photo products. Bowles shares what it took to earn consumer trust when the idea of mailing your film to a lab felt risky, and how ProShots tried to connect photographers, labs, and customers online before Facebook normalized sharing.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., announced an expansion of its imagePROGRAF TX and TM lines. The launch introduces 12 new devices designed for architecture, engineering, construction, retail, education, and other light graphics applications, including seven new 5-color pigment ink models in the TM series and five high-productivity solutions in the TX series. The additions to the TM series lineup — TM-615, TM-610M, TM-610, TM-600, TM-510M, TM-510 and TM-500 — feature a compact body and comfortable operability for a wide range of print and scan needs, from digitizing and copying architectural and design drawings to producing posters for retail displays, restaurants and school bulletin boards.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., announced the full-frame Canon EOS R8 Mark II camera and a new range of accessories. This new full-frame model in the EOS series is the lightest EOS with In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS), offering commanding, intuitive controls and a new look mixing modern ergonomics and a compact, travel-friendly build.  Influenced by classic Canon camera heritage and design language, the EOS R8 Mark II includes a variety of creative features enabling photographers to reach new heights. Centered around a 24.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, the EOS R8 Mark II has high-speed drive capabilities, precise subject tracking, and IBIS.

Durst Group announced it will showcase its portfolio of P5 printing systems, software and connected production technologies at PRINTING United Expo, including: Making its North American debut at this year’s show, the P5 350 CORE brings proven P5 performance to an accessible, future-ready platform. Designed for both board and roll production, it combines advanced print quality, intelligent software, upgradeable architecture and automation-ready capabilities. Designed for high-volume, unattended roll-to-roll production, the P5 350 HSR offers robust capabilities including an integrated Mesh-System, XY cutting system, optional vertical and horizontal cutting units, and more.

In an email, Europe-based GotPhoto announced James Micklethwait is stepping down as CEO, with outsider Mahesh Guruswamy taking over as CEO of GotPhoto effective today. Micklethwait will remain with the company through the end of 2026. In the announcement, the company said Guruswamy’s appointment reflects GotPhoto’s growing investment in the United States and Canada. GotPhoto provides workflow, online sales and automation technology primarily for high-volume photography businesses, including school, sports and volume portrait photographers. Micklethwait stepped into the CEO on Jan. 7, 2025, succeeding former CEO Benedikt Greifenhofer. He had previously served as chief product and growth officer at GotPhoto.

Picsart announced the appointment of Lusine Yeghiazaryan as Chief Financial Officer. Yeghiazaryan joins Picsart as the company expands beyond its roots as a leading photo platform to build a video-first, AI-powered production ecosystem. Already in motion, Picsart users have created over 1.1 billion AI videos and images since launch, with year-to-date AI usage up 270% year over year. As CFO, Yeghiazaryan will lead global financial strategy, driving business expansion and long-term growth. Her incoming priority for the business is to align Picsart’s financial trajectory with its video-first vision, balancing fiscal discipline with the rapid innovation required for AI-led scale, the company said.

Japan-based photo products and imaging technology company Asukanet Co., Ltd. reported higher sales but a wider loss for the first quarter of its fiscal year ending April 2027, as increased costs pressured its photo book and funeral businesses. For the three months ended July 31, 2026, consolidated sales increased 4.8% to ¥1.73 billion, from ¥1.65 billion a year earlier. Asukanet posted an operating loss of ¥65 million, however, compared with a ¥17 million loss last year. The net loss attributable to shareholders widened to ¥46 million from ¥6 million. Asukanet’s photo book business generated sales of ¥863 million, up 7.5%.