Grab a bargain and join in a heartening photo industry initiative to help the Boxing Day tsunami victims

I'm a regular contributor to one of the UK's leading digital photography magazines, What Digital Camera (WDC). So it's with some pride that I can bring your attention to a truly inspirational effort by the WDC staff and the photo industry to raise money for essential charity projects to relieve the suffering in the aftermath of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean sea surge disaster.

WDC has successfully persuaded dozens of photo industry companies to donate products, with a total retail value of £17,000, for a special online charity auction. Every penny of the proceeds will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which is the recognised UK umbrella group of most of the charities working in and around the Indian Ocean disaster area. You can read all about it in the current issue of the magazine.

Items you can bid for include two Canon EOS 300D DSLR kits (one donated by Canon UK and the other by Jessops), an Olympus E-300 DSLR kit, a Sigma SD10 DSLR and double lens kit, a Nikon D70 DSLR and 18-70mm lens, a Pentax *istD DSLR with 18-35mm lens, a Konica Minolta Dimage A2 8MP camera, a Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro DSLR, a top of the range Canon iP8500 photo printer, HP Photosmart 8150 photo printer, Epson Stylus R800 photo printer, a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS and a great deal more.

To see the entire list of items available, visit www.whatdigitalcamera.co.uk/auction. The auction closes on 11th February, so there isn't a moment to lose. You could, with luck, pick up a bargain and in doing so you could help improve the lives of hundreds – even thousands - of people affected by the Boxing Day tragedy.