The new SteadePod is a retractable, compact and lightweight camera-steadying device. “To use, simply attach the SteadePod to your camera, extend the stainless steel cable and anchor the footpad then pull to place a small amount of tension in the cable,” the manufacturer says. A ratchet and locking mechanism allows positioning of the camera for a steady picture nearly anywhere between 6” to 6’. A swivelling camera pad enables seamless transitions from portrait to landscape compositions. SteadePod is available immediately for £29.99.

Created as an homage to classic photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, Think Tank Photo has created five soft-sided shoulder bags in its new Retrospective series. This new series is made up of two styles: three Retrospective Soft-sided Camera Shoulder Bags and two Retrospective Soft-sided Lens Changer Shoulder Bags. Their soft and supple fabrics conform to the body and feature two color options: Pinestone Cotton Canvas and Black Poly Spun Canvas. Each of the three shoulder bags accommodates a pro-size DSLR camera with a zoom lens attached, and has separate front pockets for back-up bodies. The Lens Changer bags carry two or three lenses plus small accessories in separated compartments for rapid access. Think Tank Photo is dedicating a percentage of sales of the Retrospective line of shoulder bags to Fifty Crows Foundation, which aims to bridge the gap between venues and distribution mediums for documentary photography, and to encourage public dialogue on the issues raised through the photography.

Sony Electronics will be enhancing its lineup of Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX memory cards to increase transfer speeds. These new Memory Stick cards have a 30-megabytes-per-second transfer rate, making them Sony s fastest memory cards on the market. They are Sony s highest performance memory cards and are designed to support and enhance features of Sony hardware devices. Sold in capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB, the HX series starts at $59.99. As a value-added benefit, all Memory Stick models include x-Pict Story software for easy on-line photo sharing, as well as data recovery software to enable file rescue.

Website: Sony Memory Media Portal

Fantasea Line has announced a range of new Fantasea Eyes products designed to be compatible with almost any housing in the market, including Fantasea, Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, Olympus, Sea&Sea and more. These include the BigEye FXF80/100/200 lenses and the EyeDaptor FXF80/100/200 adaptors for Fujifilm housings, BigEye and EyeDaptor MPK series for Sony housings and a number of products for the Canon S90 and G series cameras.

Website: Fantasea Eyes

The new Benro Travel Angel tripods are now available in the UK. Travel Angels feature a folded design that makes them easy to carry and up to 20% smaller than conventional tripod designs. Each Travel Angel tripod features a reversible centre column that gives added flexibility and provides additional shooting angles. The adjustable legs can be independently locked, and the rubber feet of the tripods can be removed to enable optional stainless steel spiked feet to be attached. The Benro Travel Angel tripods are sold by Kenro in the UK.

Website: Kenro

According to Apple, the iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, 28 May. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, 10 May. The UK prices are £429 for 16GB, £499 for 32GB, £599 for 64GB (Wi-Fi models) and £529 for 16GB, £599 for 32GB and £699 for 64GB (Wi-Fi + 3G models).

WD today announced that the WD TV Live HD media player, featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution, is the first network media player compatible with Windows 7. Using the Windows 7 Play To feature, users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player from any Windows 7-based PC on their network. Any compatible media file accessible from the PC – located either on the PC or the network – can be played to the WD TV Live by right clicking on the file name in the folder or directly from within Windows Media Player 12 and choosing the WD TV Live HD media player as the playback device. Current users will need to update their WD TV Live HD media player to the latest firmware in order to use the Windows 7 Play To feature. Instructions for updating the WD TV Live HD media player can be found at the website below.

Website: WD TV Live HD Firmware Update

Manfrotto has announced two new promotions. One of them is a £20 cashback offer on the newly redesigned Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod, which is available now for £139.95. The other offer is a free Manfrotto 234 or 234RC Monopod Tilt Head, worth £16.95 and £31.95 respectively, with purchases of selected Manfrotto monopods. Click through / read on for the full list of eligible models.

The L-bracket is Aeca-Swiss’ newest product, which makes switching from landscape to portrait shooting easier for photographers who regularly use a tripod. The Arca-Swiss L-bracket is a universal solution, so it can be used with most any camera system. The recommended retail price of the Arca-Swiss L-bracket is €190+VAT.

Pandigital today announced it is now shipping its new wirelessly connected Pandigital Photo Mail Digital Photo Frame to several US retailers. Announced at the beginning of the year, the Pandigital Photo Mail Digital Photo Frame displays photos emailed directly to its dedicated email address. The Pandigital Photo Mail does not require Wi-Fi to do this, as it connects through AT&T’s wireless network. The suggested retail price of the frame itself is $179.99, but it only includes the first 300 photos emailed to it with no service fee to the customer. If you wish to send more photos to the frameyou will have to purchase additional photo allotments from Pandigital.

Fujifilm Japan has announced a new media player that allows you to play back three-dimensional images and movies shot with the Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W1 on a Fujifilm 3D television set. Endowed with an SD card slot and capable of reading the Finepix Real 3D W1’s MPO and 3D-AVI files, the Fujifilm HDP-L1 media player connects to a 3D TV via HDMI. The device is now on sale in Japan. At press time, there is no word on international availability or pricing.

amsung has announced the fastest external hard drive yet in its STORY Station product portfolio – the Samsung STORY Station 3.0 with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface offers a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second compared to 480 megabits per second in USB 2.0. The new interface is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 interfaces. The STORY Station 3.0 drive is available in capacities ranging from 1TB to 2TB, and comes preloaded with Samsung Auto Backup, SecretZone and SafetyKey software for data encryption and password protection.

Lexar has just announced the availability of its Lexar Professional ExpressCard CompactFlash Reader and the Lexar Professional 600x and 300x 32GB CF cards in traditional and online retail channels. The Lexar Professional 600x and 300x CF memory cards offer increased speed and performance, with a guaranteed minimum sustained write speed capability of 90MB/s and 45MB/s, respectively, when paired with an UDMA 6-enabled device. The Lexar Professional ExpressCard CF Reader is a portable, high-performance reader that requires no cables and connects directly to a PC or Mac laptop computer’s ExpressCard slot. The reader is compatible with all UDMA and non-UDMA CF cards, supports read/write speeds up to 133MB/s, and features a design with an extra deep card slot for added card protection. The 300x card is priced at $249.99, while the 600x card costs $499.99.

Today LaCie announced the latest addition to its Rugged family of mobile hard drives – the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0. The LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 provides speeds of up to 110 MB/s – three times the speed of USB 2.0. Housed in the award-winning Rugged casing designed by Neil Poulton, the it features a unique scratch-resistant aluminium shell, internal anti-shock absorbers, and a shock-resistant rubber bumper to better protect files against everyday blunders. The LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 will be available in 500GB capacity through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Corner, LaCie Reseller+ and LaCie Storage Partner starting at the suggested retail price of £139.

Website: LaCie

Gitzo’s new Basalt Collection of tripods, heads, monopod and microphone boom is now available in the UK. With the new collection Gitzo introduces a High Performance basalt fibre tube, created from a radical innovation of the aerospace technology used to manufacture its composite tubes, starting from the raw fibres. The new technology boosts a higher level of resin into the raw basalt fibres to increase the tube performance by up to 22 per cent depending on the tube diameter. The new high performance basalt tubes are 20 per cent lighter than aluminium and offer intermediate performance between aluminium and carbon 6X tubing. The new Gitzo Basalt Collection tripods are available from Gitzo stockists priced from £339.95 to £469.95 depending on model. The Gitzo Basalt Collection monopod GM3860C is £179.95, while the microphone boom costs £159.95. The prices of the new Gitzo centre ball heads have not been confirmed yet.

Website: Manfrotto Distribution

X-Rite Photo Marketing has announced the extension of the ColorMunki Photo $50 cashback rebate offer. ColorMunki Photo is a completely integrated colour control solution to calibrate displays, projectors and printers. This promotion, which is available now through June 30, 2010, is valid on any ColorMunki Photo purchased from any authorised dealer in the USA and Canada. The ColorMunki rebate form is available for download by visiting http://www.xritephoto.com and clicking on “Hot Promotions”.

The MicroFlip Flash Bracket is the newest invention of Conrad Sloop, former owner and designer of Stroboframe Flash Brackets. The Micro-Flip employs several brand new and patented innovations including a “flush-mount” stainless steel upright arm that is so thin it “disappears” into the DSLR’s grip yet maintains the rigidity necessary to support large flashes.  This “disappearing” upright arm design makes the MicroFlip the smallest, most compact design of any fully rotating vertical to horizontal flash rotating system on the market today. Priced at $199.99, MicroFlips are in stock and ready for shipment, the distributor says.

A number of Op/tech products, including SLR body covers, camera pouches and straps, now come in Nature / Camouflage. For camera and lens protection, all SLR Body Covers, D-Series Pouches, D-SLR Pouches and Hood Hats are now available in camouflage, and so are Pro Camera Straps, Tripod Straps, S.O.S Straps and the new S.O.S ‘Curve’ Strap. In the UK, these products are all sold by Newpro.

Website: Op/tech Products from Newpro

Crumpler’s new C-List Celebrity is a large, fully padded and thoroughly rugged laptop/camera bag. Rearward facing to avoid both dirt from the ground and shifty pickpockets from the underground, the Crumpler C-List Celebrity bag features a removable tripod holder, retro-reflective strips and comprehensive rain cover. Crumpler has also increased attention to ergonomics and comfort with wide hugging waist straps that direct the gear weight towards the hips and off the back to allow for better balance. The C-List Celebrity is now available in black and comes in 3 sizes to fit the range of Mac/Macbook/Pro line of Apple laptops as well as a large range of thinner PC laptops.

Website: Crumpler Bags

Jobo has unveiled two new versions of the award-winning GPS receiver photoGPS. The JOBO photoGPS is a small GPS receiver attached to the hot-shoe of a digital camera that captures location information instantaneously and automatically. Thanks to the included software, the geographical co-ordinates are translated automatically into real address data when connected to a PC or notebook and all images are tagged with this information. Both the photoGPS 2 and the photoGPS 4 models feature bigger storage capacities in comparison to the previous version. Coverage has also been extended by increasing the number of streets by 23%, municipalities by 42% and POIs (points of interest) by 27%. These new photoGPS models will be available by the end of April for MSRP € 99 (photoGPS 2) and €129 (photoGPS 4).