Insta360 today launched an Indiegogo campaign for the Insta360 Air, a clip-on smartphone camera that captures immersive 360-degree HD images and videos that can be livestreamed or shared instantly. Exclusively designed for Android devices. the Insta360 Air features an advanced 210-degree dual fish-eye-lens and real-time image stitching. The smartphone app also features image and video editing tools. Compared with conventional 360° cameras, the Insta360 Air is lightweight and ultra portable. Designed as an extension of the smartphone rather than a bulky add-on, the device can also be used as a 360 webcam which users connect to laptops via the multifunctional extension cable to capture 360-degree video or livestream for longer periods of time. Insta360 Air will be available on Indiegogo InDemand for $99. The Insta360 Air's RRP is $119 and will be available on Amazon and Insta360’s official online store once the campaign finishes.

Manfrotto have launched a fresh set of lightweight and compact tripods for travel photography. The new Befree Color tripods are available in four new colour combinations: Red, Grey, Blue and Green. Reliably supporting a payload of 4kg, and extending to a height of 144cm; these tripods fold down to a mere 41cm and weigh only 1.4kg. The Befree Color tripod is available for £139.95.

The Lume Cube - a powerful and ultra-portable LED lighting tool that's controlled by a free smartphone app - is now available in the United Kingdom. Opening new creative possibilities for photographers and videographers, the Lume Cube is a compact and versatile LED light for capturing both stills and movies, and is compatible with camera phones, action cams as well as more traditional digital cameras. Measuring only one-and-a-half inches, the water resistant Lume Cube produces up to 1,500 lumens of light in either video mode, for a continuous light source, or in strobe mode. Encased in a durable casing built for action and made to fit your lifestyle, the Lume Cube can be attached to any tripod or camera accessory thanks to the standard ¼ inch mount thread. Available in single (£89.99), twin (£169.99) and quad (£329.99) packs, the Lume Cube can also be outfitted with a number of accessory mounts, starting at £19.

Jessops will offer a number of deals this Black Friday on more than 200 products, including cashback offers and savings of up to £235 across cameras, drones, lenses, photographic courses, accessories and photo gifts. The Jessops Black Friday event will start online at 8pm on Thursday 24th November and will take place across 54 nationwide stores and online until midnight on Monday 28th November. Some of the deals include a free ‘create your own’ photobook with every camera, lens or camcorder purchased this weekend; a Canon EOS 1300D Twin lens kit for £299; DJI Phantom 3 Standard for £399; GoPro Hero Session Gift bundle for £149; a 30% discount on selected lenses; a free Nikon accessory kit worth £49.99 with selected Nikon DSLRs; and much more. Pete Duncombe, Commercial Director at Jessops says: “We are delighted to reveal some of our best Black Friday deals before they even launch to help our customers plan their purchases this weekend. We are pleased to be able to offer excellent savings coupled with our Price Match Promise, outstanding customer service, and expert impartial advice.”

Godox have announced a new wireless TTL flash for Sony cameras. The new TT350 Mini flash has a zoomable tilt-swivel head covering the same angle of view range as a 24-105mm lens, a guide number of 36 (in metres at SO 100, at the 105mm setting), 1/350-1/20,000-second flash duration, and recycle times ranging from 0.1-2.2 seconds when using Eneloop batteries. As a master unit, the TT350S can control the Godox AD600, AD600M, AD360II-C, AD360II-N, V860IIS, V850II, TT685S and TT600 flashes. As a slave, the new flash can be controlled by the Godox X1T-S, V860IIS, V850II, TT685S and TT600 units. Other features include high-speed synchronisation, rear-curtain sync, flash exposure compensation, stroboscopic flash and manual flash exposure control. International availability and pricing to be confirmed.

GekkoGum is a highly versatile and ultra-fast mount for action cameras and smartphones. Essentially a malleable adhesive ball, GekkoGum is odourless, free of grease and doesn´t stick to your fingers. GekkoGum can be cleaned with fresh water to remove superficial dirt and keeps its characteristics for several years without shrinking or becoming brittle. Currently seeking funding via Kickstarter, GekkoGum is recommended for devices with a maximum weight of 200g (which includes all common smartphones and action cams). Priced at €15, GekkoGum will become available in 2017.

Wacom today announced the Wacom Cintiq Pro line of creative pen displays. Available in 13.3” and 15.6” sizes, the new Cintiq Pro wraps the "most natural and precise pen performance to date" into a sleek, thin and portable form factor. Paramount to the Cintiq Pro experience is the new Pro Pen 2, offering four times greater accuracy and pressure sensitivity than the previous Pro Pen. Both Cintiq Pro models also feature multi-touch for easy and fast navigation as well as the ability to pinch, zoom and rotate photos. The Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and 16 are compatible with both Macs and PCs and feature full HD (1920x1080) and ultra HD (3840x2160) resolution respectively. Both Cintiq Pro configurations deliver vivid colours, the 13-inch model providing 87 percent Adobe RGB and the 16-inch, 94 percent. Priced at $999.95 USD, the Cintiq Pro 13 is expected to be available at the beginning of December. The Cintiq Pro 16, $1499.95 USD, is intended to be available in February.

DJI have announced two new drones for professional photographers and videographers. The new DJI Inspire 2 has a top speed of 67 mph and takes only 4 seconds to accelerate to 50 mph. With the new dual battery system, flight time is up to 27 minutes. A new forward-facing camera offers the pilot the best flight view for operating the master controller, while the camera operator receives a separate feed from the professional Zenmuse camera mounted on the main gimbal. The Inspire 2 supports the brand-new Zenmuse X4S and X5S cameras and will support additional cameras in the future. The UK retail price of the Inspire 2 aircraft is be £3059. The Inspire 2 Combo, which includes one Inspire 2 aircraft, one Zenmuse X5S, CinemaDNG and Apple ProRes License Key, is available for £6398. Customers who order the Inspire 2 Combo before 1 January 2017 can enjoy a special price of £6269. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro (pictured) offers a 1-inch 20-megapixel sensor with almost 12 stops of dynamic range, and a mechanical shutter that eliminates rolling shutter distortion in fast-moving scenes. Phantom 4 Pro can capture slow-motion 4K video up to 60 fps at a maximum bitrate of 100 mbps. In addition, the Phantom 4 Pro offers H.265 video compression, which substantially improves video quality at the same bitrate. Phantom 4 Pro’s UK retail price is £1,589 with a standard controller. The Phantom 4 Pro+, which includes a Phantom 4 Pro aircraft, and a high luminance display remote controller, will be available at £1819. These products will begin shipping one week after launch.

Datacolor today announced that they will be partnering with Adobe to offer customers who purchase a qualifying Spyder product the opportunity to receive a 90-day Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan trial. In conjunction with Adobe’s Affinity Partner programme, Datacolor customers will receive promotion redemption instructions upon purchase and activation of qualifying Spyder colour calibration tools, which include Datacolor’s Spyder5EXPRESS (pictured), Spyder5PRO, Spyder5ELITE, Spyder5STUDIO, Spyder5CAPTURE PRO and SpyderPRINT products. “We are always looking for innovative ways to provide our customers with the optimal photography workflow, from capture to print.” said Stefan Zrenner, Director Global Sales & Marketing Imaging, Datacolor. “We’re excited to announce this partner promotion with Adobe, as the seamless integration between our industry-leading color calibration products and Adobe’s world-renowned photography tools will allow our customers to exercise total creative control over their images.”

Seagate has announced the launch of Backup Plus Portable 5TB external hard drive. Billed as the World's largest-capacity mobile storage solution, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB drive is the first device to ship with the new BarraCuda platter technology, and offers quick file transfers with USB 3.0 connectivity, a sleek 20.5mm form factor and customisable backup options with Seagate Dashboard software. The Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB drive will be available this month for an MSRP of $189.99 in black, silver, red and blue colour options.

DJI has updated the capabilities of its largest drone series by introducing the new Matrice 600 Pro. Offering improved flight performance, a more powerful battery charging system and better loading capacity; the DJI Matrice 600 Pro’s A3 Pro flight controller comes with triple modular redundancy and diagnostic algorithms that compare sensor data from three sets of GNSS units, which enhances precision control while improving overall safety. Vibration damping balls have been added to the flight controller’s redundant IMU module and main controller, absorbing more shake and reducing more noise. The DJI Matrice 600 Pro is compatible with DJI’s Zenmuse camera series, the Ronin-MX gimbal and DJI Focus. It effortlessly supports a payload of 6kg, meaning it can carry a range of cameras from Micro Four Thirds CSCs to the Red Epic.

CMOSIS - the company that supplied Leica with sensors for their Leica M (Typ 240) digital rangefinder camera - have launched the CMV50000, an industry-first global-shutter full-frame (36.43 x 27.62 mm) CMOS imager offering a resolution of 48 megapixels and 8K movie recording at 30 frames per second. Featuring 4.6-µm sized pixels using a patented 8-transistor pixel architecture to offer low noise and excellent electronic shutter efficiency, the CMV50000 operates at 30fps with a 12-bit pixel depth at full resolution or a binned 4K mode, and at up to 60 frames/s with pixel subsampling to 4K resolution. Its pixels offer 64dB optical dynamic range at full resolution and up to 68dB in binned 4K mode, and the imager benefits from the implementation of sophisticated new, on-chip noise-reduction circuitry such as black level clamping to enable it to capture high quality images under low-light conditions. A High-Dynamic Range mode is supported by an odd/even row dual-exposure operation. Priced at €3,450, this sensor is unlikely to crop up in consumer-grade digital cameras - it's mostly aimed at high-speed machine-vision systems, as well as TV broadcasting and high-end security cameras - but it's possible that the technology will eventually trickle down to the professional DSLR/CSC segment.

OmniVision have announced new PureCel Plus and PureCel Plus-S pixel technologies promising better light sensitivity, increased signal-to-noise ratio and a wider dynamic range. More specifically, the company’s second-generation PureCelPlus technology delivers a 20% increase in full-well capacity, a 10-lux improvement in SNR10, and increased pixel quantum efficiency thanks to a newly introduced composite metal grid structure. OmniVision’s second-generation PureCel Plus-S technology will empower new families of compact 20-megapixel and 16-megapixel sensors for camera phones and other camera-equipped mobile devices. The new 20-megapixel OV20880 and OV20880-4C and the 16-megapixel OV16885 and OV16885-4C are currently available for sampling and are expected to enter volume production in the first quarter of 2017.

DxO today released a major update to its DxO ONE miniaturised camera. Less than three months after the release of a 2.0 update that brought Wi-Fi as a new feature, DxO is now introducing what it calls the World's first seamless raw workflow, direct from the DxO ONE to your iPhone or iPad. Version 2.1 takes full advantage of raw support in iOS 10, enabling a one-touch transfer of DxO ONE raw files to the iOS Photos library where they can be processed on-the-go. Available to all DxO ONE users free of charge, the update also enables direct Wi-Fi remote control, and adds other performance boosting enhancements.

GoPro today announced the recall of the approximately 2500 Karma drones purchased by consumers since 23rd October. The recall was announced after GoPro discovered that in a very small number of cases, Karma units lost power during operation. Owners of Karma can return their units to GoPro, or their place of purchase, for a full refund. GoPro plans to resume shipment of Karma as soon as the issue is resolved.

Fantasea has announced the full compatibility of its FRX100 IV underwater housing with the new Sony RX100 V camera (read review). Billed as the most compact, sturdy and ergonomic waterproof housing available for this model; the Fantasea FRX100 IV is also fully compatible with the Sony RX100 III and RX100 IV cameras. Providing full access to all essential camera controls and functions, the Fantasea FRX100 IV housing is depth rated to 60 metres, and features a shock-resistant construction, ergonomic design and double O-ring protection. Free extras include a hand-strap, moisture detector and port cover. Current suggested retail price of the FRX100 is $400.

StarTech.com has announced the release of two new Dual Slot SD Card Readers which enable users to read and write to any two SD cards simultaneously. The new SD card readers will benefit photographers and videographers who import photos and videos from their digital camera, video camera, or action cam to their laptop or desktop PC. By accessing two SD cards at once, users can overcome the challenges of dealing with multiple memory cards and save time and effort by transferring content from multiple cards instead of importing content from each card individually. “These dual-slot SD card readers provide creative professionals with ultra-fast access to SD cards and the ability to quickly import photos and videos from their devices,” said Scott Burton, Product Manager, StarTech.com. “With their small, portable form factors and integrated cables, these products are extremely compact, making them versatile enough to use in the studio or out in the field.”

G-Technology have announced the expansion of its G-DRIVE portfolio, with its first solid state portable drive, the G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C. The new drive brings faster interface speeds with USB-C connectivity and expanded external storage for next-generation computers. Available in 1TB and 500GB capacities, the G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C delivers solid state drive performance of up to 540MB/s and features the 10Gb/s USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface. The included Type-C to Type-C cable and Type-C to Type-A cable allow this drive to operate with any computer featuring Thunderbolt 3, USB-C or USB 3.0 ports. Requiring no external power source, the G-DRIVE slim SSD USB-C is available from £199.95.

Envision Peripherals have announced the new Philips Crystalclear Quad HD 2560 x 1440 32-inch display (BDM3270QP2), which features a 10-bit Philips AMVA LED panel with an ultra-high static contrast ratio. The new display also offers a decent range of connectivity options including DisplayPort, HDMI, Dual link DVI and USB 3.0. The CrystalClear Quad HD 2560 x 1440 32-inch display also features MultiView technology, which enables you to work with multiple devices like a PC and notebook side-by-side simultaneously. The 10-bit display boasts 1.074 billion colours, 178-degree viewing angles and a 12-bit internal look-up table. Finally, an integrated MHL port allows users to connect compatible phones and tablets directly to the monitor to mirror content to the widescreen display while charging the mobile device at the same time.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of WestLicht, Leica will hold its 30th WestLicht camera auction, opening at 11 a.m. on 19 November 2016. Among the highlights of the anniversary auction are two versions of the RIFLE sets, manufactured by E. Leitz New York, which were first publicly presented in July 1938. The RITOO set, with a 20 cm Telyt lens and the original case, is expected to value $165,000 and $200,000. Bids for the second version, a RITEL with a 40 cm Telyt lens and also in its original case, are expected to be in the range of $190,000 to $225,000. Magnum photographer Herbert List’s black paint Leica M3 (No. 915252, pictured) from 1958 is also up for auction (estimated hammer price: $45,000 to $55,000). This early black paint version of the camera from an unofficial series is one of the rarest Leica items. Around 90 units were built, and very few of them have survived. In addition to Leica products, visitors to the anniversary auction will also have an opportunity to bid for numerous collectors’ pieces and rarities from other camera manufacturers.