Gitzo is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the launch of several highly exclusive products, including the iconic Gitzo Century camera bag Collection. This exquisite new selection of photography bags are designed especially for Gitzo Traveler fans who own premium cameras and require similar standards of premium quality and detail in their photography bags. Meticulously designed and made of premium materials, the bags are a highly appealing combination of Genuine Italian cow leather crafted to resemble carbon fibre that is reminiscent of Gitzo Traveler tripod legs, and wear-resistant Nylon that guarantees high resistance to scratches and abrasions. The range comprises the Gitzo Century Traveler backpack (£249.95), the Gitzo Century Traveler Messenger (£179.95) and the Gitzo Century Compact Messenger (£149.95). All three carrying solutions include a dedicated soft-touch compartment designed to keep a tablet or a laptop safe.

To mark its 100th anniversary, Gitzo today launched the GHFG1 Fluid Gimbal Head. This outstanding new head features both modern design and innovative solutions. Clean and harmonic lines, Gitzo’s distinctive Noir Décor finish and attention to detail meet the latest technological breakthrough - the fluid cartridge and fluidity control system. Fluid cartridge technology from the video world is being applied to a gimbal head for the very first time in this model. It absorbs vibrations and ensures smooth movement throughout the shooting session. The Fluid Gimbal Head features soft-touch ergonomic knobs, built-in Arca-type compatible quick release base and new, Arca-type plate with rubber grips. The head is perfectly matched with Gitzo’s Systematic and Mountaineer tripods. The Gitzo GHFG1 Fluid Gimbal Head is available at £399.95.

Cosina has announced a new M-mount version of its full-frame Voigtländer Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical lens. The optical formula comprises 8 elements in 6 groups, including two aspherical glass elements, and a 10-bladed iris diaphragm. The lens takes standard 52mm filters and offers a close-focus point of 50cm/20". The Voigtländer Nokton 40mm f/1.2 Aspherical VM lens carries an MSRP of ¥120,000 (£800/$1,050). Optional accessories include the LH-8 lens hood (¥12,000/£80/$105) and the brand new 40mm Viewfinder-M (¥24,500/£165/$215). The lens and finder will be available from ovember 2017.

Leica today unveiled a special-edition instant camera designed by renowned photographer, art collector and entrepreneur Jean Pigozzi. The new Leica Sofort LimoLand by Jean Pigozzi features the colourful smiling face known as the logo of Pigozzi’s fashion label, LimoLand. Consistent with the standard Sofort, the Leica Sofort “LimoLand by Jean Pigozzi” houses technical features such as preset modes for Automatic, Party & People, Sports & Action, Macro and Self-Portrait, as well as the creative possibilities of multiple exposures, time exposures and self-timer modes. The camera automatically adapts exposure time to the mode the user selects. The SOFORT even offers options for manual control: focusing distance can be changed independently of the preset exposure modes, the flash can be turned off entirely and image brightness can be adjusted higher or lower. The special edition camera will be available for purchase at the end of October and comes complete with a red shoulder strap crafted from high-quality nylon and embellished with the Mr. Limo logo, made by Artisan&Artist. The set also includes a film pack of 20 exposures. In addition to the camera, Pigozzi will showcase renowned images from his celebrity-filled photo book, Pool Party, on November 9^th at the Leica Gallery Los Angeles in an exhibition titled Johnny’s Pool. Centered on the famous “blue pool” at the Pigozzi family’s Villa Dorane at Cap d’Antibes, Johnny’s Pool features photographs of the array of actors, models, musicians that have visited the pool since it was built in 1953.

For photographers tired of lugging around a camera bag, the new jackets by Pixentu offer an easier alternative. With space for fourteen separate pieces of gear (including camera, tripod, and spare battery), many photographers will find themselves able to leave their backpack at the hotel room. “We knew immediately that we wanted to launch through Kickstarter and give photographers the chance to vote on if they wanted our jackets.” One of the Pixentu designers said, “But the response we’ve received from the community has been amazing. We know we’ll do right by everyone who has done the honor of backing us.” Rather than creating one jacket and hoping it fits everyone, Pixentu offers 3 choices depending on where the photographer intends to go: a Street Photography Jacket, an Outdoor Jacket and a Travel Blazer.

360° camera pioneer Detu has launched the F4 Plus an 8K Virtual Reality Panoramic Camera. Designed for professional photographers and VR content creators, the Detu F4 Plus features four multi-layered 200° fisheye lenses, and records 360° videos at a resolution of 7,680x3,840 pixels and a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Engineered to enable users to livestream with ease, the camera can connect to a computer via an Ethernet cable, or wireless live streaming is possible over 2.4G and 5G dual frequency Wi-Fi. The removable 4800mAh lithium-ion battery supports up to 120 minutes of continuous shooting. The F4 Plus carries an MSRP of $2599 and will be available on Amazon.

At Adobe MAX, Adobe announced a number of feature updates to Photoshop CC. Lightroom Photos is now available in the Photoshop start screen and search, so you can search or browse the photos you’ve synced across Lightroom’s desktop, mobile and cloud experiences and import and edit them directly in Photoshop. The search functionality in Lightroom Photos is powered by Adobe Sensei so you can search through your photos even if you’ve never tagged them. Furthermore, you can now open and edit 360 spherical panoramic images, and retain key metadata on export to use with third-party panoramic viewers. Another new feature is colour and luminance range masking in Adobe Camera Raw, as well as support for HEIF files, allowing users to take advantage of iPhone 7+ depth map data to create a shallow depth-of-field effect. Other novelties include improvements to the selection, masking and resizing processes, a new Curvature Pen Tool and enhanced Brush Presets. You can read more about these feature improvements at the website below

The Phottix Juno is a powerful yet easy-to-use manual hot shoe flash featuring a built-in Phottix Ares II Transceiver. Other highlights include a zooming flash head with a focal length coverage of 20-200mm, a guide number of 58, a Canon compatible HV Battery Port, and full-to-1/128th power adjustments in 1/3 steps. A command dial makes power changes fast and easy. The new Phottix Juno will come in four configurations, the flash itself, two Phottix Juno and Ares II Trigger combos, and the Phottix Juno "Ready to Go" Kit, which includes the Phottix Juno flash, a Phottix Ares II Flash Trigger Transmitter, a Phottix P190 MK II Light Stand, a Phottix Double-Small Folding Shoot-Through Umbrella, a Phottix Varos Pro S Multi-Function Flash Shoe Umbrella Holder and a Phottix Gear Bag. The Phottix Juno flash sells for $130.00, the Juno+Ares II combos start at $149.99, and the Phottix Juno "ready to Go" Kit is available for $239.99.

Canon U.S.A. today announced the addition of photographers Barbara Davidson and Terrell Lloyd to their Explorers of Light ambassador programme. Barbara Davidson is a three-time Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-award winning photojournalist best known for her work on victims of gang abuse in Los Angeles. As a long-time photographer at the Los Angeles Times, Barbara spent much of the past decade photographing women and children trapped in a culture of poverty and guns. Terrell Lloyd is known for his experience shooting professional and college sports. He is currently employed by the San Francisco 49ers as their full-time lead team photographer and managing all of the organization’s photography services. Both Barbara Davidson and Terrell Lloyd will be on hand at the Canon Booth (#121) at PhotoPlus Expo 2017, October 26-28 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Lee Filters have announced a new range of Reverse ND grads. "Landscape photographers have always been drawn to the quality of light at the beginning and end of the day, but shooting during those precious seconds when the sun itself hovers above the horizon can be a tricky affair," the company said in a statement. "Controlling the exposure so that the sun is correctly exposed and balanced with the rest of the image has, in the past, meant using a very strong traditional neutral-density graduated filter, with the result being that the sky at the top of the frame appears darker than is entirely natural." Reverse ND filters solve this problem by being most dense in the centre area, rather than at the top. This allows the photographer to precisely control exposure as the sun sits on the horizon, ensuring it is balanced with the remainder of the frame. The new Lee Reverse ND grads offer an extremely smooth and gradual transition between the dyed and clear areas of the frame. Available for the Seven5, 100mm and SW150 systems, in strengths of 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 ND (which equates to two, three and four stops respectively, and relates to the density in the centre area), Lee's Reverse ND filters are available from £81.80+VAT.

Adobe have just announced the all-new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC cloud- based photography service. Featuring a streamlined user interface, Lightroom CC enables image editing in full resolution across mobile, desktop, and the web. With Lightroom CC, photographers can make edits on one device and automatically synchronise their changes everywhere. Additionally, Lightroom CC has scalable storage options for safe and secure back up of full resolution photos including raw files. Plus, Adobe Sensei’s machine learning technology automatically applies searchable keywords to objects in photographs, making organisation in Lightroom CC easier than ever. The all-new Lightroom CC is available across three photography plans: the Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1 TB includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Photoshop CC, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage (£16.64/month excl. VAT), but Lightroom CC has also been added to the existing Creative Cloud Photography plan with an additional 20 GB of storage to help users get started on the new service. This plan remains at £8.32/month excl. VAT. Finally, the all-new Lightroom CC plan addresses the needs of photographers who want a cloud-based photography service for editing, organising, storing and sharing their photos from wherever they are, and includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage (£8.32/month excl. VAT).

Zeiss today officially announced their new Milvus 1.4/25 Distagon lens. Developed for full-frame Canon and Nikon cameras, this 25mm lens is suitable primarily for landscape and architecture photography and journalistic applications. “Even at full aperture, there are hardly any colour fringes,” says Christophe Casenave, Product Manager at Zeiss. “The finest details can be reproduced in high definition and contrast all the way into the corners.” The large, 172-degree focus rotation angle enables precise manual focusing, whilst the metal housing offers protective seals against dust and dirt, making the Zeiss Milvus 1.4/25 a real all-weather lens. Thanks to the de-click function in the the Nikon-mount version, the aperture can be adjusted continuously, which is great news for videographers. The Zeiss Milvus 1.4/25 retails for £1,999 including VAT (RRP) and will be available from December 2017.

Powerful images of rhino taken by some of the world’s top wildlife photographers will be unveiled at a free London exhibition and an evening of talks by leading conservationists, as the much-anticipated Remembering Rhinos book is launched this month. The beautiful photographic book is a follow-up to the hugely successful Remembering Elephants project, which last year raised over £135k for international wildlife charity Born Free’s elephant conservation work. It has gained widespread support from a host of celebrities including Russell Crowe, Chris Martin, Joanna Lumley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Holden, Emilia Fox, Caity Lotz, and Katherine Jenkins, who posed with their copy of the book as part of a social media campaign on World Rhino Day. The exhibition will be open 10am – 5pm each day until Saturday 11th November at La Galleria Pall Mall (5b Pall Mall, 30 Royal Opera Arcade, London, SW1Y 4UY) – an opportunity to view the exquisite imagery, and purchase limited edition prints and copies of the book.

The presentation of the prizes of this year’s Felix Schoeller Photo Award took place on 14 October in the Museum of Cultural History in Osnabrück, Germany. The winners in the individual categories were Rodrigo Illescas (Portrait), Saskia Boelsums (Landscape/Nature), Mario Brand (Architecture/Industry), Alain Schroeder (Photojournalism/Editorial) and Matt Hulse (Free Choice/Conceptional Photography). Each of these winners received a cash prize of €2,000. As the highlight of the event, photographer Matt Hulse was invited to take the stage for a second time. He was presented with the Felix Schoeller Photo Award in Gold and an additional cash prize of 10,000 euros for his extraordinary project titled ‘Sniper’. The 150 photographs by the category winners and the winner of the Emerging Photographer Award can be seen in the Museum of Cultural History/Museum Quarter in Osnabrück until 25 February 2018.

MeFOTO today announced the launch of MeVIDEO, a new sister company focusing on the film and video market with a travel video tripod available now on Kickstarter. The MeVIDEO GlobeTrotter tripod features reverse folding legs to allow for a more compact folded form that makes it perfect for travelling, an Integrated Levelling Platform for precise, intuitive positioning of your camera on the centre column without needing to adjust legs, and a Removable Flat Base Head offering ratchet-style metal adjustment knobs for levelling. Available in anodised aluminium and carbon fibre versions, the tripod converts easily to a monopod - simply unscrew the centre column and combine with the padded leg. MeVIDEO launched their Kickstarter campaign today, with the goal of raising $50,000. Backers will receive a discounted rate of $349 for the aluminium and $499 for the carbon fibre model.

Canon today announced they have reached two major production milestones — a cumulative total of 90 million interchangeable-lens EOS cameras and 130 million EF-series interchangeable lenses. The EOS 5D Mark IV (pictured) was the 90 millionth EOS Series camera range to be produced, while an EF16-35mm f/2.8L III USM became the company’s 130 millionth interchangeable lens. Canon’s EOS system debuted alongside the EF series of interchangeable lenses in March 1987 as the world’s first fully-electronic mount system for film AF SLR cameras. Over the years, both product lines have continued to expand, gaining support among users ranging from first-time users to professionals. Production accelerated in the early 2000’s with the spread of digital SLR cameras. Canon’s interchangeable-lens digital cameras have maintained the No. 1 share of the global market for 14 consecutive years since 2003.