BBC Wildlife Magazine has announced that its 2014 Camera-trap Photo of the Year competition is now open for entries. This year’s awards fall into two areas: Camera-trap Research Project of the Year (with a prize of £3,000) and Camera-trap Photo of the Year. A maximum of 12 camera-trap images can be entered into one of the competition categories. The closing date for entries is 30 June 2014. The winners will be published in the December 2014 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine and on the BBC Wildlife Magazine website and will receive a Lowepro Flipside Sport 15L camera pack, worth £122..As always, we recommend that you read the terms and conditions before entering your work.

Spirit of Place is the title of a new exhibition of pinhole photographs by actor Wayne Foskett. "I generally work with a pinhole camera," he says. " It can transform the banal into the poetic.” Opening on Thursday 10th April, the exhibition is hosted by the Maison Bertaux Gallery, 28 Greek Street, London W1D 5DQ

The Xsories U-Shot extensions give photographers an extra arm's length for selfies and unique photos. You can attach virtually any type of compact camera or small camcorder to the top of the extending arm with a universal quarter inch screw. A stainless aluminium ball head and easy thumb screw enables you to arrange your own camera angles. The extensions come in two sizes, U-Shot (£34.99) and Big U-Shot (£39.99), and are available in a variety of colours. Both products are distributed by Ultra Sport Europe.

The World Photography Organisation (WPO) has revealed the category winners in the Sony World Photography Awards Open and Youth competitions. The jury, chaired by Nigel Atherton, Group Editor, IPC Photo, UK, selected ten category winners for the Open competition, including Holger Schmidtke, Valerie Prudon, Kylli Sparre, Vlad Eftenie, Gert van den Bosch, Ivan Pedretti, Arup Ghosh, Alpay Erdem, Li Chen (for the photo, "Rain in an Ancient Town," above) and Hairul Azizi Harun. The category winners in the Youth competition include Paulina Metzscher, Turjoy Chowdhury and Borhan Mardani.

Update: Borhan Mardani has been disqualified - the new winner is Anastasia Zhetvina.

London based photographer Sean Batten has been announced as the winner of the UK National Award, part of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards. Batten, a software developer and keen amateur photographer, was chosen as the winner for a stunning architectural shot of one of the hallways at Canary Wharf tube station. As the UK National Award winner, Batten receives the latest Sony digital camera equipment and will attend the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony in London on 30th April.

TowerJazz and Gpixel announced today at Image Sensors 2014 the release of the world’s highest-resolution CMOS image sensor. Gpixel’s 150 megapixel full-frame CMOS image sensor (GMAX3005) will target the medical, industrial and scientific imaging markets (so no, you won't find it in the next Canon or Nikon digital SLR camera). The GMAX3005 chip is capable of running at ten frames per second at full-frame with even higher frame rates achieved in row-windowing mode. Boasting a noise level of less than 4e-, a dynamic range of 75.4dB, and over 70% quantum efficiency at 550nm wavelength. the GMAX3005 sensor is ideal for applications that require high sensitivity; and makes long exposure possible even without active cooling. These performance results place it in the category of high end industrial grade sensors matching the capabilities of the best sensors available in the market today, the companies say.

By way of its Facebook page, Samyang has launched a teaser campaign for a new lens. Due to arrive on Friday 21st March, the new optic looks like a mystery product but our educated guess is that it might be the Samyang 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS ultra-wide angle lens that was originally due for a January/February launch.

British wildlife photographer William Burrard-Lucas has released the latest results from the BeetleCam Project and announced a new version of his the remote-controlled camera buggy, BeetleCam. Will embarked on a project to get unique, close-up, ground level photographs of African wildlife back in 2009.  To achieve this, he built his first BeetleCam, a remote controlled buggy with a DSLR camera mounted on top. Now, five years after his first expedition to Tanzania, he has unveiled BeetleCam Hybrid, which combines a traditional BeetleCam base with a stabilised camera gimbal, which allows the camera to stay perfectly level, even if the BeetleCam is moving over uneven surfaces. Click through / scroll down for an introductory video highlighting the results achievable with the new BeetleCam Hybrid.

Vimazing is a new social network for filmmakers: cameramen, editors and video lovers. Launching next month, Vimazing is a portal for fans of film art, inspired by popular photo-ranking communities such as 500px, Pixoto or 1x. Once launched, Vimazing users will be able to publish their work, build their own film portfolio and evaluate other members' videos. The first 1,000 users to upload a movie will receive a 6-month pro membership for free.

The latest version of Pho.to Lab for iOS adds image editing tools and stickers to its extensive collection of photo effects. The new Editor mode enables users to whiten teeth, remove blemishes, reduce red-eye, crop images, adjust their brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpening, and apply a selective colour effect. Stickers let users adorn their shots with different kinds of hats, glasses, accessories and speech bubbles. Pho.to Lab 2.2 is available now on the iTunes App Store.

X-Rite today released ColorTRUE for iOS and Android. The app creates a custom display profile for mobile devices using a supported X-Rite measurement device. The user simply places the connected device on the tablet or phone when prompted and the measurement process begins automatically. The profile is applied to all images displayed through the ColorTRUE Image Gallery. ColorTRUE includes a Create Profile tool and an Image Gallery viewer and is currently available as a free download on iTunes and Google Play. Supported X-Rite measurement devices include the ColorMunki Smile (iOS only), ColorMunki Display (iOS and Android), i1Display Pro (iOS and Android), and i1Pro 2 (iOS only).

Fuji Japan has issued a service notice to Fujifilm X-T1 users regarding a recently discovered light leak issue. According to the company, the phenomenon occurs when the door covering the USB/HDMI and microphone/remote ports is opened during long exposures or video recording, and affects units with serial numbers from 41002001 to 41006000. Fujifilm Japan is asking users to send their cameras to a Fujifilm repair centre, where they will be fixed free of charge.

Source: Fuji Japan via PR

Light Blue has been updated with a host of new features to help make business administration simpler and more straightforward for professional photographers. The new release adds a plug-in for WordPress websites,  the ability to save custom reports, a new Inbox to make importing from Mail on a Mac or Outlook on Windows really easy, and much more. Light Blue 5 is available for £295 + VAT. Existing users can upgrade to Version 5 for £95.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) will host this year's International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) exhibition from 1st April to 29th June. The exhibition will feature selections from the competition categories which focus on biodiversity and the wider environment, including The Beauty of Plants, Wildflower Landscapes, Wildlife in the Garden, Breathing Spaces and Trees, Wood and Forests. The RBGE is located at 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR.

CASE, a new product developed by Cheering Tech, allows users to wirelessly control their Canon and Nikon digital SLR cameras from their Android and iOS devices. Offering remote live view, touch focus, full control over camera settings, time-lapse photography and wireless file transfer; the new CASE is a 2"x2" device that slots into your camera's hot-shoe. Weighing in at 50g, CASE will retail for $99 but those who support Cheering Tech's fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo can get hold of the device for $79.