Lensbaby today launched the 80mm Edge 80 Optic, the newest addition to its Optic Swap System. This new optic is compatible with the Lensbaby Composer Pro, Composer, Muse, Scout and Control Freak, and will transform any of these bending lens bodies into a tilt lens that delivers a selective slice of sharp focus through an image.  Like the Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic, the Edge 80 features Lensbaby’s internal 12-blade adjustable aperture. The Edge 80 provides a flat field of focus that, pointed straight ahead, takes photos that are sharp from edge to edge. Tilting the Edge 80 allows photographers to create vertical, horizontal and diagonal slices of focus through the image. Objects in both the foreground and the background can be in focus within that slice.  Photographers can control the size of the slice of focus by changing the 12-blade aperture. The Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic is available for $300.

ProMaster has announced the newest versions of their AWXC/MAX Professional flash memory cards. These include 1000x/145 MB/s transfer rate Compact Flash cards in 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128GB as well as 600x/90 MB/s transfer rate Secure Digital cards in 16, 32, 64, and 128GB. All AWXC/MAX Professional cards are shipped with a weatherproof storage case and carry the ProMaster Lifetime Warranty offered on all of their memory products. ProMaster AWXC/MAX Professional memory cards have anticipated retail prices starting at $79.95 and will be available this spring from specialty photo stores across the U.S. and Canada.

ProMaster has introduced a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed compliant memory card reader. The compact ProMaster MultiReader 3.0 accepts almost every flash card available in the market today. Supported card types include CF Type I, CF Type II, MicroDrive, MagicStore, Micro SD (with adapter), SD, MiniSD, MMC, RS MMC, MMC Micro (with adapter), MS, MS PRO, Magic Gate, MS DUO, MS DUO PRO, M (with adapter) and xD-Picture Cards. The ProMaster MultiReader 3.0 will be available this spring from specialty photo stores across the U.S. and Canada for a retail price of $49.95.

ProMaster has unveiled its latest TTL flash unit for Canon, Nikon, Olympus/Panasonic, Pentax and Sony digital cameras. With a guide number of 30 (in metres at ISO 100/21°), the ProMaster FL100 TTL is quite a powerful flash for its size. Featuring a manual zoom head but no other controls, this is a fully automatic unit powered by four AA batteries. Recycle time is specified at “3-10 seconds”. Available from spring 2012, the ProMaster FL100 TTL is expected to retail for $99.95.

Gitzo has announced the launch of its refined and improved Systematic range of modular, professional tripods. New construction and bonding techniques have almost doubled maximum payloads by distributing weight more efficiently to the 6X carbon fibre legs, which also feature the G-Lock system for greater power and ease of leg section locking. In addition, design details on the distinctive new triangular top casting make changing centre components even faster and safer. Each Systematic Series has 3-section, standard 4-section and long 4-section tripods, with Series 3 and 5 also offering an extra-long 4-section model and Series 5 featuring the “iconic” giant 6-section tripod alongside an ultra-compact 6 section model. Additionally, the range has been extended to cover Gitzo Series 2 in order to offer the advantages of mechanical strength and build quality at a more portable size and weight. For more information, visit the website below.

LensCapTrap has just announced the new LensCapTrap Micro. “The LensCapTrap Micro brings the lens-cap-saving simplicity of the LensCapTrap to the smaller lens caps found on rangefinder, Micro Four-Thirds and other compact interchangeable lens cameras,” the company says. The LensCapTrap is now available in Europe through EnjoyYourCamera and in the rest of the world from LensCapTrap directly

Vtec has announced its new range of add-on lenses for the iPhone 3, 4 and 4S. These include the CAM-1209 12x telephoto conversion lens (£34.99), a new 180-degree fish-eye lens (£24.99) and a wide-angle and super-macro converter (£24.99) Each Vtec lens come with a back cover that the lens screws onto, providing extra protection for your phone. Additionally, the Telephoto Lens has a manual focus ring and also comes with its own tripod, which attaches to the lens to steady the phone when capturing shots.

Photographer and writer Dan Suzio has won a gold award from the North American Travel Journalists Association for his book Death Valley Photographer’s Guide: Where and how to get the best shots. The book is generously illustrated with the author’s photographs, each one captioned with camera, lens, exposure, and other information about how it was made. The biggest section of the book provides descriptions of more than sixty specific locations in and around the park, noting the photographic highlights of each one, the time of day to find the best light, and the typical wildflower season - plus maps and directions to get you there. The book can be ordered online at the website below.

Phones4u, specialists in mobile phones and related products, have pitted three of the top camera phones against the new Sony Xperia S to find out which one is the fastest in terms of capturing a photo. The three competitors included the iPhone 4S, the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Nokia Lumia 800 (which we also reviewed recently). Click through / scroll down to see which handset won the Phones4u photo shootout!

Multiblitz USA has added Florida fashion photographer Anthony Neste to the Multiblitz Professional Team. At this year?s WPPI 2012, Anthony Neste will be joining the Multiblitz team for daily photo shoots and product demonstration of the newly introduced Multiblitz GLAMKIT and the rest of the Multilbitz product line. “We are honored to have Anthony Neste on our Multiblitz Professional team. It is the next logical step to increase brand awareness in North America.” said Veit Wulms, president of Multiblitz USA. “Anthony?s style, experience, stunning images and his exceptional character perfectly fit the company?s brand and image. He is the perfect addition to the Multiblitz Team.” The daily photo shoots will be held at Multiblitz USA?s booth #1426 at the MGM Grand, Marquee Ballroom.

Alien Skin Software has announced the immediate availability of Exposure 4, the new version of its photography effects plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom. Apart from having a completely redesigned user interface and new controls, Exposure 4 comes with new effects like colour infrared film, “realistic dust & scratches” and light leaks. The new text search lets you instantly explore hundreds of presets. “This is the most significant update to Exposure since its creation,” said Tom Welsh, the designer of Exposure. “Across the board everything is faster and much easier to use.” Exposure 4 is available for $249 through the website below.

Vanguard has introduced its first Abeo series tripods. With maximum loading capacities of 13.2 lbs to 22.0 lbs, the Vanguard Abeo tripods maintain a lighter overall weight (5.73-6.73 lbs) than many competitive tripods, the company claims. Available with a pan head or ball head, Abeo supports cameras with large zoom lenses and camcorders with attached gear. The tripods’ panning handles can easily be positioned on the left or right side for convenient, comfortable use by both left and right-handed people. Abeo is available in five models at street prices of $189-269.

Colour Confidence today announced the launch and availability of the new SpyderPRINT (£299.99) and SpyderSTUDIO (£449.99). The first product is a printer calibration solution that allows owners of advanced inkjet printers to create gallery quality prints in colour and black and white. SpyderSTUDIO is a product package that includes SpyderPRINT, Spyder4Elite and the SpyderCube.

The sixth issue of Adore Noir magazine is now out. Adore Noir is a fine art photography magazine available exclusively in digital format. Featuring exquisite musician portraits by Jim McGuire, world-class wedding photography by Jeff Ascough, a selection of pictures from the series “Transfigurations” by Norman Lerner, “neo-vintage” images by Adrian Davis, dramatic photographs of bullfighters by Michael Crouser, fine art landscapes by Rafal Maleszyk, an essay by Dominic Rouse and a richly illustrated behind-the-scenes story on the making of the documentary, The Silver Footprint; this issue reinforces the magazine’s commitment to high-quality black-and-white imagery. Adore Noir magazine is available for $2.95 from the website below.

Website: Adore Noir

The winners of the World Press Photo of the Year contest have been announced. The overall winner is Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda for his image of a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011 (above). The jury gave prizes in nine themed categories to 57 photographers of 24 nationalities from: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA. The winning entries have been chosen from 101254 images submitted by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries.

Lensbaby is teasing its Facebook fans with the promise that it will announce a brand new product on Valentine’s day. Claiming that their new optic[?] “will make you fall in love with photography all over again,” the company is encouraging photographers to submit their ideas on what they think Lensbaby should develop next. And if you care to share their announcement post on 14th February, you may even win a copy of their brand new product - whatever it may be.

Source: Lensbaby | Facebook

Sony has updated its roadmap for E-mount lenses. Currently, the NEX system offers seven Sony and Zeiss branded lenses alongside a few recently announced Sigma, Tamron and Kenko/Tokina products. As this is a relatively narrow selection of optics. especially when compared to the dozens of lenses available for the system’s main rival, Micro Four Thirds, Sony has decided to introduce eight new lenses in the course of less than two years. On top of the wide zoom, high-performance standard zoom and medium telephoto lenses that were already on the roadmap, the company has now added a new standard zoom, a new superzoom, a large-aperture standard prime, a “mid-magnification zoom” and a pancake lens. This should bring the total number of E-mount Sony/Zeiss lenses to 15 by the end of 2013.

The specifications of the new lenses have not been released yet.

Source: Sony Blog

Artensoft has announced Tilt Shift Generator, a Windows program that allows users to simulate the tilt effect achievable with a tilt-shift lens. The application uses a special algorithm to blur specific areas of the image by the right amount, and provides a number of control options and settings to achieve the desired effect. Tilt Shift Generator licences are available from $49.95 through the website below.

Nikon has released a new version of its Capture Control Pro software. Camera Control Pro allows the user to remotely control a camera from a computer using either a wired connection or a wireless connection if using a Nikon Wireless Transmitter with the camera. Version 2.10.0 adds support for the Nikon D4 digital SLR camera and its special features, and adds ‘Movie’ as a separate camera control tab. Additionally, the Macintosh version gains MacOS X 10.4 and 10.7 support. You can download the software update from the website below.

Website: Nikon Europe