Wacom has announced the Bamboo Stylus, a pen which can write comfortably on iPad displays. A new addition to the Wacom Bamboo series, the Bamboo Stylus features a slim, smooth and soft tip and a good weight-balanced design. “The stylus can perform creative tasks that our fingers and touch displays are just not built to handle well,” said Rick Peterson, Director of Consumer Brands at Wacom technolgy Services Corporation. Due for release at the end of May, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus will sell for 2,980 yen in Japan and $29.99 in the US..

Samsung has posted firmware upgrades for the Samsung NX10 (pictured) and NX100 compact system cameras. The firmware upgrades improve AF performance, and add a new Panorama Shot scene mode plus compatibility with the Optical Image Stabiliser of the 50-200mm f/4-5.6 II lens to both cameras. The upgrades are available now for all NX100 and NX10 customers to download at the websites below.

Digital Film Tools recently announced the availability of Rays, its latest plug-in for Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. Rays allows users to easily add realistic light ray effects to any digital photo. Known as volumetric lighting in computer graphics, the technology behind Rays allows users to set the ray length and brightness, control ray direction with an on-screen control, customise the colour of the rays using a colour picker, and more. The plug-in is available from the manufacturer’s website for $50.00, while an iPad/iPhone version of the software can be downloaded from iTunes for $0.99.

SendQic Photo is an iPhone app that automates the process to take and email a photo, making for a faster, more convenient way to send pictures to a single email address, to email groups, or to Facebook. The first time a user opens SendQic Photo they enter their email and/or Facebook information. Then each time a photo is taken it is sent to the stored location(s). Users can modify their information and configurations at any time. SendQic Photo is available now on iTunes at a price of $0.99.

Ricoh has released a firmware update for the Ricoh GXR system. Version 1.36 resolves an issue that concerns the accurate display of colours while changing exposure settings in the Cross Process scene mode. This applies to all GXR modules. Additionally, the update contains fixes for a couple of bugs that affect the Ricoh GR Lens A12 28mm f/2.5 (pictured) and the Ricoh GR Lens A12 50mm f/2.5 MACRO sensor-lens modules only.

Website: Ricoh GXR Firmware

To celebrate the Royal Wedding, Nikon has teamed up with Arthur Edwards, royal photographer at The Sun, to give some expert tips and tricks on how to capture the big day. According to research commissioned by Nikon, a staggering 327 million Royal Wedding-related photos will be taken on digital cameras on Friday 29th April. Arthur has put together a list of 10 useful tips you can use to capture the event - you can read them all below.

Fujifilm has issued firmware updates for its Finepix F500EXR and F550EXR digital camera models. Version 1.10 fixes a bug related to the LCD screen that sometimes occurred when connecting the camera to a computer via USB. The F550EXR update also reduces power consumption in some cases.

Website: Fujifilm Finepix F500EXR Firmware Ver. 1.10
Website: Fujifilm Finepix F550EXR Firmware Ver. 1.10

Fujifilm has posted a firmware update for its Finepix X100 large-sensor digital compact camera. Version 1.01 fixes a bug related to ISO sensitivity bracketing. Specifically, if the images were shot with ISO bracketing when “Quick Start Mode” was set to “ON”, and you turned off the camera, it could not be turned on again. The new firmware resolves this issue. You can download the update from the website below.

Website: Fujifilm

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) has honoured the Olympus E-5 with its “Best Expert DSLR” award, while the Olympus XZ-1 has been deemed the best expert compact. The Olympus E-5 (pictured) is a weather sealed digital SLR camera featuring a robust magnesium alloy body, large and bright viewfinder, ultra-fast 11-point auto focus system, self-cleaning 12-megapixel sensor, high-resolution articulated LCD monitor, in-body image stabilisation and HD video capture. The Olympus XZ-1 is a 10-megapixel premium compact camera boasting an ultra-bright 28-112mm equivalent f/1.8-2.5 zoom lens, a high-resolution 3-inch OLED screen and a 1/1.63 inch CCD imager with sensor-shift image stabilisation.

Panasonic scooped up three TIPA awards this year. The Lumix DMC-FT3 / DMC-TS3 has won the accolade of “Best Rugged Compact Camera”, the Lumix DMC-GH2 (pictured) has received the “Best Expert Compact System Camera” award, while the Panasonic Gold Pro SDHC UHS-I memory cards have been named 2011’s “Best Imaging Storage Media”.

Ricoh has just released a free Android/iPhone app called EventJot, which allows users to quickly “build” events that anyone can add photos and comments to. The app only requires a Twitter account and a smartphone, and it tweets pictures and comments in real time - an easy way of promoting outings to a wider audience. Events that include pictures and comments are then available anytime on the web through a unique address. The app is available now on iTunes and the Android Market.

Eka Technologies have announced the FotoSpot and FotoMapr geo-tagging peripherals for Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Ricoh and other digital cameras. FotoSpot ($249-$329) provides consumers with an easy-to-use, inexpensive way to add the photo location and shot direction to images created with virtually any digital camera. Photos geotagged with FotoSpot can then be uploaded to a computer via USB and used with any of today’s popular PC, Mac and Internet photo mapping software. The professional FotoMapr is a cost-effective way (starting at $269) for advanced photographers to geotag - and even annotate - images for use in their mapping platforms. Both FotoSpot and FotoMapr are available in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and hard-wired versions. For stockist information, visit the website below.

Olympus has issued a firmware update for the Olympus XZ-1 digital compact camera. Version 1.2 adds a new menu item, “Picture Orientation”. Given that the camera’s orientation sensor might not always be able to correctly recognise if an image was taken in portrait or landscape orientation, users will now have the ability to specify the orientation of any given image in Playback mode simply by a turn of the click-stop dial. The user-defined picture orientation is then saved in the EXIF. You can update the camera firmware from within the Digital Camera Updater software, while the XZ-1 connected to the computer.

Via Photoscala

Olympus UK has reduced the price of the Olympus PEN E-PL1 compact system camera to £299.99. Announced slightly over a year ago, the Olympus E-PL1 hit the shelves at a price of £549.99 - thus, the new price is £250 less than what early adopters had to pay for it at launch. You can also buy the camera in a twin-lens kit for £449.99. This bundle includes the camera body plus the M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm L f/3.5-5.6 standard zoom and the M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 telephoto zoom lenses, the latter of which we recently reviewed.

Review: Read our in-depth review of the Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera
Review: Read our in-depth review of the M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/4-5.6 lens

Sony has won two awards from the Technical Image Press Association. The company scooped up the TIPA award for best imaging innovation for its SLT technology, whilst its Handycam NEX-VG10E interchangeable-lens video camera has won the accolade of “Best Expert Camcorder”. Sony’s SLT technology is used in the Sony A55 and A33 cameras, and it will also be at the heart of the upcoming Sony A77. The Sony Handycam NEX-VG10 (pictured) is a Full HD camcorder that has an APS HD CMOS sensor and takes Sony E-mount lenses (as well as A-mount lenses with the LA-EA1 mount adapter).

Canon has won four awards from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). The Association has found the Canon EOS 600D (read review) to be the best entry-level digital SLR camera released in the past 12 months, awarded the Best Superzoom Camera title to the Powershot SX230 HS (pictured), honoured the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II USM lens with the “Best Professional Lens” award, and hailed the Pixma MG8150 as the best multifunction photo printer.

Two Epson printers and an Epson scanner received TIPA awards this year. The Epson Stylus Photo R3000 won the title, “Best Expert Photo Printer”, the Epson Stylus Pro 4900 was announced the “Best Large Format Printer”, while the “Best Photo Scanner” award has been scooped up by the Epson Perfection V330 Photo (pictured).