National Geographic has launched a brand new luxury range of stylish camera bags called the ‘Africa Collection’. This is an extensive collection that comprises pouches, shoulder bags, backpacks, wheeled cases and duffle bags. “The luxury Africa has urban style at its heart, made from tough yet stylish materials, and with fashionable and chic leather detailing,” the company says. Prices start at £10.99 and the entire range can now be bought online at National Geographic’s new UK site.

Rollei has introduced a new range of digital compact cameras. The Powerflex series currently comprises two models, the Rollei Powerflex 440 and the Rollei Powerflex 450, both of which feature 14-megapixel sensors and 720p HD video capture. The Powerflex 450 is equipped with an Apogon branded 5x zoom lens spanning a focal length range of 4.7-23.5mm, which is equivalent to 26-130mm on a 35mm camera. Optical image stabilisation, a close focus point of 2cm, and automatic panorama stitching round off the features list. The Powerflex 440 comes with a 4x optical zoom whose focal range is equivalent to 26-104mm in old money. The cameras will be available in stores from January 2011, at the recommended retail prices of €99.95 and €79.95, respectively.

Unified Color Technologies today announced the third cycle winners of its “Unified Color True Vision HDR Photo Contest”. Ryan Gardner finished first in the Architecture category, while Alex Benison has been announced winner in Landscape / Nature and Freestyle. Both of them received photography kits including Nikon D90 Kit with 18-105mm VR lens, a Lowepro Slingshot 202 AW case, a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and a Lexar Professional Class 10 8GB memory card.

DxO Labs have just released DxO Optics Pro 6.5 for Mac and Windows. Featuring Single Shot HDR technology for optimised rendering of contrasty scenes, improved raw conversion, Lightroom 3 support and more, DxO Optics Pro 6.5 is available at a 30% holiday season discount until Christmas. The Standard edition is now $99, while the Elite edition costs $199 with the discount applied. All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro since 1 June 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 6.5.

Prestigious photography magazine DayFour is returning to East London photographic gallery, theprintspace, for a special exhibition. The Ulysses II exhibition documents a day in the lives of 37 contributors around the world. The rules of the challenge were simple - participants had to avoid staging their photographs and had to work with whatever’s in front of them, no matter what. Ullysses II opens at theprintspace with a great opening night on Thursday, 2 December 2010 7pm-10pm and continues until 5 January 2011 Monday-Friday 9am-7pm (except for Christmas, 24 December – 4 January). Admission is free.

Solar Spark Productions today announced Remotomatic Camera 1.1 for iOS, an update to their app that provides Bluetooth remote control of any iPhone camera. With this app, you can use any Bluetooth enabled iOS device as the remote control, and version 1.1 adds remote control of the iPhone’s video camera as well. Remotomatic Camera 1.1 is $1.99 and available through the App Store.

Time Magazine has included the Sony Alpha A55 “SLT” camera in its list of the 50 best inventions of 2010. Calling the A55 “the camera that never blinks”, the magazine’s editors cited the combination of a fixed semi-transparent mirror, a robust AF system and a solid 10fps burst mode as the reason for their choice. The Sony A55 is the only camera on the list aside from Looxcie, a small hands-free camcorder worn over the ear.

Website: The 50 Best Inventions of 2010

Boinx Software today announced the availability of iStopMotion 2.5, a stop-motion animation and time-lapse capture application that now features a brand new tilt/shift filter. A bit of a misnomer, the “tilt-shift” filter helps users achieve a miniature-scale model effect in their time-lapse sequences. (To clarify, you can achieve a similar effect with a tilt lens, but a tilt/shift lens is a more complex tool that can be used for other purposes too, including perspective control.) Additional product updates include full support for new Canon DSLR camera models and HDV camera support in iStopMotion Pro when Logic Studio or Final Cut Studio is installed. Version 2.5 also boasts a new ‘Send to iMovie’ functionality in the file menu, for quick and easy export of your stop motion animations to iMovie 8 or later. iStopMotion 2.5 is available now via the website below. The update to version 2.5 is free for all current owners of a valid iStopMotion 2 licence.

An updated and newly revised edition of Bruce Barnbaum’s The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression has just been released by Rocky Nook. With well over a hundred photographic illustrations in both black-and-white and colour, as well as numerous charts, graphs, and tables, this book presents the world of photography to beginner, intermediate, and advanced photographers seeking to make a personal statement through the medium of photography. The 364-page volume is available at a price of $44.95.

Sony has posted a firmware update for its Handycam NEX-VG10E E-mount camcorder that allows it to autofocus with A-mount lenses. The camcorder was able to accept A-mount lenses from day one, via an adapter, but so far it has not been able to autofocus with them. Available now for download, the free firmware update adds AF support with 14 A-mount SAM and SSM lens models. The firmware update can be obtained from the website below. Note that you need to download a separate firmware update for the LA-EA1 adapter as well.

Website: Sony NEX-VG10E Camcorder Firmware Update

Under the theme “Electric Vision”, the 7th edition of the BMW-Paris Photo Prize worth €12,000, has been awarded to contemporary Hungarian artist Gábor ?sz. Entitled “Permanent Daylight,” the winning work is part of a series he made in a caravan which he turned into a camera obscura and parked next to a cluster of agricultural greenhouses. The image was made over four successive nights during which the light emanating from these strange, almost unearthly structures slowly reacted with the photosensitive material.Said Michel Frizot, photography historian and member of the 2010 jury: “The originality of Gábor ?sz’s practice is unlike certain standards of today, owing to the fact that he works slowly and without pomposity. His image seems to us to be totally in tune with the theme “Electric vision.”

Panasonic has released a firmware update for the Panasonic G2 compact system camera. Version 1.1 adds support for 3D image capture and playback (via a compatible TV set), and improves the operation of the AE lock function. You can download the firmware update from the website below.

Akvis has updated its ArtSuite effects collection to version 6.6. The new version includes some bug fixes and a new Christmas Pack of decorative photo frames. This pack includes 50 hand painted frames suited to holiday photos. In addition to frames, Akvis ArtSuite also contains various photo effects such as black-and-white conversion, selective colouring and colour replacement etc. Akvis ArtSuite Plugin sells for $49; Akvis ArtSuite Standalone for $ 69.

G-Technology by Hitachi has officially announced the overall winner of its ‘Driven Creativity’ Competition. Iain Weir’s entry, titled “The Henley Swim”, convinced the jury with its theme - a misty, early morning gathering of swimmers set to embark on a journey down the Henley-on-Thames river - as well as its composition and the power of its creativity. The winner was revealed at the launch of an exciting gallery exhibition of all shortlisted competition entrants - held on November 16th at The Brick Lane Gallery, East London. The guest list-only evening launch bought together shortlisted and winning entrants, jury panel members, the audio, music, film and technology press, G-Technology representatives and its customers, to network and to admire all of the showcased creativity. The public can now visit the exhibition for free (open from 1pm-6pm everyday, until November 22nd, 2010).

Pentax has issued a firmware update for the Pentax K-5 dSLR camera. Version 1.01 increases the number of frames that can be captured in raw format when shooting in burst mode, from 8 to 20. The update also improves overall stability and general performance. The firmware update can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Pentax K-5 Firmware Update 1.01

Global Delight has released Photo Delight 1.0, an iPad application that has a beautifully designed virtual canvas to place your color photographs on and get going. You can also add colour to any part of the automatically converted black-and-white photograph with simple swipes of your finger and see the effect. Photo Delight also comes with a smart integration with Facebook allowing you to import pictures from your own or your friends’ account. Photo Delight 1.0 is $1.99 and available through the App Store in the Photography category.