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.

Sony announced today that it is developing a new type of E-mount interchangeable lens camcorder for professional use that is equipped with a Super-35mm equivalent large format CMOS sensor. The recording format for this new HD camcorder will be AVCHD, and there is also a plan to implement Full HD capture with MPEG4-AVC/H.264 compression and 60/30/24fps as well as 50/25fps.. This new addition to Sony’s professional “NXCAM” line will be available in the middle of 2011, price to be confirmed.

Colour Confidence has just launched its new Jargon Buster, offering simple, understandable and accessible explanations of all the jargon you may encounter in photography, digital imaging and colour management.  Set out in a clear A-Z format, users are able to easily navigate and find a particular term that is confusing them, or browse more generally to help improve their all round knowledge. “I have been working in this industry for more than 20 years and even I encounter terms and acronyms that I haven’t seen before. Sometimes I think I could even be guilty of using jargon too, because who wants to say Raster Image Processors when RIP will do!” Commented Simon Prais, Technical Director of Color Confidence “That is why we have launched our Jagon Buster.” You can freely access Jargon Buster at the website below.

Cooliris today announced Liveshare 1.1, a new mobile application that allows people to post photos taken with their mobile phones to a live, real-time stream and share them with their friends using the Cooliris 3D Wall. Available today for Android and on the web at liveshare.com, the new version of Liveshare by Cooliris for iOS will also be available soon.

Website: Liveshare

Nikon has posted a firmware update for the Nikon Coolpix S6000 digital compact camera. Version 1.1 resolves the following issue: when the self-timer, flash mode or macro mode setting was accessed but then closed without adjusting the setting after applying exposure compensation, the exposure compensation setting was reset to 0.0. You can download the firmware update from the website below.

Website: Nikon Coolpix S6000 Firmware Update