Hasselblad’s Phocus 2.5 for Apple computers allows users to import raw files from more than 150 DSLR cameras, and features support for most standard image file formats. The supported camera models include products from Canon, Nikon, Leica, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and more. Photographers who use Leaf digital backs also benefit from this upgrade, with the inclusion of raw support for Leaf digital backs. Phocus 2.5 for Mac will be available for download from the Hasselblad website starting 19 May.

Jerusalem Always is a new book by renowned photographer Marcelo Bendahan. Written in English and Spanish, the book touches on all aspects of life in today’s Jerusalem including festivals, visits to the Western Wall, the co-existence of Ethiopians, Armenians, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and more. Bendahan’s photos “capture the unique light of Jerusalem and convey not only a city full of history but also one brimming with life”. Jerusalem Always is available on www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.maestrobooks.nl/order.html and in bookstores throughout the United States and Canada.

The Natural World - Portraits of Earth’s Great Ecosystems is a new coffee-table book that explores, in panoramic format, six continents and ten ecosystems celebrating Earth’s diversity of life. With a foreword written by renowned primatologist and U.N. Messenger for Peace Dr. Jane Goodall, this book is a record of Earth’s last great places. Featuring Thomas D. Mangelsen’s panoramic photographs and excerpts from his journals detailing his experience in the field, is also a quiet call to action to conserve the land and the creatures that inhabit it. The 256-page hardback is scheduled to hit the shelves in September, priced at $75.00 USD / $88.00 CDN / £47.50.

Sony Electronics will be enhancing its lineup of Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX memory cards to increase transfer speeds. These new Memory Stick cards have a 30-megabytes-per-second transfer rate, making them Sony s fastest memory cards on the market. They are Sony s highest performance memory cards and are designed to support and enhance features of Sony hardware devices. Sold in capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB, the HX series starts at $59.99. As a value-added benefit, all Memory Stick models include x-Pict Story software for easy on-line photo sharing, as well as data recovery software to enable file rescue.

Website: Sony Memory Media Portal

Fantasea Line has announced a range of new Fantasea Eyes products designed to be compatible with almost any housing in the market, including Fantasea, Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, Olympus, Sea&Sea and more. These include the BigEye FXF80/100/200 lenses and the EyeDaptor FXF80/100/200 adaptors for Fujifilm housings, BigEye and EyeDaptor MPK series for Sony housings and a number of products for the Canon S90 and G series cameras.

Website: Fantasea Eyes

The new Benro Travel Angel tripods are now available in the UK. Travel Angels feature a folded design that makes them easy to carry and up to 20% smaller than conventional tripod designs. Each Travel Angel tripod features a reversible centre column that gives added flexibility and provides additional shooting angles. The adjustable legs can be independently locked, and the rubber feet of the tripods can be removed to enable optional stainless steel spiked feet to be attached. The Benro Travel Angel tripods are sold by Kenro in the UK.

Website: Kenro

Canon UK has announced a new student cashback on the Canon EOs 7D and EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR cameras. UK and Irish photography students, lecturers and technicians purchasing either of these two models through the EOS Professional Network before 31 August 2010 can claum £75 / €85 cashback on the 7D and £150 / €180 on the 5D Mark II. Claims must be received by 1 October.

DxO Labs have launched DxO Optics Pro 6.2 for Windows and Mac, which supports Canon 550D and Sony Alpha DSLR-A450 in both its Standard and Elite editions, and the Canon 1D Mark IV and Nikon D3s in its Elite edition. In addition, 85 new DxO optical modules are now available to DxO Optics Pro users, supporting the following cameras: Canon 350D, 400D, 450D, 500D, 550D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 7D,1D Mark III, 1D Mark IV; Fuji S5 Pro; Nikon D3000, D40X, D50, D60, D90, D700, D3, D3s; Pentax K200D, K-7; and Sony A450. This brings the number of lens-camera combinations supported by DxO Optics Pro to 2000. The DxO Optics Pro 6.2 Standard edition costs £85, while the Elite edition is £179. These discounted prices are valid until 15 June 2010. All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro 5 or 6 after 1 June 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 6.2.

Bicycle Portraits - everyday South Africans and their bicycles is a photography book project initiated by Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler. Described as “an investigation into South African bicycle culture”, the project involves photographs of, and interviews with, cyclists from all over South Africa. Engelbrecht and Grobler try to find out who the bikers are, why they ride bicycles, if and why they love their machines, and why so few South Africans choose these vehicles as a transport option. The two have set up a Kickstarter pledge page as an alternative way of raising funds by essentially taking pre-orders from an online community who want to see the project succeed. To find out more, check out the website below.

Website: Bicycle Portraits

This year, DCP Systems will be supporting the Manchester and Coventry events of the Photovision Roadshows. Now in their sixth year, the Photovision Roadshows aim to promote innovation and excellence in the photographic industry. The Manchester event will be held on 11 May, whereas the Coventry event takes place on 15 June. Both start at 11 a.m., but there will be free seminars for photographers starting at 10 a.m. DCP will be bringing with them a range of large-format printers for the photographic arena – including the Epson Stylus Pro 3880/4880 and the Epson Stylus Pro 7800/7900.

Website: Photovision Roadshows

Olympus Europe is releasing a silver version of the E-P2, which has until now only been available in black. This variant looks almost exactly like the E-P1, except that it has an accessory port for optional extras such as a detachable electronic viewfinder and microphones, just like the black version. Available from mid-May, the silver Olympus E-P2 comes bundled with a 14-42mm kit zoom.

According to Apple, the iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, 28 May. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, 10 May. The UK prices are £429 for 16GB, £499 for 32GB, £599 for 64GB (Wi-Fi models) and £529 for 16GB, £599 for 32GB and £699 for 64GB (Wi-Fi + 3G models).

WD today announced that the WD TV Live HD media player, featuring network capability and Full-HD 1080p resolution, is the first network media player compatible with Windows 7. Using the Windows 7 Play To feature, users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player from any Windows 7-based PC on their network. Any compatible media file accessible from the PC – located either on the PC or the network – can be played to the WD TV Live by right clicking on the file name in the folder or directly from within Windows Media Player 12 and choosing the WD TV Live HD media player as the playback device. Current users will need to update their WD TV Live HD media player to the latest firmware in order to use the Windows 7 Play To feature. Instructions for updating the WD TV Live HD media player can be found at the website below.

Website: WD TV Live HD Firmware Update

Robert Doisneau might be best known for his black-and-white street photographs - but a new book, containing 100 archival, never-before-seen pictures proves that he was very much at home in colour photography too. In 1960, Doisneau was invited by Fortune magazine to cover Palm Springs, the hottest travel destination of the day. There, Doisneau took hundreds of photographs, twenty-three of which were published in the magazine. The rest have been rediscovered in his archives, and one hundred are featured in the book, Robert Doisneau: Palm Springs 1960, for the first time. The 156-page hardback will go on sale in September, priced at $34.95 USD / $39.95 CDN.

Impossible GmbH, the company behind The Impossible Project, has stated its stance on the recent announcement of the Polaroid 300 camera. In October 2009, The Impossible Project and the new licensee of the Polaroid brand – The Summit Global Group – announced the relaunch of some of the most famous Polaroid instant cameras; for which Impossible was supposed to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid branded instant films. In January 2010, Polaroid unveiled their plans of producing a new, classic instant camera, the PIC 1000. Then, at the end of April, they launched a completely different model, the Polaroid 300, essentially a rebranded Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S, which uses Fujifilm’s Instax Mini instant film and its Polaroid branded version. Marlene Kelnreiter, Communications and PR manager of Impossible, has told PhotographyBLOG that the “management of The Impossible Project finds this confusing and clearly wants to state that the Polaroid 300 is not the camera that has been announced in Polaroid’s Press Release from January 7, 2010, which would be compatible with Instant Film produced by Impossible.” Click through / read on to read the full statement.

The Ricoh P10 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VC is a new lens-sensor module for the Ricoh GXR system. This unit has a 1/2.3-inch back-illuminated CMOS sensor and features raw image capture at 5fps. The VC designation indicates that this module has Ricoh’s Vibration Correction function on board to help combat image blur resulting from shaky hands. Also included are a 1280×720-pixel HD movie function, Ricoh’s dynamic range double shot mode feature and a macro shooting at a close-focus point of 1cm. The Ricoh P10 will be available at SRP £249.99. This price does not include the Ricoh GXR body, which may be purchased separately or in a kit with the P10 unit.

Photo gallery software “Lightbox Photo” has been re-branded to Stockbox Photo. The developers of Lightbox Photo felt there was over use of the term ‘lightbox’ in the photographic industry and less understanding of it in a wider audience.  Adrian Ellis co-founder of Stockbox Photo commented, “It became apparent that our name Lightbox Photo no longer distinguished our products and services in the marketplace as effectively as it did when we launched several years ago. Therefore, we have chosen to re-brand our software and services with the new name Stockbox Photo to better differentiate ourselves.” Stockbox Photo is available as a Standard, Professional or Enterprise Version priced from $399.

Outdoor Digital Photography Handbook: How to Shoot Like a Pro by Boyd Norton is a new title from Voyageur Press. From the basics of how digital imaging works through practical field techniques, from creative use of lenses to the details of image storage, filing, processing and manipulation, this comprehensive guide is filled with helpful tips and tricks and 299 of the author’s own images. This 208-page book is available now priced at $24.99.