Canon have announced the development of the EOS E1 video plug-in for Apple’s Final Cut Pro. This new plug-in allows simple and easy transfer of video content from Canon’s EOS DSLR cameras directly into Final Cut Pro.

The UP-Rise series is Vanguard’s newest line of high-quality photo-video bags, which has an ability to expand in size to accommodate changing lens and gear needs. One easy zipper motion enables expansion; it shrinks back down when the extra room is no longer needed. Other features include removable rain coats and multiple pockets for extra memory cards and lens caps. Available in messenger, zoom, shoulder, sling and backpack styles, UP-Rise bags are available at street prices of $49-149. Vanguard has also announced its Sydney eries shoulder bags, which are light in weight but feature thick padding for reliable protection. Featuring a Rapid Access System and a customisable interior, Vanguard’s Sydney shoulder bags are available for $49-89. Finally, the manufacturer’s weatherproof and lightweight Pampas series shoulder bags have a roomy interior with thick padding and a protective wall that deters theft.  They are available at street prices of $29-69.

Vanguard has just announced the Espod Plus family of aluminium tripods. Photographers can get their cameras in position quickly with Espod Plus’ unique, ergonomic leg angle release button, enabling effortless adjustment to 25, 50 and 80-degree angles. With load capacities ranging from 2 to 3kg, Espod Plus tripods come equipped with reversible centre columns and three-way pan heads, priced from $79 to $109

Vanguard has announced a range of semi-elliptical, heavy-duty ball heads that automatically adjust and increase tension to handle off-centre load. Vanguard’s patented Combination-Friction Forces Control feature enables extreme tension and friction control via an ergonomic grooved dial located on the main adjustment knob. Both are independently adjustable but positioned side-by-side on the same axis for convenient fine-tuning. This combination of precise tension and friction forces control increases the strength to provide outstanding security. Compatible with numerous Arca quick release plates, the new ABH series ball heads offer maximum load capacities of 20-40kg, and are priced from $199 to $299.

Hama has released a range of colourful mini tripods. Complete with a ball head, these little accessories measure just 24x120mm when closed and weigh in at 110 grams. Extendible to a maximum height of 180mm, the Hama mini tripods come in a choice of white, orange, green and pink to match the colour of your digital compact camera or mini camcorder. Available now across Europe, these mini tripods cost €9.99 apiece.

Website: Hama

The price and availability of the new, ultra-wide Samyang 14mm f/2.8 manual-focus lens has been announced. According to a report by lenstip.com, the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical will go on sale in Europe at the end of March. About four months ago, Samyang announced a delay in production, after early reviews of pre-production samples had unveiled some image quality issues. Since then, the company has allegedly been able to improve edge resolution by 15%, and reduce flare as well. The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical, which projects a large enough imaging circle to cover the full frame on 35mm film, will be available for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax and Four Thirds, priced at €329.

Via LensTip

NASA has released the most detailed and dramatic images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images released yesterday have been constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. They confirm Pluto is a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes, not simply a ball of ice and rock. These Hubble images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, will remain the sharpest view of Pluto until NASA’s New Horizons probe is within six months of its flyby during 2015.

Website: NASA

eLearning Africa has launched an online photography contest to find out how information and communication technologies have changed people’s lives on the Aftican continent. The organisers are inviting people from Africa to submit images that show how they live, learn and work with cell phones, computers and the like. The top three entries will be rewarded with a Canon PowerShot S90, a Flip UltraHD camcorder and an 8GB iPod. The ten best photos will be featured in an exhibition at the eLearning Africa conference held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 26-28th May. The submission deadline is 26 April.

Website: eLearning Africa Competition

The 12th China Shanghai Interphoto & Digital Imaging Exhibition will be held during the Shanghai World Expo on 1-4 July 2010, with confirmed participation from two hundred exhibitors, including Canon, Sony, Mitsubishi, Kodak, HP, Epson and others. Canon in particular is making an appearance at this exhibition with double its 2009 floor space, which is interesting news in the light of Canon’s skipping this year’s PMA. The exhibition, which boasts 20,000m² of floor space, will be open to the general public free of charge.

Website: Interphoto

Automobiles Citroën has announced a photo contest open to any UK resident aged 18 or older. The theme is ‘Unique’, and the organisers are looking for images that capture this concept in the form of an unrepeatable moment, an exceptional sensation or a singular expression. The photo contest serves to promote Citroën’s newest model, the DS3, which can be personalised to each individual driver. The competition runs until 23rd March 2010, and the winner will receive a Citroën DS3 THP 150 DSport to use for a year with a total mileage allowance of 12,000 miles for the year. To submit a photo of yours, visit the website below. As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Website: Citroën Photo Contest

Sanyo North America has announced three new Dual Cameras, the VPC-GH2, VPC-CG102, and VPC-CG20, featuring Full HD 1080 60i video and up to 14mp photo resolution. Movies and photos can be saved to SD, SDHC or ultra-high capacity SDXC memory cards. The GH2 and CG102 include a new “double-range zoom,” which combines both a wide-angle and telephoto zoom for videos, switchable at the touch of a button. The GH2 features a compact, horizontal form factor and a 14.4-megapixel CMOS sensor. The CG102 offers the same resolution in a vertical form factor. The CG20 has a 10.7-megapixel CMOS chip housed in a vertically styled body. All three cameras feature a mini HDMI port and all of them are compatible with Eye-Fi cards. Pricing to be determined.

The Sun-Mover from California Sunbounce is a flat collapsible light reflector that transforms sunlight and studio light in a totally controlled way into spot-light and soft light. Billed as “a true revolution in the world of lighting reflectors”, the Sun-Mover has been designed by World Press Award winning professional photographer Wolfgang-Peter Geller. “Idea and lighting are still the essence of a good picture,” he says. “Sometimes it’s about adding, sometimes it’s about reducing light by having at the same time as many shades of colors as possible available. After extensive research, we came up a with a really brilliant idea:  a new design, consisting of an oval shapre, Perma-Tense reflective screen and two solid built-in handles. This innovative construction system provokes that spot, neutral or soft light effects can be made by only one collapsible reflector.” Made in Germany, the silver/white Sun-Mover is priced at €79, while the zebra/white variant costs €89.

Transcend have recently introduced the Transcend PF830, a new 8” digital photo frame with 2GB of internal memory and support for today’s most popular types of memory cards. Featuring an extra-bright LCD panel with a resolution of 800x600 pixels, the Transcend PF830 has a 4:3 aspect ratio that allows pictures taken with most digicams to fill the frame completely. The PF830 conveniently displays videos, photos and music from a variety of sources: USB flash drives, memory cards, or the photo frame’s own internal memory of 2 Gigabytes.  The PF830 accepts CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, microSD, M2, MS, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo and MS PRO-HG Duo cards, and with its advanced auto-play feature, users can instantly browse photos or videos right when they plug in their digital camera’s memory card. Available in black and white, the PF830 has a sleek design, intuitive graphical user interface, plus calendar, alarm and clock functions.

Fujifilm have announced a new range of their exclusive stretcher bars. The new Wunderbars ‘Red’ package is now available. The stretcher bars in these packages are constructed of high quality pine rather than the usual tulip hard wood. They still feature the same unique self tensioning corner blocks that ensure there’s no more sagging canvas, it always stays taught and will contract and expand to the room’s temperature and humidity. The Wunderbars Red range is available in packs of 12 and comes in the following sizes: 12”, 16”, 18”, 20”, 24” and 30”; and will list with a saving of 20% compared with the original Tulip wood bars. In addition to the Red range, a new sample pack of the original Wunderbars, including two of each 12”, 16”, 20” and 24” stretcher bars, is also now available.

At PMA 2010, Lensbaby will showcase the two new additions to the Lensbaby Optic Swap System announced back in October. These include a fisheye and a soft focus lens. The Lensbaby Fisheye Optic allows photographers to turn their Lensbaby Composer or Muse into a fisheye lens by swapping out the installed optic and dropping the new Fisheye Optic into the lens. This optic’s six element multi-coated optical design features an ultra-wide 12mm focal length capable of capturing a 160 degree fisheye angle of view from infinity all the way down to one-inch from the front of the lens.  The Soft Focus Optic’s multi-coated optical glass doublet creates a much flatter field of focus than previous Lensbaby optics, making this optic well-suited for a variety of soft focus applications. This new optic does not have the Sweet Spot of sharp focus and dramatic blur outside of that spot created by the Double Glass, Single Glass, and Plastic Optics.

Website: Lensbaby

Topaz Labs have released the Topaz Detail 2 Photoshop plug-in, which features a user-requested speed boost versus Detail 1, a totally redesigned user interface, and more detail enhancement tools and presets. Topaz Detail’s underlying algorithm employs the most recent advances in detail enhancement technology. This new technology provides the unique ability to enhance detail and micro-contrast, with no over-sharpening, edge artifacts or halos, which often occur with other sharpening tools. Topaz Detail features three levels of detail control, high-quality image sharpening, natural feature enhancement, and black and white conversion. Topaz Detail 2 is a free upgrade for existing customers and retails for $39.99. It is compatible with Windows and Intel-based Macs.

“Baku with Love” is a new photographic commission on the capital of Azerbaijan by Magnum photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov. Born in Moscow in 1952, Pinkhassov’s career has its roots in film, and his photography is often described as “cinematic”. The mysterious, impressionistic quality of his pictures of Baku define that quality. Of his approach Pinkhassov says: “The only thing that counts is curiosity. For me personally, this is what creativity is about. It will express itself less in the fear of doing the same thing over again than in the desire not to go where one has already been.” Pinkhassov has taken over 200 images for Baku Magazine, 60 of which will be exhibited at The Mall in London from 14-19 February. Admission is free.

Microstock entrepreneurs Lee Torrens and Amos Struck, teamed up to launch the Microstock Photo Plugin for WordPress. Based on Fotolia’s most powerful API, bloggers can now instantly search from 8-million royalty-free images on Fotolia and add them to their posts without leaving WordPress. Writers can use the images for as long as they need to because when they purchase images, for as low as $1, from Fotolia, it includes a standard-use licence. To get started with the new WordPress plug-in, visit the website below.

Website: Microstock Photo Plugin