LockCircle have released a new camera cage for the Panasonic Lumix GH5 compact system camera. Dubbed the "Robot Skin GH5," this new camera cage a natural extension of the original camera design. Available from the middle of May, the new Robot Skin GH5 is CNC machined from aircraft grade aluminium and offers innovative SFA Straight Function Action with DTV Dials Total View design concept, Top Grip handle and Boombooster compatible accessories, MultiPort HDMI/USB/Audio port savers with connector locking, an adjustable Meta-Block mount for Metabones monolithic mounting, and much more.

Velapp is a new iOS app that allows you to edit your iPhone videos on the fly, taking advantage of Apple's 3D Touch technology.. While filming, users press on the screen to mark the moments they believe are the best. This assigns the frames a rating between 0-10. The harder the press, the higher the number assigned. Once they’ve finished recording, Velapp’s technology automatically pulls together the highest-rated scenes into edited footage and users can then choose how much of it to play back and export. Velapp is available in a free version, which creates watermarked videos each with a one-minute maximum, or a £1.99 paid-for version that removes the watermark and offers exports of any length.

Calumet Photographic has announced the first-ever National Photographic Survey in the UK. The questions have been carefully selected to address different areas of photography from video and drones, to mirrorless cameras and storage. Photographers who would like to be part of the first ever photographic survey on a national scale, can do so online via the Calumet website. Those who participate will also be automatically entered into a prize draw where a Fujifilm X-Pro2 is up for grabs, worth over £1,000.

Atomos have launched the new Ninja Inferno 4Kp60 10-bit ProRes recording and HDR monitor. Just as the original Atomos Ninja broke open DSLR filmmaking by giving the Canon 5DMKIII professional Apple ProRes recording and the original Atomos Shogun pioneered 4K with the Sony a7s and Panasonic GH4, the Ninja Inferno now arms the Panasonic GH5, with HDR Apple Pro-Res 10-bit 4:2:2 4Kp60 over HDMI 2.0 – a feat not possible internally on the camera itself. Apart from being an obvious companion for the new GH5, the Ninja Inferno is the world’s first HDMI monitor-recorder to accept 4K DCI signals from cameras like the Panasonic GH4 / DVX200 / HCX1000 / UX180 / HCX1, Sony FS7 / Z100 and the JVC LS300. Support for the 4096 DCI standard unlocks cinema recording from these 4K video & mirrorless DSLRs. The Ninja Inferno is shipping now for $995.

LaCie's new #PushPlay competition gives burgeoning film makers the opportunity to submit a short film with the ultimate prize of winning a £10,000 state-of-the-art production suite from LaCie and an in-depth two day mentor session with Michael Paleodimos, Cinematographer for the Oscar-winning short film Stutterer. In order to take part, participants will have to create a short film up to ten minutes long, to showcase a strong emotive performance, an exceptional plot, outstanding and imaginative skill in visual interpretation, all tied together by first rate technical effects – from lighting through to post-production. Emerging film makers will have until 17 April 2017 to submit their entries. The shortlist of the best films will be handpicked by industry experts based on those that deliver the most spellbinding, spectacular, clever and moving content. By putting a film forward, the competition entrants will have their films seen by not just industry experts, but they will also be available for the wider creative professional audience on the competition microsite.

Husband and wife team Anthony Epes and Diana Bird are marking the launch of their new book, East London at Dawn. "The project is inspired by many other books and projects Anthony has done on cities at sunrise, including a book on London at Dawn,  as well as Havana, Paris, Istanbul, Venice etc," Diana says. Anthony connects us to the atmosphere of sunrise in the city and takes us on a unique exploration of the places in East London that fascinate him. From the stark brutalist architecture of the Balfour Tower, to the misty banks of the Thames with Canary Wharf rising up in the background, to the vibrant edgy street art that appears and disappears at random, to the imprint of new communities, foods and cultures that make up this ever-changing part of London. Limited to 1,000 copies, the 80-page hardback will be available from 29th March, priced at £35.

Jessops Academy has introduced its first ever outdoors photography experience in Scotland. Under the guidance of a Jessops Academy tutor, participants will be supported with the expertise of a professional with a broad knolwedge of all cameras to take impressive landscape, wildife and macro images. Set at the field studies centre in Kindrogan, Blairgowrie, delegates will have special access to a carefully located nature hide for photographing red squirrels. Here students will have the chance to experiment in taking close-up and moving shots of the squirrels in their natural habitat. The course is aimed at students with a previous knowledge and experience of using exposure including Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. On the day, delegates will need to bring a camera, fully charged batteries (including spares), memory cards, lenses, and it is advisable to bring waterproof clothing and protective footwear. Click through / scroll down for the details.

Fujifilm today announced the upcoming release of new firmware updates for their X-Pro2 and X-T2 compact system cameras. X-T2 version 2.00 and X-Pro2 version 3.00 enable users to use the cameras' raw image file formats when shooting not only in AE Bracketing but also in other Bracketing modes (ISO, Dynamic Range, White Balance, Film Simulations) and also in Advanced Filter modes. Additionally, the updates add ISO125 and ISO160 to the list of extended ISO levels available, increase the maximum exposure time in T mode from 30 seconds to 15 minutes[!], add an AUTO option for the minimum shutter speed in the ISO Auto setting, enable the use of Phase Detection AF for faster performance in Face Detection AF, reduce focus hunting in AF-C mode, add a smaller Focus Point size in Single Point AF bringing the total number of available sizes to six, enable users to move the position of focus frame while enlarging it in Single-Point AF-S mode and during manual focusing, allow you to assign a specific name to Custom Settings 1 - 7, and much more. Click through / read on for the full list of improvements.

Fotospeed have announced their Photographer of the Year at The Photography Show (TPS) 2017. Alan Leightley has been chosen by the Fotospeed team as their Photographer of the Year. He submitted the winning image (reprinted above), which shows of the Milky Way over The Duke of Portland Boathouse, Ullswater, in the Lake District, to Fotospeed’s weekly #fsprintmonday Twitter competition in August last year. Leightley, who is based in Northumberland and is a self-employed joiner by trade, drove over 4 hours each way to capture the image after using a photography app to find out where the Milky Way was going to appear. He said, “I often go across that way and knew of the boathouse. I use Photographers Ephemeris, and so I knew that the Milky Way was going to line up with the boathouse.” As winner of the competition, Alan will be receiving a Canon A2 printer, £500 worth of Fotospeed inkjet paper, and a day of one-to-one bespoke tutoring with award-winning photographer and photography journalist, Doug Chinnery.

The overall winner of the Outdoor Photographer of the Year competition has been revealed. Chosen from the category winners, Stian Nesoy, the Overall Winner, was announced live on stage at The Photography Show at the NEC, Birmingham on Saturday 18th March 2017. Stian’s photo of a windswept arctic scene (above) was taken Hardangervidda National Park, Norway, after days of frigid snowstorms. The photo also won the Light on the Land category.

Ammonite Press has released Outdoor Photographer of the Year: Portfolio II (£25), collecting over 160 of the best photos submitted to the competition.

Lexar today announced the Lexar JupDrive Tough, a high-performance USB 3.1 flash drive created to withstand life’s challenges. This stylish, lightweight drive is impact/pressure (up to 750 PSI), weather (-13°F to 300°F), and water (up to 98 feet) resistant. The drive comes equipped with EncryptStick Lite software, an advanced security solution with 256-bit AES encryption that helps to securely protect files against corruption, loss and deletion. This tough USB 3.1 flash drive allows users to securely transfer photos, videos, and files with speeds up to 150MB/s read and 60MB/s write. The new Lexar JumpDrive Tough is available now at MSRPs of £21.99 (32GB), £36.99 (64GB), and £61.99 (128GB).

Akvis have introduced the beta version of their new AliveColors image editing application for Windows and Mac OS X. The software offers a variety of image editing tools and effects that lets users create new images from scratch or touch up existing ones. AliveColors allows you to manipulate pictures in a number of ways: it retouches and repairs photos, reduces digital noise, improves focus, applies blur effects, colourises black-and-white photos, corrects colour and tone, improves detail, performs all necessary prepress adjustments, creates HDR images, extracts complex objects, adds text, edits raw files, combines images into collages, applies a variety of unique effects etc. Along with the image enhancement features, the program provides users with an array of artistic brushes and easy-to-use shape tools. The fully functional beta version is available for download at the website below.

Zoner Photo Studio X has received its second major update in six months. Adding a new Filter Brush (for localised non-destructive edits), this update additionally offers an easier way to make complex selections. For travelling photographers, the Spring Update brings the opportunity to work with tracklogs so they can see photographs right along the route of their trip in the Map view. Auto-completion for photo titles, descriptions, and locations speeds up work for anyone who wants to have their photo collection well-organised. Batch edits to labels, ratings, and GPS data are now done in the background while you work. The program’s sharing options newly include the ability to share photos directly to an administered Facebook page, or in a message on Messenger. Zoner Photo Studio X is available as an annual subscription license at a price of $95.88.

Apple today updated its 9.7-inch iPad, boasting a brighter Retina display and improved performance. Featuring an Apple A9 chip with 64‑bit desktop-class architecture and a large screen with over 3.1 million pixels, the new iPad is somewhat thicker (7.5mm) and marginally heavier (469g) than the iPad Air 2 model it replaces. According to the company, the front- and back-facing cameras offer "exceptional low-light performance." The new iPad comes in silver, gold and space grey and starts at £339 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and £469 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular version.