Sigma have announced that their 20mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art, 35mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art and 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM lenses are not fully compatible with the new Canon EOS-1D X Mark II digital SLR camera. This partial incompatibility may cause exposure inaccuracies when “Evaluative Metering” or “Centre-weighted Average Metering” metering is employed. Sigma are currently working on a firmware fix for each lens. Release dates for the firmware updates will be announced later.

Inspired by the scientific uses of infrared film throughout history, The Unseen - An Atlas of Infrared Plates by Edward Thompson pushes the purposes and properties of the rarest photographic film on the planet to its scientific and conceptual limit. The project comprises twelve chapters documenting everything from the most radioactive forest in the world to rapidly melting glacial ice caves and superficial veins beneath the human skin. Published by Schilt, the 266-page hardback is available for £30 | $50 | €45. 

Polaroid has launched a new, fully automatic TTL flash unit for Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax and Sony cameras. The Studio Series Digital PL-108AF flash has a guide number of 18 (in metres at ISO100/21°) and comes with a tilting flash head with precise light control, red-eye reduction capabilities and an AF assist light. It also includes quick settings such as Auto Focus, TTL metering and automatic shutter speed for simple shooting. The Polaroid studio series digital auto focus flash line models are now available from $48.95 – $53.99 on Amazon

The British Journal of Photography (BJP) has announced that it is raising funds using by offering shares to its readers and followers via crowdfunding website CrowdCube. BJP is seeking fresh investment to bring its archive - which spans over 160 years of content - to the public via the Web. Over 180,000 pages, encompassing all of photographic history, have already been scanned and digitised. Due to unprecedented demand the crowdfunding campaign has reached its initial funding goal within hours of going live, with 24 days still left for investors to get involved.

Into the Woods, a new exhibition by young British photographer Ellie Davies will showcase her new work from the series 'Half Light', alongside her earlier bodies of work. In 'Half Light,' Davies adds a new element – water – a dark, still river, bordered by colourful, textured riverbanks rich with vegetation. The murky water dissects each image creating a false horizon, separating the viewer from the twilight forest beyond and allowing the land to be considered from a distance. ‘Growing up in the New Forest in the south of England, I spent my childhood exploring and playing in the woods with my twin sister. In Half Light, I consider my relationship with these places, my ongoing attempt to reconnect with the wilder landscapes of my youth and to discover if those remembered and imagined places can be found and captured again.’ In addition to 'Half Light', Into The Woods will include previous bodies of work in Davies’s woodland series’ including 'Stars', 'Between The Trees', 'Islands', 'Come With Me' and 'The Gloaming'. Ellie Davies: Into The Woods will run from 21st July to 20th August 2016 at the Crane Kalman Gallery, 178 Brompton Road, London SW1 1HQ.

Intelligent Imaging Solutions have released an update to their piccure+ software, billed as "a revolution in computational photography." Leveraging the processing capabilities of advanced GPUs, Version 3.0 promises an increase in speed of up to 6x compared to version 2.5. Compared to version 2, the increase in speed is 10x faster. Pricing starts at $79.99 for a single license.

G-Technology have announced a partnership with Atomos, a manufacturer of smart 4K and HD video production tools, to develop solutions that help creative professionals save time in the content creation process. "At Atomos, we are committed to creating easy-to-use products that merge the complicated steps in the content creation process,” said Jeromy Young, CEO and Co-founder, Atomos. “By partnering with G-Technology, the most well-known and respected storage brand in the media and entertainment industry, we’re extending our capabilities even further, helping our users quickly transfer and store their most precious work.” The new prototypes will be on display at Cine Gear, June 3-4, in Hollywood at the G-Technology booth #S315A and the Atomos booth #S137.

Leica Camera has announced that the Leica S-Adapter L for the Leica SL compact system camera is now available.The S-Adapter L allows the use of 16 Leica S-Lenses with focal lengths from 24 to 180mm (including six central shutter lenses), in addition to the system’s own lenses, the Vario-Elmarit–SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH. and the Leica APO-Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm f/2.8-4. The Leica S-Adapter L is available now from Leica stores and authorised Leica dealers in the UK at a suggested retail price of £950. Another new addition to the range of accessories and equipment for the Leica SL camera system is the AA-SCL4 Audio Adapter, which is scheduled to be available at the end of June 2016 for an SRP of £120.

The Sony World Photography Awards are now open for entries. Photographers are welcome to enter their work for free into any of the awards’ four competitions: Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus. The 2017 edition also sees new categories introduced across the all competitions challenging photographers to push their creative boundaries. In addition to the Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus competitions, the hunt is also on to find the UK’s best photographer in the UK National award. Entries to the UK National Award will be taken from those with British nationality entering any of the ten Open categories. The Sony World Photography Awards shortlist will be announced on 28 February 2017, Open and National Awards winners revealed on March 28 and overall winners announced on April 20.

SkyPixel has launched a 360-degree Panorama Contest in conjunction with DJI. 360-degree panoramas are a relatively new feature on SkyPixel, and a separate section of the website dedicated to 360-degree imaging had been soft launched prior to the contest. Contestants may use any aerial platform to capture and submit their entries. The Grand Prize includes a DJI Phantom 4 and a Huawei P9 Plus smartphone, and the submission deadline is 20 June 2016.

The Elinchrom EL-Skyport Plus HS transmitter is now available to Sony users. This will give them the ability to control and visualise power settings for all their compatible Elinchrom lights and the capability to shoot at speeds up to 1/8000s in Hi-Sync mode. The ODS (Over Drive Sync) enables users to fine tune the Skyport Plus HS transmitter’s trigger signal to optimise exposure at high shutter speeds whilst gaining up to 2 more f-stops of light. Moreover, users can control the modelling lamp and power of each flash unit directly from the Skyport transmitter, which instantly shows the updated settings. The Elinchrom EL-Skyport Plus HS is available for $249.95 / €249 / £199.

DxO have just released DxO OpticsPro 11 for Mac and Windows. Featuring the company's proprietary DxO PRIME 2016 noise reduction, which enables photographers to salvage noisy photos thought previously unusable, DxO OpticsPro 11 preserves smooth transitions, retains more details, and more faithfully preserves colours in dark areas, and it does this all automatically by reading each camera's precise calibration data. Additionally, DxO PRIME 2016 is now able to process RAW files up to 4x faster than before. The ESSENTIAL and ELITE editions of DxO OpticsPro 11 for Mac and Windows are immediately available in the DxO online store and at photo resellers at a special discount through 30 June 2016.

Western Digital today expanded its line of SanDisk-branded mobile storage solutions with the new SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C flash drive. The newest generation drive features a new retractable design, faster speeds and capacities of up to 128GB. “By 2020 we expect that 44 percent of all mobile phones sold worldwide will include a USB-C connector, that’s about 800% growth over the next four years,” said Ken Hyers, director, Wireless Device Strategies, Strategy Analytics. “At this rate of anticipated growth, we expect to see more and more solutions like the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C flash drive that offer consumers a way to move and access their content between devices with varying connectors.” The SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Type-C Flash Drive is now available worldwide at Amazon and other leading retailers. The new offering comes in capacities of 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB with UK RRP of £10.00, £13.00, £21.00 and £39.00, respectively.

Issue 53 of David Noton’s Chasing the Light Online Magazine is now available. In this month’s Behind the Lens article, David Noton invites readers to travel with him to Paris where he enjoys a few days of spring photography with the new Canon 1Dx Mark II. In Photo Essentials, he continues his exploration of camera settings. Meanwhile, in the Low Down David this time turns his attention to the photographic inspiration to be found in colour. And finally, he presents two of his popular Fundamentals of Post-Production Videos. Do note that the full contents of Chasing the Light Online Magazine is available to full f11 subscribers only. However non-members can purchase individual issues of the magazine at a price of £4.20.

Transcend has launched  its brand new StoreJet Cloud 110 and StoreJet Cloud 210 Personal Cloud Storage products. Allowing users to access all of their data wherever they might be - while storing it all at home -, Transcend’s StoreJet Cloud offers a centralised 4TB and 8TB storage capacity, automatic data backup, fast transfer speeds and media streaming. With a stable Internet connection, users can freely access all personal files stored on their StoreJet Cloud through Transcend’s exclusive StoreJet Cloud web link and iOS or Android app. Transcend’s StoreJet Cloud also allows multiple personal accounts to be created by family members and friends. Each account is individually maintained and securely protected. StoreJet Cloud also offers a one-touch backup function when a USB flash drive or external hard drive is connected to the rear USB 3.0 port. For Mac users, StoreJet Cloud works with Apple Time Machine, enabling fast and easy backup.