Leica Camera is hosting an exhibition of street photography by Colin O’Brien at its new gallery space above the Leica Store City at 18 The Royal Exchange, London. The photographs, which have been selected from O’Brien’s award-winning ‘London Life’ project, were taken over several decades on his Leica rangefinder cameras. The collection will be available to view at Leica Store City until 29 January 2016, and Colin will also be holding an illustrated lecture at the gallery on Thursday 3 December. Colin will talk through the photographs he shot on his Leica camera and the stories behind them. Attendees at the event will receive a copy of Colin's famous Clerkenwell Car Crash poster. There will also be the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the publication, London Life.

Entries are now being accepted for the International Images for Science competition 2016. Organised by The Royal Photographic Society, the contest is supported by Siemens as part of the Curiosity Project, a three-year programme which aims to engage young people with science and engineering. Entrants are required to take a visually appealing picture that tells a science story. The top 100 entries will be chosen by an expert panel to be exhibited at the British Science Festival in Swansea in September 2016 and then across the UK. The competition is free to enter, simply register online and upload your images to the website. Closing date is midnight on 1st May 2016.

The team behind The Photography Show has announced that the regional event Capture Birmingham is set to take place from 19-20 March 2016. The event will see photography and arts organisations from across the city invite the public to celebrate the world of photography through a series of exhibitions, photo walks and workshops. Already confirmed on the schedule as an official event location is the Ikon Gallery, hosting an exhibition from ex-Birmingham University student Janet Mendelsohn and photo walks led by Hidden Spaces, which offer people the chance to take unique shots and discover Birmingham’s lesser known architecture and history. In addition, the Forward Photography Festival, hosted by Instagramers of Birmingham and Visit Birmingham, will host a series of InstaMeets, each with a different focus and location to test photography skills. The full programme for Capture Birmingham will be released over the coming months.

Today only - get 67% off the Olympus PEN E-P5 Camera! 

The Olympus PEN E-P5 scored 5/5 Essential! when we reviewed it, concluding "the Olympus E-P5 is a compelling mix of old and new, fusing together a gorgeous retro design with the latest 21st-century technology to create the most stylish and advanced PEN yet."

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Leica has released a new firmware update for the Leica S (Typ 007) medium-format dSLR camera. Registered camera users can now login to the Leica owner’s area of the Leica Website and download the firmware update, version 2.0.0.1, or take their camera to a Leica Store for a free update. The new firmware upgrade improves auto focus, speed and precision, particularly in low ambient light, ensuring consistently reliable and precise focusing – even in unfavourable lighting conditions. In addition to this, firmware version 2.0.0.1 offers optimised white balance with manually entered colour temperature values.

X-Rite's new ColorChecker Video and ColorChecker Passport Video calibration targets are now available in the US. These novel products reduce video editing time, improve colour balance control, make it easier to match multiple cameras and simplify editing for mixed lighting conditions. The pocket-sized X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Video ($149) comes in a rugged hard case, and includes four different targets - a colour reference card, a white balance tool, a three-step greyscale target and a focus calibratio tool. The X-Rite ColorChecker Video ($129) offers a larger form factor and includes 2 series of greyscale patches, a range of skin tone patches, a series of saturated and desaturated chromatic colours, and a full-size white balance target on the reverse side.

CompositingStock.com is a new stock photo site designed specifically photographers and designers who create composite images in Photoshop. With the help of a collapsible safety cone, CompositingStock.com has solved one of the biggest challenges with compositing: determining how big your subject should be in relation to the background. “Many stock photos just don’t work for compositing because they just aren’t taken at the best angle and there’s no sense of scale.” says Dave Cross, Founder of CompositingStock.com. “With our safety cone system, our backgrounds are shot specifically with compositing in mind.” The site provides free compositing tutorials and the option to download sample images to try out the safety cone compositing system. Photographers can join the site as a Contributing Photographer and start earning commission on the sale of their images, with royalties starting at 40%.

Lytro have announced Version 5.0 of their Lytro Desktop software. According to the company, this new edition features breakthrough depth editing capabilities that are not currently possible with any other camera on the market. The Lytro DepthFX tool makes chroma keying for background replacement unnecessary and enables depth-based adjustments to exposure, contrast, colour, hue and saturation. The Lytro Desktop 5.0 update for Lytro Illum is free and will be available for Windows users on 8th December.

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Booq will be offering customers a 20% discount over the upcoming Black Friday weekend. From 27th - 30th November, customers can get 20% off using the code BOOQSALE at Booq Europe on Amazon. Booq products on promotion include the Booq Cobra Brief (priced at £220 – £176 with discount), the Booq Boa Shift backpack (£120 – £96 with discount, pictured) and the Booqpad for iPad Air 2 tablet case (£40 £32 with discount).

Olympus are set to issue the latest function-enhancing firmware updates for the OM-D E-M1 and E-M5 Mark II compact system cameras on Wednesday, 26th November. Firmware version 4.0 for the E-M1 (pictured) will add a new focus stacking mode, optical viewfinder simulation, a focus bracketing mode, synchronised PCM audio recording with movie capture, and the ability to disable snapshot focus / MF Clutch from the menu. The company is also releasing a similar firmware upgrade for its OM-D E-M5 Mark II camera adding, on top of these features, a new "Flat" Movie Exclusive Picture Mode. Both of these firmware updates will be available for download from 26th November 02.00 GMT.

DxO has released an update to the DxO ONE iPhone app. Version 1.2 adds new ways to view and interact with advanced photo info, and provides more control over the entire photo and video capture process. The manual focus mode now provides one tap access to hyperfocal distance, and the ability to reposition the magnification loupe for critical focusing. At the request of pro photographers, the shutter speed range has been expanded for capturing even faster motion (1/20000) and longer low-light exposures (30s). Users can now capture video with full manual control of aperture, ISO, white balance and more. DxO ONE selfies are now available in every capture setting and mode, including the ability to record high quality video selfies, ready to share with the world. There’s even a new companion app that lets users remotely trigger a DxO ONE camera with their Apple Watch.

Aurora HDR for Mac is now available for pre-order. "Aurora HDR is like no software I've ever used and I think it's gonna blow people's minds,” commented Trey. "Over the past 10 years I've been trying to find the ultimate HDR software, and it wasn't until Macphun came along in this amazing partnership that I was able to finally build my own." Available for Mac OS only, Aurora HDR is available either as a standard version through the Mac App Store, or a pro version direct from the website below.

Akvis have released version 8.0 of their NatureArt software for Windows and Mac OS X. This update adds a new Aurore Borealis effect along with an assortment of ready-to-use presets, plus a new optional dark interface style and minor bug fixes. Version 8.0 is a free upgrade for everyone who purchased a NatureArt license within the past 12 months.