The winners of this year’s Black+White Photographer of the Year competition have just been announced. The overall winner is Clayton Bastiani, a fine art photographer specialising in providing imagery for the book cover industry. His prize is a Leica M Monochrom complete with a Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 lens. Antal Bánhegyesy from Transylvania and Tori Khambhaita from London have scooped the title of Young Photographer of the Year. Category winners include Adrian Bowd (The Human Spirit), Rinzing Kelsang (This is Life) and Gary Groucutt (The Living World). The winners will be announced formally at an exclusive event at the Leica studio in Mayfair, London on 15th November.

PNY Technologies today unveiled the PNY SDHC Pro-Elite Plus memory card ramge in Paris. Offering read speeds of 95 MB/s and write speeds of 90 MB/s, the cards are designed for professional photographers that need to take full advantage of their camera’s burst mode. PNY’s SDHC Pro-Elite Plus cards are available now in 16GB and 32GB capacities, with a 64GB version coming in January.

Manchester digital artist Andrew Brooks has created a stunning composite image showing the Pakistani Locomotive, a collection item at MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester), running on the former train line on the Monsal Trail - now a popular walking and cycling spot. The artist will hold a workshop at MOSI on 20th November for photographers who would like to develop their skills. Participants will learn about the techniques of digital composite imaging using Photoshop, and get a chance to try out their own photography in the surroundings of the Museum’s atmospheric railway warehouse at night. The current MOSI exhibition, The Wasted Works by Gina Czarnecki, and the Connecting Manchester gallery will be open for private view and photography during the event. The workshop begins at 6.30pm and the cost of attendance is £35. To book, call 0161 606 0177 or email [email protected] Note that you will have to take your own camera to the workshop. Tripods are recommended.

Pic Scout is a new iOS app that aids landscape photographers in finding beautiful locations. The app uses Panoramio and Flickr to find popular images around the user’s current location or anywhere in the world. It can display results in a table or as scrollable full screen images, and all search results can be saved into Saved Locations. Apart from scouting out great photographic locations, Pic Scout for iOS can also be used to find interesting photographers to follow on Panoramio and Flickr, plan your next holiday’s sightseeing schedule, and explore the world through other people’s photographs. Pic Scout 1.0 is available on iTunes for $0.99.

Lastolite has released its new 6:1 and 7:1 TriFlip Kits. The 6:1 TriFlip Kit (pictured) includes one 75cm (30”) TriGrip Gold/White reflector and one double sided, reversible TriFlip cover (Sunlite/Sunfire, Silver/Softsilver), giving a total of six reflective surfaces to choose from. The 7:1 TriFlip Kit includes one 75cm (30”) TriGrip two Stop Diffuser, one 75cm (30”) TriGrip Gold/White reflector and one double sided, reversible TriFlip cover (Sunlite/Sunfire, Silver/Softsilver). This combination will allow you to use two reflectors at once, or a combination of a reflector and a diffuser. The new TriFlip 6:1 Kit and 7:1 Kit are available at RRP £85 and £145 including VAT, respectively.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has launched its fourth annual digital photo contest in partnership with Eye-Fi. Submission to the “Best Shots” contest will be accepted until 16 December 2012. Entrants can submit one photo in each of four categories: people, travel, pets and cellphone shots. A slate of expert judges will select finalists in each category. Winners will be chosen via an online vote that will run from 8-11 January 2013. The grand prize winner, to be announced 11 January 2013, at the 2013 International CES, will receive a Canon EOS Rebel T3i and an Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card. You can submit your photos through the website below. Note that this competition is open to US residents only. As always we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Rocky Nook has released the second edition of The Photograph: Composition and Color Design. Written by Professor Harald Mante, the book explains the essential elements to achieving the highest level of visual design in photographs. Extensively revised and updated, the second edition includes 60 new images and illustrations. Also included are new chapters that cover analysing shapes and colours and a discussion of the square image format. In-depth lessons are beautifully illustrated with more than 750 images from Mante’s portfolio, plus over 160 diagrams. The 208-page volume is available for $49.95.

Custom SLR - the company known for its M-Plate and M-Plate Mini offerings - is returning to crowd-funding site Kickstarter to launch its latest product, the Custom SLR ProDot. A textured, press-on dot, the ProDot easily adheres to a range of surfaces to provide more finite control and vibration dampening. “While initially designed to be placed on top of a camera shutter button to offer photographers a more seamless shutter-release, free of residual vibrations, the ProDot is a remarkably-simple and convenient accessory for virtually any push-button experience,” the company says. Starting today, the Custom SLR ProDot will first be made available to project backers through a 30-day fund-raising cycle on Kickstarter. For more information, visit the website below.

Auryn today released AurynCam, a free photo enhancing and sharing app. The program offers 25 rendering effects to convert photos into works of art, 24 other effects including colour palettes and filters, 16 different options for frames, 7 pre-selected crop ratios and 29 ways to blend two pictures to combine them in fun ways. AurynCam is available today on iTunes, and coming soon to Android.

Sony has announced the creation of the world’s first real time digital photography exhibition, allowing visitors to appreciate the work of three photographers - Lee Strickland, William Daniels and Paul Sullivan - from the moment the shots are taken. Sony has partnered with three photographers, based in Berlin, London and Paris across Europe, who have been set the creative task of ‘capturing the light’ of their home cities.  They have each been armed with a Sony NEX-5R compact system camera, complete with built in Wi-Fi allowing them to send photos directly to the Sony ‘Real Time Gallery’ located in central London (91 Brick Lane). Open for one night only (15th November), the innovative exhibition promises to transport visitors to the three iconic European cities, where they can experience the atmospheres that make each city unique.

Nikon has issued a firmware update for the Android-powered Nikon Coolpix S800c digital compact camera. According to the company, Version 1.1 incorporates the following improvements and fixes:

“Support for Hindi and Arabic has been added.

When a memory card inserted in the camera was ejected while an Android app saved to the camera’s internal SD card storage (internal SD card space) was running, operation of the Android OS sometimes became unstable. This issue has been resolved.

When the camera was turned on and then off, icons for Android apps saved to the camera’s internal SD card storage (internal SD card space) sometimes disappeared. This issue has been resolved.

An issue that sometimes caused unexpected termination of Wi-Fi connections has been resolved.

An issue that sometimes caused the camera to stop functioning when multiple Android apps were running has been resolved.

DPOF-compatible printers were sometimes unable to recognize information specified with print orders (playback menu>Print order). This issue has been resolved.”

Website: Nikon Coolpix S800c Firmware Update 1.1

InfoTrends’ recently completed study entitled The 2012 U.S. Interchangeable Lens Camera Market explores the growth of the digital interchangeable lens camera market and provides a five-year sales forecast for the United States. This market is divided into DSLR cameras and compact system cameras (which the report calls “compact interchangeable-lens cameras”). The demographics of DSLR and CSC owners look very similar: photo enthusiasts, knowledgeable about photography, weighted to males, affluent, and early adopters. Future CSC owner demographics reflect a more mainstream buyer, who may be stepping up from a point & shoot camera. Vendors and retailers should begin preparing to adjust their messages to accommodate this shift, the company says. For more information on the report visit the website below.

Funjet Vacations have launched a photo competition/promotion searching for travellers’ favourite vacation memories. Entrants first need to “like” Funjet Vacations’ Facebook fan page before they can submit their photographs. All entries will go through a round of judging and the top 15 pictures will be chosen as finalists. Fans will have the chance to vote for their favourite finalist photo, and one randomly selected voter will also receive a trip to the Riu Palace Punta Cana. Note that you must be at least twenty-one years of age at the time of entry and a legal United States resident to enter. The submission deadline is Friday, 16 November 2012.

Triggertrap has updated its Triggertrap Mobile app to allow wireless functionality via a Wi-fi network. With Triggertrap Mobile’s new Wi-Fi triggering mode, photographers can now trigger their cameras via a Wi-Fi enabled “slave” device that interfaces with the camera through the Triggertrap Dongle, while controlling the camera functionality from a “master” iOS device. The “slave” mode is included both in the iOS and Android app, while currently only an iOS device can act as a master. The new wireless functionality is now available as a free upgrade for existing Triggertrap Mobile users and will come standard with any new purchase.

The first UK show of photographer Philippe Shang, ‘Saint-Tropez To London’ is now on display at the ImiTate Modern gallery in London. “Aimed to provoke unexpected emotion in it’s audience, ‘Saint-Tropez To London’ offers a fascinating visual cocktail of drugs, sex and death, immersed in provocative colour,” the organisers say. “It’s first the shock of the photos, then the surprise of the controversial themes that captivates the eye. After the surprise, various details unveil themselves…his pieces are like watching a movie in seductive technicolour!” The Imitate Modern gallery is located at 27a Devonshire Street, London W1G 6PN.

The EyeTime 2012 competition finalists have been announced. Sixteen finalists have been selected in each category: Emerging Talent and Future Voices..To view the finalists and contribute your “EyeTime” now for your favourite entrant, you need to download the EyeTime iOS app from the website below.

Samsung UK has announced a new promotion. Those who buy a camera from the new Samsung “Smart” NX range (the NX1000, NX210 and NX20) between 9th November and 9th January will be rewarded with a free 7” Galaxy Tab 2 tablet. The offer will run in conjunction with the current Samsung Smart range cash back deal, offering £50 cash back on the Samsung NX1000 and £100 on both the Samsung NX210 and Samsung NX20. Note that you must be a UK resident in order to be eligible to participate in the promotion.

Eighty-seven photographs have been shortlisted for the Made in Britain Photography Awards 2012, a nationwide competition run by the EEF, the UK manufacturers’ organisation. The organisers received over 800 images that celebrated the best of British design and manufacturing in three categories: professional, amateur and young person aged 14-19. An overall winner from each of the three entry groups will be awarded £5,000 worth of photographic equipment by sponsor Canon at a National Awards Ceremony in Westminster on 4 December 2012.