Manfrotto has announced US pricing for its KLYP iPhone accessory. The KLYP case has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $29.99, the KLYP case with compact ML120 LED light retails for $69.99, the case+ML120+Pocket-tripod combination sells for $89.99, the KLYP case with the larger ML240 LED light costs $99.99, and the kit comprising the KLYP case, the ML240 and the Manfrotto Pocket-tripod is priced at $199.99.

Getty Images has announced that its Flickr Collection has grown to 500,000 images. The half millionth photograph had been submitted by Jiangang Wang, a system engineer and photo hobbyist from Tianjin, China. The image, “Minato Mirai night view,” was captured from the vantage point of Osan-bashi in Yokohama, Japan, where Wang now lives, and shows the city skyline just after sunset.

Adobe has released version 1.4 of its Digital NeGative (DNG) specification. The industry-standard raw format has been expanded to include 1) a new lossy compression option, 2) a Default User Crop tag that allows the in-camera crop setting to be respected while enabling the photographer to “un-crop” the image, 3) new floating-point information storage that allows for a larger amount of dynamic range to be stored within a file, and 4) a Transparency option for “undefined” pixels around the edges of a panoramic image stitched in-camera.

The winners of the 29th AOP Photographers Awards have been announced. This year has produced another wonderful collection of diverse images across the 16 categories. Over 3,500 images and videos were entered, by almost 400 individuals. The following photographers won Best in Category awards: Richard Seymour, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Dylan Collard, Craig Easton, Jeroen Hofman, Robert Wilson, Wendy Carrig, Jim Naughten, Andy Rudak, Oliver Haupt (twice), David Ryle, Tif Hunter, James Day, Simon Norfolk and Adam Hinton. This year’s two Gold winners are Jeroen Hofman and Simon Norfolk.

AP Camera Systems have announced the launch and opening of pre-orders of the indie i5 tripod mount / camera case for iPhone 5 owners. While held securely in a black anodised precision CNC machined compartment behind a red anodised cover, the indie i5 offers easy access to the relocated headphone jack, redesigned dock connector, and front and rear cameras of the new iPhone 5. Both the body and cover of the indie i5 are manufactured from aerospace-grade aluminium. Pre-orders placed via AP Camera Systems website before the close of business 12 October 2012 can save 25% off the MSRP ($134.97 plus shipping and any applicable tax).

The renowned Dutch online photo and video specialist Foto Konijnenberg has been renamed ‘Photospecialist’ in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In the near future Photospecialist will open online and physical shops in more countries in Europe, with the logistics, sales and marketing remaining centralised in the Netherlands. “Our ambition is to bring our service and range of products to more countries within Europe - we were already specialists by reputation, now also by name!” says Henk Konijnenberg, CEO. In The Netherlands and Belgium the company will continue to operate under name Foto Konijnenberg for the time being.

Luxury whisky brand The Macallan has been running a competition in which they are encouraging people to send in an important image and tag it with a key word - they call it the Last Word. You can find the details here. There are some amazing prizes up for grabs.

Here’s my Last Word picture which is titled Self. Self-portraits are perhaps the most difficult people shots to take – after all, not that many photographers like to be the subject of the picture. This abstract self-portrait plays with reality to deliver a pleasing image that doesn’t give too much away about the photographer. Taken with the humble iPhone and post-processed with Nik Software’s SnapSeed, it proves that even the humblest of equipment can take and create a good photo. The image also shows that the right lighting can make or break the mood; the lengthening shadows of dusk not only added to the ambience of the scene, but created the extreme sense of perspective that makes the photo so interesting. My tip - always carry some kind of camera with you, whether that’s a DSLR or a simple cameraphone - you never know when exactly the moment will be right.

Incidentally if you live in the UK you can see my image and some other excellent images at the Macallan booth at several exhibitions. Details here: http://www.themastersofphotography.com/

Don’t forget to enter the competition, there’s a photography trip to Scotland and top end Fujifilm cameras up for grabs.

Consumer electronics manufacturer Sakar International has announced the launch of four Polaroid-branded digital video cameras. The line-up includes tne Polaroid iD820, billed as one of the world’s thinnest, lightest true 1080p HD camcorders ($179.99), the Polaroid iD879 with 5x optical zoom ($179.99), the Polaroid iD450 with built-in Wi-Fi ($179.99) and the Polaroid iD640 waterproof, shock-proof, dust-proof and freeze-proof pocket video camera ($99.99).

Sakar has announced the launch of several new digital compact cameras under the Polaroid brand. The new models include the Polaroid iF045 ($99.99), a fourteen-megapixel camera with front- and rear-facing displays and 5x optical zoom that’s waterproof down to a depth of 10 feet; the sixteen-megapixel Polaroid iS2132 ($199.99) superzoom camera with 21x “enhanced definition” optical zoom and HD video capture and the Polaroid iS326 ($79.99) ultra-compact camera with 3x optical zoom and a slim form factor. Unlike the Z-series Polaroid digicams, these models do not feature built-in printers.

At an auction held yesterday at Swann Galleries, a set of Edward S. Curtis’s magnum opus, The North American Indian, complete with 20 text volumes and 20 folios, was sold at $1.44 million dollars—more than any other single lot auctioned off at Swann in its 70 year history. Daile Kaplan, Swann Vice President and Director of Photographs & Photobooks, said, “We were very pleased to have sold this iconic work by a major 20th century artist. The price reflects the rarity and beauty of this American masterpiece and the interest in photobooks as an artform.”

The Double Access Cascade 5020 bag holds a small SLR or compact system camera with up to a five inch long lens attached, with room for an additional one or two lenses, a flash and a tablet. Measuring 9"x9½“x3.8”, the Cascade offers convenient double access; via the top when carrying it around, or via the front when on a table top. There is a comfortable carry handle, a belt loop, a luggage loop for sliding the bag over you luggage hande or M-Rock’s Modular Cart 7080 and 4 D-rings on the back of the Cascade. Shipping with a lens cloth and a rain jacket, the bag sells for $80.

Hasselblad Bron has announced that New York City will be the host of Shoot NYC, a professional photography forum. Held on October 25 and 26, 2012 at the Terminal Building located at 608 West 28th Street, Shoot NYC is an and informative forum based on the premise of building a photographic community. “In addition to a wide range of free professional photography seminars, industry leaders broncolor and Hasselblad will help you learn how to harness and integrate the market’s most advanced photographic tools into your business, improving both your photography and your bottom line,” the organisers say. “Top industry professionals will host workshops and hands-on seminars in an array of subjects, whether you’re interested in fashion, portraiture, commercial, stock or repro.” Click through / scroll down for a list of speakers.

Blurb has announced a new version of its easy-to-use ebook editor that allows authors to add video and audio to their iPad-compatible electronic books. “We have effectively turned digital storytelling on its head,” said Eileen Gittins, CEO and Founder, Blurb.co.uk. “You’ll get the familiar structure and narrative of a book, plus the freedom to add multimedia to create a richer, non-linear storytelling experience.”

One Memento is a new photography experiment designed to capture 250,000 single moments. Participants download a one-shot digital camera app from the iTunes App Store, giving them one chance to take a single photo for the experiment. All they have to do is capture an image, or choose one from their phone’s photo gallery, add a comment and share it on Facebook or Twitter. Their ‘One Memento’ will be kept safe in an online gallery for their friends and the world to view. Once shared, the user’s One Memento can’t be altered or deleted - according to the initiators of the campaign, this forces users to think before they shoot and share.

Eye-Fi has announced a new Eye-Fi Pro X2 16GB, Class 10 card that increases both storage and speed capabilities while continuing to deliver convenient wireless upload of photos and videos from cameras. The new 16GB card provides twice the storage capacity of the prior Pro X2 card, while the Class 10 performance delivers faster read and write speeds for the same retail price of $99.99. The Eye-Fi Pro X2 16GB card is available for pre-orders that ship within the United States from Amazon. The card will also be available, within the coming weeks, for customers in Australia for AU$108 and Japan for ¥9980.