The Hasselblad Lunar is an E-mount, Italian-designed ‘ultimate luxury’ mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera. Planned for an early 2013 launch, the Lunar can be used in fully automatic or fully manual mode and is described as “a camera for both serious photographers and enthusiasts who aspire to shooting with a Hasselblad.” The right-hand grip is claimed to offer “unparalleled ergonomics,” while the camera itself comes equipped with an APS-C 24.3 MP sensor, 25-point AF system, OLED electronic viewfinder and TriNavi control system. (In other words, it has the internals, control system and lens mount of the Sony NEX-7 in a newly designed body.) The Hasselblad Lunar will be priced at around €5000 and will be available in a choice of standard models plus a variety of exclusive hand grips and precious materials on special order.

Hasselblad has decided to work with Sony to “cultivate new markets for photo enthusiasts and consumer digital imaging products.” Dr. Larry Hansen, Hasselblad Chairman and CEO says: “This partnership will enable us to access an area of the photographic sector, which we have never reached out to before, by tapping on Sony’s excellent state of the art technology and spirit of ground breaking innovation. Owning a Hasselblad, made in Sweden, will no longer be just a dream for many photographic enthusiasts.” The first fruit of this cooperation is the new Hasselblad Lunar compact system camera - essentially a Sony NEX-7 in disguise - which will be available from the first quarter of 2013.

Want to see exactly what the new Leica V-Lux 4 digital compact camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Continuing Leica’s close relationship with Panasonic, the V-Lux 4 is essentially a re-purposed FZ200 with the usual Leica kudos and styling thrown into the mix, along with a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4. £690 snags you the Leica V-Lux 4 when it launches in November.

Want to see exactly what the new Leica D-Lux 6 digital compact camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new Pentax X-5 camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Lexar has unveiled the industry’s first 256GB Secure Digital Extended Capacity UHS-I memory card. The Class 10 Lexar Professional 400x SDXC UHS-I card allows photographers to capture, store, and transfer a large number of high-quality photos and extended lengths of 1080p full-HD and 3D video with a minimum guaranteed sustained read transfer speed of 60MB per second..Additionally, the card includes a free copy of the latest version of award-winning Image Rescue 4 software to help with the recovery of lost or deleted photo and video files, even if they’ve been erased or the card has been corrupted (note that recovery is not 100% guaranteed). The Lexar Professional 400x 256GB SDXC UHS-I memory card will be available in October for £670.99 from leading retail and e-tail outlets worldwide.

Want to see exactly what the new Leica M live view enabled, 24-megapixel rangefinder camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a gallery of hands-on photos for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new HD Pentax-DFA645 Macro 90mm f/2.8 ED AW SR, HD-Pentax DA 560mm f/5.6 ED AW and Pentax DA 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 ED SDM lenses look like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new Pentax K-5 II digital SLR camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new Pentax Q10 compact system camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new Fujifilm X-E1 compact system camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a gallery of hands-on photos for your perusal.

Want to see exactly what the new Fujifilm XF1 camera looks like in the flesh? We have compiled a hands-on gallery for your perusal.

Vanguard today announced the launch of its new Abeo Plus tripod and Quovio series photo-video bags at the Photokina 2012 Imaging Fair in Cologne, Germany. The latest in Vanguard’s Abeo family of tripods for photo, video and nature observation, the new Abeo Plus tripod is available in diamond-woven carbon fibre or heavy-gauge aluminium versions. The tripod comes in three sizes at street prices of $219.99 - $479.99, and is also available as a kit with BBH-200 professional ball head. Kit prices range from $369.99 - $699.99. The Quovio photo-video bag series comprises the Quovio 26 and Quovio 41 shoulder bags, the Quovio 44 photo backpack and the Quovio 49T trolley bag. Quovio series bags are available at street prices of $119.99 - $279.99.

PNY Technologies today unveiled its new CompactFlash Pro-Elite Plus line-up. The UDMA 7 compliant CompactFlash Pro-Elite Plus cards feature write speeds of 90MB/s and read speeds of 120 MB/s. Designed especially for semi-professional and professionnal photographers, the cards are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, ideal for high resolution shooting and HD video content recording. The PNY Pro-Elite Plus is available from PNY’s network of distributors, with all photographers that buy one receiving a free water- and shock resistant Flash card case. Pricing has yet to be confirmed.

PNY Technologies have just launched the latest generation of its high speed imaging solutions at photokina 2012, including the PNY Pro-Elite Plus CompactFlash and PNY SSD Prevail Series. Thee PNY Pro-Elite Plus CompactFlash memory card allows read speeds of 120 MB/s and write speeds of 90 MB/s. The speed of the PNY product family is also displayed at Hall 5.1 Stand D21 through an Formula One car simulator, powered by PNY graphics solutions. Every day, the visitor who records the best lap on the virtual track will win either a 32GB CompactFlash Pro-Elite Plus, or a 32GB High Speed SDXC Flash Memory Card.

Over the past 15 hours or so we have posted literally dozens of Photokina-related articles - mainly product announcements, hands-on photo galleries and sample images - that quickly filled up our first (and second) pages. So don’t blame yourself if you are feeling a little overwhelmed, wondering if you’ve read everything that may be of interest to you. In order to help you make sense of all the madness we have collected all the relevant info on one page, with links to the detailed articles.

Sigma has announced three new lenses - the 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM, 35mm F1.4 DG HSM and 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM. Sigma has also organized all of its lenses into one of three product categories: Contemporary, Art and Sports. New Sigma Optimization Pro software and USB Dock are designed exclusively for the new lenses within the new product lines. The price and availability of the Sigma 17-70mm, 35mm, 120-300mm has yet to be announced.

Want to see exactly what the new Leica M, S, M-E and X2 Paul Smith cameras look like in the flesh?

Check out our hands-on gallery of photos of the M, S, M-E and X2 Paul Smith edition cameras.