This must be the strangest thing that’s ever landed in the Photography Blog office - Olympus have sent us a mysterious package that contains two walnuts in a plastic bag and a “Coming Soon” postcard. Quite what Olympus have up their metaphorical sleeve is beyond us - could it be another addition to their compact system camera lineup, a humble compact or something altogether more nutty? It’s definitely a hard one to crack, so stay tuned for more details as they break…

Fujifilm North America has announced it will implement price increases for disposable cameras as well as consumer and professional films in the US, effective 1 August 2012. Prices for consumer and professional photographic film, including black and white, colour negative, and colour reversal films will increase by approximately 20%. Prices for consumer One-Time-Use cameras will rise by approximately 15%.

Redrock Micro has launched a new family of Redrock-designed follow focus units. The new microFollowFocus family is the third generation offering from Redrock Micro that delivers new levels of performance, a unique “back-to-new performance” adjustable gearbox, and a range of products that can match any budget or feature needs. “It’s great to see Redrock pushing the envelope to create new products that makes my job easier,” says award-winning director, cinematographer and photographer Vincent Laforet. “The quality of the microFollowFocus is top notch, and the new hard stops and illuminated marking disk gets me the shots I need with ease and saves me much-needed time.” All microFollowFocus products are available immediately from Redrock themselves and from authorized Redrock Micro resellers worldwide. The microFollowFocus introductory price is $595.

Kodak and Samsung have formed a strategic alliance to sell consumer inkjet printers in Europe. Under this agreement, Samsung will be marketing Samsung branded all-in-one inkjet printers using Kodak’s printer and proprietary ink technology. “Through this alliance, we believe that we can benefit from Kodak’s vast experience in inkjet technology. Now we can offer additional products in a segment below our laser printer line-up, where Samsung has not been present up to now,” said Jürgen Krüger, Director of IT Solutions Printing at Samsung Electronics. The printers recently launched in Germany.

The 51st issue of the free PhotographyBB Online Magazine is now available for download. This edition features a number of tips on shooting cars, and explores techniques for painting with light, photographing fire streaks, and light orbs. PhotographyBB Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB website.

Website: PhotographyBB

Nikon UK are offering up to £180/€210 cashback on purchases of selected FX lenses. Valid between 1st May - 30th September 2012, the discount is applicable when purchasing a compatible lens with a Nikon D4, D800 or D800E body. Lenses include the 14-24mm f/2.8 (pictured), 24-70mm f/2.8 and the 24-120mm f/4G.

By combining the success from their previous two products – the Kickstarter-funded Triggertrap v1 and Triggertrap Shield for Arduino – the Triggertrap team announced a brand new product today; Triggertrap Mobile. The Triggertrap Mobile app introduces several triggering mechanisms that have never before been seen in a consumer device: For example, Distance-Lapse triggering enables the user to set up a camera to take a photo at regular distance-intervals (every 100 meters, for example). When they are assembled into a movie, it appears as if the entire journey was conducted at exactly the same pace. In Eased Timelapse mode, the Triggertrap Mobile app uses mathematical formulas to vary the interval between photographs dynamically. The result is that, in the assembled time-lapse video, it appears as if time speeds up at the beginning of the video, and slows back down at the end. In addition to the standard Timelapse, Distance-Lapse and Eased Timelapse modes, Triggertrap Mobile offers nine other triggering modes built in, including face recognition, a shock sensor, a motion sensor, a magnetometer, a sound sensor, automatic HDR bracketing with up to 19 exposures per set and configurable steps between each exposure, a HDR Timelapse mode and Star Trail photography mode. The full edition of the app costs $9.99 and there is also a free trial version available, with a reduced feature set.

TrueDoF-Pro is an advanced depth of field tool for iPhone and iPod Touch users. TrueDoF-Pro is available now from the App Store for $5.99.

The Rollei CT-5A is a new versatile aluminium tripod. Offering a maximum working height of 1.57m and weighing 1.7 kg including the tripod head, the CT-5A folds down to just 43cm and can be converted into a monopod. The Rollei Fotopro CT-5A has a 2 year guarantee and is now available for an RRP of EUR 249.95.

84.5mm is a new brand of camera lens filters. 84.5mm filters are universally compatible and extended to fit square holder filter type P “84 to 85 mm”. The first serial production series of 84.5 filters will be available worldwide from 28th of May 2012.

American photographer Mitch Dobrowner has been announced as the winner of the prestigious L’Iris d’Or - 2012 Sony WPO Photographer of the Year award. Dobrowner was presented with the award during the Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in London’s Park Lane for his extraordinary series of images, Storms. Over 112,000 images were entered into the 2012 competition from 171 countries – the largest number of entries to date. The Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year title was awarded to Tobias Bräuning for his innovative and striking image Dancing Queen, in the split second category, a new category this year.

From 6 July to 28 October 2012 one hundred photographs from the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest will go on display at the World Museum in Liverpool. The overall winner of the competition was Daniel Beltrá from Spain for his work Still life in oil, a striking image of eight brown pelicans rescued from an oil spill (above). Young Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner was Mateusz Piesiak from Poland with his work Pester power, a picture that depicts two American oyster-catchers on a beach on Long Island, New York. This will be the first time that the exhibition will be seen in the UK outside London.