Canon have announced a new prime lens - the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. I believe it's Canon's first pancake lens, and it'll work on full-frame and crop DSLR bodies.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens

With 7 aperture blades, the bokeh should be a nicer than that of the 5-bladed Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens and the 5-bladed Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 lens.
At about USD$199, it seems to be well priced, and is now available for pre-order from B&H.



GoPro's much anticipated Wifi BacPac is now available, with various people reporting that they have received theirs.
The Wifi BacPac is available by itself, requiring the use of an app on your iPhone or Android phone or tablet to connect and control it. The Wifi BacPac is also available with a wifi remote control that is capable of controlling up to 50 remote GoPro cameras equipped with the Wifi BacPac.

The BacPac provides remote wireless connectivity and control over a GoPro Hero camera. Note that you need to update the firmware in your GoPro cameras before they will work with the BacPac. I have heard a few people complain that the firmware upgrade procedure is painful, so be sure to read all the information available on GoPro's website before attempting to upgrade your firmware.
B&H don't have any in stock yet, but are taking pre-orders.

According to GoPro's website, the Wifi BacPac cannot be shipped to Australia yet, as final certification has not yet been achieved.



There seems to be an on-going memory card price war, as various vendors regularly provide good discounts. B&H are once again running some specials on selected SanDisk memory cards.



The D-Photo Inspiration Fix regularly post a set of photos from different photographers, with some great photos being posted.
Some of my recent favourite sets they have posted recently include:

• Creative photography by Christopher Wesser
• Creative photography by Kevin van der Leek
• Documentary & people photography by Khalid Aziz
• Beautiful child & family photography by Angela Lumsden
• Beautiful landscape photography by Michael Breitung
• Amazing urban photography by Niki Feijen
• Amazing landscape photography by Andreas Wonisch
• Landscape photography inspiration from Tomas Suarez
• Landscape photography inspiration from Kenneth Barker

Note that some of the other sets linked by the D-Photo are NSFW.

I thought I'd also share some great collections of triptychs and diptychs that I've come across on flickr in recent months.


This is a collection of triptychs of strangers, titled, not surprisingly, "Triptychs of Strangers". The three frames of the triptych covering the stranger's head, hands and their feet.


An interesting collection of diptychs titled "Persona", with the first frame showing the person, and the second frame showing what they are carrying in their bag and pockets.