Are High Dynamic Range photos appropriate for illustrating news? That's the debate that's been started by the Washington Post's use of an HDR image on its front page in January. Sean Elliot, president of the National Press Photographers Association came down firmly against it, saying, 'HDR is not appropriate for documentary photojournalism.' John Omvik, Marketing VP with HDR software maker Unified Color understandably disagrees. He's written us a response arguing that what we see is closer to HDR than, say, a mono photo shot with Tri-X film.

MSNBC features a fine gallery of The Week in Pictures.

Kenko-Tokina has added the mirrors back into mirrorless with the launch of an ultra-compact Reflex 300mm F6.3 for Micro Four Thirds. This fixed-aperture, manual focus lens revives the catadioptric lens design that was especially popular in the 1970s and '80s for producing small high-magnification telephoto lenses. With a 55mm filter diameter and weight less than 300g, this is possibly the smallest lens of this type that's ever been made for stills cameras. The spec is rounded-off with a minimum focus of 0.8m and 0.5x maximum magnification, making the lens potentially interesting for chasing insects and the like, just as long as you can hold it steadily enough.

Kenko-Tokina will exhibit a mockup of a 70-200mm F4 telephoto zoom that features both a ring-type ultrasonic autofocus motor and optical image stabilization at the CP+ trade show in Japan. The AT-X Pro SD 70-200 F4 (IF) FX will be the company's first stabilized lens, and will likely be especially interesting to Nikon SLR users who currently have no option that's directly comparable to Canon's popular and highly-regarded 70-200mm F4 designs. Further details are limited, but the lens appears to feature both internal zoom and focus mechanisms, and has a usefully-close minimum focus distance of 1m. (via Megapixel.il)

Fujifilm USA has announced its recommended pricing for the X-Pro1 high-end mirrorless camera. The MSRP will be $1699 for the body and $599-$649 for the lenses, meaning you can expect it to create around a $2300 dent in your pocket if you want to be able to take pictures with it. Canadian prices will be dollar-for-dollar equivalents. Fujifilm UK meanwhile hasn't yet announced pricing, but one of the country's retailers is taking orders at £1429 for the body and £549-599 for the lenses, which gives a good idea of how much you'll need to scrape together.

Canon USA has posted EOS Utility 2.10.4 for Mac. The only stated change is compatibility with OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.x.

Alongside the announcement of the K-01 mirrorless camera, Pentax has updated its K-mount lens roadmap to include planned releases for 2012 and 2013. In a PDF document published on the company's website, it indicates that three lenses will be introduced during the course of this year - a 50mm 'standard' lens, a superzoom in the 18-200mm class, and a super telephoto in the 500-600mm range. Four zooms covering the full wideangle to telephoto range are projected to follow later, alongside a 1.4x teleconverter.  

Nevercenter has released CameraBag2 a standalone image editor and special effects application available in versions for Windows and Mac. CameraBag 2 includes processing tools such as cropping and a curves editor as well as more than 100 styles and effects filters.

Pentax has formally announced the K-01 K-mount mirrorless interchangable lens camera and a revised 40mm F2.8 pancake lens to match. Built around a 16MP APS-C sensor, the camera can mount most of the lenses the company has ever made. It features sensor-shift image stabilization, a 920k dot rear LCD and can shoot at up to 6 frames per second. The rather interesting design is the work of respected product designer Marc Newson and features a logo of his signature on the base of the camera. The K-01 (which the company says should be pronounced 'kay-zero-one'), will cost around $749 body-only and $899 with the 'XS' version of the 40mm lens.

Ricoh has released a 24-85mm equivalent F3.5-5.5 zoom module with a 16MP APS-C sensor for its GXR system. The latest camera unit offers a flexible focal length range that starts slightly wider than the average kit zoom, without making the camera excessively large. It's the first GXR module to be built around a 16MP sensor. Announced back in November, it is the first zoom module for the system to offer APS-C image quality. If our suspicions are correct and it uses the excellent Sony 16MP sensor, this promises a lot both in terms of image quality and focus speed (the faster readout of the sensor helps contrast-detection systems to more quickly ascertain correct focus).

Hipstamatic, an iOS app which mimics the look of classic 'toy' cameras is one of the most sucessful photography apps on the market. The latest variant, Disposable Hipstamatic, also builds on the appeal of the unpredictability of 'toy' cameras but includes built-in Facebook integration with a unique twist. Joanne Carter of theappwhisperer.com takes a closer look.

Nikon has updated its photographer-friendly P series with the Coolpix P510 and P310. The P510 gains GPS and an extended zoom, now reaching from 24-1000mm equivalent. This 42x range is likely to be quite a challenge for its VR image stabilization system, so we'll be interested to see how it performs. The P310 is a more subtle upgrade of the P300. Like the P510 it gains a 920k dot LCD and moves to using a 16MP back-lit CMOS sensor, with all the high-speed, multi-shot image processing modes it enables. More than any of the technology changes, we're most interested to see the addition of a 'Fn' button on the front - if this can be set to control useful functions, it may improve the handling of an already pleasant-to-use camera.

Nikon has refreshed its line of S series style compact cameras, which ranges from $140 6x zoom models through to bells-and-whistles-including 18x compact superzoom. The range is topped by the S9300 which offers that 18x, 25mm-450mm equiv. stabilized lens, 16MP back-lit CMOS sensor, 1080p30 with stereo sound recording and built-in GPS. The S6300 is a slim, 10x 25-250mm equiv camera built around the same sensor. The S4300 and S3300 are more modest, CCD-based affairs with 6x, 26-156mm equivalent zooms.

Nikon has updated several of its simpler compacts with the launches of the Coolpix L810, L26 and S30. The L810 is a mid level 26x superzoom with a 920k dot LCD and 23-585mm equiv zoom. A 16MP CCD helps keep the cost down to around $279.95 but also means the L810 can only capture 720p video. Meanwhile the S60 is a shock- and water-proof 10MP camera with 3x, 29-87mm equiv lens. Finally, the L26 is a pretty standard AA-powered entry-level camera with a 16MP CCD and 26-130mm equiv stabilized lens.

Four full-size images from the Fujifilm X-Pro1 have been released by the two photographers commissioned to shoot with the camera (apparently using a pre-production unit). Australian photojournalist Michael Coyne and landscape photographer Christian Fletcher are shooting with the camera and have published four images taken with the 18mm lens, alongside a video explaining their first impressions. All the images, shot at a range of ISO settings, have been passed through Photoshop, according to the EXIF, but are said to be unprocessed. (via PetaPixel) Following a request from Christian Fletcher, we've removed links to the images.

Apple has updated Final Cut Pro X, its high-end video editing package, to v10.0.3 with the ability to import projects from Final Cut Pro 7. The upgrade includes several pro-level options, such as multi-camera syncing, that were not included when the first release replaced the more expensive and complex Final Cut Pro 7. Initially its different way of handling clips made look like Apple wouldn't be able to get Pro 7 projects to work in Pro X but a $9.99 Apple app called 7toX has found an xml-mediated method of doing so.

The war on terrorism has become the war on photography, says National Press Photographers Association general counsel Mickey Osterreicher, as quoted on the web site of the (U.S.) National Press Club. In a presentation to Press Club members, Osterreicher detailed what he says is increasing repression and obstruction of photographers, both amateur and professinal, by police in the U.S. using what he refers to as a "catch-and-release" program.

Accessories manufacturer Holdfast has developed a harness designed to hold two or three DSLR cameras in position for immediate use. The harness is intended for wedding photographers, photojournalists, and other shooters who like to work with two or three cameras essentially simultaneously.

The Big Picture from The Boston Globe features an interesting gallery on Coal.

Nikon plans to develop 'brighter lenses for better total performance' from its 1 system, says Tetsuya Yamamoto, General Manager of Nikon’s Development Headquarters, Imaging Division. In an interview at this year’s International CES show in Las Vegas, he talked to us about some of the functions the company hopes to enhance on future models and offered some surprising news about the CX sensor's video capabilities.