Photographer Jordan Matter helps out as a PDN product tester from time to time so we were pleased as punch to see his new book of photographs, Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday, debut on The New York Times‘ best seller list recently.

Matter’s images, which feature professional dancers performing in everyday situations across the United States, premiered on PDN’s Photo of the Day blog back in 2010 and then returned in March of this year. (See a few of his images below.)

Since then, the Dancers Among Us project has really taken off. Along with the book, the Internet has fallen in love with Matter’s joyful images. He was featured on Reddit in a Q&A with readers last week and several photography-related websites and blogs have run his images (often without his permission, it’s worth noting), turning the shots into the latest viral photo sensation.

Along with crediting PDN for helping him get his first early exposure of the project, Matter says the below marketing video created to promote Dancers Among Us has been successful at getting him and his work featured on the Today show and in The Washington Post.

Bravo Jordan!

© Jordan Matter

© Jordan Matter

© Jordan Matter

© Jordan Matter

© Jordan Matter

Canon has unveiled two new lenses tonight: the Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM lens and the Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM lens. Official announcements of the two lenses — which PDN was not given NDA (non-disclosure agreement) information on ahead of the official launch — occurred at 11pm EST. (Editor’s note: Canon just officially announced these two lenses. Official press release is after the jump.)

The 24-70mm f/4 lens will sell for approximately $1,500 and goes on sale in mid-December of this year.

The weatherproof lens features Canon’s new Hybrid IS Image Stabilizer to counteract handshake; and has a nine-blade circular aperture designed to produce natural-looking background blur (aka bokeh) when shot wide-open at f/4. The new 24-70mm f/4 lens will offer full-time manual autofocus and has a macro mode that can be accessed via the lens’ telephoto end.

The Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM lens will start shipping in early December 2012 for approximately $850. The lens is also expected to sell as part of a kit with the 20.2-megapixel, full-frame Canon EOS 6D digital SLR, which was announced at photokina.

An official press release on the two lens was just released. See it after the jump.

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The full-frame 20.2-megapixel Canon EOS 6D digital SLR won’t go on sale until November but we got a look at a very handy new free app that will let you connect the camera wirelessly to smartphones.

Canon’s Chuck Westfall demoed the app for us, which is called Canon EOS Remote, at PhotoPlus Expo this week. At the time of this writing, Canon EOS Remote was only available for Android smartphones but an iOS version for iPhones was on its way. (There was no word on whether an iPad or Android tablet version of the app was in the pipeline too but it seems likely.)

With the Canon 6D’s built-in WiFi turned on, the app lets you review images wirelessly from the DSLR’s SD memory card on your smartphone, rate them and even delete them right from your phone. You can also zap images from the 6D and save them on your Android or iOS smartphone at a reduced size.

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Fresh off the success of his popular CineSkates HD-DSLR dolly system from last year, inventor Justin Jensen of Cinetics was at PhotoPlus Expo this week showing off his latest product: CineMoco, which is a compact, motorized dolly and slider for shooting video and time-lapse photography.

Think of it as CineSkates with a brain.

Like CineSkates, CineMoco started as a Kickstarter project and easily blew past its pledge goal. The Kickstarter goal for CineMoco was $50,000 but, at the time of this writing (with just eight hours left in the Kickstarter campaign), the product had received nearly $103,000 in pledges.

While the appeal of CineSkates was it simplicity (three skate-like wheels that attach to a tripod to turn it into a dolly), the modular CineMoco system is a much more sophisticated product.

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Here’s an interesting new app for your iPhone launched at PhotoPlus Expo by none other than Kodak. Called the Kodak Professional Film app and available now for free from the iTunes store, the app helps photographers locate where they can buy their favorite (remaining) Kodak films and where they can get them developed.

The app also offers tips on how best to shoot certain types of Kodak films. Some of the film stocks supported by the Kodak app include BW400CN, Ektar 100, Portra 160, T-Max 400, Tri-X 400 and others.

Sadly for film (and film grain) lovers, one of the films not included in the app is Kodak T-Max P3200, which was discontinued by the company earlier this month.

News of the new app also comes on the heels of a Kodak announcement in August that the company plans to sell off its film and photo paper business in an effort to pull itself out of bankruptcy.

Despite the tough times for Kodak’s film business, the company attempted to put a positive spin on the app and on Kodak pro film at the PhotoPlus show.

“We wanted to give photographers of all levels a resource, literally right at their fingertips, that helps them find film and recommendations about how to maximize each film’s performance,” Dennis Olbrich, Eastman Kodak’s general manager of Film, Paper & Output Systems said in a statement.

“In addition, this app also provides information where customers can find film development services, so that no matter where photographers are, they can find a lab that uses Kodak Chemicals and Paper to bring their photography to life.”

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This might look like an blimp-sized underwater housing for your digital SLR but it’s designed to be used strictly above water.

It is a type of “blimp” though.

Called a Sound Blimp and available from AquaTech, it’s designed to make your DSLR a quieter shooter. Custom-cut from sound-dampening foam, the Sound Blimp fits snuggly over your camera like a padded case to muffle shutter sounds and other DSLR chatter.

According to AquaTech, independent tests show that noise is tamped down by approximately 97 percent with a Sound Blimp fitted around a DSLR.

AquaTech’s blimp is made from polyurethane so it’s relatively lightweight but designed to be tough. Controls on the blimp are constructed from stainless steel, hard-anodized aluminum and durable plastic.

Each blimp has an electronic AF Shutter Release, hand straps, and controls for back focus, play back, and for the main dial, so you can adjust aperture and shutter speed.

There are six different models to fit a range of Canon and Nikon DSLRs. All have tripod mounts with both 3/8 and 1/4-20 threads, a quick release clip with a safety latch. You can also add compatible lenses with the blimp thanks to AquaTech’s interchangeable front lens port system.

Potential uses for this stealthy system include when shooting at quiet locations such as movie sets, sound stages and theaters or in courtrooms. But we could also see it come in handy when photographing shy subjects such as wildlife, children or camera-phobic celebrities.

The price of an AquaTech Sound Blimp is $995 and optional lens tubes range in price from $195-$395.

Talk about head-turners! Check out this crazy rig we saw on display at the Pentax table at the PhotoPlus Expo Test Drive press preview event last night: it’s the massive HD PENTAX DA 560mm F5.6ED AW lens attached to the teeny tiny Pentax Q10 mirrorless compact system camera.

The K-mount-based HD PENTAX DA 560mm F5.6ED AW connects to the Q-mount-based Q10 via a special Pentax adapter ($249) released this month.

The adapter, called the Adapter Q for K-mount lenses, multiplies the focal length on the 12.4-megapixel Q10 by approximately 5.5x, turning the Pentax 560mm into an whopping 3080mm lens.

Of course this set-up will see little real world use. The Pentax 560mm lens, which retails for approximately, $7,000, is designed for wildlife and sports photography and matches more realistically with Pentax’ digital SLRs, including the recently announced 16.3MP Pentax K-5 II.

The 12.4-megapixel Q10, which uses a small 1/2.3″ (6.17 x 4.55 mm) CMOS image sensor, is aimed at consumers and is priced at $600.

The PhotoPlus Expo kicked off in New York City today and while most of the major camera announcements were made at the photokina show in Germany in September, there’s lots of smaller but no less important photo products debuting here at PPE 2012.

One product that caught our eye last night at the “Test Drive” PhotoPlus press preview was the TetherFly by CameraMator, which is a radio transmitter that helps you wirelessly beam images from your camera to an iPad, iPhone, Android device, or a Mac computer. Think of it as an EyeFi card with some power and versatility behind it.

First off though, unlike the EyeFi, TetherFly is not a card. It’s a small, pod-shaped device that fits on the hotshoe of your camera (or on an extension bar or tripod), and lets you transfer images from the CompactFlash (CF) or SD card in your digital SLR to your mobile device or Mac computer without wires.

The device is aimed at studio photographers or location shooters who might not want to break their flow by having to pull the card out of the DSLR to transfer images from the camera.

The CameraMator App, which you can download for free as part of TetherFly, will also give you access to your DSLR’s settings and controls (including being able to fire the shutter) remotely from your iPhone, iPad or Android device.

Along with viewing images remotely, you can tag or share your shots using “Direct Connect” or any accessible WiFi network.

There’s also a ControlLock Pro feature that lets you turn off some or all of the CameraMator App’s camera adjustment settings and shutter release functions so they don’t get changed by mistake. (This helps prevent a client from accidentally changing settings on a camera or tripping the shutter while reviewing shots on an iPad.)

The TetherFly by CameraMator sells for $319. More info here.

Nikon unveiled the new AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens this morning. The lens, which Nikon says is the company’s first with up to five stops of image stabilization, goes on sale in November for $1,399.95.

The new AF-S 70-200mm f/4G is the first NIKKOR lens to feature the third generation of Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) technology.

Nikon is hoping the lens will appeal to photographers who may have purchased the new Nikon D600, a lower priced full-frame digital SLR aimed at photo enthusiasts.

“It’s perfect for that user,” Steve Heiner, Nikon’s Senior Technical Manager, said during a pre-release press briefing with PDN. “It’s at almost half the price of the F/2.8 version (of the same focal length lens) but has similar weatherproofing and the build quality is on same level.”

Read more of this story here.

Nikon has officially taken the wraps off the new 14.2-megapixel Nikon 1 V2, the latest top-of-the-line model in its compact system camera line. The redesigned Nikon V2 looks almost completely different from its predecessor, the V1, resembling a stripped down DSLR except without, of course, the mirror box inside the camera, allowing it to be small and thin.

The V2 also features a bigger grip, a built-in flash, and a new Command Mode Dial.

The V2′s 14.2MP, CX-format (smaller than Micro Four Thirds but bigger than what’s in a point-and-shoot camera) CMOS sensor, is also new and the camera adds a new EXPEED 3A image processor, allowing it to shoot up to 15 frames per second with full autofocus tracking for moving subjects.

Nikon also introduced SB-N7, attachable speed light flash for the Nikon V2 this morning.

The Nikon 1 V2 camera with the 10-30mm kit lens goes on sale in late November 2012 for the $899. It’s available in black or white.

The SB-N7 flash goes on sale in January 2013 for $159.

Read more of this story here.