News

Zeiss has announced more detail on two forthcoming lenses for Sony NEX and Fujifilm X-mount APS-C cameras -  the 12mm F2.8 and 32mm F1.8 lenses it unveiled at Photokina last year. The announcement came via the Zeiss blog, which went into detail on how they came to the name for the new series, 'Touit.' Pronounced like the English 'do it,' the new lenses are named after a Latin American band-tailed parrot, which Zeiss describes as 'small and agile,' much like mirrorless cameras are meant to be. Click for more on the new lenses.

The mobile food photography phenomenon has been cooking up alongside our affinity for our always-with-us smartphones. Foodies flock to tap, snap and share the trendiest new treats on the culinary circuit, their camera phones now making it possible to document nearly every morsel. But what apps are best for snapping and sharing food photography? We take a look at connect.dpreview.com. 

Canon has released a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark III with significant benefits for both stills and video shooters. Firmware version 1.2.1 allows uncompressed video output over the HDMI port as well as cross-type autofocus when working with a maximum aperture of F8. Click through for more details about the latest firmware and for the download link.

From pesky meerkats to ominous storms, the Guardian's award-winning picture team rounds up the most eye-catching images of the day

Jonny Weeks

Augmented reality glasses currently being tested by users, with novelist William Gibson impressed by groundbreaking device

You might expect that for a sci-fi novelist like William Gibson, a pair of voice-activated glasses able to connect to the internet and take photos or videos without needing you to use your hands would be nirvana.

Judging by his comments on trying Google's new Glass system, the author of the genre-defining 1984 novel Neuromancer thinks so – despite himself. "I … got to try Google Glass, if only for a few seconds," he tweeted recently, "Was faintly annoyed at just how interesting I found the experience."

Prototypes of the new devices – which can take pictures or videos of what the wearer is seeing, and display information in a small screen visible to them above their right eye – are now out for testing with about a thousand early users worldwide. Google has suggested they may go on sale some time next year.

Reactions have varied enormously. Robert Scoble, one of the first testers, who is famously enthusiastic about all new technologies, said after two weeks' testing "I will never live a day of my life from now on without it (or a competitor). It's that significant."

Others, who worry about being photographed or filmed without their consent, aren't so keen: one bar in Seattle has already banned them, even before they go on general sale. And now the first pictures have begun to emerge taken with Google Glass and then apparently posted automatically to Twitter with the hashtag #throughglass.

Among the first to appear was a photo taken by San Francisco-based Steve Lee, who works at Google X, the laboratory where the glasses were developed. He posted the hands-free pictures which were taken while driving.

Other testers – so far only at Google – have begun posting pictures on Twitter showing how the world looks viewed through their glasses – from children in a buggy to motorbike handles to an office.

Sophia Yang offered one of her office – which turns out to be Google, where she is working on the Glass project.

Sidney Chang, another Google staffer, showed that the system isn't perfect, capturing a perfect picture of the carpeted floor in the office.

Gibson, famous for his 1984 novel Neuromancer, for which he coined the word "cyberspace", said in a later tweet that "I'm more interested in people reacting to new technology than I am in new technology."

But he also had a warning for naysayers who have suggested that people won't be interested in wearing what is in effect a computer on their head. "Remember how positive so many people were that the iPad was the most ludicrous cock-up in Apple's history? Absolutely obviously."

Gibson also commented wryly "If I were Google, I wouldn't be the first person I'd think of giving Glass to. If I were, I'd kind of worry why!"

.

• Google Glass
• Google
• Augmented reality
• Computing
• William Gibson
• Internet
• Photography

Charles Arthur
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Orb the horse is the favourite for this year's Kentucky Derby and, apparently, a sucker for a good soak

Jonny Weeks

A photographic highlight selected by the picture desk. Sajid Hossain's distressing image of a worker buried beneath the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building

Ranjit Dhaliwal

Elliot Smith introduces some of the different types of sound you might encounter and gets some top tips from a sound industry veteran

Our next assignment in our video series this week is how to record sound

Elliot SmithGuardian readers

We've just posted our 15-page review of Fujifilm's X20 premium compact camera. This follow-up to the X10 adds a new X-Trans CMOS sensor, Hybrid AF system, and enhanced optical viewfinder, while retaining the fast lens, rangefinder-inspired body, and numerous manual controls of its predecessor. Is this the enthusiast compact camera you've been waiting for?  Follow the link to find out.

We've just posted our 15-page review of Fujifilm's X20 premium compact camera. This follow-up to the X10 adds a new X-Trans CMOS sensor, Hybrid AF system, and enhanced optical viewfinder, while retaining the fast lens, rangefinder-inspired body, and numerous manual controls of its predecessor. Is this the enthusiast compact camera you've been waiting for?  Follow the link to find out.

As part of our ongoing collaboration with DxOMark we've added more lenses to our test data comparison widget. These include a range of 70-200mm zooms from Canon, Nikon, Tamron and Sigma, and the Nikon-mount version of the Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM tested on both the D7000 and D800. Click through for links to view these lenses in our widget, and for the full data on DxOMark.

LensRentals' Roger Cicala has published an interesting comparison of the Zeiss ZE 135mm F2 APO-Sonnar and the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM lens, with both optics mounted on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. While you'd expect nothing less than excellent results from the Zeiss optic, just what advantages can the heavier and much more expensive lens offer compared to Canon's well-regarded prime lens? Click through to read Cicala's findings.

Gazi Nafis Ahmed's photographs of clothing factory workers in Bangladesh reveal some of the grinding poverty and ever-present dangers they face day after day

• Gallery: Bangladesh garment factories – in pictures

Khadija is cradling her 12-hour-old baby in her arms. All she wants, she tells photographer Gazi Nafis Ahmed, is for her daughter to have a better life than she has had: which means enough food, shelter, education and healthcare.

The garment factory worker is just one of countless men and women whose lives Ahmed has documented in the past four years for his poignant series of pictures, entitled Made in Bangladesh.

Although the fashion they create fills our high-street shops, Bangladeshi workers are among the lowest-paid in the industry anywhere in the world, and they often have to toil in terrifying conditions.

This week the country is reeling from the collapse of the Rana plaza – an eight-storey building in which garment workers were apparently forced to work despite warnings it was unsafe, had large cracks in its walls and the police had ordered that it should be evacuated. So far at least 377 people are thought to have died.

But the latest tragedy is just one in a long line of disasters that have claimed the lives of Bangladeshi clothing workers. In November last year 112 workers burned alive in a factory with no fire exits. In 2010 27 people died and more than 100 were injured in a fire in a factory that made clothes for high-street retailer Gap.

Yet Ahmed's work highlights the less eye-catching dangers, too. One picture shows the aftermath of a boiler explosion that injured six people, and another the grinding poverty that keeps six members of one family living in a bamboo hut. One woman, pictured staring bleakly at the camera, explains how she was forced to hide in the toilet for two days by her employers in case buyers who had come to inspect the factory she works in discovered she was pregnant. Later she was sacked instead of being given maternity pay.

• Bangladesh
• Fashion industry
• Photography

Homa Khaleeli
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Photographer Gazi Nafis Ahmed's four-year project documenting the lives of workers in Bangladesh's garment factories shows the poverty and danger they face day after day

Sarah Gilbert

A review of Wil Wardle's portfolio

Olympus has opened an exhibition that it's calling the "OM-D: Photography Playground" in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the Opernwerkstaetten gallery space, it's an installation of works by 12 artists and collectives that visitors are encouraged to explore, interact with, and photograph. It's open daily from 11am to 7pm until 24 May 2013, and entry is free. Visitors can also borrow an OM-D E-M5 during their visit, to try out the camera at no charge.

A photographic highlight selected by the picture desk. Menahem Kahana's well-observed image of an ultra-orthodox Jewish rite

Ranjit Dhaliwal

An underwater shot which makes use of parallel lines, strip-lighting and the curve from the fisheye lens to create a decidedly science fiction look

We invited you to share your photos of tall buildings – and you responded with hundreds taken from around the world. Here a few of our favourites

• These pictures were submitted via GuardianWitness, the home of user-generated content on the Guardian

The Shard in London, the Sydney Opera House, and the Hong Kong skyline are among the pictures in this selection of photographs of tall buildings from around the world.

• Architecture
• Photography

Guardian readers
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