Angelbird was the first company to offer more “affordable” Type A cards for Sony. But now they officially discontinued their famous 1TB card. You can still find few cards in Stock at Amazon US and BHphoto. Angelbird did not unveil the reason for the abrupt production stop.

The “affordable” 1TB alternatives you can get now are the:

• Pergear Type A card sold by Amazon US (non certified but also the cheapest card)
• Exascend 1TB card sold by Amazon US and BHphoto (VPG 200 certified)

The more expensive 1TB and 2TB cards you can get are the:

• Sony 960GB card sold by Amazon US and BHphoto (VPG 200 certified)
• Sony 1920Gb sold by Amazon US and BHphoto  (VPG 200 certified)

Today Sony released the full Q3 financial report. The company as a whole is doing great and they made record sales in Q3. Sony shares nearly no info about how the camera business is doing. The only data you can find shows that in Q3 the “Still and Video Camera” sales did increase by 10,2% compared to last year.

Preorders for the new Laowa 10mm f/2.8 FE lens preorders will open on Feb 20. Price should be $799.

For me this means I have to wake up early and live blog at 2am my time :(

Sigma will announce those two new lenses:

• 500mm F5.6 DG DN OS | Sports
• 15mm F1.4 DG DN DIAGONAL FISHEYE| Art

Sigma 500mm f/5.6 specs:

• Lightweight lens…less than 1,5kg and so the lightest telephoto prime lens you can buy.
• Very fast AF on Sony A1 (lens has linear motor)
• The lens sharper than the Sony 200-600 G
• very low chromatic aberration
• Coming for Sony E and Leica L mount cameras
• Price just under $3,000
• Announcement on February 21.

I got confirmation that the lens will be priced just below the $3,000 mark.

Sigma 500mm f/5.6 specs:

• Lightweight lens…less than 1,5kg and so the lightest telephoto prime lens you can buy.
• Very fast AF on Sony A1 (lens has linear motor)
• The lens sharper than the Sony 200-600 G
• very low chromatic aberration
• Coming for Sony E and Leica L mount cameras
• Price just under $3,000
• Announcement on February 20/21.

Sigma announcement on Feb 20/21:

• 500mm F5.6 DG DN OS | Sports
• 15mm F1.4 DG DN DIAGONAL FISHEYE| Art

PetaPixel reports about a funny marketing battle between Canon and Sony. Lats week Canon USA claimed to be the number 1 in the mirrorless world. But Sony gave PetaPixel a call and told them this:

“This year, Sony received numerous #1 claims from the Circana/NPD agency, as we do every year,” Sony tells PetaPixel.

As noted, Sony cites Circana/NPD (it’s one company that used to go by just NPD), a private firm that tracks sales and sells that information to manufacturers. Canon’s data also comes from Circana. According to the data it received, Sony says it was number one in several categories last year, but says two are worth pointing out:

• Sony was the #1 full-frame mirrorless camera brand in 2023 (both dollars and units)
• Sony a7IV was the #1 full-frame camera in 2023 (both dollars and units).

My two cent: Maybe both are right. Canon is slightly ahead in the mirrorless world when it comes to APS-C+FF cameras while Sony is leading in the FF world?

Yodobashi released the official sales date for the second part of January:

Top 10 camera sales:

1. Sony α7C II body
2. Sony A9III
3. Sony α7 IV with kit lens
4. Sony α7C II with kit lens
5. Sony α7 IV body
6. Canon EOS R6 Mark II Body
7. Nikon Z 8
8. Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C
9. Sony α7R V body
10. Nikon ZFc with kit lens

Top 10 lens sales:

1. Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 Di III VXD G2 (E mount)
2. Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II
3. Canon RF 200-800mm
4. Tamron 28-200mm F/ 2.8-5.6 Di III RXD (E mount)
5. Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary (E mount)
6. Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
7. Canon RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM
8. Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S
9. Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
10. Tamron 35-150mm F/2-2.8 Di III VXD (E mount)