PolarPro announced the new Defender Body cap you can buy now at BHphoto (Click here) and at Amazon (should be listed soon). It has a secret storage for Airtag or SD card or CFexpress card. I would have ZERO doubts that it would be best to store your own Apple Airtag (here on discount at Amazon). It’s your best chance to find your camera if you get robbed!

This is how it works:

The second option to keep track of your camera is to buy this Quick Release Plate for AirTag from Smallrig (here on Amazon). I kind of prefer this solution because I usually have a lens on the camera.

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?