The new LaCie 4TB Rugged SSD Pro5 Thunderbolt 5 External SSD is available for preorder at BHphoto.

Explora writes:

LaCie announced their latest high-speed storage drive with the new Rugged SSD Pro5! Featuring blazing-fast ransfer speeds and a unique reinforced form factor, the Rugged SSD Pro5 is a must-have travel accessory for photographers and videographers on the go.
Backed by Thunderbolt 5 technology, the Pro5 gives you ultra-fast read and write speeds up to 6700 and 5300 MB/s, respectively, when you enable the 50GB cache, enabling you to operate your workload with support for 6K and 8K resolution video files directly from the drive rather than moving information to and from your system. Otherwise, you get read speeds up to 5000 MB/s and write speeds up to 1800 MB/s, which is still sufficient for managing your data.

Built with at least 45% recycled materials, the Pro5 not only is environmentally sound, but also lends itself to the IP68 rating, making it resistant to both dust and water as well as drops from up to 9.8 feet. It can even withstand crushing from vehicles weight up to 2 tons! 

The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 comes in either 2TB or 4TB models, includes a 5-year limited warranty, and Rescue Data Recovery Services which helps recover any potential data loss in the event of a mechanical, accidental, or natural disaster. World-class data recovery experts attempt to make a recovery of your information which is then sent back to you in an encrypted storage device. Additionally, users get a one-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud.

As you know BCN collected the real sale data of nearly half the Japanese Store. And they now shared the BCN Awards with detailed market share for each category of electronics. Here are the market share data with the 2023 market share in parentheses.

Digital Cameras (Mirrorless)

1. Sony 35.8% (34%)
2. Canon 26% (28.3%)
3. Nikon 14.5% (Unknown, took over the third spot from OM Digital which had 12.5% in 2023)

Digital Cameras (fixed lens)

1. Canon 23.4% (22.6%)
2. Kodak 21.2% (20.7%)
3. Fujifilm 15.8% (18.1%)

Digital Cameras (SLR)

1. Canon 69.4% (77.1%)
2. Nikon 20.9% (17.1%)
3. Ricoh 9.7% (5.8%)

Lenses

1. Tamron 17.5% (15.4%)
2. Sigma 16.8% (17%)
3. Sony 15% (15.2%)

Digital Video Cameras

1. DJI 48.1% (wasn’t ranked in top three last year and took the world by storm)
2. Panasonic 23.8% (36.4%)
3. Sony 23.4% (38.7%)

Action Cameras

1. GoPro 34.3% (53.7%)
2. DJI 32.1% (15.9%)
3. Insta360 26.9% (18.1%)

What we learn from this:

1. Sony managed to increase the lead over Canon from 5.7 to 9,8 percent
2. Kodak really is nailing it with the compact cameras! Sony where are you?
3. DSLR…still on sale? :)
4. Tamron is again leading the sales…and that’s good news for Sony too because they have a 15% stake in the company
5. DJI took the video world by storm. Thank the Osmo 3 for that!
6. I am surprised to see GoPro still on top in the action camera department.

Sony massive cashback action will end soon on those pages at Fotokoch, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT, Amazon NL, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.

Here is a selection of the best deals (there are many more in reality!)

Cameras:

• 400€ off the Sony A7rV at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 300€ off the Sony A7IV at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 300€ off the Sony A7sIII at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 300€ off the Sony A9II at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES-IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 300€ off the Sony ZV-E1 at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 300€ off the Sony FX3 at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 200€ off the Sony FX30 at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.

Lenses:

• 100€ Sony 100-400mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 12-24mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 16-35mm G at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 135mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 14mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 200-600mm G at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 200€ Sony 20-70mm G at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 24mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 35mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 200€ Sony 70-200mm GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.
• 100€ Sony 50mm f/1.4 GM at Amazon DE–UK–FR–ES–IT, Fotokoch, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK.

Lexar announced the new GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A Card for Sony cameras:

• Lexar 1TB card for $549 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.
• Lexar 640GB card for $349 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama.

Key Features:

• Up to 1800MB/s read, 1650MB/s write speeds
• VPG400 Certified
• Engineered for Endurance
• Enables 8K RAW Video Storage
• Pairs with the CFexpress 4.0 Type A Card Reader
• Lexar Recovery Tool

You can order them at BHphoto, Amazon and ThinkTank store. Here is the full introduction video:

Europeans stores mark many “older” Sony models as “new”. This happened because the package now includes the Sony BC-TRW charger instead of the previous AC-UUE12 AC-USB adaptor. That’s it :)

The very large Japanese camera store Yodobashi has listed the 20 best-selling camera kits for the whole of 2024:

1. Sony α7C II Body
2. Sony α7C II Zoom Lens Kit
3. Canon EOS R50 Double Zoom Kit
4. Canon EOS R6 Mark II Body
5. Nikon Z8 Body
6. Sony A7 IV
7. Canon EOS R10 RF-S18-150 IS STM Lens Kit
8. Canon EOS R5 Body
9. Nikon Zfc 16-50 VR Lens Kit
10. Sony α7R V Body
11. Nikon Z50 Double Zoom Kit
12. Sony FX3 Body
13. Sony α7 IV Zoom Lens Kit
14. Nikon Zf 40mm f/2 (SE) Lens Kit
15. Sony α6700 High Magnification Zoom Lens Kit
16. Nikon Z30 Double Zoom Kit
17. Canon EOS R6 Mark II/RF24-105 L IS USM Lens Kit
18. Fujifilm X-T5 Body
19. Canon EOS R50/RF-S18-45 IS STM Lens Kit
20. Olympus PEN E-P7 EZ Double Zoom Kit