Wonderful pics, wonderful colors.
My first take on the robin was, "That's no robin!" Then I thought, "Hmm, wonder if the poster is from England." We have good friends, also from Lancashire, have visited them and noted that many common birds in the UK, like the robin, are unrecognizable to us colonists. So I looked it up on Google and there it was: your robin, posted at a British site.

You can right-click on a Mac by holding Cntl down while clicking. Or with a two-fingered tap/click on the trackpad of a laptop.
If you haven't already, you might have to go into Preferences and enable right click gestures.

Thanks for the kind comment.
The problem could be with the lens focussing speed, not the camera. I have shot thousands of BIF with the a77 and Sony 70-400 lens, version 1. At first I thought it was my technique but as I practiced and adjusted and still had lots of not-quite-in focus photos, I decided it was the lens. I thought about trading up for the version 2 of the lens which is supposed to be faster focussing...but then decided on this camera instead. The phase-detect autofocus is astonishingly fast and accurate.

I don't usually use UV. I do have and use a B&W polarizer, 77mm that I step down to 72 for this camera.

Here are a couple of BIF, as good as any I have been able to get with my Sony a77ii. The focussing is so fast on the R10iv. I love the shadows on the body in the second photo. Also included, a shot taken as we were leaving St. Malo (France) on the ferry to Portsmouth, highly processed of an otherwise drab photo on a drab day.

Black-headed gull


Wood Pigeon, nest-building


Leaving St. Malo, midmorning

I bought the camera recently for a European trip with the idea of returning it within the 30 trial period if I was not happy. I was happy happy happy within the first dozen pics. I could not believe it. Sony/Zeiss hit some kind of sweet spot.

I'm guessing that if someone suggested a person might be lying, it would "strike a nerve" for pretty much anyone. But I would call it "defending one's honor."

Best time is after midnight. That's when you are on the "front" of the Earth as it moves thru space. That's where the Earth runs into meteoroids like a car running into raindrops or bugs on its front windshield. You don't get many bugs or raindrops splattered on your rear window, which is moving away from bugs and drops. Same with meteors. Aim your camera toward the NE because that's where Perseus is.

I've not used MERGE in LR but I had an instance when I thought I needed to merge two catalogs so I looked up how to do it and what it does. My understanding is that it pretty much does what it sounds like: e.g., if you had two lists of names with some duplicates, you might want to merge the two lists so no name was listed twice...same thing with merging catalogs: all edits in the two catalogs will be in the merged catalog but no duplications. At least that's my understanding.

I hope I never have the problem, but if so, my plan is to merge the backup catalog file with the current one.

If I have deleted photos from the catalog, by intent or accidentally, and later discover that I want/need the editing, I can go back and get it. The current catalog will not contain the editing info because the catalog is in fact not cumulative: that term means that it contains everything that it has ever contained, but it does not if you have removed any photos from the catalog. There have been times when I thought I had lost a lot of editing and that's when I decided on my current plan. It is quick and easy to do and does not produce a storage problem. But Canon, my Man, I hope you will feel free to do whatever you want.

My worst fears realized: I'm nobody.

FWIW I keep daily backups for the past week, weekly backups for the past month, monthly backups for the past year, yearly backups for the past ever.

I have looked for it numerous times, never seen it. But on a cross-Atlantic cruise in May I decided this is why we have continuous mode in cameras. I put the camera is slow repeat and fired away as the Sun was close to disappearing. It took a couple of sunsets before success, but here are some pics from the second attempt.

I took these from my balcony on about Deck 5. A friend -also an astronomer - was trying to photograph from the uppermost deck (12?). I was successful, he was not. I'm not sure whether one can draw a lesson from this about being closer to water level being better, but is makes a little sense. It clearly is easier to photograph than to see visually.

If you've ever thought (as one example), "Boy! I sure wish I could retrieve some details in those shadows or in those blown highlights," then RAW is for you. If not, not.