Many thanks. I greatly admire your work, so your praise is doubly meaningful.

Many thanks.

Marbled Godwit at Monterey Aquarium

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I have the TG-5 and found it good quality, durable, waterproof. Useful Macro and Micro. Only drawback for outdoor activity is that it lacks an Electronic View Finder. Difficult to visualize image on LCD screen in bright light.

Hi John,
Nice article on crop vs. full frame, and use of Teleconverters. It prompted me to try to figure out if there was a similarly speedy way to go from crop <--> FF on a SONY A7R4. After a hundred more readings of the SONY manual (the manual is dreadful), I realized that it is simple to assign a "Custom Key" to that function (I chose C3). Wow! I can just press C3 and it instantly goes from Crop <--> Full frame. Increases flexibility when birds get really close and start to overfill the crop mode with a big telephoto.
Many thanks.
Great photos.
Harvey

Be prepared for major advances with greatly reduced noise with the next generation of image sensors. Canon just announced the development of a SPAD (single photon avalanche detector) image sensor. It is virtually noise-free. It may eventually replace the CMOS chips. At present it is only 1 megapixel, but that was where CMOS started 20 years ago. But you will be able to take many more beautiful images with your new camera before that happens.
Gorgeous photos.

I had a somewhat similar experience using a Tamron 100-400 (Canon mount with the SIgma adapter for Canon-> SONY E mount) on my SONY A6500 and then briefly on my A7R4. I would even turn off the camera, and it would occasionally continue to sound like the focusing motor was running. I brought it to the dealer from whom I bought it, they sent it back to Tamron and Tamron service seem to have fixed the problem. It no longer happens. THey also improved the focus accuracy (which was generally pretty good even before the repair) and cleaned the internal parts, according to the invoice. Tamron has a 6 year warranty. There was no charge other than the cost of shipping it to Tamron. It took about a month before I got it back (that was during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic).

Lovely, delicate photos. If you are not already using such accessories, you might consider getting a good remote Bluetooth controller for focus and shutter release. Another item that I am considering is a separate and larger screen for composition and focusing, using an HDMI cable, or a tether to a small 6" or 7" screen. That may help viewing the image without having to adjust the screen at difficult angles of view. The larger screen may also help with your oculomotor instability. These are both items that are easily integrated with the new mirrorless cameras, such as the Canon R5, SONY, etc. Canon also has some excellent new low weight telephoto lenses that are also surprisingly reasonably priced.
I have managed to make a variety of adaptations consequent to my age (86) and Parkinson's Disease. I am determined to keep trying to pursue my lifetime passion for photography despite these limitations, so can readily sympathize with your efforts.

The birds make it look so easy!
Gorgeous photos captured the excitement of flight.

Sadly, I have to agree with you. I have a SONY A7R4, and have some really weird results when photographing hummingbirds. Even when using a variety of shutter speeds (1/800 to 1/4000), I sometimes get detached images of parts of their wings. The other instance is reported when shooting a golf swing results in a curved golf club. It is made worse in silent shutter mode. Because of the demands of the golfers, photographers are increasingly required to shoot in silent mode. This "curving golf clubs" is supposed to have been corrected in the new, and extremely pricey, A1. The forthcoming Canon 1 reportedly has a "global shutter" that claims to solve the problem.

When listing used A7 series cameras, the seller will usually list the shutter count. That is intended to demonstrate the extent of use. Since the shutter is one of the few items that wears out, and replacement is expensive, it is a vital bit of information. If most of the shooting was done in Silent Shutter mode, the camera may be heavily used, but still has a low shutter count. Certain configurations require a mechanical shutter. I think flash requires use of mechanical shutter, a camera that has been used extensively for wedding photography may have a high count. However, the more recent SONY cameras with High Speed Synch may work differently.

My understanding is that on the mirrorless cameras such as the various SONY models, shutter counts tally the number of mechanical shutter uses. Electronic shutter usage does not add to the tally. There is free software on the internet that reads the EXIF file and provides the number of shutter counts at the time the photo was taken. To get an up to date count, read the EXIF file on your most recent photo. (https://www.camerashuttercount.com/)
Shutter count has nothing to do with your post-session discarding of the resulting photo.
Many of the latest generation of SONY A7 (and A1) series are said to be good for about 400,000-500,000 shutter counts. But this only pertains to mechanical shutter activations. If you do a lot photos of e.g., birds in flight, with rates at 10-30 frames/second, you may find yourself shooting 400-800 pictures per day. That is one of the reasons many people recommend using silent (electronic) shutter. With birds in flight, the noise of a mechanical shutter may frighten off the birds, another reason for using a mirrorless in silent mode.

Oops! Sorry I didn't upload correctly. Let me try again.

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You make an excellent point about seeking an interesting artistic representation, not necessarily "sharpness" at the expense of all other values.
I have attached two photos of swallows. Both taken with SONY A7R4. One is a young fledgling in static position with good light and crisp focus, using SONY 200-600 mm, 1/2000, f 6.3, ISO 800.
The second was taken last night at dusk, same A7R4, but with a low cost SONY 18-135 at f 6.3. Adult swallow in rapid flight, barely able to track through viewfinder. Poor light, very fast shutter speed (1/2500), ISO of 6000. Very noisy. Image was almost totally black. Minimal processing in LightRoom, mostly boosting Exposure to 4.4, and minimal noise reduction of luminance by 11. But the noise added an interesting texture to the photo. As a Neuro-ornithologist, it's not great IQ, but sort of intriguing. Download to see texture.

The 200-600 SONY is an excellent lens. Good photos. To correct for slight softness and highlights:
What was your shutter speed, aperture and ISO? Were you using a tripod? Gimbal? If not, and you shot free hand, then your results are very impressive.
For egrets in flight, suggest you use manual mode, at least 1/2500, f 8.0 to f 11, and let the ISO use automatic up to 1600 (or more, if necessary). To avoid blown out highlights, which causes loss of feather detail in white birds, such as egrets, best to underexpose, save in RAW and correct in post processing.