Help support me and what I do: ko-fi.com/marksmithphotography

I think we have to keep in mind that Mark is an incredibly talented and highly experienced BIF photographer who knows how to choose times and areas when birds highly populate the scenes he is shooting. As such, he generously shares his techniques for success. (BIF photography is NOT EASY, I don't care what anybody says) - I like that he explained how he was shooting in short bursts of 5-6 frames at a time in order to keep the BIF framed. This is Mark helping others understand his technique with the A7RIV - a very important detail. Important to know the equipment's strengths and limitations and to work within those parameters. As always, it's entertaining to listen to Mark's take on equipment and shooting circumstances. Thanks, Mark.

What a real pleasure to watch someone actually take photos with the camera and show what it can do. Rather than just standing waffling on about the specs.😊

Mark, you've made me very excited for the A7RIV!! I LOVED those Turnstone photos. Incredible detail 😍

Your passion for wildlife makes your videos enthralling. Absolutely stunning images but the narration makes them so much better

You have answered my question with this video: The a7RIV with the 100-400 GM is a killer combo. No need for me to consider the a9 any longer, especially with the ergonomics upgrade of the a7R4 body. Thanks for another great video!

Most of your videos are entertaining while all of them are good and informative. You are amongst my favorites to follow for bird photography.

Stunning detail. Resolution and color saturation are the best I have ever seen on a full format sensor. Photos look like they were taken by a large format (8X10) camera.

You are a great photographer and a story teller.

Got mine a few days ago. Totally in love with the pictures coming out of this camera.

I love watching your subscriber count continue to climb and there’s a good reason for that too. Well done Mark!

Took mine out for the first time today with an 85mm and I’m in love. Quite amazing pics.

The detail on the snaps is simply mind blowing! I didn’t even need my reading glasses to view the details on the snaps churned out by this monster camera. Sony is literally crushing the game right now!!

To be honest I’m not really into wildlife photography, but your enthusiasm and video content keep me hooked on your videos! Keep up the good work!

Wow, amazing shots with the camera/lens combo!

Thanks Mark for the video, just getting into bird photography myself.

Really nice review, Mark. you've captured well the resolution advantages and autofocus capability of this amazing camera. I'm loving my A7R4!

Best photography channel Mark. Such a treat to see a new post!! Jim

Spectacular Images. Love the hi res Detail. Thx

Once again some incredible images

Excellent review and images as always Mark, thanks for sharing 👍

Once again some stunning images, but it dose show that the cameras may be great but the person behind it is in control. Just love your work and style. Thank you.

Great video and a Brilliant selection of Photos Mark. My favourite of the a7r iv videos to date. 👍🏻

Fabulous Mark + fabulous camera = incredible images! Some youtubers struggled shooting birds with this camera ;-) Your skills are outstanding. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Homed in to what we all want to know. You are so down-to-earth and forget-the-other-stuff. Thanks so much.

MARK- I just got my D500 today (November 27- 2019)It's all because of you Mark! You on your videos have praised the D500 over the years! I photograph birds and High School sports. Randy B.

As always, lovely images!

Wow that detail is amazing ! Great captures as usual 👍👌😀🍿

Great photography as always Mark! That Sony A7R4 looks like a really nice compact & ergonomic camera. Thanks for the brief look............. :)

You are the man Mark. What a fabulous Camera.

You create beautiful work, Mark!

Well done Mark, beautiful video as always

Great. Thanks Mark. Terrific osprey over moon vid.

Good to hear about the auto focus performing so well even in low contrast situations. I look forward to seeing a comparison with the 200-600mm on the camera, and some stress testing of the a6600 too! It was great to see lots of wonderful shots of the Osprey to start my day. Keep them coming! The winter migrants have started to arrive in India. I hope to see one this Sunday.

AS always awesome photography and a really great video!

Nice work! The a7RIV is amazing so far...

Great video. You are the master of sharp, detailed images.

Hugely impressed by your narration

mark smith wonderful video of sony a7r4, iam a nikon shooter for the past 35 years from film days to digital, now iam thinking of switching to over to sony A9 and A7r4 for mirrorless system.thanks for your advice and good info

Great review! I really enjoyed it! Thanks so much

The resolution is so good!

Saw you guest with Steve, Owling in the Tetons. So I subscribed to take a look. This video was AWESOME! That close up of the Egret was stunning!!!

Your videos are very entertaining. You do a great job of voice over integrating in with the always super video and still shots.

You Are a Joy and Absolute Pleasure with all of Resourcefulness to more Photographers than you can Imagine.... A Longtime Student and Professional Photographer.... Thank You for your Excellence....

Another great video Mark!

Thank you sir for this video. I love your videos very much. And the camera is really a beast. Never seen those details of osprey or even the chuckle of pelican. Really awesome.

Beautiful footage and your commentary is great ..as usual!! 😉👍

Wow those photos are 🖼 ART

Mark again another awesome video glad you went for a real life test than just blah blah about the specs. For those of us either trying to go with something lighter this the video to watch. Awesome photos of the Ospreys and well narrated as always. Thanks for sharing.

Can't wait till you get it on the 200-600mm just as I thought this camera would be fantastic great job as always👍👌👏👏

Even the fish 🐠 Enjoying last movements in the clouds.

Also wanted to say, Mark, that you are one of the few reviewers who has pointed out that the colors coming from the A7RIV are much improved. I noticed that also and...whoo-hoo! Great improvement!

I enjoy you photography very much very entertaining. Thank you.

Wow the photos are fantastic .the a7r4 looks an amazing camera .can't wait to get back to the inlet next may

Hi Mark Hopefully you can do a setup guide on the A7R4 I used your a9 one to get me in the ball park with this camera ,you explain things very well . Great work Rob.

These IQ shots mama mia🔥🔥🔥📷👌

Another brilliant video.

Mark, we share a love of the Osprey. From my first shot of an Osprey hitting the water in the Potomac river and coming up with a nice size fish I was hooked. I had a cheaper camera (Nikon-D5300) and was actually shooting at the time in Auto Mode, but the shot hooked me and started my obsession with shooting Raptors, and birding in general. I was lucky enough to witness and shoot another series of shots with a diving Osprey landing into the turbulent waters below Great Falls Virginia and coming up with a large fish he couldn't fly with because it was so large. He just held on and drug it down the river through the current and made shore to eat his catch. I bought a better camera Nikon D-500, and a long lens Sigma 60-600. I am learning and enjoying my new found birding photography and your videos are a great help. Thanks...

Thanks Mark. I just ordered my new body. I switched to Sony a few years ago but kept using my Nikon D810 for bird photography until the a7RIII arrived. I am happy to see the lock button on the exposure compensation as this is high on my list of complaints with the 2 and 3. I am looking forward to seeing more of your work with this new camera.

Thanks for a very informative video. Particularly wonderful to include such amazing shots of one of my favourite birds. If you can add a bit of detail about which AF options you use that would be very helpful.

Mark, Great work as usual and so so much better then the You Tubers that talk the talk but simply can't walk the walk. I'm still waiting for my A7R4, but really appreciate the case you make for the higher pixel count and the easy crop feature on this body. I am a wildlife shooter and especially for flyers, we are always cropping. Being able to crop in so much and the image hold up is a real luxury. I think this makes the case for A9 vs A7R4 an easier call. You have both bodies so you know the difference and I know how darn good you are with the D850. Pixels count! Thanks for sharing your amazing images and storytelling that really brings everything to life. Keep them coming. You are in a class by yourself and your readers love you for good reason. Geez those Osprey shots are incredible. It is so hard to do and you make it look sooooo easy. You got skills man!!!

Hey Mark, just found your channel and I'm loving your work with the beautiful Ospreys. One of my favorite features of the Osprey is after they leave the water and pause the climb out for a water shake-off stunt. I wonder if that can be captured and what it might look like.

Awsome video from you again!

Wonderful!!

i love these pictures. I recently purchased a sony a6400 that i will try when we go to New Symrna beach

Another great video with entertainment and education. Thanks

I really wish one day that I could be able to use such impressive looking equipment and be in the right location . I always love to see your images and video footage Mark. These images really were something else , even on the TV via the video you could see all the details. I can only imagine how wonderful these look when printed out :D Thanks for sharing :D Teddy

First time watching your video. You got a new sub and a talkative commenter brother. Keep up the good work! I enjoyed your commentary.

Awesome video, my first time to watch you, your passion for what you do is really eveident, so is the quality of your images. Subscibed and thanks for creating this, have a great day :)

Thank you Mark. This is the video we have been waiting and hoping for. I, Bill, shoot with the Nikon D850. Deb shoots with a Canon 7D Mark II but has been wanting a full frame camera. I, Bill, have been asking her to wait until we see your input on this Sony A7R4 hoping you would test it. Now that it has happened we will most likely add Sony to our camera gear. Oh, almost forgot, we were a little surprised to hear your comments about the Sony 200-600mm lens compared to the Sony 100-400 lens. We thought sure the new 200-600 would have been superior but life is full of surprises, isn't it ?? Thank you again. Bill & Deb

Excellent review!

Great video and commentary. Mark, are you going to publish your settings for BIF with the A7RIV?

Thanks Mark, you are the best. loving my A7RIV and 200-600mm lens. Don't have the 100-400mm. Cheers.

Great Video as always..

Amazing as always. Love your storytelling. Can’t get enough of it. Pls may I ask which AF mode and other settings you used for the Osprey at around 6:09?

You rock Mark. Greetings from Costa Rica

We had been waiting for such a video, thanks for making it! When you said at 0:37 "then I'm in for a real treat", I was thinking "actually, WE are in for a real treat!" :) I can tell you're a serious pro when you said you configured a button to switch between FF and APS-C mode, I think that's the best thing about that camera, it's like having 2 cameras on you. This camera + the 100-400gm seems like a nice and compact combo, with a 600mm range ... not bad!

Awesome video and what an amazing camera that A7R4 seems to be, wow. One does wonder how or perhaps even why an A9II could/would top this one, it seems to me that a Sports Photographer could do very well with this camera, it clearly does the job with wildlife.

Hi Mark. Love your work. Do you plan to add a video on how to setup this amazing camera for bird photography as you did with the D500 and D850? Thank you a lot for all your advice.

Received my A7RIV recently ... and it's simply an incredible camera. I used a 24-70 f/2.8 GM to test it. The amount of detail in 61 MP images is utterly stunning. As good as the A7RIII is, the A7RIV bests it, easily, and the ergonomic advances made upgrading worthwhile to me. The programmable buttons are still there (outstanding feature). That said, it still has a terribly outdated menu system. Yep, it has the "My Menu" option which helps quite a bit, but no fully functional LCD screen in 2019? The Wi-Fi function is horrible. No other way to describe it. I spent nearly two hours trying to get the camera to send a photo to my iPhone X, and eventually gave up. Use an SD card reader - trust me. Don't get me wrong, I love this camera, it's a "keeper". But for a camera this great to be saddled with this operational firmware is just terrible. Many of the A7RIV's issues could be solved with a firmware update. Hope springs eternal it happens. A couple lines of code to permit Small RAW (20MP) and Medium RAW (40MP) image capture would be welcome.

Wow mark. Another great video! This is what I needed to confirm what I already suspected as I was wondering how the AF would perform on birds. So, no more doubts about that. Are you able to tell which AF settings you used to capture these amazing birds? Would the A7R IV be good for capturing small birds in flight in terms of being able to acquire focus and track them? In the mean-time, I love your videos. Keep up the good work!

Just wow! I do wonder, though, how many people will be disappointed, because they just don't have your level of skill and so won't get such stunning results!

Another great video, thanks Mark! I have the 200-600 and the a7r2. Was going to get the A9 and now this. Then of course, we have the rumored a92 next month. As you said, it’s a great time to be a photographer! Really shocked at the AF tracking performance.

Thanks for putting together this video. I follow your setup for a9 and use it as a basic template for the 7RIV. I am wondering how you set up a custom button for going from full to crop mode? Did you setup a Custom Button to Toggle between the two and if so which button did you sacrifice from the a9. Thanks again. David

Brilliant video. Helped me make up my mind whether to go for the R4 over the R3. Was concerned the autofocus tracking for wildlife wasn't good enough so was thinking of replacing my broken R2 with an R3 and picking up a used A73 for wildlife. Those Osprey shots are truly awesome - especially the burst sequence. Question. What's the autofocus like with the 200-600mm? You mention in your video the 100-400mm works better. Can you explain why?

Great blog as always. Have they fixed the lag when waking up the camera. My concern with the previous models was the I-2 sec delay before the camera can shoot from standby

Boss YOUR the best

Thanks for the review Mark 👍 would love to see what you got with 200-600 on it..

Top job Mark. I have been waiting for someone to test the A7RIV out on birds in flight: and who better than you. I may well part exchange my A7III for an A7RIV so it's good to know the AF can keep up with my A9. Thanks a lot.

I NEED IT!!!!

This answered so many of my questions about the A7iv for bird photography. Thank you! Also, how is the video on it for capturing birds?

Amazing pics! Please let us know about the picture quality between a7r4 vs Nikon d850. What combination of lenses would you prefer with this new a7r4 for bird and other wildlife photography?

Great video as always. Id be interested in high ISO performance in the real world... what's your take at 6,400 for example?

Hallo Mark, again a great Video from you, highly recommended for everery wildlife shooter who works with or think about sony gear !! i have two questions to you: 1. With witch Af Settings did you work here to catch the moving subjects, you ,ust make a setting guide in the futre (my A9 has the same settings like in your video) ? and 2. where did you get so much of this wonderfull opsrey so near in florida, with only 400mm, often less ?? Greetings from Germany Eric

Nice pics awesome work

Mark, Congrats! Another fantastic video and some solid feedback on one of Sony's latest offerings. I'm sure a lot of photographers were waiting to get your take on the Sony's 200-600, its performance with the A9 and the A7R4. If a photographer was considering purchasing the Sony 200-600mm zoom, would you recommend teaming the A9 with it over the A7R4 or do you think the slight difference in your results might be the quirk of an individual piece of gear?

I love your video man. I'll going to purchase the A7RIV by next year.

How do you recommend configuring the a7r4 for bird photography (including BIF)?

Always enjoy your videos. 26+ megapixels make the A7riv the most detailed crop sensor available. Debating A7riv or A9ii. Leaning toward the megapixels. Also, where is that osprey location on your Florida locations map? Thanks again!

Kudos! I'm a 7R3 / 1.4x with 100-400 all Sony. I shoot around Viera to the inlet & around Orlando and have the same love as you - Osprey. I first tracked osprey & capture but wanted more. I tracked one female watching her direction after the catch finally finding her perch a half mile away and her enjoying her meal - my best pic. NOW I want to upgrade and having trouble deciding on the 7R4 or or A9. Since the price drop on the A9 I assume a new A9 is on the very close horizon probably a higher res like the 7R4.. Since my joy is birds, I'm torn on which way to go. Would you be kind enough to 7R4, A9, or wait to see were Sony takes the A9?