Photo locations, techniques and technology. Highlights of locations we frequent as well as features on how and why we shoot the way we do, including gear reviews specific to nature photographers.

Barry Scully 3/7/26 Barry Scully 3/7/26

Tanzania - Birds

Birds were kind of a side quest that often became part of the main story while we were in Tanzania. You get so excited to see all the big animals that you have never seen other than on a BBC special and you kind of forget the fact that there are so many interesting birds in Africa many of which are not that afraid of humans (or at least not afraid of the land cruisers).

With limits to the amount of gear I wanted to take with us to Africa, I didn't bring any really long lenses for bird photography. I did have the 100-400 and a 1.4x teleconverter which is good enough for closer birds or maybe really big birds. This didn't stop us from capturing plenty of different species in different locations. I did have to crop in on most of the shots but that is nearly always the case even with huge lenses.

The first morning in Arusha we spent the day relaxing at the resort and I was up early with all the different sounds outside. The first thing I heard was bird song and even before breakfast I was getting shots of kingfishers and weavers just outside of our mud hut. After 2 days and more than 20 hours on planes these sites and sounds helped us to relax and seeing a bunch of new (to us) bird species was already kind of exciting.

Once we started on the safari runs we were looking everywhere for animals but often the first thing to catch our eyes were very brightly coloured bee-eaters. We found these birds sitting on small branches often close to the roads where they would do short flight out for bugs and then often come back to the same perch. This made it relatively easy to just wait for them to come back for a nice open shot. They were very quick on the take offs and I did not manage to get much in the way of interesting flight shots but just getting a pair sitting on a branch with a bug was pretty nice.

Let's take a look at some of the birds we saw, and most of the ones I was able to get reasonable pictures of.

Bee-eaters

Some of the most colourful birds and so fun to watch as they sit on a branch for a few seconds and then dart off for a bug often coming back to the same branch.

Cinnamon-chested bee-eater

cinnamon bee-eaters — Pair of Cinnamon-chested bee-eaters

Little bee-eater

white-fronted bee-eater

Hornbills

With their distinct bills and loud calls Hornbills can seem a bit quirky but they are crucial seed dispersers in the African ecosystems and quiet entertaining to watch.

Von der Decken's

Southern Ground

Silvery Cheeked

red-billed

Weavers

We saw weaver nests everywhere and I have a feeling we could have gotten easily a dozen different types if we had the time to wait to see birds coming to these nests but that could be an entire trip in itself. As it was I got a couple of pictures of two very pretty weavers.

Speke's

Blaglafecht

Baglafecht Weaver looking at its reflection

Eagles

I live in an area where there are often hundreds of Bald eagles available to get shots of and rarely I might find a golden eagle if I'm very lucky. In Tanzania we were able to see a good number of different types of eagles just driving the roads of the parks. I know I missed a couple while we were taking shots of other animals. I was able to get pictures of 4 different types flying around us and sitting in trees as we drove by.

Brown snake eagle

One of the more common ones, would love to have seen one with a snake.

Martial eagle

One of the largest with a distinct white front and dark head. Sadly this was the only time I was able to capture one of these majestic birds.

Bateleur Eagle

The Bateleur Eagle is mostly white and black but has a brownish patch across the back and onto the tail feathers.

Tawny Eagles

Tawny eagles where often seen hanging out at the tops of the acacia trees.

Other birds of prey

Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl

Verreaux's eagle-owl with pink eyelids. An amazing bonus while we were watching a leopard in the tree below.

Goshawk

Goshawks were another common bird seen in branches of trees, interesting looking birds that look like they are wearing striped knickers and a grey top.

Augur Buzzard

Also got to see my first Buzzard, this one was an Augur Buzzard that seems to be hunting much like a northern harrier over the fields of grass.

Kingfishers

Belted kingfishers are pretty common in North America but that is the only kingfisher that we will see. Pretty much anywhere there was water and a perch nearby we saw kingfishers in Tanzania.

Pied kingfisher

African pygmy

grey headed

brown hooded

Storks

We saw three of eight types of storks found in Africa. From one of the most beautiful (Saddle-billed) to definitely one of the ugliest (Marabou), they are large wading birds mostly feeding on small fish, frogs and other aquatic life although the Marabou stork will also follow vultures to a carcass.

Saddle-billed

yellow-billed

Marabou

Bustards

Our first view of a bustard was the Kori bustard which our guide referred to as Slow walker. They did tend to live up to this name which made it fairly easy to get shots. The two other types we found in the Ngorongoro crater looked different but also seemed to just slowly wander around looking for food.

White bellied

black bellied

Kori

Lapwings

Lapwings, named for their zig-zaging flight is a shorebird related to plovers. There are around 25 species of Lapwing three of which we were able to see in Tanzania.

Spur-winged

Blacksmith

black-winged

Grey Crowned Crane

One of the most striking birds hanging out in the grasses was the Grey Crowned Crane, a very colourful bird with a name that doesn't really suggest how interesting it is.

flamingos

A large wading bird that is a filter feeder usually of brine shrimp where they get their distinctive pink colour from the carotenoids from the algae the brine shrimp eat. We found Flamingos in a number of shallow lake edges in Tasmania with the best views in the Ngorongoro crater.

Ostriches

Probably the most iconic flightless bird, Ostriches were amazing to watch out on the plains of the Serengeti. Largest of all birds, they can run up to 70 km/h. Would love to have seen some of the young ones but not this time.

Others

lilac breasted roller

Beautiful colours on display, the Lilac breasted roller is not dimorphic with both sexes having the same colouration. Usually found alone or in pairs, it perches at the tops of trees, poles or other high vantage points from where it can spot insects, amphibians and small birds moving about on the ground. This makes it fairly easy to find and photograph.

bronze sunbird

As you might expect from the beak on the Bronze sunbird it is a nectar feeder but it also feeds on small bugs. We were pretty lucky to see this bird as it tends to stay away from populated areas.

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

This uniquely coloured bird shows off a turquoise blue chest and face with brown back. The male has the red cheek. Fairly unique to most passerines the Cordon-bleu females sing although not as complex as the males song.

D'Arnaud's barbet

A colourful barbet with a yellow face and breast that are speckled with black, and a red undertail. Barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills.

superb starling

A beautiful but very common bird similar in size to the European starling that is very common in North America now. At the beginning of our trip we couldn’t help but take pictures of this pretty bird but they were so common in many parts of Tanzania they seemed a bit like pests.

violet backed starling

Another fairly common but beautiful bird, the violet backed starling tends to stick to the trees of Sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike the Superb Starling, they are highly dimorphic (females do not have the same colouration as the males).

speckled mousebird

Largest and most common of the Mousebirds, they have fluffy hair-like feathering, brown crests, and long tails that measure over half the size of their bodies. This was the first bird we saw after waking up for the first time in Tanzania.

secretary birds

Another large bird in the Serengeti they are the tallest raptors standing up to 5 feet tall and have wingspans of nearly 7 feet. These birds hunt exclusively on the ground and are great snake hunters.

oxpeckers

Watching the behaviour of Oxpeckers on different animals is fascinating. They seem to both help and bother the buffalo and giraffe that we saw them hanging around. Their Kiswahili name askari wa kifaru, means “the rhino’s guard” are said to warn animals of predators with their calls. There are two types of Oxpeckers, a red-billed and a yellow-billed mostly seem to live in the same areas. I seem to have pictures of both types but the closest shots are of the red-billed.

If we ever get back to Africa I think I will bring a slightly longer lens and maybe spend a bit more time on finding birds. Much like the plethora of animals on the African continent there are so many amazing birds to see and photograph. I’m sure I could spend most of the rest of my life doing photography in Africa and never get bored.

Barry Scully 2/13/26 Barry Scully 2/13/26

Did I bring the right gear to Tanzania?

I spent a lot of time before our trip looking at what other people suggested for the best gear for a Safari in Tanzania. Now let’s see if I made the right choices.

I spent time researching what other photographers take on safari. I asked other photographers what they found they used the most. I watched YouTube videos of safari trips as well as professional photographers out on safari shooting daily. Taking all that information into consideration I wrote an article on what I was going to bring with me, and it was pretty close to what I did actually take. The excepion was was the Sigma 500mm prime which I left at home. So how did it work out you might ask...or at least I'm going to answer that question whether or not you ask.

Canon side of my bag — The Canon side of the bag with Canon R5 II, 100-400mm EF L lens and the 1.4 x Teleconverter

The thought was that I would prefer to have a telephoto zoom lens on one camera, and a wider lens on a second camera that would cover 90% of the focal range that I’d shoot while in the safari vehicle. I started with the 100-400mm lens on the Canon R5II and the Tamron 35-150mm on the Sony A7RV with a 14-35mm lens in the bag in case we had some chances for some landscape shots. I also carried the 1.4 teleconverter for Canon and a DJI pocket 3 for doing some video.

other side of the bag — On the other side of the Gura Gear Kiboko 2 16L bag we have the Sony A7R5 with the Tamron 35-150mm, the Canon 14-35 f/4, and the DJI Pocket 3.

I was not expecting to do a lot of bird photography so I left the 200-600mm lens at home. I would love to have been able to use my 500mm primes but both were way to big to carry around with the other gear.

We knew we were going to be shooting exclusively from within the safari vehicle and had the ability to quickly grab one of the two camera. We were also aware that with other shooters in the truck, the possiblity of bumping into one another when shooting out the window or roof top was going to be an issue.

I can say now that I think I took the right gear. I did put the teleconverter on the Canon for much of the trip which gave me working range from 35-150 and 140-560 which was ideal for capturing the animals. We did see more birds than I had expected and there were times where I would have loved to have had a longer reach but for everything else the range was pretty much perfect and 560 was adequate for many of the bird shots. Weather wise it was sunny most of the time we were out so the limitation of smaller apertures of the telephoto didn't really hurt other than reducing the ability to have really nice separation of the subject when there was distracting frenetic backgrounds.

There are some limitations to what you can get when you have to stay in a vehicle and you are pretty much limited to shooting during the day. We did not get a lot of time near dusk or dawn with any animals so I didn't really need to have fast lenses for lower light conditions. It was also very hot during the day so even if I did have a longer lens, shooting animals far away was never going to be useful with the heat haze and shimmering out on the Serengeti plains.

At home I will use the 35-150 for shots where the environment the animal is in is as interesting as the animal itself but most of the time you are not so close that 100mm is wide enough to capture those shots. In Africa there are many times that animals come quite close to the vehicle, and many more times where an elephant or giraffe fill the frame even at 35mm. There were a few times it would have been interesting to get an ultra wide shot of a couple of elephants but the challenge there would have been getting the camera out the window with a multi-tonne animal only a couple of metres away. In any case, with the amount of dust flying around I was definitely not going to change lenses in the vehicle so I left those types of shots to the iphone wide angle lens.

on safari — Typical shooting through the canopy with the 100-400 while the 35-150 was ready for any closer shots on the bag at my feet

In general while we were driving through the parks I would have the 100-400 on a strap while standing looking through the roof of the truck with the 35-150 sitting on my camera bag at my feet. We would usually spot an animal (or group of animals) in the distance our driver would find a good spot to see and then we would get a few shots off. Once we were happy with that, our guide would usually find a spot where the animals were like to move towards which allowed us to get ready for closer shots and decide our compositions. Many times the animals would cross fairly close to the truck giving us multiple angles. With many of the big cats we would just sit and watch them as they relaxed in the sun, playing, sleeping and scratching. In these cases I would go back and forth between cameras grabbing closer individual shots and wider shots of the whole family.

While we were in motion I would grab the DJI pocket 3 with its gimballed camera and do a little bit of video of the scenery and as we approached some of the animals.

The one camera I didn't use was the Sony ZV1. It’s a nice point and shoot video oriented camera that I will often put on the hot shoe of my cameras to get a video of what I'm shooting. This was not practical in the safari vehicle. That camera just sat in the camera bag the entire trip.

With the other accessories, I had plenty of SD/CF express cards and only needed one SSD but I do like having more than necessary for media. The Macbook Air that I purchased for the trip was fantastic. It was very small and light but was capable to quickly download everything we shot daily whether or not we had power available, and was able to do processing of video and pictures just as quickly as my main computer. I will be happy to travel with this laptop for years.

Battery wise I usually used on full battery each day and started on the second and was able to charge each night so I had enough. I could easily last 3 full days with the Sony batteries but would have likely needed another Canon battery if we had no power available for more than 2 days.

I brought a puffer for blowing out dust and used it every night, but since we didn't change lenses in the field I didn't have to clean the sensor during the trip. I did bring a bunch of sensor cleaning kits and luckily didn't need them. I will always bring them after finding dust on the sensor on our trip to Australia a few years back that took forever to remove via software.

sensor cleaning kit — I’ve learned that having a couple of these on a trip can save a lot of work removing spots afterwards.

Thanks to all the advice and research I think I had exactly the gear that I needed for the trip. I would always like to have bigger and brighter lenses but they are impractical for plane travel and can be a pain when you are limited to shooting in tight quarters with other photographers also needing space to shoot. I would likely not take the Sony ZV1 on a similar trip and it is likely the only change I would make if I did the same trip again.

Having 2 different brands of cameras means that I couldn't switch lenses between them if I had a problem with one of the cameras. Usually I like to have that redundancy but at this time that is the best gear I had available. Replacing the Canon gear with a Sony camera that is as useful is not in the budget especially since that would leave a number of expensive glass out of the game. I would have been just as happy using the 200-600 instead of the 100-400 since I often used it with the teleconverter anyways but at the moment I don’t have a second Sony camera that is nearly as good as the Canon R5II for resolution and speed (and likely won’t in the near future).

Barry Scully 2/4/26 Barry Scully 2/4/26

Tanzania - Antelope

When you go on safari you mostly think about animals like the big 5, the exciting huge animals and the big cats. Maybe you think about apes and monkeys or all the birds but rarely do you hear about people going to Africa specifically to see the animals the are most often on all the other animals menus. These are some of the most numerous animals on the continent with amazing herds that migrate during each season but other than the wildebeest that are famous for trying to cross rivers full of crocs, we only think of the antelopes basically as food for the cats.

herd of wildebeest — Wildebeest on the Serengeti

There are approximately 70 different species of antelope in Africa with around 20 species in the Serengeti totaling over 2 million migrating antelope. On our 2 week trip we managed to see 12 different species from our safari vehicles.

Gnu (Wildebeest)

Wildebeest on the run — The dust rises as the wildebeest cross our path on the Serengeti

Approximately 1.6 million Wildebeest (gnu) and more than half a million gazelles are the largest numbers and we saw a good number each and every day that we were on safari.

We were very lucky to see the numbers of wildebeest we saw on this trip, according to our guide they were in much larger numbers than expected for the time of year. Often found with zebra, they were hard to miss as they were visible in a line as far as we could see with a constant dust cloud above the herds as a telltale of what is coming.

The main migration events that everyone comes to see are normally in January to March for the calving in the south and the Mara River crossing in July to October. We may not have seen them in the numbers of those times but it was still the largest gathering of animals I have ever seen so pretty spectacular.

Gazelles (Thompson's and Grant's)

A constant sight in the Serengeti, most of the ones we saw were the Thompson's Gazelle but we did see some Grant's here and there. The Thompson's gazelle, which have a large black stripe on the sides, were often along the roads and were pretty active. Mostly grazing but they had plenty of time for play since there didn't seem to be a lot of danger in the areas we saw them at least not visible danger.

Impala

The next most common species we saw were the Impala with their amazing speed and huge jumps, the white patch over the eye and the black stripe on the tail make them fairly easy to discern from the Grant's gazelle.

Waterbuck

A relatively large antelope with large round ears and white patches above the eyes and a distinctive marking on the rump that our guides referred to as a toilet seat. Most often seen near water their coat has a water repellent oil layer to help protect it from moisture. The males have long ringed horns that can grow as long as a metre.

Bushbuck

One of the more solitary antelopes, it spends much of its time as the name would suggest in the bush. Males have large spiral horns but the females of the species do not have horns. It has geometric white patches on its ears, chin, tail, legs and neck. Habitat loss is the biggest threat to the bushbuck as agriculture and settlements remove the vegetation they like to stay in.

Bohor reedbuck

Another antelope most commonly spotted close to water sources in the Serengeti. They most often prefer to graze at night so we were pretty lucky to find some. The males have a distinctive horn that extend backward from the forehead and then hook slightly forward.

Klipspringer

These tiny, sturdy antelope live in the more mountainous areas of the Serengeti, and seem at home on top of rocks. Males seem to like to stand guard watching for extended periods from high spots.

Dik-dik

Similar in size to the Klipspringer but much more dainty looking the Dik-dik are often found in thick vegetation. These are the smallest antelope on the Serengeti, they have an alarm call that is the dik-dik sound which gives them their name. Distinguishing features are the elongated snout and dark spots at the corners of the eyes which are glands used for scent marking.

Topi

A medium antelope with a reddish-brown coat and black patches that appear on their faces, hips and legs. This is one of the more common antelopes estimates of around 300000 individuals. Similar to the Hartbeest but a bit smaller and doesn't have as long or narrow facial features.

Hartbeest

Another medium sized antelope with an elongated head, steeply sloping back, long legs and "bracket" shaped horns. Running at up to 70km/h it is one of the fastest antelopes even though they might at first look a bit clumsy.

Eland

The largest of the antelopes at up to 1000kg, it could easily be mistaken at first sight for an ox or large cow until you see those horns. The elands has spiral shaped horns and prominent dewlaps under their neck.

Often just considered food for big cats, antelopes are so varied in Tanzania and especially in the Serengeti they were a constant draw for their activity and just shear numbers. Even though we were constantly hoping to see a big cat hunting one of these animals they were worth it on their own. I probably wouldn't do a safari just to see these animals alone but I was very happy to spend time just watching the antics of these creatures. If you do go on a safari don't forget to spend some time watching and photographing antelope, you might even get to watch as they run for their lives although I'm pretty sure they would rather just eat and play.

Barry Scully 2/28/25 Barry Scully 2/28/25

Sony A1 II - Seemingly a disappointment, but a fantastic camera

My thoughts on the latest flagship camera from Sony and what it means for the gear I will purchase in the near future.

My opinions on how the new A1 II compares to other options are clearly biased by how I use my gear and what gear I currently use most of the time so likely won't be the same as your thought process but maybe these thoughts will help you to make your own decisions.

Quick summary of specs on the new camera:

50.1MP Stack CMOS sensor (same as A1)
in body image stabilization up to 8.5EV (improved over A1)
updated subject recognition algorithms and hardware with new automatic subject selection option. (mostly same as A7RV or A9III)
Continuous shooting at up to 30fps (no change from A1)
pre-release capture from .03 to 1 second (similar to A9III)
up to 8K 30p/4k 120p video (I don't believe there are many video changes from the A1)
9.44M dot viewfinder (I believe slightly updated for refresh rates).
3.2 inch 2.1M dot fully articulating tilt rear screen (introduced on A7RV)
body design from the A9III

Nearly four years after stunning the photography world with the A1, Sony has released the next version in that line. Sony has kind of gone the way of Canon and made what looks to be a not very exciting update and more of a small incremental upgrade. But also, much like how Canon does these things, the update turns out to improve the camera in many ways that don't seem exciting but really do improve the use of the camera.

A few months ago I was watching the Canon forums when the R5 II came out and the discussion were very nearly the same and they are now with the Sony A1 II. There were those that thought the R5 II was barely an upgrade at all since it didn't do much more for the type of photography they were interested in and then there were those who thought it was a very useful update. I think I firmly land in the later camp since when I sold my R5 it was in hope that Canon would come out with a higher MegaPixel stacked sensor camera so that I could enjoy the silent shutter that those with the A1 had been using for years. Now we are seeing the same conversations around the A1 II. It seems to be a reasonable update for an already excellent camera (just like the R5 II was) but unless you are interested in the physical improvements or those few added features then it was quite disappointing for those that wanted a release to match the original A1. I do believe that we are more used to this type of update from Canon (5DIII - 5DIV for just one example) than we are from Sony as they really have given us ground breaking new tech in both the A1 and A9 series cameras in the last few years. I do currently own the A9 II which again was not a significant update from the A9 and we had to wait for the next iteration for something brand new again. I do think we are starting to get to a point in camera technology where we will not be seeing such great leaps especially since the cameras we have now really can do so much that we couldn't do before.

Back to the A1 II. What we have here seems to be taking all of the things that Sony has added (that have been improvements) to other cameras over the last 4 years and put them in here. The improvements to the rear screen that is on the A7RV, the body of the A9III, new autofocus chip (with machine learning algorithms) that I believe was also from the A7RV and a few other software features like the pre-shooting that Canon and Nikon have but Sony didn't until now. Those types of updates are similar to what we saw on the A9II based on what had changed at that time. Of those changes I think the only one that could have been put in the A1 (at least in theory) is the pre-shooting since it really should just be a software solution. I doubt that feature will be added to the A1 as a future firmware update but it would really be a nice thing if they did so. We have some solid updates to make the A1 II Sony's best camera but I can see where it is a disappointment to many because there isn't really anything substantially new on this camera that either was already on other Sony cameras or is catching up to the other brands.

So what are the benefits of these improvements? Let's take a look at what you are getting if you already have a previous generation Sony camera of some sort. If you already own the A1 you would basically get the newer body including that rear screen that both tilts and also swings out to the side. It also has the new customizable button on the front that by default allows you to go to a faster number of frames per second very quickly. You also get the new AI (machine learning) based chip with the latest algorithms for subject detection and a new mode that isn't on any other Sony camera that automatically detects the subject type so you don't have to tell it you want to detect birds instead of people or any other combo. It seems like most other things around shooting speed and capabilities are the same as the original A1 including mostly the same video capabilities which may be one of the reasons that many people are disappointed in the update. I have never used the A1 personally but I have seen the improvements in subject detection that I got when I updated to the A7RV compared to both the A7RIV and the A9II. Those updates were significant in terms of how quickly and effectively the camera was able to pick up both animal and bird subjects and was much better at getting the eyes of those subjects. I also found that it was better at getting locks on a subject even in conditions where the background is very busy and contrasty. This is something that I have to deal with a lot and I have slowly seen improvements with each iteration of Sony's tech since the original A6000 started to be able to quickly focus even though it didn't have much in the way of subject detection. I'm assuming the A1 was similar but possibly a little better than the A9II so I think the A1 II is going to just be that much better but you may only notice that improvement when going back to the older one.

If you currently are shooting with the A9 or A9II upgrading to the A1II would get you all the benefits above along with a stacked sensor that can now do 30 frames per second instead of 20 and has 50 MegaPixels instead of 24. While I enjoy using the A9II for the silent shutter I do find the lower resolution to be limiting for getting that detail that I prefer to have in my nature photography (once I know what I can get it is hard to go back to lower resolutions). There is also more room to crop for those times that you just can't get as close as you would like to your subject.

If you are shooting with the A7RV the main thing that you might be missing is that stacked sensor. What this gives a nature photographer is a fast silent electronic shutter for those times that any noise can change the behaviour of your subject and an electronic shutter where you don't have to worry about artifacts in your image due to the slow readout of that A7RV sensor.

Currently I have to choose between that beautiful high resolution sensor of the A7RV and the high frame rate of the A9II so that I can increase the possibility to capture just the perfect moment. When it comes to my landscape work there really isn't any benefit of that electronic sensor and the A7RV is very nearly the perfect camera but for capturing interactions between birds or animals that A9II can sometimes be nearly perfect. It would seem that the A1 II could be the best of both worlds if it wasn't also currently more expensive than buying both the A7RV and the A9II (used), but then again the A1 already had many of those benefits.

If you currently have any other Sony camera (and do mostly photography and not so much video) then the A1 II is the best camera you can get but also by far the most expensive one. Be aware that like most technology there are diminishing returns as you move up to the highest end gear. Most of the time the difference between an entry level camera and those just below the top tier gives more return than the difference between that second tier and the top but as you get deeper into any hobby this is often true.

Comparing the A1 to the flagship (or equivalent) cameras from other companies is much more difficult as most people who are looking for these top tier cameras are unlikely to switch to another company since the cost of purchasing a whole new set of lenses at that level would eclipse the costs (and benefits) of the differences in those cameras. For the sake of just understanding the differences we have Canon with the R1 which to me is more like the A9 series than the A1 and the R5 II which at nearly $1700 USD cheaper than the A1 is actually pretty comparable but doesn't have quite the same buffer as the A1 II and does have some interesting new autofocus tech. If you are currently using Canon then the R5 II is a great choice for a top tier nature photography camera. Nikon has taken a different approach to a similar set of technology with both the Z8 and Z9. The Z8 is significantly less expensive than the A1 II (and the R5 II) but is quite compelling in the technology that it has. The autofocus is not quite as good as the other two, the frames per second is lower (for raw images) and it has no physical shutter which can still be useful. On the other hand, the Nikon systems has been quite busy with a very good set of nature photography lenses that go from around $2000 USD, with options all the way up to the price of a small car. Sony has more 3rd party options but not as many interesting prime lenses and Canon has a much more limited selection of glass (mostly great at the highest end).

What would (did) I purchase?

This is a very difficult question. I currently still have a lot of good EF lenses but I don't see myself investing in the RF glass and the 3rd party options are pretty much nonexistent. I currently have a 500mm F/4 IS II that is not getting as much use as I would like and selling EF primes is not really going to get me much so that I could purchase either a big Sony or Canon RF lens so the purchase of a R5II has been an option to allow me to continue to use that 500mm for at least another 5 years with a pretty great camera. On the other hand we currently own a bunch of Sony cameras and a used A1 might be a good choice to have almost everything I want by trading in some older gear. If I could sell the 500mm I might be able to pick up a 300mm f/2.8 used which would be great for bear photography in the fall. In all likelihood I would keep the A7R5 and have the A1 and I would be pretty happy without completely breaking the bank. If money was not a consideration I would absolutely pick up an A1 II as that camera has everything that I would like to have in a camera. This is a tough question and I will likely wait to see how the A1 drops in price (both new and used) over the next couple of months as well as see if anyone is interested in any of my older gear. It is never easy when money is the limiting factor.

UPDATE: (I waited a few months and ended up purchasing the Canon R5 II to use with my 500mm lens. This camera currently is proving to be much better than the R5, no crashes and the stacked sensor allows me to use the silent shutter nearly all the time. I do think this combination will be useful for quite a while or at least until I could trade up to the A1 II and the new Sigma 300-600 f/4….but that is another story)