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I did the upgrade protocol from sony to bring my A1 to firmware version 2.01 and my 200-600 to version 3. I did not upgrade the body with the lens attached. I've had my A1 paired with the 200-600 for about 1.5 years without a hitch, very good performance. After the double upgrade, my camera started randomly losing communication with the lens, causing the f- to appear in the viewfinder. The aperture then starts to pulse narrower and wider while the viewfinder slowly flickers. I thoroughly cleaned the mount and contacts on both the lens and the camera with a microfiber cloth and eclipse camera sensor cleaner. It didn't help. I've cleaned the lens and camera both three or four times now and the issue keeps happening. I can clear the error a number of ways, none of which helps every time with one attempt, sometimes requiring multiple attempts with different methods. The methods are: disconnecting/reconnecting the lens, turning the power on and off, wiggling the lens w\o removing it or powering off, and pulling the battery. Aside from that, the combo works slightly better than before the update. Focus seems slightly snappier, images are sharp when focus acquires, and eye autofocus seems mildly improved at greater distances to the subject. The random communication loss has cost me a lot of shots though. It's quite annoying. I have access to 4 other sony cameras, along with lenses from sony, sigma, and tamron. I tested the tammy 28-75 today and couldn't replicate the issue. I'm going to test the 200-600 with my other bodies, and all of my lenses on the A1. Hopefully it only affects the 200-600. I hope it's something sony can fix once I figure out if it's specific to the lens or affects the body with other lenses as well.

Hi, I’m new to this forum and looking for help. I’m not able to get fast moving birds in focus with this combination. I’ve tried lots of different combinations of tracking, OSS modes, focus areas, etc.. It’s not very light here so I’m having to shoot at very high ISOs but it’s practice. I’m still new at trying to pan and keep the bird in the frame. But out of hundreds of burst shots I would think that at least a few would show promise. But I can tell that these aren’t sharp without even cropping. I realize this is high ISO (it’s dark here in the PNW) but this image should be sharper. 1/3200, 6.3, ISO 12800. This is one of my better examples. Birds not this close and flying faster are really bad. I’ve tried all the setting combinations I could find that were recommended. Pretty sure this one is zone af, AF-C, and mode 2 on the lens. I was prefocused on it when it took off. I can’t find a lot of info on this camera lens combination. What I can find in one post is contradicted in another. Anyone shooting this combination have any suggestions? Or is this just not a good camera for any kind of fast bird? Thanks in advance.

I managed to get rather close to this nesting bird, Animal Eye AF was on. Zooming in on the eye, that reflection (arrowed) is me,