Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

I’ve written here and other places that my back problems encourage me to carry as little additional weight as possible—especially around my neck. My Sony Alpha 55 is just the ticket. Add a Sony 18-250 mm (under one pound) and a 30mm f2.8 Macro (just north of five ounces) and you have an extraordinarily versatile package that’s easy to carry and enormously fun to use.

Like millions of other Americans, I suffer from Degenerative Disc Disease. If you live long enough, odds are you’ll experience it, too. It begins as a small backache and persists as a constant but tolerable pain—until it escalates to daily agony accompanied by sleepless nights. At that point you have no choice but to leave your normal 40-pound field pack and home and go with something lighter.

Choosing lightweight equipment at first made me think I’d have to make compromises. But high quality, light weight cameras from Olympus, Panasonic and Sony have convinced me otherwise. Except for the fact that I cannot shoot at full 35mm frame size, I have not lost any performance features by opting to these lightweight models—as a matter of fact, I’ve gained more versatility and capability than I ever could have imagined.

Take a look at this high speed baseball sequence shot at Yogi Berra Stadium (Montclair, NJ) during a New Jersey Jackals minor league baseball game earlier this year with a Sony Alpha 55 and Sony 18-250mm zoom. I did not use a tripod (which would have kept alignment much more clean) and was a bit careless about the background, but the camera’s innate, automatic ability to shoot high-speed sequences makes this an image that I’m proud of. (Note: I composited nine shots into one in Photoshop. But the camera captured the rapid sequence, making it possible.)

The Sony 30mm f2.8 Macro, which I used to capture the blue crab the heads up my previous blog, is one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used. The crab was, in reality, smaller than a quarter. This low-res, web-only version doesn’t do him justice, but the handheld, high resolution version is nothing short of remarkable.

Here are the official names of the 18-250mm (Sony SAL-18250 DT 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Autofocus Lens) and 30mm Macro (Sony SAL-30M28 30mm f/2.8 DT AF Macro Lens).

Please comment, especially if you’re ready to hang up the heavy cameras a go light. Thanks!