Lens for Street Photography

Guys,

 

I am very interested in street photography and was wondering which lens i

should purchsase for it.....I have the 50 mm prime,18-70 and the 70-300 VR

lenses...I was thinking of getting one of those wider primes for street

photography. Which one do you think will be better among 20mm,24mm and 35 mm

prime lenses....I am totally confused as to which one to buy...

 

Thanks in Advance :-)

 

Cheers,

Vyas

It depends completely on what you want to take pictures of and how you compose your shots.

you already have all the lenses you need for street photography.

As you have been advised your lenses are fine for street photography.

Get out and use them, then you will know if you need another lens.

i would mount the 18-70mm in my camera; the 50mm and the 70-300mm in each of my pockets; or leave one in the car if you want to go light...when you have developed more skills in street, you can buy the 20mm and leave it in your camera, still with the 50mm in your pocket.

My recent favorite has been the 10.5mm fisheye on a D200. I can't imagine using a 70-200mm. That's for paparazzi work.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=742817

i like the 50 mm but find it a quite restricting....just love to shoot at 18mm of my 18-70 lens....

A 12-24mm zoom is my fave street photography lens. It has the wide-angle end for tight

spaces or showing subjects in an environmental context and the 24mm focal length is a

classic candid focal length (think Henri Cartier-Bresson.)

What David D said. People or architecture? Urban or large city downtown? Tight, wide, long? You have a nice collection of lenses. Maybe the more you shoot with what you have, you will be able to determine if you need another lens or not. I do have the 50mm/1.8 and 18/70mm, but I do like to carry a longer lens for not for "Poppa Rats Eye" (new musician), but rather for content when my shorter lenses won't reach a particular building, mural, or whatever and a longer lens does have a different feel, so I keep one of four lenses in my bag that will get there. Have fun with it. Good luck.

I shoot a lot of street, (mostly people). You typically need a fast lens and something that is

not obstrusive. I couldn't imagine using a zoom, especially a fast one as they are much

larger than the slower zooms, (17-35 f/2.8). The 12-24 f/4 is too slow and too large for my

use. I rarely use my digital (D2X) for street as it's too big. I often use a pair of Leicas (M3 &

M7) with a 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/1.5 loaded with Tri-X. I also use small Nikon bodies, (FA,

FM3a) with 35 f/2, 28 f/2. If you're using film I'd recommend 35mm AF f/2 if you're using

digital 24mm AF f/2.8.

My preference is for the 24/2.8 but really, you should buy the focal length that YOU prefer. All three lenses (20, 24, 35) are quite good, with the 35/2 being the most highly rated among them, afaik.

 

larsbc

I have similar glass to you (plus the 12-24 which I rarely use for street) and recently checked

my focal lengths on about 3 days of street shooting to understand what I used most.

Interestingly for me they clustered evenly at the extremes (18-24 and around 200) for about

80% of what I shot. You might want to try a similar experiment, see what you use most, and

go from there.

<p>As others said, shoot first, and then you'll eventually figure it out. I personally prefer focal lengths between 35mm and 50mm.</p>