how to use mirrorless for street?

[John Di Leo]

I am still getting used to my z8. What I see a very much like, but I am having a couple of growing pains, I'm looking for advice from experienced hands.

If you shoot spontaneous street photography, what is your method of doing so? To explain, do you leave the display on all the time? If I see a shot and the display has gone dark, by the time I have gotten the display to light up (either LCD or viewfinder), the shot can be lost. If I just point and shoot with a dark screen/vf, I fear I will either get nothing or get something out of focus.

I am accustomed to using back button focusing, but does that hinder speed in capture for street in your practice?

I like to hold the camera by my side, ready to lift and shoot in a second or so, but is as possible with a mirrorless as with a dslr?

Edited September 18, 2023 by John Di Leo

[Dieter Schaefer]

15 hours ago, John Di Leo said:

I like to hold the camera by my side, ready to lift and shoot in a second or so, but is as possible with a mirrorless as with a dslr?

I don't have a Z8 but assume it wakes up as quickly as the Z9 from stand-by modus. If indeed so, then there's no speed difference to a DSLR at all (as there would be with a slower responding mirrorless like any of the Sony A7 models I have used so far. I also think that with subject detection on, there's a much higher chance of in-focus shots with the Z8 than with any DSLR. I have switched to back-button focus many years ago and can't imagine shooting any other way - I don't see a speed penalty, rather the opposite.

[robert_bouknight1]

With the fairly intelligent auto AF in the Z8, one could be stealthy and not even raise the camera up, and get a high percentage of in focus photos - if using a fairly wide angle composition that you have a good feel for.

Of course, we had "auto focus" back in the manual focus days by setting a typical focus distance on the lens and keeping it ready that way.  Worked pretty well for shorter focal lengths.

[c_watson1]

That's why I shoot a Fuji X-!00T for street...

[mike_halliwell]

Don't ever let it go into standby. Carry an extra battery or two.

Auto Area AF with Face-Detect should work very well.

[John Di Leo]

Thanks all, Yes, what I figured was preventing standby,

However, just grabbing and pointing and shooting seems to work?? Need more testing but looks promising and quick and dirty tests in my office.

[ericphelps]

I leave my Fuji X100F on a neck sling and have gotten somewhat good at simply tilting the camera at the subject. Many street shots can include unwanted 'clutter', so close framing isn't an issue for me generally.

The most MacGyver thing I sometimes do is to palm a small mirror in my left hand to reflect the rear screen image for better composition, silly yes but it works.