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What is your favorite lens for street photography


abbie_benson

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Thank you Avery. That lens in particular has it's own special "flavor", however it's one that I love to use for informal , quick portraits like the one I shot above. Plenty of shallow depth of field, funky (but IMO good) bokeh, and lots of light loss at each corner. :D I think that it's a great lens if you really want to put your subject right smack in the center of the image, and with all of the other elements in place wide open, it really does draw the eye to the center of the frame.
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i would consider most if not all of the above photos portraits rather

than street photography. as for favorite lenses for street pics,

35mm, 28mm, 50mm perferably f2 or faster. usually anything longer

turns me off. as for why p&s are usually 35mm, it is considered the

most useful focal length. would anyone seriously buy a fixed 105mm

p&s?

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Street photography is a very broad term and as you can see from the variety in the submitted photos everybody seems to have their own interpretation of it.

 

My personal point is this: When I walk the streets and take photographs it is usually to document life in that particular space.

 

And my favorite piece of equipment for this kind of photography is a LeicaM camera with a 35mm/f2.0 lens. It is discreet and silent.

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Actually, I've never really done "street photography". That's why I wanted to see the type of lens that people like to use. I wasn't sure if you would use a telephoto or the wide angle. But I guess it now depends on the perspecive you want to "catch", doesn't it?

 

I find this type of thread very helpful, and educational, especially when looking for equipment. Because people will also show you how nice the lens can work.

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Since I prefer to remain unnoticed for candids, I tend to use the Nikkon 70-300 f45-5.6 D-ED consumer zoom. It can be a bit slow sometimes, so I can see myself perhaps moving sometimes to the Tamron 90mm AF-D f2.8 macro (assuming I want to become more "thick-skinned" as a photographer).<div>006O6H-15099184.jpg.7b25badd2bf22cffc7531433df3dba05.jpg</div>
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For me, using a telephoto is cheating. I like to get in close and shoot well within the personal space that makes the difference between intimate and voyeuristic. To this end my favorite street lens is a 35mm focal length. I use this lens whether I am using my Leicas or Nikons.<P>

 

There is a reason I choose this lens over other wide-angles, and that is because there is a trick to using the 35mm focal length without actually raising it to your eye, which can allow you to get in close and not draw attention to yourself. That trick is the following formula: <I><B>For a 35mm lens, the distance from the subject is equal to the amount of coverage captured on the long side of the negative.</B></I> In other words, if you are 6 feet away from a subject, you will have 6 feet of coverage on the long side of the negative. With this knowledge, and a zone-focused lens (auto-focusing is slower and less certain than an already zone-focused lens), you are free to immerse yourself into crowds with a palmed camera and to move up to an unsuspecting subject. Simply point to the center of the scene with the distance from the subject mentally shifted to the subject plane, and you have a very good chance of knowing what will be caught on film.<P>

 

You can get surprisingly close, and yet have no reaction from the subject. This allows for true candid shots. Some examples:<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=1842142&size=md"> photo 1 </a>, <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=1842031&size=md"> photo 2 </a>, <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=1842136&size=md"> photo 3 </a>

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The 45 mm 2.8P on my FM3a makes a really good street lens. It is very unobtrusive and convenient to carry due to the size.

 

If I'm using one of the other MF cameras, it is almost always either one the 50s or a 24. With AF cameras, I've kind of gotten into the habit of the 24 - 85 AFS.

 

On the rangefinders, 35 or wider. Love those rangefinders for the street!

 

Conni

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