Street photography equipment (including the best street photography camera)

“Which camera should I buy?”

I am often asked that.

I am a street photographer. I want to share with you some of the most important technical factors in street photography.

What is the best street photography camera?

There have been some cool ones lately Micro four thirds cameras make the rounds.

Micro four third cameras are mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses. The compact design and lightweight construction make them ideal travel companions. The Top online photo agencies Accept photos taken with micro four third cameras. This is a huge plus for those of you who have such ambitions.

Point-and-shoot cameras just don’t qualify.

Not designed or built for professional photographers, are they? The main drawbacks are Focus Instead of Focus points (which makes it impossible to focus on small parts of the frame, such as just a person’s eyes or a drop of water on a petal). There is only so much light that a tiny lens can hold, making lowlight photography almost pointless.

Well, DSLR cameras prevail!

Which DSLR Camera Should You Buy? Well, you have to find out for yourself! But let me suggest a little exercise to help with the decision-making process.

Make a list of the Things you want to photograph in the next two years. For example butterflies, the Eiffel Tower, breakfast, sparrows, the canals of Amsterdam, your friend’s baby, portraits of your friends, aerial photos of your hometown, etc.

Now let’s analyze this list.

You will need a wide angle lens (16mm / 28mm / 35mm) to get the best travel photos of the Eiffel Tower, Amsterdam canals and aerial photography of your hometown, a macro lens for photographing butterflies (180mm macro) and breakfast (50mm macro ), a regular lens (50mm) for taking photos of your friend’s baby and portraits of your friends in general, and a telephoto lens (over 300mm) for taking photos of sparrows.

In my humble opinion, the most important piece of street photography isn’t the camera, it’s the lens!

I insist on fast lenses with an aperture of at least f / 2.8. I also insist that lenses with a focal length of 300mm or more must be top notch lenses. And these lenses are not cheap!

So I recommend you revisit your list. Think about the things that you will actually be photographing over the next two years. Take your time.

When it comes to travel / street photography, I can imagine that a fixed wide-angle lens (prime) of for example 35mm f / 1.4 or a 16mm-35mm f / 2.8 zoom lens will do most of the time.

A decade ago I used a telephoto lens (90mm-300mm f / 3.5-5.6) almost exclusively. I was obsessed with taking tightly framed portraits. I haven’t used a lens with a focal length greater than 50mm since 2008.

I have come to believe that taking pictures on the street / outdoors with a telephoto lens (especially beyond 50mm) is disrespectful to the people being photographed. When doing street photography portraits, you really want to use the right lens.

Now let’s talk about street photography cameras.

I would buy one Mid-range DSLR camera and a strong lens pretty lousy lenses mounted on a high-end DSLR.

Even professionals / serious amateurs have no right to complain about bulky / heavy cameras and lenses. Remember, you strive for quality.

Medium-range DSLR cameras have a magnification factor of around 1.5 times. So a 50mm lens attached to one of them is not the best choice when shooting the canals of Amsterdam, but you can get some cool portraits of your friends. Something like a 16mm-35mm f / 2.8 helps here.

I’m a big fan of medium format photography. I can’t afford medium format digital cameras. But I keep playing around with my Yashica Mat 6 × 6 and Fuji GS645S Professional film cameras.

The size of a 35mm camera frame (not lens, but camera) is 1 “x 1.5” (the most common SLR / dot and capture cameras that take film rolls and DSLR cameras fall into this category). With medium format films, one side is fixed at 6 cm and the other can vary depending on the format of the camera body (e.g. 4.6 cm, 6 cm, 17 cm, etc.).

I think the 6 × 6 format makes the best portraits.

AI servo or “permanent focus”

Look for the AI ​​servo or the setting “permanent focus” in your camera. different manufacturers have given it different names. The role of the AI ​​servo or “continuous focus” is to Continuously refocus the subject while the shutter button is pressed halfway.

This setting can make all the difference when taking photos where your main subject is in constant motion, e.g. B. If your dog walks towards you / a moving car / bicycle etc. However, this can discharge the battery. So make sure to come back to One Shot when you finish shooting moving subjects.

To the tripod or not to the tripod. That is the question.

Do you need to add a tripod to your list of street photography equipments?

Let’s be honest It is not always possible to mount a tripod on the street;; particularly busy streets. Plus, there are many sincere moments of street photography that can be missed while trying to get the tripod into position. However, if possible, use a tripod for architectural photos / landscapes where the moment / role of the people is not that important.

Buy a professional tote that is lightweight and weatherproof. Again, not expensive, but consider it a one-time investment. We love this BAGSMART camera bag – it’s waterproof, fits on a laptop and has a tripod holder. It also looks very stylish and doesn’t look like an obvious camera bag, which is great for walking the city streets.

Read the guide to creating and editing travel videos.