55mm or 85mm for street photography?

[Gary A.]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Most of us are here to help, so maybe posting some examples would be useful for this discussion.

 

[benhasajeep]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Nah, you make good points. We are all going of our own view of what street photography would mean to us and give advice on that experience. Some people do want the long lens and try not to be noticed. Others want to be up close. The OP has not given more examples of what he would like. So we are just throwing advice out there.

 

[Gary A.]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Nah, you make good points. We are all going of our own view of what street photography would mean to us and give advice on that experience. Some people do want the long lens and try not to be noticed. Others want to be up close. The OP has not given more examples of what he would like. So we are just throwing advice out there.

As this will be a new experience for the OP, he may not know what type of images he is after or the desired experience he could expect. It is a lot different looking at Street images and thinking how cool it would be to capture the lifestyle and flavors of the city and wondering about equipment ... than actually doing so.

 

[limr]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Nah, you make good points. We are all going of our own view of what street photography would mean to us and give advice on that experience. Some people do want the long lens and try not to be noticed. Others want to be up close. The OP has not given more examples of what he would like. So we are just throwing advice out there.

As this will be a new experience for the OP, he may not know what type of images he is after or the desired experience he could expect. It is a lot different looking at Street images and thinking how cool it would be to capture the lifestyle and flavors of the city and wondering about equipment ... than actually doing so.

Which is why I asked the OP if he could share some of his influences or examples of what he would like to accomplish.

 

[Gary A.]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Nah, you make good points. We are all going of our own view of what street photography would mean to us and give advice on that experience. Some people do want the long lens and try not to be noticed. Others want to be up close. The OP has not given more examples of what he would like. So we are just throwing advice out there.

As this will be a new experience for the OP, he may not know what type of images he is after or the desired experience he could expect. It is a lot different looking at Street images and thinking how cool it would be to capture the lifestyle and flavors of the city and wondering about equipment ... than actually doing so.

Which is why I asked the OP if he could share some of his influences or examples of what he would like to accomplish.

Yes Leo, you are always right.

 

[limr]

O.K., then never mind.

Please ignore posts #2, 7, & 9 as I have been outnumbered.

Instead of deleting my posts, I will leave them here so the people who know better than I what you want will have something to gloat over as your photography career advances.

Nah, you make good points. We are all going of our own view of what street photography would mean to us and give advice on that experience. Some people do want the long lens and try not to be noticed. Others want to be up close. The OP has not given more examples of what he would like. So we are just throwing advice out there.

As this will be a new experience for the OP, he may not know what type of images he is after or the desired experience he could expect. It is a lot different looking at Street images and thinking how cool it would be to capture the lifestyle and flavors of the city and wondering about equipment ... than actually doing so.

Which is why I asked the OP if he could share some of his influences or examples of what he would like to accomplish.

Yes Leo, you are always right.

It's about damn time someone recognized that

 

[The_Traveler]

The first questiuon is - have you done street photography?

That is a fairly niche field, perhaps because it takes both a certain kind of nerve to shoot up close and it takes a certain 'eye' to see and capture stuff that is meaningful
I have always used a 24-70 (or its equivalent); I don't buy into the need for an ultra closeup with distortion to validate an image as a street photo and I want a bit of versatility when I'm out.

Street photography is defined by the photo and the focal length or presence/absence of bokeh it irrelevant (imo).
I want pictures that say something or cause the viewer to think and aren't just grain and distortion.

 

[Derrel]

Examples of the desired types of images could help in selecting the right camera and lens..."street" might mean that camera-in-the-face style of Eric Kim, or it might mean from farther away, Gary Winogrand style,etc..

Hard to say what the best is...some people like that wide-angle, close-in look, which I personally seldom like, and yet on some pictures , being very close to the scene is a great way to show things. Some photos are shot from farther back, and seem more voyeuristic, more "dispassionate observer" style, which is what I prefer. Some "street" involves showing people reacting to the camera (Kim's work, for example, often features this) from close-up; other people like to show people unaware of the camera, or from longer distances, with longer lenses. I like the latter style. I like seeing "telephoto glimpses" of street and city life. For that, the longer lenses work best.

Lotta cameras out there to choose from! I would NOT rule out a good cellphone camera for some situations. Seriously. Fuji X-series, small compacts from Olympus or Sony, the Canon PowerShot G-series models, all pretty nice machines; a good deal of war zone work has been done with these "amateur" cameras by a select few modern journalists who want to look NOT like photographers or war correspondent photographers, so I would not under-estimate the power of a cellphone camera or a point and shoot type or at least a P&S-sized camera to help you blend in more than if you had a big, black, d-slr.

I think mirrorless or "consumer-type" cameras help many people feel less-threatened than big, black, pro-sized cameras.

 

[fmw]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get more serious about my photography and I'm not sure what kind of camera/lens to get. My budget is up to 1000.- USD for both a camera and lenses. I'm going to use it mostly for street photography.

I have couple of questions:

1. On a crop frame camera, which lens is better to use for street photography? 55mm f/1.8 or 85mm f/1.8? From what I understood when doing the research, aperture is very important for street photography and that bokeh effect. Is 1.8 good enough? Going to 1.4 makes the price jump like crazy, not sure that's necessary.

If you are stuck with just one lens then 35mm would probably be more useful. You can crop where necessary. Personally I pay no attention to bokeh at all. Never enters my mind. If it is important to you then look for lenses with more aperture leaves.

2. Is there a difference between picture quality when using 55mm and 85mm lens assuming I move closer with the 85mm lens?

Nothing to worry about. Single focal length lenses are excellent performers. Hopefully execellent is good enough for you.

3. I am thinking about getting a Nikon D5300 (or similar) body and Nikkor 55mm or 85mm f/1.8. Is that a good idea/combo for street photography? Would Canon equivalents be better?

Both are more than fine. Buy whatever appeals to you. All of them will do outstanding photography. The outstanding part is up to you, not the camera.