1bwana1 wrote:
Why not give him the classic street photography experience of fully manual shooting. It does change how you see and how you shoot. Pick a lens like one of the the vintage Nikons or a Voigtlander or Zeiss lens that is optimized for this type of shooting.
So what specific budget-friendly camera/lens setup would you recommend for a novice street photographer to get the classic street photography experience?
RoamingScott wrote:
I don't see much value in wide angles for this application, and I'd think anything wider than 35mm equivalent would be too wide.
Actually 28mm is a very popular FL for street shooting. I use it a lot. Learning to compose with position by using you feet is an important part of street photography. I would recommend a fast (f/1.5 +-) manual lens as the most versatile, best starting lens.
RoyCh wrote:
Hello friends and fellow photographers
This is for my son who is extremely interested in street and candid photography. He mainly uses my old D90 coupled with my AF-D 50mm lens or AF-S 55-200 Dx lens. Sometimes he uses my D7200 with the same lens. I am planning to gift him a lens for his photographic journey, and together we have short-listed the following.
AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.8 G ED
AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8 G ED
AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.8 G
AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 G ED
AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 D
AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 D
AF Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 D
AF Nikkor 35mm f/2 D
20mm f/2.8 Nikkor
It would be a great help if the members here may comment on these lenses and point me to the best possible lens, keeping the price in mind.
Shotokan wrote:
So what specific budget-friendly camera/lens setup would you recommend for a novice street photographer to get the classic street photography experience?
I think he has the cameras. If he was using a Sony or Leica body I would pick a specific lens as I have shot many of them. With a Nikon mirrorless I could also make a recommendation because you can easily adapt the lenses I know. But it seems he will be using an F mount body, so I can just generally suggest an F-mount version of a Voigtlander, or a fully manual vintage Nikon lens.
Maybe one of the old manual focus Nikon guys can make a specific suggestion. There is a manual focus Nikon thread in this forum.
RoyCh wrote:
Thank you so much for sharing the sample images. I shall surely look for it.
As you are using it, do you think that its critical sharpness is as good as the prime lenses that I mentioned?
The manual for the 16-80 states that it's not compatible with the D90. The 16-80 has an electronic aperture and the D90 won't be able to stop it down. But with the shortlist containing focal lengths from 20-35mm, it still might be helpful to get him a cheaper zoom like an 18-55, just so he can try all those focal lengths before settling on a prime.
OffTrail wrote:
The manual for the 16-80 states that it's not compatible with the D90. The 16-80 has an electronic aperture and the D90 won't be able to stop it down. But with the shortlist containing focal lengths from 20-35mm, it still might be helpful to get him a cheaper zoom like an 18-55, just so he can try all those focal lengths before settling on a prime.
so in the end, reality is, shooting street photography can mean many things to many shooters. you can go old school like Weegee and such or you can use all the tech you want and go shoot and get the shot you want with the tools you want to use.
Critical focus. In a photograph, the area of critical focus is the portion of the picture that is optically in focus. This does not relate to depth of field which describes apparent sharpness.
Not sure what makes a good, "street photography" lens, but I would imagine that it would need to be reasonably fast and have a decent range of zoom in order to allow you to keep a distance from your subject. That being said, I recently picked up the Nikon 24-120 Z mount lens go go with my Z9. Great range of focal lengths, and at f/4, it's fast enough for most things I want to shoot. Not as fast as an f/2.8, but it still seems to work well (especially since the Z9 performs well at higher ISO's). For your F mount Nikon, there's an F mount 24-120 f/4 available. Seems like it would be a great choice for you.
actually, the bodies referred to (D90 and D7200) are DX bodies thus the reason i suggested the 16-80 (D7200) and 17-70 (D90) which are 24-120 and 25-105 equivalents on DX
the 24-120 and its DX equivalents have been my standard of usage optics for a pretty long time
Wes_S wrote:
Not sure what makes a good, "street photography" lens, but I would imagine that it would need to be reasonably fast and have a decent range of zoom in order to allow you to keep a distance from your subject. That being said, I recently picked up the Nikon 24-120 Z mount lens go go with my Z9. Great range of focal lengths, and at f/4, it's fast enough for most things I want to shoot. Not as fast as an f/2.8, but it still seems to work well (especially since the Z9 performs well at higher ISO's). For your F mount Nikon, there's an F mount 24-120 f/4 available. Seems like it would be a great choice for you....Show more →
Most of the masters of "street photography" that I know of use a zoom lens. All that I can remember used fixed FL manual primes.
1bwana1 wrote:
Most of the masters of "street photography" that I know of use a zoom lens. All that I can remember used fixed FL manual primes.
I don't know about most of masters of street photography but a couple of years ago, I had a chance to meet Steve McCurry while he was on assignment in Bangkok. He pretty much walked around town for his photos using Leica SL2 and 24-90/2.8-4 the whole time. I had Z7 with Noct Nikkor 58/.95 in my hand at the time and he said something along the line of him not using fast prime lens for street anymore as it is too much bother and he does not care about thin dof very much
Thank you all for your kind replies and your time. After reading your replies and discussing them with my son, we have decided
1. Not to go for a DX lens, as if he later upgrades to a FF body, the lens will be necessary to be replaced. In our country, photography equipment is pretty costly and the second-hand market is too nascent to be relied on to get a good price afterwards.
2. Considering the huge population of our country, hence the crowd, the most logical it seems would be to go for 20mm as that will be a 35mm equivalent on Dx bodies.
Thank you all again. If you have any other thoughts, please feel free to share.
You’d want a 24mm if you want a true 35mm equivalent.
RoyCh wrote:
Thank you all for your kind replies and your time. After reading your replies and discussing them with my son, we have decided
1. Not to go for a DX lens, as if he later upgrades to a FF body, the lens will be necessary to be replaced. In our country, photography equipment is pretty costly and the second-hand market is too nascent to be relied on to get a good price afterwards.
2. Considering the huge population of our country, hence the crowd, the most logical it seems would be to go for 20mm as that will be a 35mm equivalent on Dx bodies.
Thank you all again. If you have any other thoughts, please feel free to share....Show more →
I don't think I've ever really done street photography, but (to me) a compact zoom would make a lot of sense. For those of you that HAVE done street photography, correct me if I'm wrong, but this what I think would work best:
Compact physical size. I would think you'd want to carry a rig that doesn't draw too much attention.
A zoom comprising a wide range of focal lengths from wide to medium telephoto. I just think a zoom would provide much more flexibility over a prime.
Reasonably fast. My Nikon 24-120 S f/4 seems like it was made for this kind of scenario.
Again, take this with a grain of salt because I haven't done street photography.
