Which camera and lens for street photography? 28, 35 or 50mm

My Fujifilm X100V almost feels like an extension of my arm now. That’s not an advert. It’s just what happens when you take a camera everywhere for long enough. Eventually, you stop thinking about it. And I think that’s exactly what you want from a camera for street photography.

Still, plenty of questions about street photography are really about kit. Which camera, which lens, is my camera good enough? I understand those questions. I just think the answer is shorter than a lot of people hope.

In this article:

• What a street camera needs
• Prime or zoom
• Which lens for street photography: 28, 35 or 50mm
• Crop factor briefly explained
• Compact cameras with a fixed lens
• A mirrorless camera with a small lens
• Your phone is fine
• Buying second-hand
• What you don’t need
• Small things that do help
• Where I would start

What a street camera needs

On the street, you’re working with people who won’t wait for you. Someone walks on, turns round, disappears behind a bus. Your camera needs to stay out of your way. Keeping the list short, I’d look for a few things.

Small. A small camera comes with you. A big camera stays at home when you’re just popping out for groceries, which is exactly when something happens. If it fits in your coat pocket or a small bag, you’ll have it with you more often. For me, this matters most.

Quiet. There’s no rule against a loud shutter, but it attracts attention. The less noise you make, the fewer people notice you’re there. Many modern cameras have a silent mode. Have a look to see whether yours does too.

Quick. I don’t mean it needs to take twenty photos a second. I mean it switches on quickly, lets you change the main settings without digging through menus and does what you expect. Zone focusing makes a camera quicker too, incidentally. I’ll come back to that.

Unobtrusive. To most people, a small camera looks like a tourist’s camera. Nobody thinks much of it. A big camera with a hefty lens soon looks like you’re working. Then people start wondering who you’re taking photos for.

Comfortable to hold. It sounds vague, but it matters more than you might think. If a camera feels good in your hand, you’ll take it with you more often and reach for it sooner. So go to a shop and hold a few cameras before you buy anything. A specification sheet tells you absolutely nothing about that.

Then there’s the question of looking through a viewfinder or at a screen. That’s personal. A viewfinder shuts out the world for a moment, leaving you with just your frame. A screen lets you keep an eye on your surroundings and makes it less obvious that you’re taking photos. Try both. You’ll soon notice which suits you.

Prime or zoom

My advice: start with a prime lens. That means a lens with a fixed focal length, one that doesn’t zoom in or out.

That sounds like a limitation, and it is. That’s precisely why it works. With a zoom lens, you stand still and turn the ring until everything fits. With a prime, you have to move yourself. A step forwards, a step sideways, bend your knees a little. You learn much faster what fits in your frame, even while your camera is still in your bag. After a while, you can see what would be in your photo before you lift the camera.

It’s on my Street photography checklist too: one camera and one lens are often enough. I’ve written about it before in my street photography tips, in the lesson about choosing one lens. It gives you fewer decisions to make. And every decision you don’t have to make leaves more room to look.

There’s nothing wrong with a zoom lens, by the way. If you already have one, you can set it to one focal length and leave it there for the day. Put a bit of tape on it if you need to. That’s the cheapest prime lens you’ll ever own.

Which lens for street photography: 28, 35 or 50mm

The focal lengths below assume a full-frame camera. If you have a smaller sensor, read the section on crop factor further down too.

For most street photography, 35 or 50mm works well. 28mm is a popular third option. Then there’s 40mm, for those who can’t decide. There’s no right or wrong choice. But it does affect how your photos look and how you work.

28mm: close up with plenty of context

With 28mm, you get a lot of the surroundings in the frame. That’s useful when you want to show people in their setting: the street, the buildings, the square. The drawback, or the advantage, is that you have to get close. At 28mm, someone a few metres away can soon become a tiny figure.

Getting that close can be nerve-racking. If you’re still struggling with it, have a read of my article on finding the confidence to photograph on the street. Once you get used to that distance, you can make photos that put the viewer right in the middle of what’s happening. You almost never get that feeling with a longer lens.

Watch the edges. A wide-angle lens stretches things a little at the sides of your photo. A head in the corner can end up looking odd. Keep your main subject a little closer to the centre, or use the effect deliberately.

35mm: the all-rounder

If you have to choose one lens without knowing what you’re looking for, I’d go for 35mm. Wide enough for context, narrow enough to make one person the main subject. It’s reasonably close to the way you look around when you’re not concentrating on anything in particular.

35mm is forgiving too. You don’t have to get quite as close as you do with 28mm, and you can fit more in than with 50mm. It’s a useful focal length for zone focusing, because a moderate aperture gives you plenty of depth of field. You can read how that works in my article on street photography settings.

50mm: a little more distance

With 50mm, you stand a little further from your subject. You get less of the surroundings in the frame and can more easily isolate one person or detail. A face, hands, a bag, a dog looking up.

Some people feel more comfortable with 50mm because they don’t have to get so close. That’s true, though it’s no hiding place. You’re still standing in the street with a camera. The difference compared with 35mm is smaller than it looks on paper.

What 50mm does make harder is working with layers. Getting a foreground, middle ground and background into one photo is easier with a wider lens. With 50mm, your photos often become less busy and a little more graphic. That’s a choice too.

40mm as a middle ground

40mm sits between 35 and 50mm. If you find one too wide and the other too tight, this is often where you end up. It’s less common, but some cameras deliberately use it. More on those in a moment.

How do you choose?

Have a look at your own photos. Most cameras record the focal length you used. If you shoot with a zoom and keep ending up around the same focal length, you probably have your answer.

You can also test it with a zoom lens. Set it to 28mm for a week and head out onto the street for a little while each day. The following week, try 50mm. Then see which photos you most enjoy looking back at. They might not be from the week that felt easiest.

And if you really can’t decide, go for 35mm. After a few months, you’ll know whether you want to be further away or closer.

Crop factor briefly explained

Most people don’t shoot with a full-frame camera. Many cameras have a smaller sensor, known as a crop sensor. It sees a smaller portion of what the lens projects. That makes a lens seem ‘longer’ than the number written on it.

For most crop sensors, you multiply by roughly one and a half. So a 23mm lens on one of these cameras gives you roughly the same view as 35mm on full frame. An 18mm lens comes out at about 28mm. And a lens of around 33mm gives you the feel of 50mm.

That’s mainly useful when you’re buying a lens. Check the camera shop’s description or a review to see whether the focal length given is the actual focal length or the full-frame equivalent. Compact camera manufacturers often quote the equivalent, because that’s easier for most people to understand.

Ultimately, you want to know what your photo will look like and how close you’ll need to get. The number on the lens helps you work that out.

Compact cameras with a fixed lens

There’s a type of camera that seems almost made for street photography: a compact camera with a fixed lens you can’t change. So there’s no lens decision to make either. You have one focal length, and that’s what you work with.

At the time of writing, these cameras are a common sight in street photography.

Fujifilm X100VI. The successor to the X100V I use myself. I’m not going to copy out a list of specifications here. Fujifilm is a better place to find those. What I can say about my X100V is that it’s small, it goes everywhere with me and I no longer think about it when I pick it up. The X100VI builds on the same idea. I don’t really need a camera to do much more.

Ricoh GR IV. A very small camera with a 28mm lens, in full-frame equivalent terms. It really does fit in a trouser pocket. GR cameras have long been popular with street photographers, precisely because they’re so unobtrusive.

Ricoh GR IIIx. The same idea, but with 40mm. That middle ground between 35 and 50mm I mentioned earlier.

These cameras are small, and you don’t have to think about them. The drawback is that you’re tied to one focal length. I happen to see that as an advantage. If you want to know which models are currently available and exactly what they can do, check with the manufacturer or a camera shop. I use Fujifilm myself, and I’d rather talk about what I know than copy things out.

A mirrorless camera with a small lens

Alongside the X100V, I also have a Fujifilm X-T5. That’s a mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. A camera like that is a little bigger than a compact, but you have more choice.

For street photography, the lens makes the difference. Put a big zoom lens on your mirrorless camera and suddenly you’ve got a hefty piece of kit round your neck. With a small prime lens, the whole camera looks a lot less imposing.

A pancake lens is the clearest example. It’s a very flat lens that barely sticks out. Many brands have one or more in their range, often with a focal length that works out at around 35 or 40mm. See what’s available for your brand. The advantage is that you can use the same camera for other things simply by changing the lens.

Already have a mirrorless camera? Then you probably don’t need to buy a new camera. A small, light prime lens is often enough to make it much better suited to the street.

Your phone is fine

I mean it. A smartphone is a perfectly good camera for street photography. You always have it with you, nobody gives it a second thought and the quality is more than good enough for most uses.

You can join my street photography workshops with your phone too. A prime lens between 28 and 50mm on full frame is fine, and a phone works as well. The exercises are about looking. You don’t need an expensive camera for that.

There are a few things to watch out for. The standard lens on most phones is quite wide. So, just as with 28mm, you need to get close. Pinching to zoom usually reduces the quality of your photo, because the phone starts cropping. Better to take a step closer.

Also check whether your phone can save RAW files. That gives you more room to work when editing afterwards.

The funny thing is that you sometimes photograph things with a phone that you wouldn’t dare to with a proper camera. People see you as someone typing a message. Whether that’s an advantage is up to you.

Buying second-hand

A camera doesn’t have to be new to work for street photography. Cameras last a long time, and a model that’s a few years old still takes perfectly good photos. You can often find good ones on Marktplaats and at camera shops that sell second-hand kit.

I’d check a few things: how many photos the camera has taken, whether the lens is clean and whether all the buttons and dials work. That first one is called the shutter count. Ask about it. Ideally, buy from a shop that offers a warranty, or ask whether you can try the camera.

Buying second-hand is also a good way to try a focal length. An older, small prime lens often doesn’t cost much. If it doesn’t work for you, sell it on.

What you don’t need

Allow me to be a little opinionated here.

A big zoom lens. I understand the thinking: you can do everything. But you also end up trying everything. You stay where you are and turn the ring. Your photos often start to look alike as a result. Meanwhile, your camera becomes heavy and conspicuous.

A telephoto lens. This lets you photograph people from a long way away. That produces different photos. You can see the distance in them, as though you’re looking through binoculars. Often, what’s missing is precisely what interests me about street photography: feeling, as a viewer, that you’re there.

People also often feel less comfortable when they notice someone zooming in on them from a distance. My article on photographing people in the street covers what is and isn’t legally allowed. That’s one thing. How it feels is another.

Too much kit. A bag full of lenses means a bag full of decisions. Every time you change lenses, you miss what’s happening around you. And after a few hours of walking, your shoulder will notice too.

I once wrote an article called my camera distracts me. It’s about exactly this. The more time you spend fiddling with your kit, the less you look. A camera is a tool, not an end in itself.

And yes, I know the feeling of wanting a new camera. It’s called gear acquisition syndrome, and I think every photographer has had it at some point. It’s a bit like buying running shoes for all the runs you’re planning to go on. The shoes are fine. The running is the point.

Small things that do help

There are a few small things I would always take.

A spare battery. Small cameras often have small batteries. There’s nothing more annoying than a dead camera halfway through an afternoon in the city. A spare battery takes up hardly any space.

A wrist strap. I often prefer a wrist strap to a neck strap on the street. The camera is in your hand, ready to use, rather than hanging round your neck like a medal. You’re less likely to drop it too.

An empty memory card. Format your card at home, not on the street. Start with an empty card and you won’t have to think about it again. A spare card in your coat pocket is never a bad idea either.

That’s about it. No tripod, no flash, no filters. A camera, a lens and comfortable shoes. Those last ones might be the most important thing you buy for street photography.

Where I would start

If you already have a camera, start with that. Set it to one focal length, or choose one prime lens, and head out with it for a few weeks. You’ll learn more from that than from any new camera.

Still unsure whether your kit suits you? We can look at that together in a 1-on-1 workshop. We start with coffee, choose a city together and both take photos. As we go, you’ll see what works with your camera and what doesn’t. You’re welcome to bring a friend for free.

Would you rather head out in a small group, with a maximum of five participants? You can join with any camera, including your phone. View the workshops and choose a city that suits you.