fbpx
Essentials

Essentials: The Beginning Street Photographer

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/05/2014
4 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (1 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.6

Essentials is a series where we round up specially curated kits for different photographers in different situations. Other items could surely be substituted, but these are what we personally recommend. 

Documenting daily life as it happens can become incredibly addicting. The mere act of capturing an expression or a scene then looking back on it and never seeing that person again is one that can keep you shooting over and over until you capture a moment that you feel is perfect. Now, you can use a ton of different gear to do that, but when you’re really trying to get into street photography there are some selections that are better than others. And if you’re also trying to do this at a more affordable price, we’ve got a couple of suggestions for you.

Olympus OMD EM10

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (2 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

This camera can surely be coined at the low end of the Olympus OMD line of cameras. But it is also the most affordable and packs everything you really need into it. With its 16.3MP Micro Four Thirds sensor, the processor of the OMD EM1 (its high end brother) and borrowing some features from the Pen EP-5, what more could you really want? We don’t see many of you shooting in the rain, but if you’re looking for speedy focusing and reliability in a small size then you’ve got it right here.

Oh right, and an EVF…

Buy Now: Amazon

Olympus 25mm f1.8

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (3 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

Micro Four Thirds users finally have an affordable 50mm equivalent lens. While users have long had the Panasonic 25mm f1.4, Olympus has recently come out with the 25mm f1.8. This lens has almost all the same types of glass as their 45mm f1.8–which is one of the sharpest and most affordable lenses in the system. Overall, there is also the small size and super fast focusing that you’ll experience with it too.

If you’re looking to use the zone focusing method to capture photos though, you’ll need to look elsewhere like at their 12mm f2 or 17mm f1.8 with the snap back focusing ring.

Buy Now: Amazon

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm X100s for street photography (9 of 9)ISO 32001-250 sec at f - 5.6
Pro Tip: At a given aperture, more will be in focus for a Micro Four Thirds camera than with a full frame camera. That’s because of the 2x crop factor. In terms of depth of field, f2 on Micro Four Thirds is the equivalent to f4 on full frame. Just take an aperture and go two stops down to figure out the conversion rate.

Sigma 30mm f2.8

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (4 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

There are some times where you’ll feel you’ll want more reach. For sessions like that, you’ll probably want to reach for the Sigma 30mm f2.8. It is affordable, small, and pretty damned sharp. Though the company has released an update to the lenses, we don’t really see a reason to go for the newer glass. Instead, save some cash and spring for the older versions.

This lens will be a 60mm equivalent at f5.6 wide open on a Micro Four Thirds camera. There seriously is no point in stopping down if you’re shooting portraits.

Buy Now: Amazon

Pro Tip: The zone focusing system requires using the depth of field scale on your lens. It tells you that at a given distance and when the lens is stopped down at a given aperture, a certain range of subject material will be in focus.
Pro Tip: The zone focusing system requires using the depth of field scale on your lens. It tells you that at a given distance and when the lens is stopped down at a given aperture, a certain range of subject material will be in focus.

Sigma 19mm f2.8

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (5 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

Once you’ve become a bit braver, you’ll opt for a semi-wide focal length. At 19mm this lens will be a 38mm equivalent on a Micro Four Thirds camera. It’s not quite a 35mm equivalent but instead gives you a tad more reach. We’ve used this lens a lot, though it doesn’t focus as snappily as Olympus’s own glass.

For what it’s worth though, you won’t have a single complaint about the image quality: both the bokeh and sharpness are top notch. Like its 60mm brother, we recommend getting the older version.

Buy Now: Amazon

Voigtlander Bessa R

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (6 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

What would this list be without a film camera?

Many of the world’s first photojournalists and street photographers shot with rangefinders. And if you want to get something a bit different, we strongly recommend using a Voigtlander Bessa R and not getting any further into the rangefinder world. For what it’s worth, we’re recommending a screwmount camera because if you go M mount, then you’ll want more lenses and bodies.

Additionally, the Bessa R is a really affordable option that won’t fail you at all.

Buy Now: Check eBay

Zkin Champ Camera Bag

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer The Beginning Street Photogrpaher (7 of 7)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

Sure, it’s a high end camera bag but it looks beautiful and on you it’ll show off that you’ve got a bit of class to you. A bag like tis has a leather and canvas exterior with a mini bag inside complete with dividers. You can store cameras, lenses, and flashes inside. We’ve even been able to stuff a laptop and an iPad in here.

Buy Now: Lomography

Please Support The Phoblographer

We love to bring you guys the latest and greatest news and gear related stuff. However, we can’t keep doing that unless we have your continued support. If you would like to purchase any of the items mentioned, please do so by clicking our links first and then purchasing the items as we then get a small portion of the sale to help run the website.

Also, please follow us on Facebook, Google+, Flickr and Twitter.

25mm f1.8 camera bag lenses olympus sigma street photography Zkin
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
You might also like
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.

Pauleth Ip The Phoblographer Sony FE 24mm f1.4 GM Product Image 3 of 5
Education Learn

Can 24mm Prime Lenses be Used for Street Photography Successfully?

2 Mins read
12/14/2018

Many photographers will tell you that the ideal prime lenses for street photography are 35mm lenses, 40mm lenses, and the trusty 50mm lens. These three lenses are considered to be perfect for street photography because they closely replicate what the human eye sees naturally. Usually you’ll find that anything longer than 50mm just won’t capture enough of a scene to tell a story, while anything wider than 35mm can create images that lack intimacy. Recently photographer and YouTuber Pierre. T Lambert decided to try 24mm prime lenses for street photography. After the jump you can watch the video and can see what he found out.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Peak Design Travel Backpack review product images
Camera bags

Review: Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L (A Most Frustrating Camera Bag)

9 Mins read
11/27/2018

I spent perhaps an hour talking about this review with Imaging Resource’s Jaron Schneider before I even started writing this review for the Peak Design Travel Backpack 45L. We spoke about it amongst ourselves and a number of other journalists on a press trip. In short, none of us like it; in fact the only person that I’ve met who does is a random guy on the plane who seemed a lot like an influencer or part of what I like to call the Peak Design cult. I tend to be harder on Peak Design products because I know that they’re a company that can do better; they hired a designer from Apple for Christ’s sake! They’re a company that consistently hauls in more money than I’ll probably ever see in my life and unfortunately, this ranks up there with the lens swapper as one of the worst products I’ve ever used from Peak Design.