The best focal lengths for street photography tend to range from the low 20s to around 50, and given the ever-increasing popularity of mirrorless cameras, we thought we’d put together a roundup of our ten favorite lenses across systems. Some of these dip below the 20mm mark, but with the crop factor, they’re well within the ideal range. So, if you’re thinking of going mirrorless or have already and want to get into street photography, these are the lenses to consider.
Sony 24mm f1.8 (E-mount)
I’ve fallen in love with the 35mm field of view a while back and this lens renders that view perfectly. It is an absolutely amazing lens with fast focusing capabilities, an all metal build quality, excellent sharpness, terrific color rendition, and the list can go on and on. Pack all of that into a super small and portable package and you’ve got a winner.
Sony 28mm f2 (FE-mount)
Sony’s 28mm f2 is a fantastic lens. It offers great image quality in a small package, but we can’t get over the focusing performance. It isn’t terrible, but it could be better. We expected this lens to be the fastest focusing full frame E mount lens out there due to the wider focal length and light weight. However, it is a bit behind the rest–even the 35mm f1.4 Zeiss. Still though, you’re bound to be able to create incredible images with it no matter what Sony camera you mount it to. With beautiful bokeh, incredible sharpness, and great colors it’s very tough to beat.
Fujifilm 23mm f1.4
Though the Fujifilm 23mm f1.4 is expensive, could be sharper wide open, and faces off against competitors with better bokeh it is being awarded our Editor’s Choice rating. Why? Overall, it is the most versatile lens that you can use for the Fujifilm X series system and we considering to be the single best lens for Street Photography using mirrorless cameras out there. This is due to the autofocus offering and the clearly readable depth of field scale on the lens when shooting with the zone focusing method.
Buy it now: Amazon
Olympus 25mm f1.8
Take a working formula, adapt it to another focal length, make it affordable, and give it kick ass autofocusing skills. Sounds like a winner to us. In fact, the 25mm f1.8 is one of the most affordable and bang for your buck lenses out there for the Micro Four Thirds system. In general, we’re quite impressed with the sharpness, bokeh, fast focusing speed (coupled with accuracy), small size, and the overall feel that it is the single lens that you may want to keep mated to your camera forever.
Sony 35mm f1.4 (FE)
In our review, we state:
The Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4 is a hefty lens with fast autofocusing abilities, beautiful bokeh, sharp image quality, a solid build and a heck of a price tag. It’s a beautiful lens that you’ll never want to put down, but we only recommend it if you’re planning on going pro.
Buy it now: Amazon
Panasonic 15mm f1.7 (MFT)
Our gripes are honestly quite minor about the Panasonic 15mm f1.7, though they’re still there. But those gripes will probably just be ours. Panasonic put out a fantastic product that every Micro Four Thirds owner should get their hands on lest they miss out. This lens focuses super quickly, feels great, is sharp, small, and a perfect lens for any Micro Four Thirds camera due to its compact size. It also keeps the overall package much more low profile–plus it blends in with the retro looks of some of the cameras.
Panasonic 20mm f1.7 (MFT)
In our review, we state:
In our tests, we used the lens a lot on the streets because that’s what we feel it would be best for. When the first lens was released, it became a cult classic amongst street photographers. And when it comes to image quality with this lens, we’re sure that most folks won’t really complain about it if they’re shooting RAW or if they want a very film-like look.
Buy it now: Amazon
Fujifilm 35mm f1.4
When I made the purchase of the X Pro 1, I was torn between the 18mm f2 and this lens. I think I made the right decision due to the faster aperture despite the fact that I like shooting wider. Either way, this lens is a wonderful piece of glass that every photographer going into a mirrorless system should consider.
SLR Magic 23mm f1.7 (Fuji)
In our review, we state:
Being an all manual lens, the SLR Magic 23mm f1.7 does not have autofocusing. Instead they opted for manual focusing. This works best for many true street photography nuts as they can just use the zone focusing style of shooting and capturing subjects. Focusing this lens is wonderfully smooth. In terms of smoothness I’d rate this lens as an overall better experience than Rokinon, Zeiss, Leica and Voigtlander.
Buy it now: Amazon
Sony 35mm 1.8 (E-mount)
In our review, we state:
This lens is fast to focus on the NEX 5R in ideal conditions, which tells us that it will work seamlessly with higher grade cameras. Focusing in low light was only a tad less snappy than in daylight. If you’re looking to use this lens for street photography, it can surely keep up with the best of the best–but I personally recommend switching the lens into manual mode and using the Zone Focusing method to get the best results. Sony has a distance scale and focus peaking that will work well to your advantage when practicing that method.
Buy it now: Amazon
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