Street photography is often done with one or two focal lengths — at least most of it is. Since the beginning, photographers have loved the 50mm focal length. But many others have also really adored the 35mm. Still, others go even wider at times and recently, photographers have reached for the 85mm lens. But no matter what, it’s really all about how you use the lens. So we’re choosing some of the best lenses for street photography in this roundup.
This blog post is presented in partnership with LUMIX.
Table of Contents
How We Test and Choose the Best Lenses for Street Photography
- The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
- If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
- When we test lenses, we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the lens and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that lens in a variety of situations. If the lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others.
- In this specific roundup, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.
Our Choice Amongst the Best Lenses for Street Photography: LUMIX 35mm f1.8
For street photography, our choice will pretty much always be the LUMIX 35mm f1.8 lens. It’s weather resistant, fast to focus, has an f1.8 aperture, and so much more. When paired with the S5II and S5IIx, it can also make image quality that looks like film. If you’re curious about this, you should check out our guide.
Tech Specs
These specs are taken from the Lensrentals listing.
35mm-Equivalent Focal Length | 22x |
Angle of View | 63° |
Aperture Blades | 9, Rounded |
Aspherical Elements | 3 |
Autofocus | Autofocus |
Brand | Panasonic |
Dimensions | ø x L: 2.9 × 3.2″ |
Extra Low-Dispersion Elements | 3 |
Filter Size | 67.0mm |
Focal Length | 35.0-35.0 |
Groups/Elements | 9/11 |
Hood Included | Yes |
Image Stabilization | No |
Item Type | Lens |
Lens Type | Wide Angle |
Max Aperture | 1.8 |
Mfr. Model Number | S-S35 |
Minimum Aperture | 22.0 |
Minimum Focusing Distance | 0.8’ |
Mount | L Mount |
Weight | 0.7 lb. |
In our review, we state:
While this lens is plastic, LUMIX says it is dust and splash-resistant, as well as being rated for shooting 10 degrees below zero. I took this lens hiking in the snow to photograph ice caves and frozen waterfalls. The snow was falling hard enough to build up between the dials on the S5 body. But, I didn’t experience any issues with the lens shooting in the snowfall. I didn’t find any internal fogging or moisture. There was some slight dust on the camera sensor, which could possibly be attributed to swapping lenses.
Three Others You Might Consider to be The Best Lenses for Street Photography
In this list of our favorite lenses for street photography, we always take one good zome lens with us. But on the side, we also bring a solid prime lens. Bring one of these with you just in case you need to shoot in low light or want a shallow depth of field.
LUMIX 50mm f1.8
In our review we state:
It can offer nice bokeh, beautiful color, and sharpness. It doesn’t have character per se, but it also doesn’t exhibit anything that folks these days would consider to be flaws.
50mm f1.4 LUMIX S Pro
In our review, we said:
Now with all heartfelt honesty, the strongest feature of the Panasonic 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Pro is the image quality. Photojournalists, wedding photographers, landscape photographers, portrait photographers and those who just like pixel peeping will admire what the Panasonic 50mm f1.4 Lumix S Pro can do. This lens is so sharp that it makes the Panasonic S1 seem like it’s a higher megapixel camera. Beyond that it has beautiful bokeh, can focus closely, and has no major problems at all. Let’s show you!
LUMIX 24mm f1.8
In our review, we state
This Lumix S 24mm lens is very user-friendly. Attach it to your camera, choose which focusing modes you want to use, and have fun. Its lightweight and compact design make it ideal to put on your camera and leave it for a day hike. If you prefer manual focus, you will appreciate the enlarged focusing area in the viewfinder.
Using This Guide to Best Lenses for Street Photography
If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list of the best lenses for street photography, know the following:
- All the product images and sample photos in these roundups are shot by our staff. In fact, we don’t talk about products at length in roundups like this unless we’ve done full reviews of them. But you can surely know that we’ve done all the research ourselves.
- This list of the best lenses for street photography includes a lot of options for a variety of photographers. We didn’t necessarily feel the need for a longer portrait focal length because a few of the lenses are more than good enough for most needs when it comes to shooting that subject matter. But otherwise, we were focusing on small, lightweight, rugged, and high-performance.
- If you shoot further away, consider the 50mm or 35mm.
- If you shoot closer, try out the 35mm or the 24mm.
- Truly, you could create a whole kit for your Panasonic full-frame camera by buying all these lenses and therefore being all set.
- All of the best lenses for street photography are weather-resistant. In fact, LUMIX has built that feature into all their Lumix S lenses. It means that they’ll last that much longer because they’re so much more durable while being lightweight.
- All of these lenses work well with any L-mount camera.
Picking the Right One For You
If you’re still a bit confused as to the right lens for you, here are some questions to ask yourself
- What’s your budget?
- How will you use the product?
- What lighting situations are you in, and how will that affect what you’re doing? Our reviews hyperlinked in this article can help with that.
- Are you traveling a lot with it?
- Will you be using it in a situation that’s a bit rougher?
- Who else uses this product? How are they using it?
- What’s so appealing about this product that I can’t get from what I have already or something else?
- When will I really have time to use this product?
- Where will I bring this product?
- How will this product help bring me joy and joy in my photography?
These are just a few of the questions that we ask ourselves, but we think that you should ask yourself these for sure.