Thoughts on focal lengths for the street.

[Lauffray]

I agree with the OP, I always found wide angle street shots less than satisfactory, don't know exactly why though.
I never tried 35mm I don't know if I'd be comfortable with that, I did try 20mm and 75mm and I hated both. For 20mm I pretty much had to stick my camera in the subject's face and I'm not really an agressive "in your face" type shooter, 75 on the other hand was way too far.
50mm right now is the perfect balance, though i'm not ruling out the 35 just yet

 

[emraphoto]

some 35 mm

What a lovely and very classic feeling photograph! Nice job.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Looking at some old stuff from twenty or thirty years ago, I have to admit that some of my best candids were taken with a TLR, small aperture, pre-focus, a casual downward glance into the finder and near silent shutter!....mmm! anyone have an old Rolliecord to spare? 🙂
Dave.

 

[le vrai rdu]

I am going back to TLR after a small period with medium format SLR (with prism)

I missed too much the feeling of wlf and the ergonomy of tlr, the kind of "child point of view " it gives

my minolta autocord is waiting for me at the post office 🙂

 

[Roberto V.]

I use 28, 50 and 85. Can't decide on one.

 

[Ted2001]

I was never successful at street photography until I got a Contax G2 and preferred carrying the 28 and 90 or 35. The 28 just feels natural to me in the street.

I'm now shooting a D90 with 16-85 (24-124 equivalent) zoom and find that most shots on the street are at 24-35mm (equivalent).

 

[40oz]

I prefer a 40 or 50mm lens. But that's just me. The 40 is great for inside and includiong more of a scene, building facades, things like that. The 50 is great for isolating the subjects, capturing what I think of as "what I see."

 

[andredossantos]

Looking at some old stuff from twenty or thirty years ago, I have to admit that some of my best candids were taken with a TLR, small aperture, pre-focus, a casual downward glance into the finder and near silent shutter!....mmm! anyone have an old Rolliecord to spare? 🙂
Dave.

A TLR is by far my preferred camera for people shots. People just don't notice and if they do I find that for whatever reason the wlf isn't as "threatening".