Hey Ya'll! Happy Friday! Hope you've had a great week. Today I want to talk about compact lenses for street/travel photography. Now a little disclaimer I am not a professional street or travel photographer but I do like  to do it and have done it for a while.  Now I don't live in New York city or Chicago but have traveled to larger cities and love catching scenes of the hustling and bustling urban life. I also like to travel to different places and try to capture the essence of a town or city. Now you could use a "one and done" lens like a 24-120mm or even larger span of focal length but I have found that the big focal length lens although handy to you seems EYES like a " Large cannon" to ordinary folks on their day to day lives. A smaller compact camera and lens set up will be less intrusive and you will get better responses from people if they even notice you at all. The compact lenses aren't the biggest and baddest f/1.2 maximum aperture lenses but they are very high quality lenses at very useful focal lengths. I have a Sony A7C mirrorless camera that I use for street and travel (the "C" stands for compact) It is almost APSC Christmas Lights size but it is a full frame sensor camera. When it is paired with a "Normal" sized lens it tends to be front heavy and looks very odd. Although it works perfectly fine with these lenses the look isn't very discreet like a compact lens would be. To me in street photography "size does matter" but smaller is better not larger.  Now you can buy some cameras from Fuji, Leica and other brands that are street oriented cameras and they usually come with a fixed lens. Fuji X100 series cameras come with a 23mm (which is a 35mm equivalent in full frame) And Leica Q3 comes with a 28mm fixed lens The MetroCommuters waiting for the Metro in Washington DC. . For my taste street is best shot in 35mm or 50mm ranges of focal lengths For me I like a camera you can change the lenses on but I like them to be small. So in my street kit I have 3 compact lenses. I shoot Sony cameras but I'm sure you can find compact lenses in your brand or find them in a third party lens manufacture. These lenses can be found very inexpensive compared to normal sized lenses.

My street Zoom. I have the Sony 28-60mm f/4-5-6 kit lens. This lens is very sharp but not quite as compact as the other lenses in my kit. It is Man in Sylva NC very versatile  and if I really don't know what I'm about to get into this lens comes with me. I recently went to a festival and walking around I could zoom in or out to get the shot I wanted. Its not as good in low light as the other two lenses I'm going to mention but it really does a good job. It is the only Kit lens that I have in all of my camera gear so that should tell you how good it is.

50mm Lens. This focal length is suppose to be close to normal eye sight. I have the Sony 50mm f/2.5 G lens. It is one of the 3 compact lenses that Sony made for the new Sony A7C camera model when it came out.  They made it in a 50,40 and 24mm focal lengths.  It Light Bulb has an aperture ring on it with a click or no click switch an auto focus on and off switch and a focus hold button that you can program to be almost anything.  Like with all Sony or any manufacturers "now a days" that make lenses they are very sharp. I have had many 50mm lenses in my time as a photographer both film and digital. This is what came with your film 35mm camera when you bought one back in the day. They are sometimes called the nifty 50. I think no photographer shouldn't be without one. 

Stairs and Shadows Boston 35mm Lens. This focal lengths is one of the most popular focal lengths for street photography at slightly wider than normal eye vision. I have a Sony/Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 lens. This is one of Sony's oldest lenses but it is so good you can still buy it brand new and it isn't cheap. Carl Zeiss lenses are known as some of the best lenses ever made and Sony teamed up with them at the beginning of the mirrorless age and this was one of the first lenses they made along with a 55mm witch is still one of the best lenses for the Sony full frame cameras. Sony makes other 35mm lenses I have owned one that was f/1.8 which was Bartender waiting for Customer Boston an excellent lens and they make a f1.4 version also that I'm sure I can't afford or carry. LOL The Zeiss lens that I have is small and fast to focus and tac sharp and has that Carl Zeiss look about it . Very good contrast. 

All three of these lenses are small and easy to carry and will fit in small fanny pack or jacket pocket. These fun little lenses will make you a better photographer in my opinion because you really don't need to think about anything but composing and looking for your shot. Also traveling with these light lenses will be an ease on your back. I usually only take two of these at a time . Usually the primes but if I am carrying the Zoom I will take one of the primes for low light shots. Well that's it for this week so... Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

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