STREETWISE LENSES
THE CONTENDERS
Street photography is all about reacting to your environment, anticipating events as they unfold and capturing the definitive moment. More often than not, classic street images will include people set against urban surroundings, photographed candidly as they go about their lives. You’ll therefore need a camera and lens combination you can use fairly discreetly, which enables you to shoot with next to no setup time.
With all this in mind, 35mm prime lenses for full-frame cameras have been the most popular option over the years. They give a comfortably wide viewing angle and a natural perspective, while avoiding any time lost to zooming in and out. More perversely, manual focus lenses have traditionally been very popular, as you can set the focus distance in advance and shoot instantly without any fear of autofocus delays causing you to miss the shot. We’ll look at different focusing techniques on the following pages. Even so, current Canon cameras can autofocus with such speed and reliability that manual focusing merely an option rather than a necessity.
The focal length and type of lens you’ll need depends on the camera used. We’ve rounded up the best options for EOS M, EOS R and both APS-C and full-frame formats of EOS DSLRs. Naturally, on EOS M mirrorless cameras as well as APS-C format DSLRs, a 22mm or 24mm lens will give about the same effective focal length and viewing angle as using a classic 35mm lens on a full-frame body.
CANON EF-M 22MM F/2 STM
£195/$230
This pancake lens is a perfect fit for street photography with an EOS M body
Thanks to the 1.6x crop factor of APS-C format EOS M bodies, the 22mm focal length of this lens equates to 35.2mm in full-frame terms. It gives the same 63-degree viewing angle as using a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera, which is perfect for street photography. Despite having a fairly fast f/2 aperture rating, the ‘pancake’ design enables it to be the smallest and most lightweight lens in the group, at just 61x24mm and 105g.
Given the downsized build of EOS M bodies, the overall camera and lens combination is particularly stealthy, especially when composing shots on the rear screen, rather than raising the camera to your eye. Indeed, some EOS M models don’t have viewfinders anyway. The STM (Stepping Motor) autofocus system is quick and very quiet, and manual focusing benefits from an optional focus peaking display, featured in all current EOS M cameras.
