[I hope you will choose to participate in voting for your camera of choice.
The results of this poll are going to be considered and published in my next book.]
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I imagine some photographers will find it difficult to pick their favorite camera for street photography but whatever it might be, the selection will be especially diverse.
Common sense dictates that the camera is compact, light, quiet and fast, though I’m sure this is not always the case. Most photographers will probably select the camera based on the desired appearance and quality of the final images. And besides, photographers can be quite a fussy crowed and often become rather attached to their camera regardless of its adaptability to the streets.
Having some experience with street photography and shooting a variety of SLRs, rangefinders, box and toy cameras, I would have quite a difficult time choosing one favorite camera.
Generally speaking, I find SLR’s are especially demanding of my undivided attention and in addition they can be quite heavy cameras.
TLR & box cameras are often complicated to operate and just like toy cameras they can be fairly unreliable. In addition toy and box camera’s manual winding is a definite drawback if you want to keep up with the pace of the streets.
Rangefinders, though posses most of the ideal attributes, they sometimes turn out poorly focused images and sadly not everybody can appreciate this trait 
As far as digital cameras go, I can only assume there is no wrong camera for street photography and that most digitals can get the job done and with rather decent results.
But what do I know?
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Sigma DP1 is bombtastic for street photos! Very small, discreet and has a Foveon lense the size of a DLSR.
Foveon sensor, I mean, and a wide angle lense the size of a DLSR>
je trouve que la toy-camera (j’ai un holga) est moins agressif pour les gens dans la rue, et ils se laissent plus facilement photographier
thanks David. its quite expensive for a compact but I guess the price is in the sensor
can you share any images taken with this camera?
Olivier, I agree. I think people just assume I’m a weirdo who’s pretending she’s taking pictures
I find that using my Canon Powershot S90 in the street is much easier and practical than my EOS 40D.
Once set in manual focus, there is no significant shutter lag, you can set the zoom automatically in either 28mm, 35mm or 50mm, and doesn’t get many attention from people…
I’m sure there must be better options out there, but from my personal experience, it works fine.
Hi,
does an Olympus E-P1 qualify as a digital rangefinder?
(Using it with the pancake and an optical viewfinder)
Regards,
Michael
I’ve been using a Canon G11 and Voigtlander Bessa R for street photography lately. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I’m actually selling all of my DSLR equipment. I have no interest in keeping up with the consumerism and defective by design philosophy of DSLRs and mega-corporations.
I generally have some kind of camera with me when I am on the “streets”. I prefer my Konica-Minolta D7 DSLR with a zoom. But when I do not have it I use my wife’s purse camera (Canon) or my iPhone camera. “Poor focused images”? Sometimes the blur makes the Photo! And sometimes I take the slightly out of focus image and Photoshop it into a “watercolor” or a “vintage” style shot.
Any camera that doesn’t look too professional will work for street photography. That means no long lenses and no big cameras like the full frame DSLRs.
I use my Nikon D40X for street photography. Because it doesn’t look like a pro-camera I’m left alone to do as I please. It has a zoom lens but if I had the money I would use a fix focal length lens like the 24mm. A 24mm on the DX camera is equal to a 35mm lens on a full frame DSLR. I always thought the 35mm lens on my Nikon F was the perfect setup. Even using my zoom lens the focal length is almost always set to 24mm.
Even the way you dress will help in giving people the idea that you aren’t a threat. This means no camera vests and those big camera backbacks.
Being a woman gives you the added advantage of being completly ignored. Really no woman could be a professional photographer, right?
In short don’t look like a professional.
on the contrary Joh. Do you really think a blond with a camera is going to be ignored? I don’t think so
In fact I get a lot of smiles, waves, peace signs, remarks, smart a** comments and quite often guys pose for me and ask me to take their picture.
So I’m not ignored, but you are right; people don’t question a woman with a camera and seeing her taking pictures definitely does not generate any suspicion or uneasiness.
I don’t understand the fascination with the ‘rangefinder’ cameras. I think if you had put ‘film’ in front of rangefinder as you had put ‘digital’ in front of the other rangefinder on the list and put ‘digital rangefinder’ and ‘film rangefinder’ next to each other on the list the findings would have been different.
The best camera to have is the one that you are carrying at the time. I collect film cameras, and I even have a DSLR, but I like to use the Nikon F100 for most of what I do. Together with a 28-85mm AFNikkor, it is just about the best combination you can have. Fast AF. Spot-on metering. Durable. These days you can pick one up for about a fourth of what they sold for retail just a few years ago. The Nikkor zoom has any focal length you could need for street shooting in a compact package. I also carry a lensbaby just in case.
Aside from the ideal, I have taken great images with a Yashica 35 Electro GSN. Very light and quiet. You can still get batteries if you use the A544 battery adapter that yashica-guy.com sells. For heavy-lifting, nothing beats the image quality of a Mamiya M645 with an f/1.9 80mm lens. I got a lot of shots around Washington DC carrying one.
I’ve been using a Canon G9 for a while now. It has limitations and I generally don’t use the zoom but I’ve had some fair results up to 800 ISO. Printing them may be telling as they’ve been restricted to the screen so far.