Point and Shoot camera for street photography

[ongakublue]

Hi everyone

I posted another thread there about getting a Nikkormat. It's more for general use. Here I am looking for a small camera for street photography. A ''point and shoot'' with a decent prime lens. 28mm, 35mm would be preferred but 50mm would also be fine. I don't want a zoom. I don't want it to be too loud and I would love if there was any kind of manual control. I know point and shoots are mostly fully automatic but there might be something with aperture priority or something. Budget is ... small Cheers.

 

[tokam]

If you were in Australia I'd give you a Canon T50. Closest thing to a point and shoot SLR. Mount your choice of wide angle lens and away you go. This camera should definitely match your budget.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Nikon 28 or 35Ti, but... it isn't in your budget.

So, maybe something for the 60s or 70s like an Olympus 35 RC or an RD or if you are stretched on the budget maybe an Olympus Trip 35?

 

[klownshed]

I love my Olympus XA-2 for this kind of thing. Not aperture priority but you can favour large apertures by using a slow film and vice versa ;-).

Whisper quiet, very good 35mm lens, small and durable. And not too pricey (unlike the XA). Perfect.

 

[tedr1]

Olympus XA, 35/2.8, aperture priority, direct viewfinder with rangefinder focusing, tiny, quiet, a pleasure to use.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Olympus-X...929584?hash=item28356b80b0:g:zwkAAOSwPh5ZJysB

 

[ac12]

I used a Nikon AF compact, with a 35mm lens.
It used AA batteries, so no hassles with difficult to find batteries.
But it is a P&S, no exposure controls.

 

[Paul Howell]

Canon ML, 50 1.8 lens, although total auto it has manual set ISO so you can fool the meter into over and under exposure, also has filter threads so you add 48 mm filters.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

"Point&Shot" means what you are pointing the camera to your subject, (sometimes frame it) and take the image (while camera takes care of the rest).
If you really want true "Point&Shot" experience, classic cameras of this flavor are available. From my experience in street photography the only necessary part to be in control is the flash. But usually most of the true "P&S" will allow you to do this.

These cameras are the cheapest way to get 28mm and wider lens. And lens isn't bad, look for P&S where it is glass lens and with AF.

XA was my street camera for couple of years, before it crapped out. It is not P&S, but if you like to gain confidence this one was helping me a lot with it.

 

[Huss]

Nikonos V. Fantastic 35mm lens. Massive viewfinder. Auto exposure and full manual control. Super quiet. Cheap-ish ($150). Toughest camera ever made. Waterproof.

 

[macfred]

Nikonos V. Fantastic 35mm lens. Massive viewfinder. Auto exposure and full manual control. Super quiet. Cheap-ish ($150). Toughest camera ever made. Waterproof.

... and absolutely inconspicuous ...

Apart from that, the Nikonos system is great. A friend has one for canoe touring and I really love the results.

 

[rpavich]

Nikon 28 or 35Ti, but... it isn't in your budget.

So, maybe something for the 60s or 70s like an Olympus 35 RC or an RD or if you are stretched on the budget maybe an Olympus Trip 35?

I love the trip 35.
No focusing, just leave it on "3 people family" and point at things. Dead silent, light, one handed use.

I'm baffled as to why these aren't more popular for this.

I have an M6 with a Summarit and I prefer my Trip 35's.

 

[Fixcinater]

Trip 35 could be great. Good group with info and results on Flickr. The Oly 35SP has an excellent ~40mm f/1.7 but is firmly rangefinder. The Oly ECN series could be up your alley.

Yashica T2 has a great Zeiss Tessar 35/3.5 lens and isn't as expensive as it's popular, sleeker brothers the T3 and T4/T5. Only manual control on that is flash.

The Nikon A35F is similar in price but no manual control like the Yashica.

Anything with more manual control is going to be more expensive. 35Ti is great, Contax T2 is great but neither are budget unless you get really lucky.

 

[ongakublue]

I love the trip 35.
No focusing, just leave it on "3 people family" and point at things. Dead silent, light, one handed use.

I'm baffled as to why these aren't more popular for this.

I have an M6 with a Summarit and I prefer my Trip 35's.

Yeah this is what I decided to get I think it will do the job fine. I don't understand the asa numbers related to flash though..

 

[seezee]

I've seen the Ricoh GR and its digital descendant, the GR II, recommended by many street photographers.

 

[bvy]

Another vote for the Olympus XA2. Nobody will notice you. See how the bear doesn't notice me.

The XA4 is wider but more expensive. The XA will let you pick your aperture.

 

[~andi]

Ricoh GR1. Fantastic compact. Great optics. There's an 28mm too. Not cheap though. I wish I never sold mine...

 

[Craig75]

another vote for XA2 - great lens, genius design, super quiet, very small, manual iso selector, great build quality, and yours for 20 euros or less.

 

[John Bragg]

Olympus Mju I aka Infinity Stylus. Like an XA2 with autofocus and auto exposure. It can be found a lot cheaper than Mju ii / Stylus Epic and is in some respects a nicer camera.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Yeah this is what I decided to get I think it will do the job fine. I don't understand the asa numbers related to flash though..

I don't think it is something very important for the street. Trip 35 with flash:



Some street work with it:





Good luck with finding working one, I'm sure, you already know how to check it. If you want to keep it working you have to keep lens cap on and take it off before taking picture and then back on it goes. I'm not considering Trip 35 as street camera due to this. It is the trip camera. This is why it has scale in people. For the portraits on the trip...

 

[MattKing]

Yeah this is what I decided to get I think it will do the job fine. I don't understand the asa numbers related to flash though..

They aren't ASA numbers, they are f/stops - the ones you use to expose manually.
The instruction manual is available on Mike Butkus' site. If you use it, I'd suggest sending him his requested donation.

 

[iakustov]

Olympus XA. Being a rangefinder with aperture priority, it is small, light, quiet, and has excellent optics. It is also really cheap (compared to contax point & shoot like T2 or T3), and I got superb results.

 

[klownshed]

For all it's great features, the XA is very pricey at the moment. Also it's a rangefinder, not really very point and shooty.

Whilst the Trip is a wonderful camera, the XA-2 is smaller, lighter, wider lens (35 vs 42) much more robust. The trip does have that lovely f2.8 lens though. And doesn't need batteries. I do love the trip though. It's a lovely camera and capable of fantastic photos.

The mju-i is very underrated compared to the (insanely priced) ii. It has a motor drive so isn't the quietest. The flash tends to want to fire most of the time too. But it's the very definition of point and shoot. It's also very cheap compared to all the others listed and takes great photos.

The AF-10 is similar and also very cheap. It's bigger than the mju-1 (but still quite small), otherwise very similar in spec.

The clamshell designs of the XA, XA-2. Mju-i and AF-10 are great. Chuck one in a bag and go. They're well made and very durable and all have excellent lenses.

 

[rpavich]

Yeah this is what I decided to get I think it will do the job fine. I don't understand the asa numbers related to flash though..

This is how the camera works.
Normal operation; you leave the cameras setting on the red "A" and only choose your focusing distance: 1 meter (one person/half body) 1.5 meters (two people/half body) 3 meters (family of 3 in red) or the "anything past 20 feet or more" setting which is the mountain icon.

That's it. The camera chooses the aperture and shutter speed and it does a remarkably good job at it.

When you want to use flash, you take the camera off of "A" setting and use the flash by calculating the distance and power for each f/stop by the guide number of the flash.

I found that it was better to just know a few distances rather than try and invent the wheel so I worked out the 1.5m distance at f/8 and f5.6 and the 3m at the same apertures. Those are the situations I'd be likely using flash which basically is people portraits at close range.

There's a great Oly trip group on facebook also.

If you need more info about getting good focus, just PM me.

 

[rpavich]

PS: to my post above. I'd recommend going to Dead Link Removed for your trip. That ensures that you get one that's 100% working correctly. There are some quirks to these cameras and they frequently need attention to make them work like they should.

The other place to get one is on ebay from this guy:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fully-Servi...886351?hash=item2cbf7831cf:g:gXMAAOSwhvFZHeUu

He strips them down 100% to the chassis and redoes EVERYTHING.


To me it's worth the peace of mind.

 

[bvy]

For all it's great features, the XA is very pricey at the moment. Also it's a rangefinder, not really very point and shooty.

That's not quite right. The XA has a rangefinder. Like the numbered XA's (XA2, XA4, etc.) it also has the distance markings on the camera for zone focusing, so in that sense, it's as much a point and shoot as the others. I find the rangefinder hard to use and, on my model, not very accurate.

It is getting expensive. I got mine free on Craigslist some time back, one of my luckier scores.