What's Your Favorite Street Photography Camera?

[Pieter12]

Please guys, street photography doesn’t mean being stealthy or like a ghost. What’s the point? Shooting strangers that don’t know you are present is so uninteresting.
What’s the goal of shooting people walking across a store sign, exactly?

As a photographer, you must engage and be engaged. All the “from the hip” and “stealthy” stuff is a mark of amateurism.

IMO.

I guess Cartier-Bresson & Robert Frank, among others, were rank amateurs.

 

[Arthurwg]

First: SWC. Really is a P&S, no need to bring it up to the eye, easy to shoot from waist or chest level. Second: Nikon f100 in full auto mode, 24mm lens. I also did well with my Rollei 35 until I dropped it.

 

[David Reynolds]

I hate to be a smartass, but you're going to have a hard time setting an M3 to f16.

Peter -------All the summicron lenses I use on my M3 all set f16 so I'm not sure what you are talking about

 

[Pieter12]

Peter -------All the summicron lenses I use on my M3 all set f16 so I'm not sure what you are talking about

Giving you a hard time. The M3 doesn't have f-stops, the lens does.

 

[warden]

Please guys, street photography doesn’t mean being stealthy or like a ghost. What’s the point?

Art.

What’s the goal of shooting people walking across a store sign, exactly?

Art.

As a photographer, you must engage and be engaged. All the “from the hip” and “stealthy” stuff is a mark of amateurism.

No.

IMO.

Me too!

 

[NB23]

I guess Cartier-Bresson & Robert Frank, among others, were rank amateurs.

Well, for sure, they weren’t invisible. Let me tell you that!

Their photography let’s you think so. And there lies the culprit. People look at good street photography and they’re like “wow that’s stealthy”, but the reality is totally the opposite.

 

[Colin Corneau]

And I confess to some morbid curiosity about trying my Crown Graphic on the street, handheld. I think if I'm pushing some 400 speed film 1 or 2 stops I can make a go of it (hyperfocal being more elusive with LF film at lower speeds)

Why not? Make your camera your own, make your approach to the work your own, make your images your own.

The point is to make images and think about our place in the world...not to do glorified cosplay and imitate a preconceived Cartier-Bresson/Winogrand/Gilden idea of street photography. Above all else it's the photographs...if they suck, they suck. Period.

 

[Colin Corneau]

My Leica M6, and a simple 35mm Summicron. Small, simple, quiet. Ideal for whatever you do.

Judge for yourself: instagram.com/winnipegdiary ... www.colincorneau.com/story-of-the-street

 

[Pieter12]

Well, for sure, they weren’t invisible. Let me tell you that!

Their photography let’s you think so. And there lies the culprit. People look at good street photography and they’re like “wow that’s stealthy”, but the reality is totally the opposite.

1. The French title of HCB's most famous book is Images a la sauvette, literally pictures on the fly or on the run.

2. For the book Magnum Streetwise, about street photography as practiced by Magnum photographers "...To be able to approach such a scene, unobtrusively get within camera range and take one or two frames, and then depart leaving the subjects untroubled and the location untouched is akin to being a cat burglar."

3. I don't have the direct quote, but in the film Don't Blink, Robert Frank talks about having to hide his camera when he went into some of the bars to take photos, that the crowd was rough.

 

[NB23]

1. The French title of HCB's most famous book is Images a la sauvette, literally pictures on the fly or on the run.

2. For the book Magnum Streetwise, about street photography as practiced by Magnum photographers "...To be able to approach such a scene, unobtrusively get within camera range and take one or two frames, and then depart leaving the subjects untroubled and the location untouched is akin to being a cat burglar."

3. I don't have the direct quote, but in the film Don't Blink, Robert Frank talks about having to hide his camera when he went into some of the bars to take photos, that the crowd was rough.

Name dropping doesn’t impress me. At all.

As someone who has numerous prize winning photographs and a few million clicks in the counter (no jokes), I know what I am talking about.

Good, high quality street photography is all about careful, surgeon-like composition. There is no room for fluke, unfareful compositon and bad timing!

A careful composition, good timing and a presence is still “à la sauvette”.

All this comes with a lot of experience.

 

[Pieter12]

Name dropping doesn’t impress me. At all.

As someone who has numerous prize winning photographs and a few million clicks in the counter (no jokes), I know what I am talking about.

Good, high quality street photography is all about careful, surgeon-like composition. There is no room for fluke, unfareful compositon and bad timing!

A careful composition, good timing and a presence is still “à la sauvette”.

All this comes with a lot of experience.

What BS

 

[Ko.Fe.]

1. The French title of HCB's most famous book is Images a la sauvette, literally pictures on the fly or on the run.

2. For the book Magnum Streetwise, about street photography as practiced by Magnum photographers "...To be able to approach such a scene, unobtrusively get within camera range and take one or two frames, and then depart leaving the subjects untroubled and the location untouched is akin to being a cat burglar."

3. I don't have the direct quote, but in the film Don't Blink, Robert Frank talks about having to hide his camera when he went into some of the bars to take photos, that the crowd was rough.

Do not trust HCB words. Find YouTube video with him on the street. He was more than visible .
Doesn’t matter how big name is, it is self illusion about hiding.

I walked among drug addicted people street market in Vancouver. Not hiding 5D with 17-40 L on it. I took pictures, but no VF was used. As soon as you look at your camera, do the gesture, you are visible for someone on the street, in the bar, elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 88956]

I guess Cartier-Bresson & Robert Frank, among others, were rank amateurs.

I don't think HCB shot a single frame from a hip, at least not according to HCB.

 

[awty]

Mamiya rz67 and a few lens and film backs.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Was curious what everyone favorite cameras are for street photography? Don't get to shoot street photos too often where I live but love my Olympus XA2.

Nikon FM with a 35mm f/2 Nikkor

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I don't think HCB shot a single frame from a hip, at least not according to HCB.

Ever tried to take it while holding it to your lower part ?
Three series with HCB, in all three he is shown guffing on the streets.

 

[Colin Corneau]

What BS

LOL, yeah I had that impression too. Any camera club duffer has "a few million clicks" and a certificate or two lying around.

In my experience, the truly gifted never say things like this. They're too busy making pictures.

 

[warden]

I've taken literally dozens of pictures and my mommy gave me a blue ribbon. Now can I speak?

The reason this street photography dogma is so ridiculous is because history is rich with examples of photographers successfully working with every kind of technique, from Winogrand's in-your-face 28mm work to Dave Heath's telephoto shots from another zip code. Forget the dogma and make your own way.

 

[David Reynolds]

jawarden ......... I agree. " to each one's own". Aside from that I attended Ryerson Polytechnic and know Dave Heath's work .
When one shoots on the street it isn't how one physically takes the image; it's the image that matters.
I have included another image shot from the hip. M5 with 35mm Summicron @ f16 (Worded this way to appease Pieter 12)

 

[BradS]

I don’t do street photography....at least I don’t **think** that I do. I confess, I just don’t get it.

What is street photography? Is there some definitive characteristic? It seems like everyone has their own definition/ opinion about what is and what isn’t.

I find some street photos aesthetically pleasing but most of it is crap (I think people who put their work out there as street photography need to be much, much more selective).

As a viewer, I really don’t think that whether or not the photographer was being stealthy, whether or not the subject(s) is aware of the photographer figures into the viewing experience. I’ve seen some great photos where the subject was clearly aware of the photographer, aware of the camera and aware of what was happening and some where that is not the case. Same goes for all of the crappy photos that are posited as “street photography “.

Personally, I don’t think that being stealthy is a necessary or sufficient characteristic.

 

[wahiba]

Lomo Sardina. I never thought such a wide angle lens camera would be other than specialized interest. Turns out I was wrong as it means shots from the hip are not noticed, Taken a boot fair a couple of years ago. Probably Agfa Vista 200 film.

 

[David Reynolds]

I find it strange that a thread titled "Whats Your Favorite Street Photography Camera?" is full of insults instead of images and the cameras used to produce them.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I'm not much of a street photography, but when I'm wandering downtown it's the Pentax ME Super, and Target Six-20 (my Grand Father's camera). I've got a few from the Six-20 in my gallery.

 

[Pieter12]

I find it strange that a thread titled "Whats Your Favorite Street Photography Camera?" is full of insults instead of images and the cameras used to produce them.

Not unusual, really, when dealing with a subject as nebulous and contentious as street photography. Many people dislike the genre, many misunderstand it and many more practice it without a clue.

 

[radiant]

Pentax PC35AF - the one with manua winding. Silent, uses two AAA batteries, pretty sharp lens.

http://kuvau.tuu.fi/kiss/