2019 top camera and lens combinations for Street Photography – Photo Review
Photo Review’s recommended cameras and lenses for Street photography – Top 3 Best Value and Top 3 Advanced/Pro .
Essential features:
- Inconspicuous – small and light in weight
- Quiet operation
- Reasonably versatile
- Wide dynamic range coverage
- Fast response times, particularly for autofocusing
BEST VALUE – Top 3 camera and lens for Street Photography
Our three recommendations combine compact size and light weight with affordable price tags. Cameras without viewfinders and those lacking raw file support have been excluded. All our recommendations have been available for at least a year and most aren’t the latest model. Street prices are all under AU$1000 and listing is ordered with the lowest price first.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ lens
This camera is like a mini-SLR but sports a 16-megapixel 17.3 x 13.0 mm sensor plus built-in 5-axis stabilisation and a full array of automatic shooting features. The bundled 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ ‘pancake’ lens makes this powerful kit both compact and inconspicuous, especially if you choose the black version of the camera. Priced at less than AU$800, it’s our pick in this category.
Fujifilm X-T100 with XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lens
A lightweight combo with a 24.2-megapixel sensor and short, standard zoom lens plus a 2,360,000-dot OLED viewfinder and tilting touchscreen monitor. With a street price of just under AU$900, this camera has the largest sensor (23.5 x 15.7mm), which should ensure the best low-light performance. The lens provides three stops of shake correction and the camera comes with Fujifilm’s popular Film Simulation Effects.
Canon PowerShot G5X
This compact camera has been around since late 2015 and was recently superseded, although it was still available when this recommendation was posted. A 20.2-megapixel sensor, 24-100mm (equivalent) zoom lens, high-resolution viewfinder, and tilting touchscreen monitor plus a logical menu system and plenty of external controls add to its appeal. Surprisingly, it’s the highest priced model in this trio, but if you want an all-in-one, compact package, it’s worth a look.
ADVANCED/PRO – Top 3 camera and lens for Street Photography
Interestingly, all three recommendations in this group are compact, fixed-lens cameras, largely because we’ve given priority to performance, portability and prominence over price.
Leica Q
By far the most expensive of the trio the Leica Q has the best lens/sensor pairing with a 24-megapixel ‘full frame’ sensor and 28mm f/1.7 lens that offers two JPEG-based frame crops to provide 35mm and 50mm focal lengths at reduced resolution. Raw files are not cropped. With its tough, well-designed body and traditional controls, built-in stabilisation and large, high-resolution EVF, this camera is close to ideal for street and reportage photography. But video is restricted to 1080p at 60/30 fps or 720p at 30 fps.
Ricoh GR III
Weighing only 257 grams and with a 24-megapixel APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm) sensor and 28mm equivalent f/2.8 lens, this camera’s matte black body is ideal for street photography. Genuinely pocketable but with a comfortable grip, its sensor-shift stabilisation system can be used for simulating the effect of an anti-aliasing filter to suppress moiré and false colours. Video is limited to 1080p at 60/50 fps.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 VII
The most expensive camera in the trio – but it also has the best AF system. Features include a pop-up EVF, blackout-free shooting at 20 fps, 4K video recording and a versatile, 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 retracting lens. The high price tag, slick grip, tiny controls and complex menu system are the main downsides of this camera.
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