How and why I shoot STREET PHOTOGRAPHY with a 50mm lens 

Great tip about quick focusing using the hard stop of infinity...

in the 90s, I worked for one of the biggest news magazines. two of our primary photographers never walked anywhere without at least one camera on them. they always kept 50mm lenses on those casual rigs that they just slung over their shoulder or around their neck.

First time I’ve heard this hard stop focusing tip from infinity down. Outstanding insight.

When I watch your videos, I feel like I am learning from a photographer rather than a RU-vidr or an Instagrammer. That is very appreciated. Well done.

Found you via the podcast you did with Paul R. You already gave me a cool tip here about manual focussing. I just started picking up my old manual film kit again and so it's a really handy tip for me! I love what I've seen so far. Cheers, N

OMG! Why did it take me this long to learn how to focus that way? It. Just. Makes. Sense. I was just telling my wife how I noticed today that the good majority of photos I’ve taken with a zoom lens, tend to land directly at 50mm. I’ve shot 50mm prime for so long that I must naturally gravitate to that focal length when I’m shooting with a zoom.

50mm has always been my go to, it allows me to get close enough to my subjects without having to walk into them like a 35 or wider and it allows me to get more of my subject without cropping off their body or standing a mile away "kidding" with a tele photo, i always hear street photographers bashing 50 but for me, unless i'm amongst crowds of people "which is not that common in chicago" then it's not really necessary for me to go wide. I have a 7artisan 12 t 2.9 lens(crop with fuji xt4) for such occasions but i will always love 50! (35f2 crop 1.4x)

when i was shooting film with my pentaxk1000 i would constantly use sunny16 and set my manual lens to "zone focus" about 2-3 feet from my subject and it generally didn't let me down, of course i would minor tweak my focus

Nice, comprehensive and nuanced summary on the 50mm focal length for street photography. I'd have said exactly all that in my same video on the 50 mm lens, if I made one. Also, I was a fan of 28 mm for a long time, thinking the 50 was too boring. But Cartier-Bresson's philosophy behind sticking to mostly 50 mm during all his career, and also his talented shots captured with this lens, made me rethink my views on this focal length. There is something great in the simplicity it provides, taking away all the 'special effects' of any optical distortion of wider lenses, only leaving you with your vision, talent and ability to capture interesting subjects as the only means to make a great photograph.

Thanks for the tip on focusing starting at infinity, 99% of the time I shoot street at 28mm and zone focus but on other occasions shooting with the 50mm I have often pushed the focus tab the wrong way. Great content as always. 👍

your words are like poetry to me..thank you

Great advice mate and beautiful photos. Subscribed!

Collapsible Summicron is my BW lens of choice. The “Bresson” if you will. It really does have a unique blend of contrast and resolution.

First look at this channel. That was a really good presentation & advocacy for any "normal" focal length lens in any format. The detail on the handling and focusing the 50 was insightful, great advice for learners. Great advocacy of the Normal! Note that a fatter 50mm lens' longer focusing scale can be a plus, because it's easier to make a finer focus adjustment with more ring travel. Check out a Canon TS normal for the street, you can leave some rise locked in as you wander about, if you are into urban landscape.

I have the 50mm 0.95 Noctilux on the 45mp Nikon Z9 and I’m completely new to street photography. I love this lens so much but it has been the most difficult lens I have ever used. I normally use 85mm for most of my photography (portrait work most of the time) and I have used an autofocus 50mm f1.2 in the past, but not for street photography. So the manual focus Leica 50mm 0.95 Noctilux has been very challenging to say the least. On my first day using it last week, of the 165 shots I took, only 5 were in focus. And those were lucky shots. The next day I took about 120 shots of which only 3 were in focus. Mind you, none of the photos were interesting in any way as I was just trying to get anything at all in focus if possible. It was then that I realized that trying to take photos of moving subjects at f1.2 or even f2.0 was impossible. I’ve watched quite a few videos of some very talented people who somehow are able to excel at this type of photography. So it’s a big learning process for me. On the third day walking around the city for over 4 hours with the lens set to f8 I was not able to take a single photo as I couldn’t find anything interesting no matter where I looked. Sometimes I just wonder if it is by chance that something out of the ordinary has to happen for an interesting photo to be taken. Walking around with a Noctilux on a Z9 means nothing if you can’t use it 😂😂😂 On the fourth day I was walking to a friend’s house and along the way I saw a motorcycle chained to a metal inside the fence of a property. It was the back of a small house that looked very old and the odd part was that the rear of the house faced the street. But the way that the motorcycle was positioned it looked as it was a dead end in front of the motorcycle. It would have been the coolest looking photo ever. But I didn’t have my camera with me! The next day I went looking for the street where the house was but couldn’t find it.

I'm finding my 33mm Fuji lens (50mm equivalent) SO much more challenging than my old 16-55mm (24-84mm), while walking around London trying to take characterful vignettes of people living their lives. Like you say, it doesn't really do anything to the photos, and it can be hard to cut through the crowds when I have a fixed and slightly zoomy/tunnelvision focal length. I'm determined to crack it, though, as I want to maximise the role of my subjects and composition (not lens distortion, bokeh etc) in making my photos good. So I feel like I'm genuinely capturing life as it is.

my favorite lens is pentax 28mm 3.5

Not the first video of yours that I've watched, but this one made me subscribe. These pictures are absolutely in-cre-di-ble, Jeff. I'm currently looking into getting a 28mm for my M Typ240, but maybe I should stick with my 50mm. I bought my camera 6 years ago and felt I absolutely sucked at using a rangefinder so it's been collecting dust for the past 5 years. I recently decided to give it another go. 75% of the pictures I take are street photography. As I often venture out at dusk I tend to shoot with the lens wide open, often resulting in pictures that aren't the sharpest. I'll try to stop it down a tad and see where that takes me. Thanks for the tips!

Great advice! Thank you. I did not know that there is a "hard stop" at infinity on my Leica lenses.

The infiinty trick is great. I usually set to a focus range and go from there. I think I will try this and see how it goes. Thanks!

Watching from Tokyo..a beautiful morning... thank you

I'm so excited to see how the film photography is going - maybe I missed something?! anyway love your videos they are always great!

Great Video - thanks for sharing your insights

Hello Jeff, Super interesting video, thank you... I will explore the 50mm option myself. I am not sure I can express this correctly but I like the idea of more of the process being with me to try and compose/frame the photo... being a bit of a dinosaur I like to do the minimum of editing as I feel it changes a photograph to an image. I should say however if someone wants to take photo's or create images, I am fine with both, the most important thing is a pleasurable thing to look at. Many thanks for the video. Take care. Paul,,

I have sixty lenses and counting, mostly vintage primes, and most of those are 40, 50 and 55mm, i.e. "normal focal length". I just won an auction on eBay for an Auto Sears/Sekor SX 55mm f1.8 that some say was made by Tomioka. Maybe, maybe not, but it's an amazing lens. It produces wonderful colors and blur. It's supremely sharp and has the highly desirable characteristic of rendering volume, dimension, called 3D pop. The lens was poorly photographed by the seller, but it looked rough. When I got it, it looked worse, but it cleaned up really nicely. I also had to spend a few hours filing down the aperture ring (SX) so that it would mount flush with the camera. It was well worth it. Now, for $16.50 ($8.50 for the lens and $8 for shipping) I have a lens that would stand up to any.

For me, 50mm lens was the lens of maturity. 40 years ago, I was the happiest man in the world with my Minolta X500 and its 35-70 zoom lens. But after a long way with different brands and lenses, I currently shoot 95% of the time with a Lux 50 and a M10 monochrome or a M262. Nothing else. But it's only my pleasure and I understand that it can't suit everybody.

I shoot everything with a 50. Fashion, portrait, landscape, street.

Thanks for the hard stop idea when using a 50mm. I find that I am checking too often that it is set to where I think it is and s/he who hestitates is lost so to speak. With the 35 and 28 I can usually set it and forget it.

Literally percect help, thabks for your effort! 😊

to be clear, we re talking here about a traditional 50mm lens which is equivalent of a 35mm digital lens on a Nikon d7200? I have one of those plus a Nikkor 50mm lens which is equivalent to a 85mm back in the day

Nice video. The put your lens to the infinity hard stop is nice advice for those shooting fully manual focus lenses but most AF lenses will have a focus ring that turns infinitely even when the lens is set to MF of course. I personally have got back into 50mm shooting with the all manual Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2 on my Sony a9 and a7iii and enjoy it for portraits and street although my preference is probably for either 35mm or else 85mm I think overall. with 50mm as you say, there is no real room for artistic use of distortion so the content rules and you have to be disciplined about framing to get really good shots.

Great video. Thank you 😊

thank you so much

Full Circle. Congrats! Told you so ;-)

I shoot with Sony G 50mm f/2.5. Only 174 grams. Aluminium and aperture ring! Sorry for my writting english!

Im really eager to start photography but I don't know how to make money out of it. Any tips ?

50mm every day with me

Next lens will be a 50mm. I’ve already decided: as much as I’d like a Leica, it will be a TT Artisans 50 1.4.

The 50mm gets out of the way. Unfortunately, street is so utterly boring that it needs "help" of something else. Sorry, but no matter what people think very few are any good at it.

Looking at a scene vs being part of a scene - I've never thought about it like that. I like it.

Great video! Thanks!

That infinity focus tip is absolute gold. Thank you for sharing it, and as always, another wonderful video.

Nice tip on starting manual focus with lens set at infinity to quickly find focus. I recently purchased the Fuji 33mm f1.4 lens & it has become one of my favourites. Tack sharp, with nice contrast & it is quick to find focus.

I'm almost always take steps back to compose with 50mm but not with 35mm ..

I love my manual focus Nikon 50mm f/1.2. Renders absolutely beautifully. Have taken many of my best (most beautiful) street images with it.

The mother and daughter cigarette photo is hilarious. Glad that’s been captured.

Thank you for this video. The choice of your lens is very personal. I see many RU-vidrs using 28 and even 24mm. Too wide for me. Sometimes I use a two body and lens setup so the 2nd Les is 85mm. I go back & forth between 35 & 50mm. The difference between the two is a step or two. Foot focus. I usually frame my image with the EVF. When the scene is moving quickly I just point, shoot, and hope. The 35mm field of view is more forgiving. As you point out, the 50mm is about what I see so I have to be more precise. I don’t spray & pray but do take several shots when not using the EVF. I’m a digital shooter so there is no penalty for taking multiple images. I bet HCB would have appreciated having this option in his bag of tools. Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? Normally I intend to produce tact sharp images. Recently I’ve been experimenting with intensional camera movement a la Ernst Haas. Last year I’d have said you blew the image at 4:53. Now I kind of like it. I know this has never happened to you. Occasionally I’ll make a mistake choosing a shutter speed such as when quickly taking the camera out of the bag (why was the camera in the bag?) to take the shot. Sometimes my setting get tossled when in the bag. I say a bad word or two but when I see the image I like it. I then tell my friends I intended to introduce the motion blur. So there I am. Sometimes I play at being HCB and other times EH. I can get medicine for this kind of thinking. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

Great tips. I've always favoured 50mm but started using the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 on my Sony and find that focal length very versatile. This is my first manual focus lens, and although there are limitations it's really not that difficult and makes me a bit more deliberate.

i shoot 30/s

I only use 50MM and 35MM for street photography

Groovy riff on the 50mm world man. I'll be watching this video again. Thanks for reminding me that with a 50, my eye is the viewfinder. Also thanks for explaining why some of my lower-resolution sensors look sharper than the more pixel-packed ones. 12 and 16 MP can be stunning, and I've been wondering about this for quite a while.

I totally agree with everything you have said - 50mm is a beautiful lens !!

Your video is really informative. One thing that the 50mm became standard and famous when the first Leica prototype was attached with 42.5mm but wasn't sharp enough. So that's why they changed it to 50. In the early time the famous photographers haven't choosen the 50mm because of any magical frame. But because there weren't any other alternatives. Again I love the 50mm but I think sth between 40 to 45 would be better.

Newbie question, if I am using an APSC, I need to get something like 35mm to get 50mm FF equivalent?

I have the Summicron V too but haven’t been using it in a while in favour of a 35mm CV Nokton f1.5. I must get back out with it. Do you find it tricky to use cameras with and without lens tabs? I usually focus from the hard infinity stop but use the tab to know roughly where I am. Obviously Summicron doesn’t have a tab.

Thanks for the video. I guess we come at street photography from the opposite end of things. You camera and style is a lot of work. I prefer continuous auto focus and a zoom lens. Though I will try my 50mm Sony Lens to try out your concepts. Thanks.

Worth watching for the speeding up manual focusing tip alone. Subscribed. Thank you.

Good video. I liked the infinity focus suggestion.

The 'beware of zombies' pic? Outstanding!

Is it about a lens or publicity for a luxury German brand?🤣🤣

the fact you have a stratocaster the same color of mine #1 (cream with tortoise pickguard) and a tele the same color of one of mine is a guarantee

Beautiful account, love thinking out of the box. ❤

I am wondering why not use a lens that focus automatically instead of manually?

Excellent content ! Thank you

So you're back to the good old 50mm are you?

Great video!

Nice tip with the infinity focus click preset

I don't shoot 50mm that often, yet I've accumulated three of them: two Voigtlanders and a Helios 58/2. Stopped down a bit, the Helios is as sharp as the Voigtlander APO 50/2. But it's a lens that really shines when shot wide open.

Thanks. A very good video. 50mm is often too limiting for my type of street photography. I prefer 35. It’s what you look for as a good image. Then you decide which lens suits you best. The lens should come second.

I've always avoided watching this channel because of the name! Where did that come from? Now that I've watched and found the video interesting I have liked and subscribed! I'm a 'part of the scene' shooter' - now with a Leica Q3 which I love!

So it's personal preference.

I have only recently found your channel but love your videos, very inspirational thank you!

I’m left eye 👁️ dominant. I was told that the best eye for my work is using the dominant one. But from the video I’ve just watched from Joel Meyerowitz, besides the benefits of using both eyes to take a better picture, it also demonstrated how the rangefinder cameras was designed initially for this purpose. So, my dilemma here is to get second opinion on which eye should be used for the viewing? Silvester

I always prefer the 28mm

Over the decades, I have used Nikon, Pentax, Fuji, and Miranda 50mm lenses on 35mm film SLR cameras. My personal favorite was the 8-element 50mm f/1.4 Takumar for the Pentax Spotmatic SLR. The 50mm focal length on a full-frame body was my favorite for shooting live theatre.

Glad I discovered your video! I'm a long time nifty fifty lens shooter on a full-frame Nikon, and I love the NATURAL perspective although I also have a 24-70mm zoom lens: The 50mm lens ROCKS! :)

I have a 50mm lens for my Canon T6s but that camera is a crop sensor. I don't have one for either of my Nikon cameras. I just bought a used Canon AE-1 at a flea market with the 50mm lens with it. The glass looks in great shape. I plan to use black and white film in that camera. That will be a challenge for street photography. I'll have to be more deliberate with my shots and make every one count.

A 50mm lens came with the first 35mm camera I purchased. I used it for about one year before I discovered that it was too “telephoto” for my taste. I replaced it with a 35mm f/2 and the 35mm became my favorite focal length for street photography, general subjects, and one-lens/one-camera situations. When I purchased my Leica M6 rangefinder, the 35mm f/1.4 was the first lens I purchased.

Amazing stuff!

Another great video Jeff!

You really want to use a 50mm use a Leica m3, the view finder is unmatched, even today, and you don’t need alight meter.

My shutter is so loud, I have been shooting an 85mm!

50 great for framing. 35 also. for street i always bring 35 and 50.

28mm (Q2) is my preference I like to get close. I have just picked up a canon L3 body only so looked up some lenses I found a canon 50 1.8 cheap, so yup got that lovely lens, then an Elmar 5cm came up, with an M adapter apparently jammed onto it, so the selling price was cheap I couldn't resist as it looks awesome, a couple of rubber bands and a nip with long nose pliers got the adapter off, looking forward to shooting this new to me kit. I like the infinity stop tip cheers

Find your videos super useful. I really enjoy 50mm and I agree with you on the speed of using it, that makes a lot of sense. I’ve started to play around with zone focusing and wide angles more, but on my digital autofocus camera I really like that 50mm equivalent. You lose me on the advice of reducing the resolution of the camera: the camera shake will only be worse with a high res sensor if you are cropping in a way that uses that resolution. If you don’t crop it will be exactly the same, and if you get the shot steady then having the ability to crop may be advantageous. Storage is CHEAP and photos, even high res RAW ones, are fairly small files. Shoot your highest resolution.

thank you

Try a 40!

I've been shooting Film as kid since 1984. I must say, even the mighty HCB used a "nifty-fifty", for my needs, 50mm is being simply too ordinary, too compressed, not wide enough via PoV. Countless 35mm SLRs from the 70-90s had 50mm as their matching kitlens. I shoot 35mm since 1989 - and never looked back. *If* there's one focal length to shoot it *all* - it's simply only 35mm. Your milage may vary, of course. 🙂

Another brilliant video, I often use a 50mm for everything I shoot as I think it's so versatile, and only use my 21mm when I want to get close on the streets or my 135 for very certain shots. Will certainly try the from infinite to focus, not sure why I've never thought of that myself to be honest! I'm currently using the f/1.4 from TTA and I think it's great, but I do love the look of the Summarit-M f/2.4! - seen a few on eBay I like the look of, yes it not 1.4, but I shoot mainly at 5.6-8 anyway and they are so compact!

Very well and insightful explained. Thank you!

Dono how long you been doing this, but have you ever at one point thought you don’t connect with your work? I ve been shooting streets for around 4 years now and recently I just don’t feel anything towards my work. While my photos might look interesting, I just keep asking myself why am I doing this? I do print my work, even make books/zines here and there but nothing…you reckon it is about time I step away from it for a while and see how things will turn out, or just keep on grinding? Sorry for the lengthy post

The version 3 50mm Summicron-M has both the short focus throw of the version 5 you are using, but has a focusing tab, which makes 'learning' the focus distance considerably easier. Worth finding one for yourself, IMHO.

I quite agree with everything being said here, being a photographer since 1969. But a small camera, a small unobtrusive zoom lens, with autofocus is also able to make you work quickly and get very good results. It is all up to the photographer and how the equipment is handled. 🤔 I know, I probably did it, right😂

A 50 is not a 50 on a crop sensor. It's more like a 72 (roughly), speaking as a cheap Nikon user.

Have you ever had a Summarit 50? If so, can you tell about it? I've the 90/2.5, which I bought second hand. Stunning results. Keep on rolling.

My nifty 50 on Fuji is 35f2. It takes me back to film days when the 50 was the most affordable on my Konica and Nikon cameras. 😅Your beloved cameras have always been out of reach for me but I do not feel I missed out.😎

Mate, that was so helpful. I love the perspective of the 50mm (my view), but it's less forgiving of my framing/compositional blunders than a '35 n crop..!'

for all of my PJ work in college and the local newspaper and then in the Air Force one body always had a 35mm f2. another most often had an 85 f1.8. i just picked up a vintage Canon Model P and a 50mm f1.4 and ive done a little playing with it. i LOVE it. its hard to 'go to infinity' because if i go past it, theres a locking detent (i presume for 'locking' the lens during mounting and dismounting. i dont know for sure. it uses the L39 screw mount) im hoping for some nice weather this weekend and week coming up. i want to go out and shoot another roll with it.

Great vid. I love using my 50mm at f2.0 on my M10, love the ethereal feel the shallow depth of field creates. But focusing is a nightmare. That turn to infinity trick is genius Jeff. Will definitely use that next time I'm out.

Pandemic? did I miss something?