Let me know what your lens(es) of choice are for street photography.  How do you balance travelling light with having the focal lengths that you want?

Very interesting video, Darren. I have been doing street photography for about 4 years and to start with I tried to stick to the ‘rules’. Lots of effort was dedicated to using a 35mm lens, but it was too wide for a beginner. A 40mm was purchased and for a while it worked well.
This week I had a day in Great Yarmouth and went back to the 35mm; the 40mm was in the bag, but it stayed there all day. However, I often engage people and take street portraits and a wide angle lens is not good for this. It brings me back to what I call my emotional-support lens: it’s a 24-105mm and is almost the perfect lens for (my) street photography. I can spot a character, ask for a portrait, and not have to change my lens. I can seamlessly go wide for when I want context.
Of course, my use of a zoom lens means that I will never be a ‘real’ street photographer with the respect and admiration of my contemporaries, but at my age I am past caring.

Love my Voigtlander 40 f/1.2.

I had a lot of concerns about the 40mm lens, but real-world user reviews were very helpful!
I was especially impressed by the way they balanced the environment and the subject in street photography.

Another truly high effort attempt based on your commenters, great video!! Your well thought out and thorough essay/opinion really makes me think about my own processes and preconceived notions. I will say the two examples you gave for needing a longer lens look great, having the two people show the scale of humans to the world around them, I really loved that bridge picture particularly. Sounds like zooms are your workflow so it might not be worth keeping the 40mm because seems like your not going to use going forward.  I have an 80mm on my TLR but I've been looking for the Mamiya TLR 65mm or 55mm lenses for street photography.

I can definitely appreciate this point of view. I started photography with 25, 35 and 56mm primes (following everyone's advice), but this was a mistake. A year later I would go on to grab the Sigma 18 - 50 f/2.8 zoom while on a trip to Japan and I'd suddenly become so motivated to go out and shoot!  The zoom lens felt like a new found Freedom! I soon realized just how ill advised it is to recommend prime lens to a beginner. The thing is, beginners have no idea which focal length they enjoy shooting in, or what type of photography they are actually into. Plus there's the added friction of deciding which lens to use and swapping lenses if you've decided to bring more than one.  These hurdles are unnecessary at the beginner level and instead should be tackled after building a solid foundation and understanding of photography.

I used a zoom in Bangkok and around Cambodia and got images I wanted. "Never be a proper "street photographer" with a zoom", blah, blah, blah" B.S. I have never heard of a real photographer that could not make an great image with what they had. Having to have specific gear to photograph is a load of crap. Use what you have and know how to use it is what I was taught, and it works.

I’ve been using the TTArtisan 40mm f2 on my Sony A7IV. Great value for the price, and I love that it has an aperture ring too.

Interesting video. I just spent 3 weeks in Japan with my Zf and the 35mm & 85mm 1.8 Nikon S lenses. I really enjoyed the 35mm especially in these narrow alley ways and small yakitori / yakiniku bars,  I know it's not much between 35 and 40mm
but for me the 35 was spot on. The one thing I don't like on these 1.8's is the length of them but the quality is really tops.  Carl / Australia

Great photos my friend! I also shoot a Zf with the 40mm, like the combo, but having learnt my photography with a 50 prime, I sometimes miss that little bit extra reach/compression.

I have to start with the confession that I have far too much gear.  I use different things for different projects, and all of it gets taken out and used on a reasonably regular basis, but it is still unnecessary.  I just spent six months on a project where i used two little ricoh point and shoots, one with a 28mm lens and one with a 40mm lens, but if i am going somewhere and I don't know what I will encounter, I take my sony/zeiss kit.  An a7cr, an a7cii, and the zeiss batis 24mm, 40mm, and 85mm all fit in a billingham hadley small pro with room for an ipad, filters, and all of the little bits and bobs that we carry around with us when shooting.  I can't keep a lens mounted on both bodies when it is all in the bag though, only one.  I base my lens and camera body choice mainly on the light and the width of the street.  I use the a7cr during the day and the a7cii at night.  In close quarters like narrow alleyways, i use the 24mm lens.  If I am not going to be able to get close to my subjects, or if the weather is bad, i use the 85.  I don't know why, but on overcast days with flat light, or on rainy days, I find that I get better results with the 85mm.  Generally though, I keep the 40mm lens mounted on one of the camera bodies, as I can "get the shot" in the most situations straight out of the bag with it compared to either of the others.  In the interest of an even smaller and lighter kit, I have ordered but not yet received the new Thypoch Voyager 24-50mm f/2.8 internal zoom lens, which is the same size as the Batis lenses.  I know it won't perform as perfectly as the Zeisses do, but if it is close enough, the one lens replaces at least two for the times when I really want to travel with just one camera and one lens.  I pay no heed to street photography gatekeepers, so I have no complaints about using zoom lenses for street photography.  One of the photographers in my local camera club makes fantastic street photos with a 70-200 zoom on a full size mirrorless Canon.

Cool video. I've said it before, but I enjoy seeing your process and thoughts following your tests. I thought the photos you shared were great. My particular favourites were the man walking in with the building in the background with you quite close up, the lady with the graffiti wall behind her and 'Faceless Capitalism'. Cool shots, cool video. Thanks for sharing!

I recently bought a used Sony ZV-1 mki. Tiny but plenty enough resolution and quality for street pics. It looks like a tourists camera and goes unnoticed.
  I too don’t like being restricted to one focal length and the 24-70 on this is perfect. I generally leave it on 28mm, but when shooting “fishing style” i can also crop perfectly.

It cost me just £250 and to me is just perfect for the genre.

I also shoot with the same 40mm f2 on a Nikon z6 mkii, it is a good walk about lens however I prefer to use my Sigma 24-105mm f4 art with the FTZ adaptor because of flexibility.
Whenever I do use it I still walk along with the Nikon 40mm f2 for low light shooting...

I shoot zooms and primes for street, even short telephoto if the  situation requires.  Depends where I sm, how well I know area, time of day or night, indoor or outdoor and even weather. conditions.  I find primes are s fun exercise in minimalism and weight or if I have a specific way I want the day to be shot. Environmental portrait 50mm, amongst the action 28mm.  Mostly depends on feel that day, with an educated guess on what I am trying to achieve.

Use DX mode when using the 40mm to zoom in. I do it all the time; I have set it to the record button.

Hi Darren, Chears and thanks!! My experience with zooms, is that when you check your data in the camera and on the laptop, most of the pictures are taken at prime lens focal distances! 28, 35 and 50mm. The first photo's are about 28 up to 40 mm (give or take a mm) will be 80% of what you have taken...so that is I don't use zooms for that matter,

You’re missing an aperture ring on the Nikkor Z 40mm f/2. I have one on my Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 II EVO, and I’ve found that it’s only half as good as I thought. It works perfectly well for apertures up to f/5.6. However, if you use the ring to set smaller apertures, the AF becomes increasingly unreliable. From f/11 onwards, AF effectively doesn’t work at all. For smaller apertures, you have to select the aperture via the camera body, as you do it with Nikkor lenses without an aperture ring.
Nikon Zf focuses (AF) at the aperture set as long as this is greater than or equal to f/5.6. This compensates for focus shift in lenses that require it. At smaller apertures, the camera focuses using an aperture of f/5.6 and only closes the aperture further when the shutter is released. The camera does this to ensure that the autofocus system receives enough light, even when a very small aperture is set.
When the aperture is set using the lens ring, it is closed purely mechanically, and the camera body cannot alter it. So, if I set the aperture on the Viltrox to, say, f/11 using the ring, the AF tries to focus with this small aperture, which rarely succeeds.

This is how all Nikon Z cameras work. In contrast, Sony cameras, for example, always focus with the aperture wide open and only close the aperture when the shutter is released. That is why the aperture ring on the Sony version of this Viltrox lens is fully functional, whilst on the Nikon version it is only partially so.

There are very few current or recent camera manufacturers that offer a 40mm focal length except for old rangefinders. Just use a 35mm and you have decades of lens development to benefit from. Anyone who has shot a Nikon with the 35mm F2 lens, understands this. Its known as a superlative experience that gives you wonderful resolution clarity and microcontrast.

A very interesting topic, really enjoyed this, as for me, my om 3 and 12-40mm pro len's , it is a tricky one, also what is your main subject when shooting street, I think a shorter len's lets you become,

part of the scene rather an outsider, but the great thing whit this subject, is choice, and how you FEEL, thanks for this, look forward to more of your work.