What’s The Best Camera For Street Photography?

This is a tough one to answer. This changes all the time. First it was a Leica, then a GR, then a Nikon. But now I’ve landed on this Olympus EM5 Mark iii. It’s a good mix of everything I need. I’m using my experience with the GRiii, Nikon Zf and EM5 Mark iii for a bit of comparison. So why this camera?

Size

This thing is tiny and light. The camera with lens is under 550 grams. I like to take a camera everywhere with me and shoot daily. So carrying a heavy and big camera gets annoying after a while. This became evident after using the Nikon Zf for a few months. Once I started using the Olympus again, it was clear the Nikon was too big for daily use. Now the GR is the undisputed champion with size and portability but I’ll discuss why I choose not to keep using it later.

IQ

I can’t imagine a world where it would matter using a 20 megapixel mft sensor matters for my style of street photography. The more random snapshot and candid photography. With the lens I’m using, the 17mm 1.8 images to me have way more pop than photos taken with the Ricoh GR and I can barely tell the difference between the Olympus and Nikon ZF files. Here’s three photos, one from a GRiii, EM5 Mark iii and Nikon ZF. I matched the format to the mft sensor which is 4×3. What is what?

The first photo is from the Nikon ZF. Second the GRiii and third the Olympus. I’m not taking photos on the street that highlight the capabilities of a full frame sensor and that’s the point. I’m not doing super shallow depth of field shots up close to people. Most of my photos are using a large depth of field. So why does it matter if I use a full frame sensor? It really doesn’t to me.

The Lens – 17mm 1.8

I love this lens. It has a manual focus clutch with distance scales so I can easily switch from manual focus to auto focus. Very handy when I’m quickly taking shots of people I’m walking by. I usually put it at 1 meter and fire away. Since the mft sensor has a huge depth of field, it’s easy to get everything in focus. And the auto focus is very quick in single point and probably as fast as any of the high end cameras in single point. This to me really sold me on the system and is one of the reasons for my departure from the GR. I love snap focus on the GR. It’s probably a bit more functional than the manual clutch on the Olympus. But the GR has horrendous auto focus and I stopped using it for anything other than still shots. And the lens looks and feel great and takes better photos than the GR lens in my opinion. Plus it’s tiny and f1.8 so I can use it any any situation. I was using it in Las Vegas at night no problem.

The Stabilization

I never thought I needed good stabilization and then I started shooting some short videos. The ZF has really good stabilization. A few of the videos on my YouTube channel were made with the ZF. I had to add stabilization in post to make the footage smooth though. The GR has meh digital stabilization and it’s probably not worth using it for video. But the Olympus is on another level. With sensor shift and digital stabilization on the Olympus, the video is smooth like on an iPhone. I have a 75mm lens I’ve been using for video and it’s super smooth. That’s a full frame equivalent 150mm lens I can easily use with video. It’s new to me but the results are pretty spectacular. Here’s a short clip with no stabilization added in post.

The Shutter

The shutter is very quiet. On par with an M10-P. A bit louder than the GR and marginally quieter than the Nikon ZF. But I don’t use it. I’m always using the electronic shutter. The sensor readout speed is fast enough that I never have rolling shutter. Shooting discretely on the street is very important to me. Less drama = more photos and more fun. I shoot while riding my bike and still no wobbly photos. Big perk for me.

Weather Sealing

Top of class weather sealing. I not often in bad weather so not a huge deal for me. But it is nice to have. I’ve noticed that I NEVER have dust spots on my photos. The Leica rangefinders were a nightmare for dust. Some photos had so many spots, it was annoying to fix in post. The GR is notorious for having spots as well. The Olympus… more photos no problems.

File Size

The raw files are all under 20 mb. This is a great size and a big plus. I love the compressed raws in the Nikon. All those files were around 11 mb. Why bother with huge files. Just makes everything sluggish. My Q2M files were a huge 85 mb each. What a pain to manage those.

Battery Life

It’s pretty good. I get around 400 shots per charge. Usually more than enough for a photo walk so I don’t have to swap batteries when I’m out. The Zf is amazing. I could get around 1000 shots on a charge. The GR is horrible. Lucky to get 200 shots. But who cares, just bring an extra battery.

What Could Be Better?

Charging and data transfer. After using the USB-C on the ZF, I realized how great it is to charge and transfer photos to my Mac. So easy and convenient. With the Olympus, I have to go old school and take out the memory card.

The On/Off button is on the left. I wish is one on the right side of the camera so I can operate it one handed.

I’d prefer a flip out screen instead of the fully articulating. It’s not a big deal to use, but would rather have a flip out to keep the camera smaller. I rarely point the camera at myself, but it is very handy for filming yourself.

Conclusion

Small camera, great fast lens with quick auto focus and a very nice and functional manual focus clutch with distance scales. Stealthy shooting with great stabilization. Great IQ that’s more than good enough for street photography. All I need.

Quicker and more robust than the GR. Lighter than the Nikon. More functional and utilitarian than both the GR and ZF in my opinion. I can take the Olympus everywhere with me from the streets to long hikes and I know I’m prepared for anything that comes my way.

Let’s see how long my mft phase lasts until more GAS kicks in. But for now, I’m loving everything about this setup.