Good portrait + street lens for a6300?

[Golem]

The most instinctive FL for fast grab shots is

the FL that equals the width of the format.    

   

35mm FL was favored for the 24x36mm film

format ... for a number of very good reasons.

  

One benefit of a FL equal to the format width

is that it leads to an instinctive ability to frame

a shot in your mind's eye without checking the

viewfinder. If you check the simple formula in

the "short version" [previous post] you will see

that when the FL equals the format width, the

the field of view equals the subject distance ! 

 

IOW, with no conscious effort, constant use of

such a FL will result in "knowing" that standing

X paces away from a store front X paces wide,

you will include that store front and whoever or

whatever is framed by that store front. 

  

"Knowing" is in quote marks above cuz there's

no conscious thinking involved. No ball player

getting under a high fly ball will be consciously

doing any trigonometry calculations. It's built

into his eyesight from constant practice.    

    

***************************************************

 

The above system trains you to mentally see,

to previsualize, your subject field without need

of checking the framing in the finder. Knowing

your subject field allows your to compose shots

in your head without drawing attention. However

previsualizing does NOT accomplish getting the

camera aimed correctly, so you still hafta briefly

raise it to your face.

 

"Briefly" is the advantage of previsualizing your

framing. You don't hafta actually see the whole

scene in the viewfinder, nor check the framing.  

Just put the center of the finder onto the center

of the scene, snap, and get the camera out of

your face.

  

This makes it kinda obvious that if you're sloppy

about putting center-on-center, or if you'd rather

not even briefly put the camera to your face, then

you should use the next wider lens in the line. In

FF terms thaz a 28. In APSC thaz a 18.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

The "right" focal length for street photography is different for different people. It depends on the style of images you shoot and what working distance you are comfortable with. Some people like a lot of context (wide shots) while some people like facial expressions (close shots).

 

If you use a (marked) 24mm or 35mm lens you have the option to move in and shoot really close or move back and shoot quite wide. So that may be the best place to start.

 

I don't like to recommend really expensive lenses, but the optically best lens in that range is the 24/1.8 ZA, and you said price didn't matter too much.

 

But I think the SEL35f18 may be the best starting point. It's reasonably priced, has OSS and hybrid AF, is sharp enough with good colour and contrast. It can also blur the background if you shoot close, so it works well for portraits.

 

The Touit 32mm is in the same focal range and priced between the two. But it has some really noticeable barrel distorsion, which i wouldn't recommend. You'd want a straight lens for street and especially for portraits.

[JimmyD]

Wow. More confusion on this thread than I have seen on any other topic on this forum. To be clear:

 

(1) Aperture does not change between a full frame (FF) sensor and a crop sensor; f/2.8 on a crop sensor like the A6300 is the same as f/2.8 on a FF sensor like the A7Rii.

 

(2) The effective focal length of any given lens on a Sony crop sensor is 1.5 times greater than it would be on a FF sensor; so the Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 is just that (90mm f/2.8) on the FF A7Rii but is effectively a 135mm f/2.8 on the crop sensor of the A6300. What is in focus vs. not does not change, but the field of view certainly does.

 

Moving on to the more important question of great portrait lenses for a crop sensor, if you can deal with the money and the size compared to non FF lenses, the Sony/Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 and the Sony G Master 85mm f/1.4 are both fantastic as traditional portrait lenses (again, the effective focal length of these lenses on a crop sensor are 75mm and approx. 127mm, respectively). For environmental portraits, the Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 or the Sony/Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 are great (on APC these become approx. 37mm and 52mm).

[Frank_Valenti]

Sigma 30mm f1.4 all the way. It's about $350 and sharp wide open.

 

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