Thursday, January 21, 2021

Street Machine?

The cool kid street photography cameras all seem to be super compact things with APS-C sensors (big for a pocket camera; the same as in DSLR's) and fixed wide-ish angle lenses in the 28-35mm range. This guy is using a Nikon Coolpix A, this dude used a Ricoh GR II, and this cat's a fan of Fuji's X100 series.

Thing is, those are all pretty spendy entrance ramps into a type of photography I don't know if I'm any good at or not. A used Coolpix A is gonna be at least $400 and the Ricoh GR series or one of the various Fuji X100 variants is going to be at least half again that for a tatty older one. They do tickle the wantsies but...a fixed lens?

Luckily I can simulate this with gear I have on hand! The original Canon EOS M body (available used for less than two bills) is small and smooth like a bar of soap and easily goes in a coat pocket while wearing Canon's well-regarded 22mm f/2 EF-M pancake, which gives an equivalent focal length of 35mm and can be found used for well under $200 as well.

So my EF-M, which had been gathering dust on a shelf as something of a failed experiment on my way to buying the M6, has a new lease on life for the nonce.