[Need Advice] Moving from 35mm to 55mm for street photography?

Currently I'm using 35mm for street photography (a Leica X2) and while planning to switch to Sony (probably the next version of A7/A7r), I wonder if 50-55mm would be a better choice. However, I feel like both options have concessions. With the wider lens, I can include more of the background, adding more context to the situation my subject is in. With the longer lens, I can show the subjects, their emotions and gestures more clearly while loosing the context - their relation with their environment.

Some of my photos with 35mm (well, in fact 36mm):





















Volkan
 

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You have some great street shots. I notice none are wider than f/2.8, so the Zeiss 35/2.8 in FE mount might work really well for you (on the A7 cameras, it would even buy you a stop of light over your current camera). You can also get an M mount for your Sony, as you might know and there are some great M mount 35 lenses. I have the Voigtlander close focusing M mount adapter to E mount which is fantastic (and allows much closer focusing with M mount lenses). If I was mostly a street shooter, I'd strongly consider the FE Zeiss 35/2.8 because it's fantastic. But I am hopelessly a bokeh whore and f/2.8 isn't enough for me. I like taking these kinds of shots, too: ;-)

Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II on my A7

Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II on my A7
 
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One thing that works for me when I want people to act natural and ignore me is to hang out long enough they get bored with me and just go back to doing their thing. It actually happens pretty quickly...
What's a typical punch line you use to approach strangers?

I'm not sure here in Germany I could pull this off without being considered some kind of weirdo scaring people away without having the chance to take a shot. Anyway without model release, here it's illegal to take pictures of people in most cases, so there's not much street photography going on anyway :(
 
You've now confused me. You're making a case for going wider for candid shots, but the statement I responded to had you writing, "In any case for candid longer is definitely better."
No no, I was treating "street" and "candid" as two separate types of photography.

In street photography you can (and should imho) be part of the action, be involved, interact with the subject who's aware of you and I actually like when the photographer's presence is felt in the image. It makes the shot more involving, personal, enthralling.

In candid shots the photographer isn't involved, he's more of a mere observer, catching a usually funny moment and the subject is usually unaware of the camera.

Therefore for street I prefer images up close where the photographer interacts at a certain level with the subject, even just making eye contact. But I like context, having a story in the image. Therefore you need to go wide to be close and get some background elements too.

For candid the presence of the photographer would ruin the moment, so you need to step back, and the right lens is longer so you can still get a good framing without too much useless stuff in the image, or risk to have a too little subject making it hard to recognize in the image.

Of course this is my personal opinion and interpretation, not the One and Only Truth ;)
In any regard, having multiple lenses is nice. If Sony and Zeiss ever release a fast 35, then I'll likely make it my main walk about lens. Until then, I have no complaints about the Zeiss 55.
I do have a CV Ultron 40mm F2 for when the FE35 isn't fast enough. But I really had preferred they had released a faster 35mm. I'm actually waiting for Photokina to see whether they release an updated RX1. If they come out with a viewfinder version, I might ditch the FE35.

P.S. You really have funny captions on your flickr images ;)
 
Nice images! I really like the framing.

Thanks for sharing :)
 
I like taking these kinds of shots, too: ;-)

Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II on my A7

Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II on my A7
Now that's a nice 35mm! Pity I can't afford it.. ;)

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