Street Photography Basics Camera Reviewers Miss? | Nikon Zf vs Z8 vs Leica M11
For camera reviewers and the industry at large - street photographers are no longer the priority.
We don’t need 8K open-gate video, or insect-detect autofocus, instead 5 features reviewers overlook that make a difference on the street. Today let’s go through 3 cameras at 3 different price points to see how much street photographers have to pay to get the features we want and need.
I’m a scientist for work and street photographer for fun, but it’s enthusiasts like us who keep the industry afloat.
Yet all the new releases target video, sports, and wildlife shooters, and it’s not the first, and won’t be the last time street photography is dismissed.
The features we need are not talked about enough, so today let’s see what you can get for $2,000, $4,000, versus $10,000 (as well as a budget pick for under $1,000), to figure out which segment of the market has the best value proposition for street photographers.
The Nikon Zf, Z8, and Leica M11 represent enthusiast, prosumer, and luxury full-frame offerings, and for $2,000 there’s great value in entry-level full-frame. Nikon Zf, the new Z5II, or the Panasonic S5II. For $2,000 these sensors won’t have the highest resolution, won’t be the fastest scanning, if you want that for this price you’ll need to go crop - APS-C or micro four thirds.
Why full-frame matters to me is for adapting vintage glass - more on this later.
Nikon Zf: https://geni.us/YOH8bh7
Nikon Z8: https://geni.us/MBQGq
Leica M11-P (if it’s in stock): https://geni.us/igmcp
Feature 1: Startup Time
As quick as possible is what we need on the street, but very few reviewers measure camera startup time?
Granted it is a little tricky to measure accurately. I need the shutter to fire as soon as possible after the camera turns on, autofocus might slow this down - so manual focus only. But switching the camera on, pressing the shutter, then stopping the timer is a multi-tasking challenge. The best way I figured out how to do this is to film the back of the camera screen and the top of the camera at the same time, so I can count the frames from the exact moment the camera turns on to when the shutter fires (repeated in triplicate of course).
Based on this testing here are my results:
Nikon Zf startup speed: 0.9 seconds
Nikon Z8 startup speed: 0.5 seconds
Leica M11 startup speed: 1.03 seconds
The result that stands out here is that the Nikon Z8 at double the price of the Zf, has roughly double the startup speed. But at 5 times the price, the Leica M11 is… worse?
If a camera takes longer than 1 second to startup, it is too slow to react to a fast moving scene. The workaround is to never turn the camera off - half-pressing the shutter to wake the camera up, but if you’re trying to conserve battery life this is not ideal.
My mystery budget pick for less than $1,000? It had the fastest startup time out of any camera tested - 0.15 seconds!
But I don’t actually need the startup time to be that fast. I’d just like to know how this spec on a new camera compares to the cameras I already own, so if you’re a reviewer with a demo unit of a new camera - please test camera startup speed as standard.
Feature 2: The Shutter
Unlike startup time this is very subjective, but we all know photographers who sold cameras because they didn’t like the shutter sound?
It is the part of the camera we interact with most, it’s not that hard to record the sound, but almost no reviewers do this? It’s simple enough to turn off all the electronic sounds, hold the camera right next to the mic, and at 1 meter away - to see how audible the shutter is.
Out of these cameras the Nikon Zf is fairly loud, but it is low and full of bass. A pleasant sound that blends easier into a crowd. My budget mystery camera pick is actually the loudest - but it’s a nice sound as well.
The Leica M11 is quieter - some purists still prefer the Leica M10-P shutter better, but it’s so quiet it doesn’t make a difference to me.
But you can’t beat the Z8 in this category, it has one of the fastest scanning stacked sensors on the market, there’s no mechanical shutter sound whatsoever. For the sake of comparison I set to shutter sound type B on the lowest volume setting, just because I like the audio feedback. I can hear it with my eye up to the camera but no-one else can.
That’s one of the main benefits when you move up to the $4,000, $5,000 price point.
Instead of just resolution or speed, stacked sensors mean you can have both. Sony, Canon, and Nikon, now all offer a full-frame high-res stacked sensor option, but this doubles the price.
Are stacked sensors worth it for street photography?
Not for the burst shooting modes - what kind of street photographer wants to process 30, 50, 60 frames per second for stills? But most stacked sensor models are paired with the brand’s fastest processors - how quick these cameras are to startup, autofocus, playback, and change settings does matter for street but is that worth the hit to dynamic range?
For landscape and fine art the tradeoff isn’t worth it but to freeze the action or stopped down in street we’ll need higher than base ISO. I think stacked sensors are great for street shooters, but double the price is a lot to pay.
The mystery budget camera (for less than $1,000) with blistering startup speed (0.15 seconds!) doesn’t use a stacked sensor, so you don’t have to pay double just to get a fast camera for street photography.
But stacked sensors have another advantage for street:
Feature 3 - The Viewfinder.
Not the viewfinder resolution, I think it only matters if it’s less than 3.69 million dots (or lower than 0.5X magnification). Anything above that is nice to have, but street photographers spend half our time shooting via the screen?
What’s more important is how quickly the camera switches from screen to EVF and vice versa, and how long it takes the EVF to toggle on once the eye sensor is triggered. It isn’t a given that stacked sensors will be faster - (my old Sony A1 was notoriously slow), but the Z8 is quicker than the Zf. Both pickup my eye from about the two inches away but the Z8’s EVF is quicker to turn on.
The biggest benefit for stacked sensors is blackout free shooting - your livefeed of the scene is never interrupted. This is a real advantage over non-stacked sensors - akin to an optical viewfinder but with exposure preview. The Nikon Zf doesn’t have this, (the $1000 mystery budget pick doesn’t have this), but the ten thousand dollar Leica does.
Sort of.
Leica went for a non-stacked backside illuminated 61 megapixel chip - but it comes with an optical rangefinder viewfinder to the side of the lens. Like the Z8, there’s never any viewfinder blackout on the Leica, but you lose the exposure preview perks of the EVF.
Feature 4: Ergonomics
All everyone talks about is weight?
For street photography I care more about how balanced the camera is when paired with a fast 35 or 50mm prime. On a neck strap or a shoulder strap does it tilt forward or back? How symmetrical is the camera body, does the EVF hump get caught on your clothes and bags?
The grip is the most confusing part of ergonomics, because a heavy camera feels fine if its grip fits your hand perfectly. But everyone’s hands are different, and for this I defer to Watch YouTubers - everyone obsessively reports their wrist size, case size and height, lug-to-lug width, then film the watch being worn from every conceivable angle, so why can’t we do something similar for cameras?
Standardised measurements for hand size, and footage of you holding the camera from as many angles as possible to check for how your fingers wrap or dangle. Better yet film your partner holding the camera - so there’s more than one subjective hand-size experience. You also should declare if you like to back button focus, this changes the position of your thumb over long shooting sessions. For the record - I am not a back button focuser.
The Zf comes in at 812 grams with the grip attached, and for me the Smallrig grip gives enough purchase for none of my fingers to cramp or dangle. But if your hands are bigger than mine, your fingers might not have enough space. If your hands are smaller like my wife’s, her shorter fingers don’t cover the grip enough to offset the weight of the camera with one hand and there’s no backgrip as an extra point of support.
The Z8 is heavier than the Zf at 910 grams, but the front grip is rounded, substantial, and there’s a ridge on the back to give extra support. For me the weight’s not a major issue because of the grip, but with my wife’s smaller hands the Z8’s weight is a little too much.
What about the Leica? No grip at all whatsoever to speak of, but it strangely doesn’t need one? Only 540 grams, plus all the M-mount lenses are smaller and manual focus only, you’re supporting the camera with two hands, and the smaller rangefinder form factor fits me and my wife’s hand equally well. But does that make it worth $10,000?
No autofocus, no exposure preview, only one SD card slot, but every Leica M shooter I know acknowledges the shooting experience is unique.
All the M lenses are tiny, just like the camera, and the slower shooting experience means in theory you’ll have more keepers (not always true of course). But there’s no video, no IBIS, the sensor, processor, startup time, and focusing method are all slower - but the one thing you get from this ten grand setup that is still hard to replicate is:
Feature 5: Manual Focus.
I love vintage glass, the majority of which was made for 35mm film, so full frame sensors don’t change the field of view when adapting manual lenses.
I want my street photography camera to have great manual focus assist tools, I want to know if you can program and name manual lenses in the EXIF data, how easy it is to zone focus, but very few reviewers talk about this on camera launch day? Did anyone talk about this in the S1II’s launch? It’s just not a priority.
Credit to Nikon - they marketed it as a big Zf feature, which has manual focus subject detection, zoom magnify up to 400%, and electronic rangefinder confirmation. These are still viewed as niche features, still not all available on the flagship Z8, although I think some of them come standard on Canon cameras? Fujifilm also has a nice manual focus implementation, but it’s like pulling teeth trying to track this information down.
More companies and reviewers should talk about manual focus - Voigtlander lenses are selling like hotcakes, and the latest EVFs make it easier to nail focus shooting wide open.
But the whole manual focus process is still quicker on Leica.
Rangefinder coupling doesn’t rely on electronics, so I can start focusing with a Leica through the viewfinder before the camera even turns on. If you’re shooting on 35mm or tighter you can see outside the framelines of your composition, and coupled with no optical viewfinder blackout you can recompose straight away after every shot.
The cherry on top is zone focusing - M-mount lenses are perfectly calibrated for f8, f11 zone focussing from the hip, and by the time you add an adapter for vintage lenses on a mirrorless camera the alignment can be off.
But that doesn’t mean a street photography kit should be expensive.
We can all benefit from the speed of a stacked sensor, and luxuriate in the old-school feel of a rangefinder, but most of the essential features I talked about are more about thoughtful user design than technological leaps.
A budget of $2K USD should be enough to get you a full-frame body, kit lens, and a manual focus vintage optic. What matters to me most is a quick start up time, decent ergonomics, and a nice sounding shutter, which can all be found for less than 1 thousand dollars in my mystery camera pick:
A used Nikon DSLR for under $1000.
DSLRs in general are my go-to recommendation for beginners on the street, which I discussed in detail with my friend Phil in a previous post:
Happy shooting everyone, talk soon.
Jack.
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