Having shot a lot of street photography with a mirrorless over the last few years, I know what features I find to be the most important and what I care about less about, or can even do without, with the camera that I use.
Sharing this information with you means you’ll be able to save time deciding on your new purchase, particularly with so many models out there to choose from, as well as money by helping you understand what you might not be needing to pay for.
The table below shows you three great options covering the three main sensor sizes, and compares all the specs you’d look for in a good street photography mirrorless camera too. Check them out, and then read on if you want to learn more about them and a few other options too, before a deeper dive into why certain features will be important for you.
Contents
Three of the best mirrorless cameras for street photography
Before we get into what features are important to consider when buying a mirrorless camera for street photography, let’s take a more detailed look at some of your very best options on the market today.
What follows is more information about why the three cameras outlined in the table above are among your very best choices for your street photography.
Sony Alpha A7C
The Sony Alpha A7C is one of the smallest full frame mirrorless cameras you can buy, which brings a couple of big benefits right off the bat.
First is that full frame sensors tend to provide higher dynamic range and better low light / high ISO performance than their APS-C or micro four-thirds counterparts, which means you’ll get better-looking shots in tricky light conditions.
Second is that the smaller your camera, the easier it is to stay incognito in the streets, and the more candid moments you should be able to capture. Previously, with these sensors only really being available in larger cameras bodies, you had a choice between full frame or stealth. Now, with the Sony Alpha A7C, you can have both.
Further features of the Sony A7C that will help you make even better street photography are its superior tracking for moving subjects and class-leading autofocus. The Real Time Eye AF helping you nail street portraits too, if they’re something you like to shoot.
The retracting kit lens is optically very good as well as compact, giving great image quality without compromising the size of your setup. When shooting, the 10 frames per second continuous shooting mode and large buffer are more than good enough for those fishing shots, while the 5-axis in-body image stabilisation will help keep them sharp.
Finally, the improved battery life will keep you going for over 700 shots too or, as like to call that many, all day. And with the more compact body than on most other full frame cameras, you’ll be happy to shoot with the A7C all day and perhaps even be more motivated to take it out more often too.
Of course the biggest factor in the quality of your street photography will be yourself and your own talent, but the Sony A7C is a camera that you’ll want to take out and practice with. All of its features will align with the natural improvement that will bring to help you raise your game, which is something we’d all like to do.
- World’s smallest and lightest1 full-frame camera with world's smallest and lightest full-frame standard zoom lens
- Advanced 24.2MP2 Back-Illuminated 35mm Full-frame Image Sensor
- 4K Movie3 w/ full pixel readout, no pixel binning or crop and HDR4
Fujifilm X-T4
The high-end Fujifilm X-T4 is another good mirrorless for your street photography, although this time with an APS-C sensor. Despite having a smaller sensor than the Sony A7C above, its body is noticeably bigger. It is arguably a nicer looking, more classic design too though.
It’s also very fully featured, giving you in-body image stabilisation, weather sealing, higher frames per second, great manual controls, and a better battery life than most other mirrorless cameras for your money.
Fujifilm also has one of the best catalogues of lenses for its mirrorless range, like the Fujinon 23mm f2 that has an effective focal length of 35mm and the Fujinon 35mm f2 that gives you an effective focal length of about 52mm, both of which are perfect for street photography with the X-T4.
- Putting stability in your hands: A huge part of creating great photos or videos is making sure you are in the right place at the right time – and that often means making handheld images to get to the heart of the action. X-T4’s state-of-the-art, five-axis In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) provides up to 6.5 stops of image stabilization to make sure that, even in the midst of all the excitement, your images remain steady and sharp. Combine this with the new four-axis digital image stabilizer, and you have lots of room to maneuver.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 III
Olympus is a manufacturer who tend to focus on the micro four-thirds market, and this OM-D E-M1 III is one of the best overall mirrorless cameras out there with that sensor size.
We’ll cover its smaller sibling – the OM-D E-M5 III – later in this guide. Both models have IBIS and weather sealing, but this larger OM-D E-M1 III gives you more shots per charge and among the highest frames per second of any mirrorless on the market, should you deem that more important than a small body.
While a micro four-thirds camera isn’t ideal for street photography with vintage lenses, the native Olympus range rivals the Panasonic one for quality with the M.Zuiko 17mm f1.8 and the 25mm f1.8 giving you those effective 35mm and 50mm fields of view respectively.
- Multi-selector (Joystick) for quick selection of the AF area while looking through viewfinder
- Dust proof/Slash proof/Freeze proof magnesium alloy weather sealed construction
More of the best mirrorless cameras for street photography
Sony Alpha A6400
While the brilliant Alpha A6600 is Sony’s best APS-C mirrorless, you can save a bit of money by going for one of two models that were released around the same time and aren’t quite so fully featured.
The first of these is the Alpha A6400, which is actually a little smaller than the A6600. The other main differences between the two are the shorter battery life of the A6400 and its lack of in-body image stabilisation.
If neither of those are important to you though, the mid-range A6400 is the more budget-friendly option yet still a very fine camera in its own right.
And if you want a full guide to the differences and similarities between the Sony A6100, the A6400, and the A6600, this post explains everything in far greater detail than I can here.
- Next Gen speed: experience the world’s fastest 0. 02 sec AF with real-time AF and object tracking
- Enhanced subject capture: wide 425 Phase/ 425 contrast detection points over 84% of the sensor
- Fast and accurate: up to 11Fps continuous shooting at 24. 2MP raw with crisp, clear natural colors
Sony Alpha A6100
Another Sony APS-C option, and one that is even more budget-friendly than the A6400 above, is the entry-level A6100. It comes in at the same size as the A6400 and has almost all of the same features too.
The biggest difference between the two is the lack of weather sealing, which means your general equation is as follows: the A6600 has in-body image stabilisation and is weather sealed, the A6400 loses the image stabilisation, and the A6100 loses both.
The A6600 has that extended battery life too, but things like the sensor and the frames per second are the same across all models. So again, if you don’t need IBIS and weather sealing, you can save some good money by going for the A6100 instead of its siblings.
Again though, you can learn all you need to know about the Sony A6100 vs A6400 vs A6600 by clicking that link right there.
- World’s fastest AF at 0 02 sec W/ real-time AF & Object tracking
- Wide 425-phase/425-contrast detection AF points over 84% of sensor
- 24 2MP APS-C Exmor sensor w/ front end LSI and ISO up to 51 200
Fujifilm X-T30
If the classic styling of the X-T4 appeals but you find its size and price a little too big, you could also consider the Fujifilm X-T30. It has the same sensor and in a smaller body that you might prefer for when shooting out in the streets.
You do lose the in-body image stabilisation and weather sealing of the X-T4 and get fewer frames per second and shots per battery charge too, but we are comparing it to a Fujifilm flagship so of course some things will appear inferior.
That doesn’t mean it’s not a very good camera in its own right, with good autofocus and image quality, and again that same great Fuji lens selection. If money is a little tight and you don’t need a camera with the highest specs for your street photography, the X-T30 is worth looking at.
- Advanced Image Sensor Technology: The 26.1MP BSI APS-C X-Trans CMOS 4 image sensor and X-Processor 4 quad-core CPU combination provide accurate AF and Face Detection for moving subjects when capturing either high-resolution stills or recording 4K video
Canon EOS RP
Although Sony dominated the early full frame mirrorless camera market and continues to produce fantastic cameras like the A7R IV, other manufacturers are now competing too. Canon’s EOS RP is one such example of that.
Although it comes in at a very similar size as the Sony models, with only a few millimetres difference in each dimension, the EOS RP is lighter and a lot more budget-friendly. You still get fast and accurate autofocus and very good low light performance too.
As the EOS RP uses Canon’s newer RF mount, its native lens range is still a little limited and also pricey, although the RF 35mm f1.8 Macro STM is good value. However, as an inexpensive full frame mirrorless camera, the EOS RP might just be the best option if you’re looking something to shoot your vintage lenses on.
- Compact, Lightweight and High-Quality RF Lens with a Versatile Zoom Range of 24-105 millimeter
- Optical Image Stabilization at up to 5 stops of shake correction
- Maximum Magnification of 0.4x and Minimum Focusing Distance of 0.66 feet in Auto Focus.
Canon EOS M6 II
Another Canon option that comes in a small body for its sensor type is the EOS M6 II, which is an APS-C rival to Sony’s Alpha 6400 in terms of price, size, and – in some aspects – its feature set.
Its 32.5 megapixels is the most of any APS-C sensor today, for what megapixels are worth, and its 14 frames per second is more than the small Sony Alphas can manage too. It doesn’t have IBIS or weather sealing though and no built-in viewfinder, although there is an external one that you can buy separately or as part of a kit.
Good autofocus and tracking allows you to get good candid street shots, and the improved dynamic range helps with the image quality in high contrast scenes. The native lens range is again a little limited, but if you’re happy to use a combination of kit lens and vintage lenses, the EOS M6 II is a capable and compact street photography camera.
- High image quality with 32.5 Megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor,
- High-speed continuous shooting of up to 14 fps with AF/AE tracking
- Dual Pixel CMOS AF with 5, 481 manually selectable AF positions, and eye AF Servo support
Nikon Z6
Nikon are similar to Canon in that they jointly dominated the DSLR market for so long but were relatively slow to bring out a really good mirrorless camera.
That’s now changed though and the Z6 is a really good choice if you’re a longtime Nikon consumer and want to remain loyal to the brand, bringing as it does a full frame sensor, great image quality, good ergonomic design, in-body image stabilisation, and weather sealing.
These features make the Nikon Z6 slightly bigger and more expensive than the full frame Canon EOS RP and it does have a similarly small native lens range, although this is expected from a new entrant in the market. There is a 35mm and a 50mm already available though, and the Nikon z-mount ecosystem will surely only grow with you over time.
- New larger Z mount for revolutionary optical performance
- Nikon designed 24.5mp backside illuminated image sensor
- 273 point on sensor phase detect AF system
Panasonic Lumix G90/95
Although Panasonic entered the full frame mirrorless market with the flagship Lumix S1R, their bread and butter has long been their micro four-thirds offerings like the highly-regarded Lumix G95, which is also known as the G90 outside of North America.
While the 2x crop factor of an m43 camera makes them not ideal for using vintage lenses, they’re great if you stick to the native ones like the 20mm f1.7, which almost gives you an effective 35mm field of view, and the 25mm f1.7 that gives you a 50mm one.
The G90/G95 is fully-featured too, bringing IBIS, weather sealing, and a built-in viewfinder. It also has fantastic video performance for its budget-friendly price, if producing that sort of content alongside your street photography is important to you too.
- Focus on Your Creativity: Perfect for photographers who are ready to excel, the LUMIX G95 has a superb, powerful 20.3 MP Digital Live MOS sensor and advanced technologies for both photo and video
- Versatile and Portable: Lightweight Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera is weather sealed with a flexible, free-angle monitor, ready for any adventure; LUMIX G 12-60mm F3.5-5.6 POWER O.I.S. lens ensures crisp, clear images
Other options
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 III is a compact micro four-thirds that packs a lot of features into its small body and gives great overall image quality.
The Sony Alpha A6600 is a small APS-C camera that allows you 11 frames per second and over 700 shots per charge. And the Sony A7R IV is a full frame beast with an unrivalled sensor and autofocus.
All three of them come with a built-in viewfinder, in-body image stabilisation, and weather sealing too.
Features to look for when buying a mirrorless camera for street photography
To narrow down the best mirrorless cameras for street photography, we need to look at what features are important for this type of shooting.
Different people will value different features differently. You may prefer a smaller camera that allows you to be more stealthy, or you may prefer the benefits of a bigger sensor in a bigger camera.
That’s just one example. In reality, some or all the following will need to be considered whichever camera it is you decide to look at:
Size and ergonomics
Before we get into any of the technical specifications that make a mirrorless good for street photography or not, let’s address perhaps the most important thing.
If your camera is too big for you to want to take out or doesn’t feel good in your hands, you’re not going to be doing as much shooting with it as you’d hoped when you bought it.
So while the current crop of flagship full frame mirrorless cameras like the Sony A7R IV are brilliant at what they do, they might not the best suited for this job for a lot of people. Especially with their huge lenses on the front too.
A smaller camera like a Canon EOS M6 II can help you stay more incognito on the street, which can help you get more candid shots if that’s your thing. For that reason, expect a lot of the recommendations in this guide to be on the physically smaller side.
- High image quality with 32.5 Megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor,
- High-speed continuous shooting of up to 14 fps with AF/AE tracking
- Dual Pixel CMOS AF with 5, 481 manually selectable AF positions, and eye AF Servo support
Battery life
While mirrorless cameras have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and hold a good few advantages over DSLRs, one area where they still tend to lag behind is their battery life.
This sounds like it could be an issue for street photography, although in reality it might not be so bad. Most modern mirrorless cameras are rated for over 300 shots per full battery charge, which for me is a lot to be taking in one day.
If you do need more than that though, because you fire off a lot of frames per scene or you go to places where you can’t recharge overnight, you could always buy an extra battery or two and keep them in your bag.
That said, the technology is improving all the time and there are already exceptions to the average battery life among mirrorless cameras. The Sony Alpha A6600 for one is said to get you over 700 shots per full charge.
- World's fastest AF at 0.02 sec. W/ real-time AF & Object tracking
- 24.2MP APS-C Exmore sensor w/ front end LSI and is up to 102, 400
- Wide 425-phase/425-contrast detection AF points over 84% of sensor
Frames per second and buffer
One reason you might need a lot of shots per charge is that you fire off a lot of frames per scene using a camera’s burst mode and then just keep the best one when editing them. It’s a common street photography technique with digital cameras.
Quite how many frames you’ll be able to get in a burst is determined by a combination of the FPS – or frames per second – capability of the camera and the size of its buffer.
The job of the buffer is to hold the images until they can be written onto the memory card. When this becomes full, the frames per second will slow down until it processes some shots, empties, and makes room for more.
The Fujifilm X-T4 has one of the best burst modes on the market with 15 frames per second possible with the mechanical shutter and 20 frames per second with the electronic shutter. It also has a 100-shot buffer when shooting JPEG, which sounds to me like more than enough for street photography.
- Putting stability in your hands: A huge part of creating great photos or videos is making sure you are in the right place at the right time – and that often means making handheld images to get to the heart of the action. X-T4’s state-of-the-art, five-axis In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) provides up to 6.5 stops of image stabilization to make sure that, even in the midst of all the excitement, your images remain steady and sharp. Combine this with the new four-axis digital image stabilizer, and you have lots of room to maneuver.
Autofocus speed and accuracy
The speed and accuracy of autofocus isn’t something I’ve had to worry about for a long time when I do any street photography, as I have to zone focus with my vintage lenses. If you do similar, you won’t need to worry about how good the autofocus is on your mirrorless camera either.
Not everyone shoots vintage though, and the speed and accuracy of the autofocus can be the difference between getting that candid shot or not when you’re using it to capture a moving subject or pick out a face in a crowd.
You should also watch out for good autofocus performance in low light as well as daylight, as performance does drop off as the sun goes down.
Sony are again leading the way with autofocus technology, with the full frame Alpha A7R IV being particularly phenomenal at it. Fear not if such a camera is overkill for your street photography though as that pedigree trickles down to their cheaper models like the Alpha A6100 too.
- World’s fastest AF at 0 02 sec W/ real-time AF & Object tracking
- Wide 425-phase/425-contrast detection AF points over 84% of sensor
- 24 2MP APS-C Exmor sensor w/ front end LSI and ISO up to 51 200
High ISO performance
If you plan to shoot very low light street photography at night, perhaps using street lamps or storefronts to illuminate your subjects, a mirrorless camera with good high ISO performance is a must.
Most mirrorless cameras will have both a native ISO range and an extended ISO range. The first of those is what the sensor is capable of reaching, which is a good indicator of its quality, while the second is what the processor can push it on to, which is more of a software thing and to some extent just big numbers that look good in marketing materials.
Another thing to remember is those number ranges don’t tell you how good the image quality is when shooting at a given ISO. Whichever mirrorless you go for will give good images at ISO 3200 and below though, which should be enough for street photography.
This all makes a super high ISO range a little redundant, but you’ll still want a camera that performs well at least up to ISO 3200 or even 6400. If this is important to you, the Nikon Z6 is said to have amongst the very best image quality at high ISO.
- New larger Z mount for revolutionary optical performance
- Nikon designed 24.5mp backside illuminated image sensor
- 273 point on sensor phase detect AF system
In-body image stabilisation
In-body image stabilisation, or IBIS, works by moving the sensor to match and compensate for any camera movement as you’re shooting. It’s a technology that can help you get sharper images in a few different ways when you’re doing your street photography.
If you’re shooting at f8 or even f11 to get more depth of field yet at a low ISO value, your shutter speed might not be as high as you’d like. Having IBIS to reduce blur in your images can help you still shoot at that lower ISO. This also comes in handy when shooting in lower light.
Street photography can also be fast and in amongst crowds, which can mean some shots need to be taken quickly without setting yourself completely. IBIS can help you here too and will work with whatever lens you use – even manual focus vintage ones.
Due to having a relatively big sensor in a small body, most APS-C cameras don’t have in-body image stabilisation. Sony squeezed it into their Alpha A6600 and Fujifilm in their X-T4 too, but for the most part it’s a feature found in full frame or micro four-thirds models, like the diminutive Olympus OM-D E-M5 III.
- 20MP live MOS sensor
- Portable, weather sealed design
- 121-point all-cross-type on-chip phase detection AF
Built-in viewfinder
While buying an inexpensive and compact mirrorless camera for your street photography might sound enticing, be aware that some models in this category – namely the Canon EOS M200, the Canon EOS M6 II, and the Fujifilm X-A7 – don’t have a built-in viewfinder.
Canon do make a separate one called the EVF-DC2 that can be used with the EOS M6 II via its hot shoe, but spending extra money on that kind of defeats the object of saving by going for a cheaper camera without one.
Quite how important it is to have a viewfinder is up to you, but there are definite advantages to having one. Being able to focus on the scene you’re shooting with no distractions is good for composing shots, and screens can be hard to see in bright sunlight too.
That said, using a tilting screen is good for shooting from the hip or chest height and remaining more incognito in the street. It’s hard to recommend a specific mirrorless based on the viewfinder because most of them have one. But if you don’t need one, consider the Fujifilm X-A7 as a good inexpensive choice.
- New 24.2MP APS-C CMOS Image Sensor uses Copper wiring construction to achieve premium image quality and advanced AF performance
- Large 3.5” 16: 9 wide Touchscreen LCD
- Compact and lightweight design weighing only 455G With the kit lens
Sensor size for vintage lenses
The final point to cover for the best mirrorless cameras for street photography is the sensor size, and specifically in regard to how it’ll affect your ability to use vintage lenses.
There are other differences and pros and cons to using a full frame, APS-C, or micro four-thirds camera, like better low light performance and more control of depth of field the bigger the sensor, but none of them are as instantly as obvious as the sensors’ respective crop factors.
However, this is usually negated by the native lens lengths these manufacturers produce. See the Olympus 25mm f1.8 or the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 as examples, effectively working like 50mm lenses on their micro four-thirds cameras.
If you want to shoot some street photography with vintage lenses on your mirrorless camera though, you might find the 2x micro four-thirds crop factor a little restrictive. An APS-C camera would be better, but only a full frame model like the Canon EOS RP, the Nikon Z7, or the Sony A7r IV would allow you to shoot the lens at its intended effective focal length.
- New larger Z mount for revolutionary optical performance
- Nikon-designed 45.7MP backside Illuminated image sensor with no optical low pass filter (OLPF)
- 493-Point on-sensor phase detect AF system and up to 9 fps; Total pixels: 46.89 million
Wrapping up the best mirrorless cameras for street photography
Deciding which mirrorless camera to buy for street photography is not an easy thing to do. First because many of them don’t come cheap, and second because a lot of them have similar specs and features.
One of the best ways to figure out which to go for is to prioritise what’s important for you and your work and see which models best match that.
I would also suggest that some things are more important than others. For me, a slightly faster autofocus would not make up for a camera that’s too big for me to want to use, and a couple more frames per second would not be worth going over budget for.
What you feel is most important is up to you, but all the information in this post has been put together to help you choose which mirrorless has what you need without spending money on something you don’t want.
After getting this far through it, you might even have a shortlist of cameras that have caught your eye. If so, you’ve already gone some way to eliminating those that don’t appeal, which means those that are left are models you’ll probably love should you go with any of them.
I hope you do decide on one and I hope you get out there as soon as you can with it, making great street photography and sharing it with whoever it is you want to share it with. 🙂
- Compact, lightweight EOS R series camera with an affordable price
- Smallest and lightest camera body in the EOS R series1 built for excellent mobility
- Photo and video capability 16 Megapixel micro Four Thirds sensor confidently captures sharp images with a high Dynamic Range (HDR)
- 4K capture 4K Ultra HD video recording (3840 x 2160) Plus 4K PHOTO pause and save frame that extracts individual high-resolution photos from 4K Ultra HD video
- Feature-Packed Camera: Why trust your memories to a phone. With exceptional performance and versatility, the LUMIX G100 captures life in crystal-clear 4K photo, 4K 24p 30p video, and advanced audio
- Grows as Your Skills Grow: iA (intelligent auto) mode gives the perfect shot every time, or use manual modes as your skills sharpen; Micro Four Thirds system is compatible with all LUMIX lenses for any adventure; 12-32mm lens included
If you found that guide to the best mirrorless cameras for street photography useful and want to dig deeper into the topic, why not take a look at these other posts too:
- The best mirrorless cameras for shooting vintage lenses
- The differences between the Sony A6100, A6400, and A6600
- Complete guide to buying a mirrorless for vintage lenses camera
And if you think others will also find this useful, help them find it by sharing or pinning. 😀
I bought an Olympus E PL 8 and it gets the job done. Actually i enjoy using it.
Cheers for that comment Denis. I agree really, I shot a whole 365 street project in 2017 with a Sony NEX 5-N that was quite outdated even by then. The recommendations in a post like this are like, if someone has the money to spend and wants something new. But whatever works for the individual is great, whatever that may be. I shoot with film cameras older than myself and love them. Enjoying shooting and enjoying the results of that is all that matters really. More so than how many autofocus points a camera has or whatever. 🙂