Best Canon Lenses for Street Photography

These are the best Canon lenses for street photography, we’ve looked at a ton of lenses available from all brands, and selected nothing but the best for your money.

Lenses used for street photography can’t be too big or heavy, as you don’t really want to stand out too much. Something small like a prime or a short zoom is usually the best.

Luckily, the majority of prime lenses have great image quality and have large apertures as well, allowing you to shoot at night, or in darker places. You can also focus on a specific subject and blur the background completely, but street photography is usually not about isolating your subject (it can work in some cases).

All lenses below have great image quality and sharpness, aren’t overpriced and they’re perfect for many different types of photography.

Best Canon street lenses we recommend:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM
Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is the best-selling lens from Canon, which already says a lot. It’s affordable, compact and delivers high quality images which makes it great for street photography.

Thanks to f/1.8 it gathers a ton of light, meaning you’ll be able to use faster shutter speeds, a must for street photography (you want at least 1/125 for most moving scenes).

50mm is a great length for street photography and is also useful for almost any other type of photography, whether it’s portraits, product, sports, traveling or general shooting.

Auto focus is quick, silent and accurate thanks to STM (Stepping Motor), which is also a plus for videographers because you won’t have any noise from auto focusing in your videos.

You can buy it at Amazon or read more reviews here.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

The Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM fits on both APS-C and FF Canon cameras, making it a perfect choice for street photography regardless of your mount.

It’s super thin and light, so you won’t really attract too much attention with it. The colors, sharpness and overall quality are excellent, and the AF speed is quick as well. Thanks to STM the lens focuses silently and accurately, so you’re covered for videos as well.

It also features FTM (Full Time Manual focus) so you can focus manually even when AF is turned on, allowing you to quickly adjust the focus as you wish (in case your camera couldn’t focus properly). This is a big time saver, especially for street photography!

You can buy it at Amazon or read more reviews here.

Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 STM

The Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 STM is another pancake lens, but 16mm wider than the 40mm above.

It’s only compatible with APS-C cameras, but is still a much wider choice than both lenses above. It weighs only 4.4oz/125g and is so thin you’ll forget you have it mounted.

Even though it’s super cheap, it still comes with FTM (Full Time Manual focus), a feature that allows you to focus manually at any time, even when set to AF mode. All 3 lenses mentioned so far are almost the same when it comes to image quality, it’s just their focal length that and size that differs.

You can buy it at Amazon or read more reviews here.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM is sharper than the majority of prime lenses on the market.

It’s tack sharp even at f/1.4, features a Ring-type AF motor for fast, silent and accurate focusing with Full Time Manual Focus, and has a closest focusing distance of 0.30cm/11.81″.

Mounted on an APS-C camera, its field of view is equivalent to a 50mm lens, a length that’s perfect for almost any type of photography, especially for portrait, wedding and extreme low light photography.

Great bokeh, beautiful colors and optical quality, plus it’s built like a tank so you don’t have to worry about easily damaging it. It’s also cheaper and performs better than Canon’s version!

You can buy it at Amazon or read more reviews here.

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM

A couple of years ago, large apertures were only possible on prime lenses, but Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM changed that in 2013. You’re looking at an optically superb, wide-to-standard large aperture lens that could save you a lot of money and weight (1 zoom with f/1.8 instead of 3 primes with f/1.8).

Not familiar with Sigma’s terms? The lens features HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), which means the lens is very quick and accurate at focusing. You can also expect beautiful background blur thanks to 9 diaphragm blades, especially when wide open.

Besides amazing quality in still photography, the lens is perfect for videos as well, thanks to its smooth focus and zoom rings.

It weighs 1.79 pounds (810 grams) so it’s by far the heaviest lens on this list, but that’s because of the lengths it covers. 18 to 35mm on an APS-C camera equals a 29-56mm lens, a perfect range for street photography.

You can buy it at Amazon or read more reviews here.

3 More Recommended Canon Lenses for Street Photography

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM – 35mm is the most popular length for street scenes, and if you find the Sigma’s version too expensive, the Canon alternative is cheaper.

Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM – Even wider, great image quality and no IS (rarely needed at such wide angles).

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM – If you own a full frame Canon and want to capture subjects further away from you, then the 85mm is hands down your best option!