Jan 25, 2026 9:00 PM PST

Why I use cheap gear in my street photography

Simple answer in two parts:
I cannot really afford really nice gear
I shoot in places where safety is questionable even in broad daylight

I do have really nice lenses and cameras although not the latest and greatest they are indeed of the best quality. I certainly do not own and may never own a LEICA but after acquiring certain gear I will talk about, I really do appreciate the form factor of the rangefinder.

Even if I could afford and owned certain equipment, I still would not bring the gear out to the places I like to shoot.

The main place I shoot is in Mexico, especially Tijuana and Rosarito. These places along with Mexico City itself are not the most ideal place to do night photography. Even day photography can be a bit sketchy depending on where you go.

The reason I even bring up the subject and why I’m writing this is to talk about the necessity of equipment or in other words the necessity for good equipment or at least equipment good enough to capture a decent image for online publication of any kind or maybe a large enough print for a book/magazine.

The idea that one needs the latest and greatest to capture decent quality imaging is really an idea brought about by the camera companies and their influencers to sell you more gear you may not need.

Recently I was thinking about the equipment I would be comfortable carrying in less than ideal situations for documentation. I need gear that I would not miss if lost so I started making a list of what I had that could be expendable and what I would need out in the wild to produce those quality images.

I have a point and shoot Canon G15 which is close to 15 years old. It shoots very good quality images in RAW and shoots pretty okay video if I were to need it.

I forgot to mention that I did not want to use my phone for a few reasons.
Battery life
Memory
Lack of editing in RAW (even though now my phone can shoot RAW)
Visibility. While I do not have the fancy phone everyone wants, I do have a very nice phone that I do not need to be flashing around and possibly snatch out of my hand. Funny story to follow.
To go off the last reason, I need the phone for emergency purposes and for looking up on the map my location and where I want to go
I’m sure there is another reason but I forgot and cannot think of it right now.
So the funny story is that I follow a young lady photographer from Mexico City or Guadalajara. I cannot remember but she does post every so often on the YouTube.

One of her videos is about a photowalk she was documenting. During the photowalk while she was checking something on her phone, a thief came out of nowhere and ripped the phone out of her hand. A nice fancy phone it was. Sad.

This situation got me to thinking about the gear I was going to use to do my projects.

I think this is the point where some may ask why. Why would I want to do those kinds of projects that take me to places where no other sane person would go to document.

My first silly answer is if not me, who?

But truth be told I really need to do things that are out of the norm. I need to make photos that are unique to me and my surroundings which include places that are out of the ordinary and not ideal.

There are a few photographers that are already doing something like this or already have a body of work for living in and documenting their neighborhoods.

This idea is different from what a paid documentary photographer might do if they were on a trip to a less than ideal place to call attention to the situation. Like a war photographer or a Magnum photographer going to slums and making photos of criminals and prostitutes. At the end of the day/trip they get to go home and if their gear is stolen, so what? The company they work for or the insurance they carry will compensate and indemnify the artist. The risk for losing gear is minimal and if they are an established artist, the risk for injury is minimal as well.

I have none of those luxuries. Fame and proper compensation for gear loss elude me at the moment.

Along with my point and shoot camera the other camera that is somewhat expendable is my old Nikkormat film camera.

But my Nikkormat has been with me for over 20 years so it really isn’t that expendable but turns out I have another Nikon film camera that I would cry about losing. I do need to dust it off a bit.

I also have a couple of point and shoot cameras but one was my mom’s so I can’t really lose that one but I do have an old Canon from the 70s that was cheap and replaceable.

So with my gear in hand I went out and shot.

My workhorse was the Canon G15 and it did a lot of good work. The point and shoot film cameras were also good enough to get the job done. Very interesting images that I love.
However, there were some definite drawbacks to the G15. The biggest drawback is speed in all functions. The camera just isn’t fast enough for street photography. If I see something, it takes too long for the camera to focus and process the images and if I need to take three or four consecutive images, forget about it. I basically have to be constantly on edge to anticipate the image way before I have to and in doing so I can miss another image that is close by. This has happened to me a few times already.

So I needed a camera that could handle the pressure but keep the same form factor and size.

After doing research I almost bought a Sony A6400 but doing a little more research I landed on a micro four thirds system and the Panasonic Lumix GX85 and I am so glad that I did. It really is an amazing camera especially for what I need it to do.

Now I have a strong camera that is lightweight and most importantly a bit underwhelming in the look. It’s not ugly but you will never mistake it for one the fancy tanks everyone wants to sell you for street photography.

I swear some of the gear that people try to sell you as travel and street photography is ridiculous.

As stated before there are things that are necessary for the quality of the image I want.

I do not plan on printing anything bigger than 16×20. Even so, there are ways to do that with a small sensor. So I do not need a full frame camera with really high dynamic range.

I do not plan on making a full length movie or documentary so high quality video is not necessary for me. I use an action camera for documenting my photo walks. Also I do not need super high end audio so a reasonably priced wireless lav mic that records is perfect for me.

There are many talking heads out there that say gear does not matter and for beginners that is mostly true. The other side of that coin is that beginners do not need the latest and greatest gear to create great images.

All the photo gear I purchased for my projects were bought used and are a generation or two behind the times. This is an important note because most cameras made within the last eight or nine years are good enough to create great content.

The Lumix GX85 is perfect for what I need it to do. I have the speed I was missing so not getting the shot is now fully on me.
The camera and lenses are also sharp. Almost too sharp but the color and contrast is very good.

The other thing that it is good at is low light. Yes I said low light. While doing research the biggest gripe about micro four thirds is the low quality in low light.
With the lenses I have that open up to f/1.7 I found this to be a lie.

I know that with the new bigger sensors the low light performance is better as it should be but that does not mean that the low light performance of the micro four thirds is bad. Anyone trying to convince you that micro four thirds is not performing is either ignorant or trying to sell you something. Be careful.

And I’m talking about a mid range micro four thirds camera not one of the high end MFT that has way better specs.

I want to make it clear that I do not want to throw Mexico under the bus for lacking safety. There are certainly places in the US that I would feel the same about regarding safety. However, this is the place I have photographed the most and plan on going into weirder places. There are also places in Mexico that I feel completely safe including night shoots.

Now everything I need to go out and shoot fits in a small bag that is also inconspicuous attracting very little attention to myself and my gear. It could almost be considered a man bag.
I do not carry a backpack or anything that may resemble a camera bag or expensive gear.

Keep your head on a swivel and now you’re okay to go out shooting anywhere.