If you like to shoot street photography or environmental portraiture, a 35mm lens could be the perfect lens for you. It’s focal length is wide enough to capture environmental context, yet a 35mm lens doesn’t cause the distortion effects you get with ultra wide-angle lenses. A 35mm lens is long enough that you can still compose your subject large in the frame.
Along with this angle of view, the best 35mm lenses are small, fast and produce smooth bokeh effects. For anyone building out their lens kit for the first time, a 35mm lens is an essential optic to have – even if you shoot something other street photography or photojournalism. Landscape and architectural photographers, in particular, might find this focal length appealing.
Because 35mm primes are such a popular focal length, there are thankfully plenty of options out there to choose from for all camera mounts. In this guide we’ve rounded up some of the best 35mm lenses we’ve tested over the years and explained what we feel makes them special.
50mm vs 35mm lens
The ‘nifty fifty’ 50mm prime is a stalwart lens for many photographers given its human eye angle of view. A 35mm lens provides a little bit wider angle of view that allows you to capture some environmental context in your photos. With portraiture in particular, that slightly wider focal length means you can shoot in tighter spaces than you could with a 50mm prime.
In fact, a case could be made that the best 35mm lenses are more versatile than the best 50mm lenses. This is because of the greater flexibility we have these days to crop into an image in post-production without having to sacrifice too much image quality. So if you decide later that you want a tighter crop, it’s not an issue.
Is a 35mm lens good for video?
Because it offers that little bit wider angle of view than a 50mm, a 35mm lens is great for video. Vloggers will appreciate the environmental context it brings into the frame. It also creates space for a split screen in your frame.
What’s more, if you’re filming in 8K or 4K and want to crop into your footage for a tighter frame, you can do this.
