I've been shooting with Fuji for like five years now mostly using the 16-55mm 2.8 which is a beast of a lens but honestly it's way too heavy for what I want to do now. Im heading to Tokyo in three weeks for a ten day solo trip and I really want to just stick to one prime lens and focus on street photography but I am overthinking this so much it's actually making me lose sleep. My logic was that I should go with the 35mm f2 because its tiny and weather sealed and everyone says the autofocus is snappy but then I start looking at my old photos and realize a lot of my favorite street shots were wider so maybe the 23mm f2 is better?
Then I started reading about the f1.4 versions and now I'm even more confused because the image quality on the new 18mm f1.4 or the 23mm f1.4 WR is supposed to be incredible but they are so much bigger and I dont want to look like a tourist with a massive rig. I want to be invisible in the crowd at Shinjuku or Shibuya. I've always been a zoom guy so this whole limitation breeds creativity thing is stressing me out more than it should. Like what if I bring the 35 and I'm constantly backing into walls because I cant fit the scene in? Or if I bring the 23 and I'm too far away to get any good subject separation?
Heres what I have narrowed it down to so far:
The budget is about $900 max so I could technically get a used version of the newer f1.4 lenses but I keep coming back to the size of the f2 primes. Does the character of the older lenses actually matter for street or am I just reading too many gear blogs? I'm using an X-T5 so I have the 40mp sensor which makes me think I need the newer glass to actually resolve that detail but then maybe the older 23mm f1.4 has that soul everyone talks about... honestly I just dont know. I'm looking for that one lens that can just stay on the camera the whole time and not make me regret leaving the zoom at home.