6 Best Lens for Night City Photography: (2023 Guide & Reviews)

With the world becoming increasingly more urbanized, it’s no surprise that cityscapes are now one of the most popular subjects for photographers.

But as any photographer knows, a good photo requires an exciting composition and capturing enough light to make the colors pop.

Many photographers recommend using a fast lens when photographing at night.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the best lenses for nighttime photography to help you create unique images with your camera!

I am reviewing the 6 best lenses for night city photography that might work for you perfectly at night.

Let’s drive in:

Which is the best lens for night city photography?

Here are my recommended top 6 best lens for Night City photography:-

Canon 24-70mm F2.8: (Best lens for Night video & portrait photography)

As a professional photographer, I’ve been lucky enough to use a lot of great lenses.

The Canon 24-70mm F2.8 is one of my favorites, and it’s also the lens that I have with me at all times.

This is the one lens to rule for so many reasons.

This lens is a great all-around lens that you can take on any shoot, whether it’s day or night.

It has an excellent aperture range for low-light photography and offers sharpness throughout the zoom range.

24-70 sits right in the middle between a wide-angle and telephoto lens covering some of the most important focal lengths when typically us as photographers.

This makes it a versatile piece of glass for everyday use that handles pretty much everything you throw at it.

That gives you that nice depth of field, making it an excellent choice for portraits.

This is an excellent lens for night video and portrait photography because it has a large aperture that creates excellent subject isolation.

Or any other subject you want to isolate is an F 2.8 lens, which means it’s speedy; the aperture opens up nice and wide.

Letting lots of light in throughout its entire focal range at F 2.8 gives you incredible brocade, and low-light performance is superb.

This is especially important to me because of the constant photography I do.

I’ve covered entire corporate dimensions using only this lens, and that also made it my number 1 lens in terms of return on investment pretty fast.

Additionally, this lens can also create beautiful bokeh (blurred background) in outdoor portraits due to its wide angle of view, which allows you to capture more scenery behind your subjects.

Lastly, with such a versatile range from 24mm up to 70mm, you will be able to achieve any shot you need without switching lenses all the time!

This is considered one of the best lenses for portrait photography because it captures such natural-looking images without distortion at either end of its focal length.

The wide angle allows you to capture more in your frame while still focusing on your subject, making this a perfect lens for shooting video!

Canon 24-105mm f/4L: (Best Low light lens for Night City photography)

“Are you looking for the best low light lens on a budget?

The Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens is a great all-around lens for low-light photography.

It can capture beautiful images in different types of lighting conditions, including indoors and outdoors at night.

We will explore what makes this particular lens so good for low-light photography and how it stacks up against its competitors.

The first thing that makes this lens so well suited to shooting in low light situations is its 4-stop maximum aperture!

This means the camera can shoot faster shutter, reducing motion blur while maintaining an image with plenty of detail.

This makes it perfect for nighttime photography and capturing amazing shots of the cities you visit.

If you want to capture beautiful photos of your travels that will stand out from other people’s pictures, this is the perfect lens for you!

I love using this one when I’m in Italy or France because there are so many spots with unique architecture and details to shoot.

You’ll get more detail than with any other type of camera, making your travel memories last forever!

It is one of the most versatile lenses you can buy because it has a unique focal length, of 24-105.

The only reason you would choose one or the other if you’ve got to go is that you’re shooting in a super low-light environment.

It has a wide focal length range, perfect for shooting night cityscapes and other photos in challenging lighting conditions. 

I think everyone loves to shoot at a certain level, I included.

Another cool feature of this lens is its Optical Image Stabilization (IS) system that helps reduce camera shake when shooting handheld without a tripod or monopod.

There’s nothing that can be a fantastic prime lens such as this when it comes to ultimate low-light performance.

The fixed aperture of 4 lets you shoot with less risk of overexposure or underexposed shots.

The smoothness and clarity this lens provides are unparalleled, making it one of the best lenses on the market today.

If you’re looking for an all-around versatile, low-cost prime lens, then this is your guy!

Canon 50mm 1.8: (Best lens for Night Street photography)

So, this lens is a very good lens for everything.

It’s very sustainable, so it’s a 50 mil is this fragment so that you can zoom in or out it’s straight strictly the same focal length.

I’m going to go through the points of why I recommend it for beginner photography, amateur photography, and even professional photography.

I’ve used this a couple of times at weddings; I’ve mainly used this for street photography, and also, I’ve used product photography and Full Frame Options for everything.

So, that’s pretty cheap compared to most lenses, and its quality is amazing.

It’s a standard portrait lens that works with a full-frame and crop sensor.

Perfectly, it comes in 160 grams, so it’s a very versatile lens.

The actual build quality is amazing, and it comes with great metal.

The minimal amount for that cheap as well it’s great.

The focus ring, it’s quiet, it’s it does the job, but it’s not the best thing in the world doesn’t like it when you’re using manual focusing.

I’ve used this for street photography, product photography, portraits, and all this.

On the Canon 50 mil one, we noticed the autofocus is actually fantastic.

It was very sharp, and it is quite a sharp lens.

If you use it properly, It’s actually quite a good lens to work with.

The only issue with this lens is chromatic aberration if you took a picture and struggled with the dynamic range.

So, if you take a picture with a really bright background, it’s going to be like little bits of purple or green.

So yeah, chromatic aberrations are a pretty dodgy issue in this camp, this lens, but if you use it properly, you’re aware of that, then you can work with that and then fix it.

Now, this is absolutely fantastic; this is my main lens for street photography.

What is recommended? Well, first of all, it’s cheap. So, I mean like it’s going to be non-stressful.

So overall I think that you should buy one of these if you haven’t got one yet.

Whether you’re doing street photography, product photography, portrait photography, event photography, or landscape.

Sigma 35mm F1.4: (Best Sony lens for Night City photography)

My new favorite lens and I will talk about what I love about it, what I don’t love about it, and whether or not you might want to purchase this lens.

The Sigma 35-millimeter F1.4 art lens is specifically made for the Sony e-mount system.

The first things is focal length; when I’m talking about focal length, I constantly get asked by people, what’s the first prime lens that I should get, or get one prime lens, which one should I get.

And I constantly recommend to people to actually get a 35-millimeter equivalent lens.

So if you’re shooting on the Fuji system or an APS C system, it’s probably going to be a 23 or 24-millimeter lens.

If you’re shooting on a full-frame camera, it’s going to be a 35-millimeter lens.

I say this, and I recommend this to people because I genuinely think it’s the most versatile focal length for anybody to use.

It’s a perfect middle ground between being too wide or too tight to shoot just about anything.

It’s perfect for shooting things like landscapes or cityscapes when you need a little bit of a wider angle of view.

It’s also perfect for getting closer to people and isolating a subject for portraits, street photography, or things of that nature.

I always give this advice; I really liked that focal length because it allowed me to get a little tighter to isolate my subject and get a blurry background.

But because now I’m shooting on a Sony full-frame camera, I’m able to use a little bit of a wider focal length and still get that same subject isolation and that same bokeh.

So to speak, we’re able to blur out the background just about as much as I was with that other lens.

But also have a little bit of a wider angle of view; the thing that really defines that 35-millimeter f 1.4 lens is its unique ability to give you a little bit of a wider angle of view but still isolate your subject in the foreground.

Because of its f 1.4 aperture, you’re able to take a picture of your subject and give some context in terms of what the scene is like and what’s going on in the background.

What’s going on in the foreground, and what does the environment look like?

But also, at the same time, because of that fast aperture, you can completely blur out that background and make sure that your subject is isolated and stands out as the subject of the photo.

In terms of sharpness, this lens is razor-sharp, with every aperture including f 1.4.

I almost exclusively shoot this thing at F 1.4, because quite frankly, that’s what I spent the money on, and that’s what it’s made for.

I know that no matter what the aperture is, I will always have a tack-sharp image.

So when I’m shooting portraits and F 1.4, as long as I now autofocus on my subject’s eye or face, I know it’s going to be tack sharp.

I always know that this lens is going to be just about as sharp as possible.

There are not a ton of lenses out there that can be sharper than this one.

So when I’m shooting with this lens, I’m always shooting with either the face or the highest action when shooting portraits and just things and other people.

This lens is so good at autofocus that it’s honestly just as good as any other native Sony lens.

I haven’t had any autofocus issues with it whatsoever.

It’s super quick, super snappy, and super accurate.

The autofocus on this thing is fantastic, and not only is it a high performer but it’s also built like a tank.

It is also one of the only Sony lenses that has a true manual focus ring.

So it has a manual focus switch, where you can switch the autofocus on or off.

And instead of being a fly-by-wire mechanism where you’re kind of electronically controlling the focus.

So if you’re a person that likes using manual focus for your photos, your videos, or whatever, this, in my opinion, is a much better solution than a lot of Sony’s native lenses.

Overall, the build quality of this thing is fantastic, and it’s just as good if not better than any of Sony’s native glass.

If you’re a person in the market for a 35-millimeter wide-angle prime with a super-fast aperture, I genuinely think this is the lens for you.

There are many alternatives out there, but most are so much more expensive and quite frankly.

The build quality and the image quality will not be much better than this lens; this lens is a rock star.

It’s a killer lens, and I am so happy with it; I’ve been loving all the pictures that I’ve been getting with it.

100% recommend this lens, and if you’re in the market for something like this, this will be a good move for you.

 

Canon 35mm F1.4: (Best Canon lens for Night City photography)

This lens came out initially in 2015, I’ve used it for several shoots over the years, but in January 2019, I decided to pick one up for a wedding I was shooting.

This is a lens for many photographers, especially stills photographers, because it covers so many different areas, has 35 mils you’re perfectly in between 24 mil and 50 mils.

This means if you are shooting portraits, you can get a fair amount in the background to tell many stories.

If you’re filming a video, you can use this for establishing shots.

This is an F 1.4 lens, which means not only is it great in low light, but it also means that it has an absolutely beastly shallow depth of field.

This thing makes anything pop from the background; I love it personally for portraits and full-body shots because it just makes the subject stand out completely from the background.

Because of the width and the shallow depth of field, you can separate your subject really easily, giving a really cool effect.

As I said, it’s just inside that natural scope when it comes to actual focal length.

In terms of the build quality of this lens, it is awesome.

It feels like pretty much every canon L series lens it’s got that really nice, solid body.

My favorite feature of this is the focus ring; it will be easier to find that focus ring if you are doing video work.

Another great thing about the focus ring is, it’s actually not too quick.

Like a lot of lenses, as you turn them, they focus really quickly.

You can use manual focus with your hand and do not need to follow focus without stretching too much or doing it.

It’s also weather-sealed, which means you’re going to have no issue taking this out in harsh weather conditions.

And trust me, I have taken about in some of the harshest conditions, and it’s held up just fine.

It feels awesome; it balances on the camera really well.

It’s F1.4, which means you are getting a really awesome shallow depth of field; it’s amazing in low light.

It’s also an L-series lens using an ultrasonic motor which means that the actual detail in the images is second to none.

Obviously, it’s one of the best on the market for this price point, you can get away with a better lens, but you will be spending a lot more money.

I use this lens; as I said, it’s very versatile in its ability to shoot very shallowly and at night, but it’s also super sharp and really, really great for product portraits and weddings.

It’s awesome for video; it’s great for pretty much everything, and at that 35 mils focal length, as I said, you’re getting more in the shot to be able to tell more of a story.

I can get a lot more in the frame, and fill the frame with background and important information to help tell a story.

I absolutely love this lens; it is awesome for pretty much everything.

This is one of my favorite portrait lenses, especially if you’re doing either full-body or half-body shots.

You can get some really nice background separation because of the F 1.4 aperture, and it’s just the shallowest of the depth of fields.

Another thing that I absolutely love about this lens is that it’s super quick.

35 gives you that nice clean ground; everything from the ground up is just massive, it’s an awesome crop, it’s an awesome size, and it’s just a really great lens.

It’s going to get very minimal vignetting, and because of that crop, you’re not going to worry about it even if you did get it.

It’s a great lens in an APS-C camera because you’re still going to get a very familiar and nice-looking photo.

 

Nikon 14-24mm f2.8: (Best Nikon lens for Night City photography)

It is only for Nikon news mirrorless cameras; it covers a full-frame image circle.

So, let’s see whether this new mirrorless camera version of Nikon’s classic professional lens can hold its head higher than the competition.

That zoom range of 14 to 24 millimeters means that this lens is wide-angle all the way, 14 millimeters being particularly extreme.

So it’s not the only lens you’ll want for general shooting.

Still, the zoom range is pretty useful anyway, particularly for getting shots inside buildings of all sizes or landscape photography.

The byte maximum aperture of F 2.8 meters could also be useful for event photography and nighttime photography.

So you’re at least getting a very flexible optic for your money.

This lens’s build quality is really spectacular.

The lens is a metallic solid feeling and is too tightly assembled and looks incredibly cool.

This lens is not image-stabilized, although most Nikon cameras nowadays have image stabilization built-in.

It weighs 650 grams, about 1/5 pound, so it balances quite well on the Nikon cameras.

The lens is dust and moisture-resistant, and there’s a decent sealing gasket on the rear mount.

Then, there’s a customizable metallic control ring at the rear, which many people might set to control that aperture.

And you will see the display changing accordingly as you turn it; it turns smoothly, without clicks.

Then we get a rubberized zoom ring, which also turns fairly smoothly, and at the very top.

We got a rubberized manual focus ring, which worked with the focus motor putting responsively in my test.

This is, of course, an autofocus lens.

Now autofocus speed is hardly a top priority on an ultra-wide-angle lens.

Still, its autofocus motor is reasonably fast and accurate and makes a very quiet, wearing sound as it works.

However, if you’re shooting in video mode, it slows, right down, that becomes completely silent.

As a result, meaning that you won’t hear any motor noise on a soundtrack from your camera’s internal microphone.

Overall, the lens has absolutely fantastic build quality here in every way, with some ingenious options for people who want to use filters.

With the widest angle of 14 millimeters and the brightest aperture of F 2.8 Right away, the sharpness and contrast in the middle of the image are absolutely incredible.

And over in the corners of really brilliant performance, they’re not quite as sharp, but very impressive.

At 2.8, that image quality is astonishingly good in the middle and over in the corners.

Overall, this lens’s level of resolution and contrast across the entire zoom range is consistent, brilliant.

It’s just about the sharpest ultra-wide-angle zoom lens I’ve ever tested.

The Nikon lens is supremely dominant, if only over rather a small playing field. This lens could be useful for nighttime and Astrophotography.

And finally, Bokeh, despite its fairly bright aperture of F 2.8.

This lens is ultra wide-angle in nature means that it won’t be anyone’s first choice for getting out of the figure’s background.

When you get them, they’re fairly soft, although difficult backgrounds may look a bit edgy.

So, the conclusion I’m reaching about this ultra-wide-angle zoom lens is that it is more or less the best I’ve ever seen so far.

It’s only real problems, distortion, and vignetting when shooting in far, but those are normal for this lens class and easily corrected.

Its price is pretty excessive, though, to say the least. Is it a good value for money?

Because they’ll always be a market among photographers, professional photographers for the very best money, no object choices.

Although I can’t say for sure, the Nikon lenses are a bit sharper, and the Nikon lens also has far superior build quality.

If it’s within your budget, then it’s a dream, and it certainly comes highly recommended.

What aperture should I use for night photography?

The aperture that I use for night photography is f/2.8. You will want a lens with a fast aperture if you intend to take pictures at night or in low light. The lens’s aperture should ideally be f/2.8 or higher. The fixed aperture of many zoom lenses, such as the 16-35mm and 24-70mm, is f/2.8. The Nikkon 14-24mm F2.8 is what I prefer for the aperture. It is weather-sealed throughout, not just at the lens mount. There’s no optical image stabilization on this lens, but that’s par for the course in wide-angle lenses. I got some incredible nighttime pictures for my daughter’s birthday party, which was held on a restaurant’s rooftop. I picked this lens because it was low light and worked well.

Is f2 enough for night photography?

Yes, F2 is enough for night photography. Most night photographers like a lens with an aperture of f2 or higher (more comprehensive). That will allow significantly more light to enter the scene than a kit lens with an f-stop of 4 or higher would (narrower). Consider the focal length since a zoomed-in lens will allow you to photograph with a shutter speed twice as fast as an f/4 lens when the aperture is wide open. The f/2.8 is the best option if I frequently picture moving things like people or objects where quick shutter speeds are essential. The most excellent lenses I use for my nighttime photography are the 1.6 and 2.8 Nikon 14-24mm.

CONCLUSION:

Alright, guys, so that concludes all the lenses we will talk about today in this article.

Do you guys have any experience with these lenses? What are your thoughts on them?

Which is your best lens for Night City photography?

Is there a lens that I didn’t mention in this article that you love to use for night city photography?

Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

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10 Best Sony Lens for Night Photography:

11 Best Nikon Lenses for Night Photography:

10 Best Lens for Event Photography:

12 Best Canon Lens for Night Photography: (2021 Guide & Reviews)

6 Best Lens for Night Street Photography: (2021 Guide & Reviews)