The question I get asked every day in my Food Photography Club Facebook group, is what is the best lens for food photography?
The thing is, there is never just one perfect lens for any photography discipline. You need to have several lens options, otherwise, all your shots will start looking the same, and you’ll be limited with what you can shoot.
I see this all the time with bloggers. They only use a 50mm lens for all their shots because that’s what came with their camera, or they read that another blogger is using it. Then all their shots start looking the same. For each post, they do the same type of shots over and over. It gets redundant.
Before we get started here – this will be a series of posts, and I will be talking about three different types of lenses, one type of lens per post.
The other thing that is really important is that in each post, I will talk about the two different types of cameras, cropped sensor cameras, and full frame sensor cameras.
If you don’t know what that means, or if you don’t know if your camera has a full frame sensor, please google “does the _______(your camera make and model) have a cropped sensor?” For more info on cropped sensor cameras vs full frame sensor cameras, please see my post about buying cameras.
If you paid less than about $1500 (Canon) or $1900 (Nikon) for your camera, chances are, it’s a cropped sensor camera.
I currently own Canon gear, but I was also a Nikon girl for a long time, so I am very familiar with both and will speak of those brands. If you have another brand, simply try to find the closest equivalent in focal length (that’s the number associated with the lens – 50mm, 100mm) to what I am mentioning, or just ask me in the comments below, and I can help you for your brand camera.
Table of Contents
MACRO LENSES FOR FULL FRAME SENSOR CAMERAS
#1 – 100mm macro lens (105mm macro Nikon)
The 100mm macro is a great lens for the classic ¾ view tabletop shot of a food dish, like what you see above. I use this lens all the time. It’s great for featuring one dish for a recipe or restaurant, not an entire table top full of food dishes (we’ll talk about that in the next post).
It’s also great for really close up detail shots. Canon calls these Macro lenses, and Nikon calls them Micro lenses– means the same thing. Each brand just wants to be different.
You can get VERY close to your subject, enabling you to get a very detailed shot or, you can photograph something very small by getting very close to it.
These are my Amazon affiliate links. Should you choose to buy any of these items, I will receive a small commission.
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Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro USM ...Shop on Amazon[/one-half-first]
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Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR ...Shop on Amazon[/one-half]
These lenses are called fixed lenses because they don’t move. There is only one focal length (focal length is the measurement from the camera sensor to the point inside the lens where the image comes into focus). Because of this, they are sharper (more in focus) than zoom lenses. Zoom lenses have a lot of moving parts, and for some reason, this makes it very difficult to create a really super sharp lens.
Every brand of lens has consumer grade (cheaper and less quality) lenses, and professional grade (expensive and better quality) lenses. Since this is a fixed lens, you can get away with the consumer grade version of this lens, which will save you quite a bit of money.
This lens is really great for portraits as well. You focus on the eyes, use shallow depth of field (small f-stop number) to blur out your background, and you’ve got a nice shot.
When photographing people, you have to make sure that your shutter speed is at least at 1/125th of a second, because people move, and if your shutter is too slow, you’ll have a blurry shot.
MACRO LENSES FOR CROPPED SENSOR CAMERAS
#2 – 60mm Macro Lens
Now, for those of you that have the smaller cameras like the Canon Rebels, and the Nikon D3400, D7500, those have cropped sensors so you need to adjust your lenses accordingly. Many times when shooting food with a cropped sensor camera, you don’t have the option to just back up to accommodate for the lens, especially in a restaurant.
Both Nikon and Canon make an awesome 60mm macro lens. This lens is very often overlooked. I’m not showing images created using that lens, because they would give you the same look as what you see above on a cropped sensor camera.
These lenses are great for 3/4 view tabletop shots, macro detail shots, and portraits.
These are my Amazon affiliate links. Should you choose to buy any of these items, I will receive a small commission.
[one-half-first]Canon[/one-half-first]
[one-half]Nikon[/one-half]
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Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro EF-S ...Shop on Amazon[/one-half-first]
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Nikon AF-S FX Micro-NIKKOR ...Shop on Amazon[/one-half]
So there you have it. The first of three posts about lenses. The next post will be covering zoom lenses. If you have a camera from a different brand, and you have questions about lenses for your camera, leave them in the comments below and I’ll help you out.
Want more info to improve your food photography? Check out my ebook for more details – just click the image below.
Joan
Christina, thank you very much for your article. Just a little question : for someone who already owns a Micro NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G with a cropped sensor camera D5600, do you think it’s worth replace it by a Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G (better quality of lens ? higher distance with the food which allows a better control of the light ?) ?
Christina Peters
Hi Joan, I always suggest renting the lens first before buying it to try it out for yourself. Many of my students have the 60mm and love it. You will be able to get closer to your food with the 60. The distance you can get to the food does not control the light. Those are two separate things.
Joan
Thank you very much for your advice.
Christina Peters
You’re welcome!
Vincenzo
Hi there, this was very useful, thanks for the post. I’ve got a Sony A7, with a Tamron 28/70 mm. Never made food pics but I would like to try. What you think of my lens?
Christina Peters
Hi Vincezo, the type of images that you want to take will dictate the lens you need. There isn’t one perfect lens for food photography. We need several different types of lenses that shoot different types of images. Your lens could be find for doing overhead shots and some table top shots. Depending on how close you can get to your food, you make or may not be able to do details shots.
Monique
Hi Jenna, I shoot with the Sony A6000. Do you have recommendations for the Sony equivalent? I also have Canon 60d with 50mm 24-70mm.
Thank you!
Christina Peters
Hi Monique, that camera has a cropped sensor. So multiple the focal length by 1.6 to see how it will feel on your camera. That being said there is only one macro lens that I found on Sony’s site – but it’s only a 30mm lens, which would only be a 48mm equivalent. If you can use their full frame lenses on your A6000, there is a 50mm macro, which would be like an 80mm macro so that could be nice.
Jenna
Hi Christina,
Thank you so much for your post. It’s so helpful.
I’m very new to DSLR. I’ve got 200D and want to buy 100mm Macro lens for my work. I’m running a couple of Japanese restaurants and want to take some photos of our meals constantly for my social network. Most likely I will shoot foods, do you recommend any macro lens for Canon 200D? Please advise.
Christina Peters
Hi Jenna, As I mentioned in the post, Canon cameras with a cropped sensor, as yours does, would be best using the 60mm macro lens.
Hasti
I have a croppeed sensor camera nikon d5300 and i use the 50mm lens with it. Therefore it works as a 85mm i think. And i use my kit lens 18-55mm for overhead shots . Do i need to buy a macro lens like 60mm or should i invest in a better zoom lens as my second lens ? Please advise.
Christina Peters
Hi Hasti, so this really depends on the types of pictures you want to take. The 60mm lens is great for close up shots and getting shots with very shallow depth of field. A zoom lens is great for overhead shots. Please see my post about zooms here.
Angela
I took your advice the other day and bought a 60mm Macro. Got a steal on a mint used for $238. Great lens, thank you for all you do here!
Christina Peters
Hi Angela! That’s a great price. I buy used gear all the time. You’re going to love that lens.
Lisa Keys
thank you! I own that 60 mm and have enjoyed working with it. Now what do I do with that 50mm?
Christina Peters
Hi Lisa, I’m assuming that was your kit lens that came with the camera so that value was only about $75-$100. Just consider it as back up lens at this point 🙂
Tash
Thanks for this. Can I ask what your thoughts are on extension tubes as a cheaper alternative?
Christina Peters
Hi Tash, extension tubes are great for extreme macro (closeup) shots. Putting an extension tube on your 50mm lens won’t turn your 50mm into a 100mm macro. Extension tubes also hugely affect your focusing range. Their purpose is to enable you to get much closer to your subject than the lens originally enabled you to do. This is called the minimum focusing distance. So the extension tube changes the MFD – again all about getting really close to your subject. The thicker the tube, the closer you can get to your subject. So if you want to do some extreme closeup shots of food, that’s what extension tubes are made for.
Tash
Ah ha! Lots to think about with lenses. I might look into seeing if they do any lens hiring services in London and take it from there as I am getting a little bored now with my nifty fifty shots, but that could also be me needing to learn more techniques too. Anyhoo, thanks again! And Happy Easter 🙂
Christina Peters
Hi Tash, yes, I always recommend renting the lens first before buying it to make sure you will like it. I just googled it and found this: