The Best Equipment and Software for Photographing Food

Your Virtual Shopping Guide

There are so many options for the equipment we need to do food photography, it’s overwhelming! This page is an in depth guide to help you make the right purchasing decisions for your budget.

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I get asked two questions all the time (meaning weekly for over 10 years):

1. What is the best camera for food photography?
2. What is the best lens for food photography?

Here is the quick answer to both of those questions. There isn’t just one camera or lens that is best for food photography. These days there are 100’s if not 1000’s of awesome cameras to choose from that will work wonderfully for food photography. For lenses, see my picks below – there isn’t just ONE lens for shooting food either. Just like any other subject, you’ll need a few lenses to cover all your shooting needs.

So here is all the equipment I recommend for starting out, and all the equipment and software that I use (more advanced), plus a few accessories at the end.

I buy a lot of used gear on Amazon and Ebay to save a lot of money – just buy from a reputable store that allows returns for any reason without charging your a restocking fee.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and I’m not being endorsed by any of these brands. Some of these links are affiliate links and I will receive a small commission should you purchase the item at no cost to you.

These stores change their prices almost daily so what you see today, may not be the same price tomorrow.

Overwhelmed?

Equipment Buying Guide

In this guide I will tell you what you need to consider when buying each type of equipment.

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Table of Contents

DSLR Camera Info

I mostly use Canon gear for 35mm cameras but also have a Nikon because of my Food Photography Club. We will also be talking about the newer mirrorless cameras as well as they are also excellent.

Here is a great website to help you compare cameras: Camera Decision. You can compare five cameras at once.

Another website that looks like it was designed in 1990 but has great content about every camera is Ken Rockwell. That is a great resource to find out all the specs on any camera and I use this site all the time.

I mostly use Canon gear for 35mm cameras for my blog and education imagery. I do have several other brands because of my education work as well. We will also be talking about the newer mirrorless cameras in another section as they are also excellent.

But first, you better know what a cropped sensor is!

I’ve learned that most bloggers and new shooters don’t know if their camera has a cropped sensor or not. A cropped sensor camera will take a picture using a smaller sensor than the full sized sensor – the sensor is the thing “seeing” the image, or capturing the image in the camera.

Why do they make these kinds of cameras? Well, they are less expensive to make, which enables them to lower the price for us all, yippee!

Hold on there, what this means for photography and our lenses is a really big deal though. You see, the focal length of our lenses will have a perceived change of view on a cropped sensor camera.

All your lenses will visually look longer than they are with your photos. This is called the Field of View Crop Factor. So, if you have a 50mm lens and slap it on Rebel T5i, your 50 will actually take pictures as if it was an 80mm lens from the same spot!

Here’s how you figure this out with your camera. Google this, “what is the crop factor of (fill in the blank with your camera). This info is sometimes hard to find on the manufacturers websites, so I just google it.

Let’s use the Canon Rebel T5i as an example. The sensor crop factor is 1.6. So, take the focal length of the lens you are using, let’s say the 50mm lens, now multiply 50 by 1.6. This equals 80mm. Now, that’s like an entirely different lens!

So let’s say you had a Canon Rebel and now you are upgrading to a full frame sensor camera – all your lenses will feel very different to you because now your 50mm lens will actually shoot like a 50mm lens, which is much wider than 80mm.

For more info on cropped sensors and what you need to know when buying a camera, click on this post: What is the best camera to buy on a budget.

Here is what I look for when buying cameras:

Cropped Sensor VS Full Frame sensor. For my “for fun stuff” I can use the smaller cropped sensor cameras. For jobs, has to be full frame.
File size – now most cameras have big sensors but for my commercial jobs, I need the biggest file size I can get.
How many focusing points does the camera have? This is a huge deal for me, might not be for you. The more points you have the more focus options you have in auto focus modes.
How high of an ISO can the camera do without too much digital noise being added – very expensive and only pro cameras can barely do this.

Some of these links are affiliate links. Should you choose to buy any of these items, I will receive a small commission.

Entry level DSLR camera kits under $1000

The least expensive cameras are usually the kit cameras that come with at least one lens and sometimes, all kinds of other things. With these kits, you are not getting the best quality lenses or accessories but it’s a great way to start out to see if you really like this whole food photography thing.

See if you can find just the camera and one lens to save more money. Also many of these kits come with lenses we don’t use for food – like a cheap telephone 70-200mm lens for example. Don’t waste money on that.

Many of these are my affiliate links with either Amazon, B&H Photo, or Adorama. I shop regularly from all three of these marketplaces and should you buy anything, I will make a small commission at no cost to you.

Canon EOS Rebel T7 Camera Kit The least expensive cameras are usually the kit cameras that come with at least one lens and in this case, all kinds of other things. With these kits, you are not getting the best quality lenses or accessories but it’s a great way to start out to see if you really like this whole food photography thing.

Crop factor is 1.6, it has 9 focus points, NO autofocus in video mode, no microphone port.

Nikon D5600 Camera Kit Nikon’s kit camera. Again, with these kits, you are not getting the best quality lenses or accessories but it’s a great way to start out to see if you really like this whole food photography thing. Nikon called their cropped sensor cameras the DX line.

Crop factor is 1.5, depending on your lens you can have 9, 21, or 39 focusing points.

Advanced entry level DSLR camera under $1500

At this point you will start to have a number of cameras available to you. Most will have a cropped sensor still in this price range. Ideally you want a full frame camera. I look at how many focusing points it has as well and if the video has autofocus. Also, check each manufacturers websites for pricing – something they have some refurbished bodies for great prices.

Canon Rebel T8i This is the next model from the T7 camera mentioned above. With the “i” you actually get few nice things like touch screen that is fully articulated and more focus points.

Crop factor is 1.6, it has 45 focus points, slightly longer battery life, has a microphone port, HAS autofocus in video mode, HAS bluetooth.

Nikon D7500 This is a step up from the Nikon kit mentioned above. If you do video though, it doesn’t have autofocus while shooting. You can manually move around your focus point while shooting, but that’s it. What’s awesome about this is how many focus points you get. Sensor size is also 24mp.

Crop factor is 1.5, it has up to 51 focus points (depends on lens), does have a touch screen. I’m unclear if it has autofocus during video so please beware of that.

Nikon D610 This is the lowest cost Full Frame sensor Nikon makes. Nikon’s full frame sensor cameras do take the cropped sensor camera lenses, the only thing though is that your image will still appear “zoomed” in. They do this because the lens quality cannot handle the size of the sensor and you would see image degradation on the edges of the image. This kit is from Nikon – no lens included though.

Full Frame Sensor, it can have 9, 21 or 39 focus points (depending on the lens used), HAS autofocus in video mode – you need to change it from AF to AF-F to use that, no touch screen.

Canon EOS 6D MARK II This is the lowest cost Full Frame sensor Canon makes. There is the first model of this camera – the 6D (no Mark II) that is also a full frame camera but Canon has stopped offering it. You can still find stores online that have it thought. Please note that full frame sensor Canons cannot take the cropped sensor camera lenses, the EF-S lenses. You can only use the pro lenses on their full frame cameras, the EF lenses. That one letter makes a big difference. So if you have a 50mm lens from a canon Rebel that came with it, it most likely will not work on this camera.

Full Frame Sensor, it has 45 focus points! The prior model only had 11. HAS autofocus in video mode, HAS touch screen.

Semi pro full frame DSLR camera under $2500

Canon 5D Mark IV This is in middle section of cameras that Canon makes. This has now become the favorite for a lot of shooters. It has a much bigger file size and a lot of great features from the 5D line.

Canon did announce this fall that they have discontinued it, which was very surprising but they are putting a lot of effort into their newer mirrorless cameras now.

Full Frame Sensor, large files: 30.4 MP, it has 61 focus points, HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen. A great price for a lot of pro features.

Nikon D850 This camera is extremely popular with food photographers and many of my students have this camera.

Full Frame Sensor, huge files: 45 MP, it has 151 focus points, HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen and the screen tilts (doesn’t articulate though). Has 4K video.

Mirrorless cameras

Finally this category has several options that are great for food photography. Here’s a few that are very popular. There are now hundreds of models to choose from – some brands are still a bit behind with all the lens options we want for shooting food, but they are getting there and they are adding more all the time.

There’s some great Full Frame Mirrorless options here. There are also cropped sensor versions if you would like to save some money there.

Also please know that these types of cameras will usually need their own lens system – so if you have a traditional DSLR, chances are those lenses won’t fit. In some cases there might be an adapter but you might lose some functionality of the lens.

Fujifilm X-T3 Fuji has been in the mirror game for a while and this is a favorite for a lot of food photographers.

Cropped Sensor with 1.5 crop factor, file size: 26 MP, it has a whopping 425 focus points! HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen and the screen tilts (doesn’t articulate though). Has 4K video even though it has a cropped sensor.

Nikon Z5 Nikon has 6 options as well. This is their lower priced full frame version. Nikon also made a mount adapter so you can use you existing F lenses with this camera.

Full Frame Sensor, file size: 24 MP, 273 Focus Points, HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen that can tilt. Has 4K video.

Canon EOS R Canon now has a huge line of mirrorless cameras, finally. I’m excited about this. There are a lot of options. This camera has a full frame sensor and a big one at that. Now, the specs on this say that it has 5,655 focus points so it sounds like the entire sensor has a point on it. Canon made a mount adapter so I can use my existing lenses with this camera.

Full Frame Sensor, file size: 30.3 MP, HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen and the screen articulates. Has 4K video.

Sony a7R III Sony has over 12 full frame mirrorless options ranging from $1000 up to $4500 just for the body. This camera has been a favorite for food shooters for a while. It takes the E-Mount lenses.

Full Frame Sensor, huge files: 42.4 MP, it has a whopping 399 focus points! HAS autofocus in video mode, and has a touch screen and the screen tilts (doesn’t articulate though). Has 4K video.

Lenses

Every manufacturer has several types of lenses, Pro series, an Amateur series, or Consumer grade series, and now a mirrorless set of lenses as well. Pro lenses are sharper and cost more money. Consumer grade lenses are cheaper and not nearly as sharp as the pro lenses. It’s like diamonds people, the more money you spend, the better clarity, color, and sharpness you get.

Zoom lenses are known for being softer (not sharp) than fixed lenses and if you want a zoom lens, you really should invest in a Pro zoom lens, if you can afford to. The cheap zooms are a waste of money.

For every brand of lens, pay attention to every single letter and number in the title of the lens. Just one letter can mean the difference between the pro lens and the consumer grade lens. Canon uses the L for their pro line. For Canon nomenclature see the Canon Lens Abbreviations on Photography Life.

Nikon doesn’t have one specific naming convention for their pro lenses. They do use DX for cropped sensor lenses and FX for full frame lenses so that’s handy to know. For a full list of all the Nikon nomenclature see Nikon Lens Abbreviations on Photography Life.

Canon Lenses

Canon 100mm Macro L Series Use on full frame sensor cameras. Macro means you can get nice and close to your food. There are two grades of this lens. This is the pro line and it’s very sharp – not sure if it’s really worth the extra money as their consumer grade is also very sharp. I actually have both. The lens is newer in design and has an upgraded focusing mechanism.

THIS is the lens I use the most for food photos.

Canon 100mm Macro Non-L Series This is the consumer grade of the lens above and I find this lens is actually quite sharp. This lens has been around a long time so you can definitely get a good price on this used as well for around $400.

THIS is the lens that I use the most for food photos.

Canon 24-105mm L Series I use this lens all the time on my full frame cameras. This lens is great for overhead shots and I use it for 3/4 tabletop shots as well where I have a lot of items on the table. You must use a lens band on this to stop Lens Creep. See Below.

Lens Band Lens Creep is an extremely annoying problem with bigger zoom lenses. Lens Creep is when you have your lens at an angle or overhead and the damn thing starts zooming just from gravity and the weight of the elements in the lens. Really???? My 24-105 was so bad I assumed it was broken and took it to Canon to get fixed to be told it was normal. What???

They put a lens band on it and said it was “fixed”. That’s their solution.

Canon 24-70mm F2.8 L Series A lot of bloggers are using this lens. My guess is a big blogger said she was using it so everyone else followed suit. I much prefer the lens above as your range is longer. But mentioning it here because of how popular it is. There are two version of this lens as well – the 2nd one doesn’t have as wide of an Fstop as this does and is $1000 less.

Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L Series This is an awesome lens for portraits. I do a lot of chef portraits and use this all the time. It’s extremely sharp for a zoom lens. This is a telephoto so you can’t get close to your set with this lens.

There is an older generation that works really well – the focusing is a bit slower but for a normal portrait, it’s great.

Canon 90mm Tilt Shift There also two version of this lens, this is actually the older one and it is really sharp. I’ve had this lens for years. The price has never changed in 20 years. Tilt shift lenses are NOT autofocus btw.

This is the lens you need to get everything in focus on your set by tilting your plane of focus.

Laowa 60mm Macro You’ve probably never heard of this brand before but they are actually known for making some nice macro lenses.

Canon has discontinued their 60mm macro lens so that’s why I’m listing this here. You can get any camera mount you need.

This is the perfect macro lens for the cropped sensor cameras. The 100mm macro lens is a bit too long to used on cropped sensor cameras and with the crop factor of the sensors, this lens will get you the same look and feel as if you were using a 100mm macro lens on a full frame camera.

Canon 50mm F1.4 I’m listing this because all the bloggers insist you have to use this lens. Side note, I never do. I use my zoom lens or I use my macro lens. But again, I’m listing it because you are going to get told to use it by a ton of bloggers.

Canon 17-40mm F4 This is a great zoom lens for a cropped sensor camera. I use this lens all the time with my Canon 7D Mark II.

I also use this lens with my full frame camera when doing restaurant architectural images.

Nikon lenses

Nikon 18-55mm This is Nikon’s kit camera lens. For a beginner this will work fine as you learn about food photography. This zoom will be good for overhead shots and some 3/4 table top shots as well. This is a low cost lens so the quality of the optics will not be a good as a professional lens.

You would use this on a cropped sensor camera.

Nikon 60mm Micro This would be a great macro/micro lens for your cropped sensor Nikon. This will enable you to get very close to your food to get those detail shots that everyone loves.

Nikon 105mm Micro F2.8 This Nikon’s class micro lens. Micro and Macro mean the same thing. You can photograph something small and/or you can get very close to your subject. This also makes a great portrait lens as well.

You would use this on a full frame camera.

Nikon 24-85 This is a great zoom lens to use with your full frame camera body as well. Would be great for overhead shots and for doing 3/4 table top setups where you have several items that need to be in the scene.

This is not a macro/micro lens.

Sony lenses

Sony 24-105mm Sony lenses are not cheap. But I hear they are very sharp. So this would be a great lens for a full frame sensor mirrorless sensor. This is the E Mount.

Sony 90mm macro So this would be a great lens for a full frame sensor mirrorless sensor. This is the E Mount. This macro would be great for those up close food shots we all love.

Fujifilm lenses

Fuji 16-80mm Zoom Fuji doesn’t have a ton of options for us food shooters but they are finally come up with some now. This would be a great zoom to have on a full frame Fuji and on a cropped sensor Fuji as well.

Fuji 80mm Macro This is a new lens as well. I wish it was a little longer but for now, this will do. This macro will be great for getting those close up shots on your full frame sensor Fuji.

Tripods and rigging

When selecting tripods, you have to consider three things. Also check out this post about tripods for more information.

The legs – how high they will go, and how sturdy they are.
The center column – geared is much better, as it won’t fall when you loosen it and possibly damage your camera.
The head of the tripod – the part that screws into your camera.

Some tripods come with a tripod head, but most do not.

Be very careful falling for a cheap tripod that’s called a compact travel tripod. This will not be heavy enough to hold your camera, unless it’s a very small point and shoot camera. If the tripod is under $100, chances are it will not be heavy enough to hold your camera. I repeat – DO NOT BUY A COMPACT, LIGHTWEIGHT TRIPOD!

When selecting tripod heads, you have to consider three things as well.

Do you want a quick release head? – this means there’s a small plate that screws onto your camera, then that plate snaps into your tripod head. You will have to keep a screw driver handy or a quarter as these will loosen up while shooting sometimes. The other kind has your camera screw directly into the tripod head plate, my preference if available.
Do you want a ball head or a 3- way head? A ball head uses a pistol grip, and when you press it, you can move your camera in any direction. A 3-way head enables you to move your camera in one direction at a time – horizontal, vertical, and swivel left or right. This is my personal favorite.
Will you be shooting video? If so, you will have to get a smooth fluid head enabling you to move the tripod head very smoothly during video shooting. These are always more expensive, and a lot of these video heads will not enable you to shoot stills in a vertical format, fyi.

Manfrotto 055 Aluminum 3-Section Tripod This tripod price changes all the time and can go up or down by $100 so check this often. I have this tripod and it works great. The center column allows you to do an overhead shot.

You do need to counter weight the tripod when you set it up for overhead, but that’s quite normal.

This comes with the tripod head as well.

Vanguard Alta Pro This tripod is the knock off of the tripod above. A lot of bloggers use this. I have not used this. It will also allow you to do an overhead shot as well.

This comes with the tripod head. This style is called a ball head. It’s pretty small so I’m not sure how well it will hold a larger full frame camera but it could probably hold a Canon Rebel.

Manfrotto Extension Arm If you already have a tripod, and the center column doesn’t allow you to shoot overhead, you would need a tripod head extension arm like this to enable you to rig your camera out over your set.

You would also need to use a counter weight when using this.

Glide Gear Overhead System I actually have this now and it works very well. I put it on two C-stands like you see below.

Manfrotto Super Clamp For overhead rigging on poles, you can use this to actually mount a small ball head on to hold your camera.

Do not get the cheap knockoffs! They won’t last long and won’t hold grip after a short time.

Neewer C-Stand For overhead rigging on poles, I use the Super Clamps above, put them in the C-stand Knuckles to hold the pole that I will mount my camera to.

Sand Bags Get sandbags to help stabilize your tripod. I’m always kicking my tripod so setting sand bags on the tripod legs can help.

When shooting overhead, you can use a sand bag to counter weight the camera.

Artificial Lighting

There are all kinds of options for lighting and it can be overwhelming. You’ve got two types of artificial lights, Constant Light, where the lights are always on and Strobes, where you have an explosion of light.

For more detailed information about artificial lighting, please see this post.

Constant light sources

Godox SL-60 Watt LED Daylight Balanced There are all kinds of awesome options now. Godox has been making tons of artificial lights for a little while now.

I have a few of their lights. They work fine, I have no idea how long they will last. They are super cheap. So that tells me they probably won’t last very long. However, if you are just using them in your house, and they lights aren’t getting banged around, I would imagine you’d get some great use out of them.

This is an LED light. There isn’t a bulb. There is a cluster of cells that emits the light. This light comes with the reflector – no stand, you have to buy that separately.

For an LED, 60 watts is on the lower side. The modifier mount is a Bowens mount so it will take a lot of different styles of softboxes and attachments. And it claims to have a CRI of 93+.

Godox SL-200 Watt LED Daylight Balanced This is the 200 watt version of the light above. So it’s much brighter AND if you don’t need that much light, you can power trim it down on the back of the unit.

You can always make your lights less bright. If your light isn’t bright enough, you’ll have a problem so I always want more wattage with my artificial lights.

If you go to the product page, you’ll see there are 4 wattage options total. The more wattage a light has, the more expensive it is.

Genaray PortaBright Bi-Color LED Battery Powered This is the light I have. It works very well. They don’t use wattage to describe the brightness. They use Lux – which gets very complicated very fast. It’s roughly 150-200watts of light.

What’s really nice about this light is that the CRI is very high 97+ and you can customize your white balance to match your environment. You do need a color meter to do that.

You can use this battery powered or use the AC adapter.

Strobe or flash lights

Flashpoint Xplor 600 HSS Monolight This is a great little light. I’ve been doing a lot of editor work lately and I have to do portraits of chefs quite often. This light is just bright enough. I am often shooting outside and have to overpower the sun.

With this light AND the HSS trigger below, I can shoot with my shutter speed set to 1/1200th of a second and use the light at full power to overpower the sun outside.

Flashpoint R@ Pro Mark II Transmitter For Canon This is wireless trigger you need to use the Flashpoint strobe above. You can use other triggers with this – but NOT if you want high speed shutter sync!

What’s nice about this is that it is wireless so I can have my light up high and control the light from the camera with no cables.

Newer Rectangular Softbox This is a classic rectangular softbox with bowens mount for the all the lights above EXCEPT the AD200. It’s a good size at about 2ftx3ft.

Newer Octobox This is another great option for a softbox. If you are lighting glassware, I prefer the rectangular box instead of this round one. Your reflections will look a little nicer with the rectangular box.

PBL Heavy Duty 10foot light stands You absolutely MUST use heavy duty light stands for the lights I am recommending here. These lights are heavy! Don’t cheap out on stands! You’re light will fall over and break.

This comes with two sand bags and a carry case.