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I get asked two questions all the time:
- What is the best camera for food photography?
- 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 of awesome cameras to choose from that will work wonderfully with food. For lenses, see my pics below - there isn't just ONE lens for shooting food. 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 am showing prices here of new gear. I buy a lot of used gear on Amazon and Ebay – 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. They have no clue who I am. Some of these links are affiliate links and I will receive a small commission should you purchase the item at no cost to you.
Please bookmark this page as I will be updating this regularly. Last updated November 11th, 2017. Amazon changes prices almost daily so I do my best to keep this updated accordingly along with adding new products.
DSLR CAMERAS
I mostly use Canon gear for 35mm cameras but also have a Nikon because of the 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.
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.
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 on a cropped sensor camera, a lot! 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 as they can burry info several pages deep, 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 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:
- File size - now most cameras have big sensors but for my commercial jobs, I need the biggest file size I can get.
- 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.
- 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.
- How how 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.
CAMERA BUDGET UNDER $600 ENTRY LEVEL CATEGORY
CAMERA BUDGET Up to $1500
CAMERA BUDGET UP TO $2800 SEMI PRO CATEGORY
MIRRORLESS AND MICRO FOUR THIRDS CAMERAS
There's an entirely new set of cameras now that the digital era made possible - the mirrorless camera or micro four thirds. To put is very simply, because of the digital chip, it needs less mechanical parts inside it so these cameras can be much smaller and compact. But don't let that fool you. There are some excellent mirrorless cameras out there. Here's a few that are very popular. There are now hundreds of models to choose from - thing is they are still a bit behind with all the lens options we want for shooting food, but they are getting there. You can use adapters with some brands to use your pro 35mm lenses though so lots of folks are doing that for food photography.
11. Olympus OM-D EM5 II $1600. This also has a 16mp sensor and it has a crop factor of 2. I actually have an older version of this. The Olympus lenses are very sharp. The images are noisy at high ISO though.
Crop Factor of 2, it has 81 focus points! It HAS autofocus in video mode however, it's really hit or miss.
12. Fujifilm X-T2 with 18-55mm Lens $1800. This has a 24mp sensor and those that use it love the color of their food shots. There a lot of members of my Facebook group that use this.
Crop Factor of 1.53, it has 91 focus points! It HAS autofocus in video mode however, it's not very good and keeps searching for focus on still object, no touch screen.
13. Sony A7 II with 28-70mm Lens $1800. This also has a 24mp sensor and it's has a full frame sensor! Pretty cool for a small mirrorless camera. It handles high ISO very well and the focus is supposed to be great on moving objects.
Full Frame sensor, it has 117 focus points! It HAS autofocus in video mode however, it will try to find focus in low light, which I find most cameras have this issue, no touch screen.
LENSES
Every manufacturer has two types of lenses, a Pro series and an Amateur series, or Consumer grade series. 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.
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. The do us 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
NIKON LENSES
LIGHTING
There are all kinds of options for lighting and it can be overwhelming. I'm just going to mention a few options here with links to more details about the lights.
Incandescent and constant light sources
Strobe lights
TRIPODS AND TRIPOD HEADS
When selecting tripods, you have to consider three things.
- 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.
Tripods, tripod heads, and tripod accessories
COMPUTERs, DIGITAL EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE
I’ve been using Macs for 25 years. They were torturous hell in the beginning for photographers. If you wanted to run a Photoshop filter, you had to get cup of coffee as it would take 45 minutes, if it didn’t crash during that time.
These machines have come a long way. These days, I now have four Macs. The computer I’m mentioning below is excellent for shooting tethered – shooting while your camera is attached to the computer so you can see everything as you shoot. There really is no other way to shoot in the studio or at home.
When buying a new computer, you have to consider four things:
- How much memory does it have? The more RAM you have, the faster your machine can do certain laborious tasks. When purchasing your Macbook, make sure to see how much RAM comes with it. If you do video, you will need a lot.
- The other thing that effects performance is the speed of the processor. This is measured in Gigahertz or GHz. You will usually have a few options in processor speed when buying a laptop. Obviously, the faster the GHz, the better performance you can have, but you have to pay more for that. If you do video you will need a fast machine.
- Storage Size. The next option is to choose how much storage, or drive capacity, you want. I always get the biggest storage available.
- What ports and connectors does it have? These items seem to change daily. It’s very annoying. So if you want to plug a monitor into your laptop, you’ll probably need an adapter for that.
- If you do video, the video card is very important. Basically if you get a machine that they say is super fast for gaming, then you'll be good for doing video on that as well.
Computers, digital equipment And Software
FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS
Here's selection of some very popular photography books.
Food Photography Tips And Tricks; The Ultimate Guide $20 Did you know I have an ebook? It's 125 of all kinds of information about food photography so if you are just starting out, this is a great ebook to have.
The Food Stylist's Handbook $16 This book was written by two good friends of mine, Denise Vivaldo and Cindie Flannigan. They are both food stylists and we have taught several food photography classes together. This book has everything you need to know about food styling. There are tons of excellent tips in here along with the business of food styling. I actually wrote the chapter about food photography. Please Note: The "look inside" pics are from the first edition - Amazon still hasn't updated that yet.
Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Food For The Camera $38 This book was written by another food stylist friend of mine, Delores Custer. I had the pleasure of working with her in New York city when she was still styling. She has since retired but this book also has some great styling tips for your food photography.
Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots 2nd Edition $23 This book is now in it's 2nd edition and is a good book for beginners.
Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography and Styling $32 This book is several years old so I'm assuming there will be 2nd edition soon but this is also good if you are just starting out. The author had a very popular food blog, then she worked full time for a publishing company, and now she's freelancing as a food photographer. She has a baking history and her images are very beautiful.
If there are any products that you love that you think I should mention here, please email me and let me know.
Happy Shooting!