Camera buying advice for product photography

[ooid]

Hello all,

Looking for a good camera to take pictures of our products (mainly furniture and tableware) to be used in e-commerce and social media. The items have loads of geometric details and fabric. What would you recommend? Need to be able to take close ups and also setting up scene shots, mostly interiors.

[andy-xr]

Hello

The camera here is only a part of the answer you're looking for. Also include in your budget some lighting and reflectors together with an appropriate place to 'stage' your shots.

TBH, if it's not moving anywhere quickly, and you can have some time to set things up how you want them, any camera will do what you need. The trick is going to be adding accessories to get the detail, lighting it in a way that's flattering to the 'thing' and processing it so that what's reflected in the photo is somewhere near what people are going to get through their door.

If you just go out and spunk £2k on a camera you'll likely look at the photos, look at how high res they are and then be disappointed and think they're crap because they're not how others look.

[ooid]

Thanks! Sorry I have not mentioned but I do have an access to use professional photography studio. (Not the machine itself, I know it's funny!)

So looking for a camera and lens options ideally.

[Gad-Westy]

ooid said:

Thanks! Sorry I have not mentioned but I do have an access to use professional photography studio. (Not the machine itself, I know it's funny!)

So looking for a camera and lens options ideally.

Will the studio lighting already be set up for you or someone on hand to do this? There is a studio local to me that operates like this. They just hand me a radio trigger appropriate to the camera I'm using and I fire away.

On that basis the camera matters very little and the lens actually isn't that important either as you'll typically be shooting f/8-f/11 which really won't be much test for any lens.

So I'd probably just lean towards any nikon or canon entry level DSLR with something like an 18-55 kit lens. Being Canon or Nikon, studios will have compatible hot shoe triggers though other brands might work too (think fuji is compatible with canon but check!) If you need any fine details, maybe a macro lens but doesn't sound like you need to get anything like that close. You should be able to get what you need from a used retailer for less than £200. New gear less than £500. Any dslr can do this. You can spend more but I think you'd immediately be well into the laws of diminishing returns.

[Simpo Two]

ooid said:

Thanks! Sorry I have not mentioned but I do have an access to use professional photography studio

You'll need to use the lighting - is it flash or continuous? Whatever camera you choose, if it's flash you'll need to be able to trigger/synch with it. The camera is really the last of your concerns, all it does it record what you throw at it. As said, any DSLR should suffice, and it you want real close-ups, a macro lens.

[singlecoil]

What is the intended use of the pictures you will take? Web? Print? Magazine adverts?

You will be wanting to shoot tethered into suitable software so as to know during the shoot if you are getting the results you need, so do you need to budget for a suitable laptop? Most decent cameras come with dedicated software which will allow you to shoot with live view and view the results on as large a screen as necessary.

If you need the highest resolution and want to stay with a 35mm DSLR then Canon have the 5DSR and the 5DS (the latter has a filter which will helps to prevent moiré (might be an issue with fabrics) but I've never had it with my 5DSR and that model has the higher resolution at 50.6mps). Canon L series lens are very good.

[Simpo Two]

Shooting tethered is nice if clients are present because they can say 'Ooh that's nice' but it's not essential. Given the OP's position I'd spare him from the extra complexity and kit. After all he has to learn RAW first

[singlecoil]

I OTOH would not consider doing product photography or any kind of studio still life without the ability to see both the live view and the produce on a decent sized screen. It's so easy to do that there really isn't any point in not doing it. It can also be handy to be able to operate the camera from the computer if the camera is out of convenient reach.

[ooid]

Thanks both, the intention is mainly web at the moment, but higher resolution is important.

I'm pretty advanced with image editing such as photoshop and lightroom, so simple tethering would be a good option actually. However, the Canon EOS5d you suggested there, looks pretty expensive for my current basic need I was hoping the keep the budget for max. 500 GBP at this stage. Is it too low?

[corozin]

Oh dear Camera Photography 101 all over again...

[bagusbagus]

It's really all about the lightning and composition... an used fast and super compact sony NEX5 or nex6 for £120-150 with 16-50mm lens + Editing will do almost everything a £1000 camera setup would do just as long as you got proper light... when the light gets kinda crap.. that's where your fancier camera will show what it can do...
To get you started if you don't mind faffing around more and spend few minutes more per day, something like the NEX will do..
after you get some more $ to blow and see what exactly is the stuff you need, than you can go out and buy exactly what you need for the extra marginal gain.

[singlecoil]

ooid said:

I was hoping the keep the budget for max. 500 GBP at this stage. Is it too low?

Mentioning that in the title would have been a good idea.

[RobDickinson]

Yep.

Any used canon xxxD slr with live view, 450d onwards and a macro lens or 50mm prime with the kit lens plus as much lighting and modifiers./ reflectors as possible

[andy-xr]

ooid said:

Thanks both, the intention is mainly web at the moment, but higher resolution is important.

I'm pretty advanced with image editing such as photoshop and lightroom, so simple tethering would be a good option actually. However, the Canon EOS5d you suggested there, looks pretty expensive for my current basic need I was hoping the keep the budget for max. 500 GBP at this stage. Is it too low?

No. Spend half your budget on things to light your stuff with unless you can cart it all to this studio place.

The problem often with studio shots is if they're lobbed onto a block colour background, people don't really understand the proportions and (eg furniture/fittings) cant see it in their house. So it needs to look a bit show homey/showroom style for punters to get how it'd work for them.

If the studio cant do that for you, or you physically cant get your stuff to the studio, spend half your £500 on lighting stuff and stage setup. The camera itself really doenst make st all difference if it's a fourth hand D300 from ebay or a shiny 5d mk6000 from Jessops for what you're going to do here. Bridge, SLR, CSC.... something where you've got a degree of control over what it's going to do is all you need. The rest is in setup and stage.