Suitable camera for food photography

The most important part of food photography, more so than in other types, is lighting. I would say it needs to be a camera that can be used with an external flash that allows bounce, unless you have a very well lit environment for it.

Another important point is colour balance. Like people's skin, food can be made to look bad by even slightly incorrect colour balances, so the camera or available software needs to be able to account for any changes that might be needed.

hi i would opt for a k10 and if you look on ebay they are doing lighting for about £100 pound i think they are in portsmouth if you are lucky yo can pick a k10 up for about that on there 2

regards stu

What about a K-01 Maria? You cannot beat the image quality for the price and it will take all of the Pentax lenses. It doesn't have a viewfinder, but this would not be any disadvantage for food photography. Also, it has 'focus peaking' which is a brilliant tool for manual focussing and would be great for ensuring critical foucus when shooting still life subjects such as food.

I'm not sure how you could beat this camera for under £200, you should be able to pick up a mint example for about £150.

Regards
David

I agree here the camera would not be king. The lighting is the essential factor...

Totally agree with the lighting comments.

Lighting, camera and suitable lens for £200 - not easy.

Perhaps a bit of a left field suggestion but how about the original Q with the standard lens? Very capable combination and ridiculously cheap these days.

Carl

Just going to add that photos of hot food sitting near windows, or using window light, are really challenging for white balance if you are using interior lights as well.

What lenses would people be recommending for the food task?

I think the key requirements for a 'food' lens are similar as for portraits ... ie a short to medium telephoto and a wide aperture prime is ideal for both sharpness and impact as well as the depth of field effects that are popular with food shots. I'm thinking something from 70mm upwards, f2.8 at least ....

Also macro, or at least 1:4 close focussing would be helpful.

But going back to the camera requirements, I do think off-camera flash (plus some kind of diffuser like a softbox) is going to be needed for regular consistent results. So the camera needs to provide wireless flash capability .... which I think all the current DSLRs do ? Not sure about the K-01 ?

Another vote for the K-01 here , would work well paired with the Tamron 17-50 f2.8.
Could be picked up close to budget.

I'd also recommend the MX-1. Although a compact it produces results that superb.
The lens has very close focus ability, with lovely bokeh possible.
The articulated screen will give very creative possibilities too.

Lighting is of course very important though!

Yes, the MX-1 would be much more suitable than a system camera.
The MX-1 has superb AWB but of course has custom WB as well.
It has a very sharp lens, has auto macro as well as a 1cm macro mode for those very close shots.
I'd definitely pick the MX-1 over any system camera for food shots.
For adjustable daylight lighting, a Metz Mecalight is perfect.