What Gear to Use for Product Photography

Product Photography setup tips from camera to lens to studio lighting

Amanda Campeanu shares her product photography gear journey from the low quality starting gear to good gear for beginners to her nice setup now!

The best gear for product photography – beginner to experienced!

Best Gear for Product Photography – Your Budget

If you’re just starting out in the industry of product photography, make sure that you are working within your budget and what you can afford. 

Starting out you probably won’t have the best kit, but over time you can upgrade and get a better setup later on.

So figure out your budget first and decide what you can afford. Then, go into the store and test out some different cameras and lenses within your budget. 

Best Gear for Product Photography – Cameras

The camera you use can limit you in some ways so make sure you’re choosing wisely. 

For example, Amanda started out with a Canon 70d which she regretted because it’s a crop frame (meaning it crops all images for a tighter field of view). 

Full frame is definitely the way to go for product photography.

The Canon60 Mark II is high quality and good for budget if you are just starting out. It does what you need with good quality and is not too expensive.

If you have some more wiggle room in the budget or are ready to upgrade, pick up the Canon R5. 

It’s spendy! But it’s an investment and is worth every penny. This camera also doubles for incredible video which makes it very versatile.

Best Gear for Product Photography – Lens

There are so many choices when it comes to lenses. For product photography, it’s important to consider the space you are shooting in and how close and crisp you need the images to be.

Amanda started out using a Canon 50mm f2.8, which ended up not producing the quality or flexibility needed for product shoots.

The Canon L Series 24-70mm lens however is a great lens for product photography. Crisp photos with a versatile focal range (the length of the lens). 

It won’t break the bank and will be useful for everyday shoots.

You can also have on hand the Canon L Series 100mm lens. This lens gets up nice and close and produces crisp shots. 

Something like this is pretty much required if doing jewelry photography for example, to get the incredible detailed images.

Best Gear for Product Photography – Lighting

Studio lighting is also really important for product photography. 

A small gear budget will inevitably hit the point that you’re not getting the quality of photos that you will need. So think about the investment into a strong light for higher quality photos.

For example, Amanda started out with a cheap and crappy lighting kit from eBay for under $100. The price sounds nice, but the lights were not strong enough to get or keep the clients she wanted.

The Godox Fv150 is a great light to have in studio for product photography. It’s a hybrid light which means it has strobe settings for flash and also a continuous function for solid lighting.

This light is great quality and function for the price and worth investing in.

If you have a little more room to spare in the budget, the Godox AD600 is an incredibly high quality monolight to use. It’s battery operated so it’s wire free which makes your setup super flexible. Not to mention incredibly bright!

Gear Setup for product photography doesn’t have to be expensive, but should be quality 

Hopefully you now have some good ideas or starting places for the gear needed to take great product photos!

Want to improve your photography in general? Check out this comprehensive guide!

Which of the tips above will you use when buying studio photography gear?

Comment below!