Which Canon to use for product photography?

[bearsmith]

I want to buy a digital camera for taking pictures of stuff for sale, mainly clothes and personal accessories, for posting on websites (such as auctions) as well as printing in hard copy for promotions. I'd like to set up a low budget or makeshift studio. After reading around, Canon seems like the way to go. I'm on a budget

 

[Overread]

What exactly is the budget amount? Canon or Nikon or infact any leading brand would suit you well but the greater component in such shooting is going to be the effective control and use of lighting setups.

 

[Josh66]

Yeah, 'low budget' isn't specific enough...

For 'product type' shots, first priority will be the lighting, then the lenses, then the camera...

If you had awesome lighting, you could get very good product shots with mediocre gear.

Good gear with mediocre lighting will still get you mediocre results.

'Good' lighting doesn't necessarily have to be expensive.

 

[kkamin]

You could probably shoot the stuff with your camera phone if you had enough control over your lights to bring the latitude of the scene within 4 stops.

I'm not picking on you, but the way you phrased your question is exactly how many people see photography...a very misguided perspective. If you buy a $50,000 camera body and a $20,000 lens made out of baby's tears, it isn't going to do anything for you if you don't know how to light (how light works physically, how light creates depth, texture, focus within a scene, how light effects human emotion, etc,), composition, use of color, use of shadow and highlight, etc. etc etc. you get the point.

Many point and shoot cameras of today, are far superior to the professional lenses of years past but it is for the most part inconsequential. Gear is just a pencil...can you draw well?

 

[Derrel]

There are a number of low-cost Canon d-slrs on the market. Sony is even less-costly.

 

[inTempus]

As others have noted, the lighting and skill will play a bigger role than the body used. I'm not sure what your budget is for a body, but even a T1i will take outstanding product shots.

For lighting, you can save some money buy giving Alien Bee's a shot. There are less and expensive and more expensive lights, but lighting can get really expensive. Here you'll need to figure out what best suits your needs. I use Alien Bee's (some folks absolutely tear them apart) but I get the results I need, as a hobbyist. They work great and they have outstanding no BS customer service.

Here's a shot I took this weekend using a single Alien Bee 800 (medium octa-box) with a white reflector.

A T1i and a similar lighting setup would give you nearly identical results.

 

[Overread]

Darn it Intempus now I'm tempted toward more lighting than a single speedlite for macro lighting (well semi macro at least)

 

[inTempus]

You don't have to spend a bunch to get a decent light. You should pick one up and play with it, I think you'll fall in love. It will change your photography quite a bit and give you more creative latitude, or so I believe.

 

[Overread]

but surely for something like macro work I can just use a 580speedlite flash combined with a suitably large enough diffusion method (softbox/umbrella/etc..) to get a similar lighting effect? Thus far I've never had the problem of power output from the 580EX2 for lighting macro/closup shots - the only weakness being when I want to light both a foreground and background and then its more because of limited numbers of light sources rather than the output of one alone.

 

[inTempus]

but surely for something like macro work I can just use a 580speedlite flash combined with a suitably large enough diffusion method (softbox/umbrella/etc..) to get a similar lighting effect? Thus far I've never had the problem of power output from the 580EX2 for lighting macro/closup shots - the only weakness being when I want to light both a foreground and background and then its more because of limited numbers of light sources rather than the output of one alone.

My assumption would be if you used a similarly large softbox the effect would be quite similar. I don't use my speedlites in this manner so I can't speak from hands-on experience.

 

[Overread]

How come you us the Alienbee then over the speedlites if the main factor isn't the unit but the effect of the diffusion of the light from the unit?

 

[inTempus]

I went with studio lights for a few reasons. First, I don't want to constantly screw with batteries. Second, the radio poppers I wanted with the Cyber Commander don't work to their full potential with speedlites. Lastly, power. With a large soft box on a summer afternoon I've over powered the sun to get the exposure I wanted.

I also like the number of relatively low cost light modifiers available for the Bees.

 

[calexcyou]

As others have noted, the lighting and skill will play a bigger role than the body used. I'm not sure what your budget is for a body, but even a T1i will take outstanding product shots.

For lighting, you can save some money buy giving Alien Bee's a shot. There are less and expensive and more expensive lights, but lighting can get really expensive. Here you'll need to figure out what best suits your needs. I use Alien Bee's (some folks absolutely tear them apart) but I get the results I need, as a hobbyist. They work great and they have outstanding no BS customer service.

Here's a shot I took this weekend using a single Alien Bee 800 (medium octa-box) with a white reflector.

A T1i and a similar lighting setup would give you nearly identical results.

wow..that is a great shot from a T1i ...

 

[Josh66]

wow..that is a great shot from a T1i ...

According to the Exif, that was actually taken with a 1D Mark IV.

I think his point was that the light plays a larger role than the body.

A T1i should be able to produce nearly indistinguishable results with the same lighting and the same operator.