Newbie with Jewelry photo questions; mamiya vs. canon 1diii ?

BoverC

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Hey everybody, I'm new to the forum and had a few questions regarding jewelry photography.

I work for a jewelry manufacturer in los angeles and my boss has recently asked me to begin shooting our magazine ads because his photographer is ripping him off. money isn't an issue as long as everything is kept under 15k.

I'm currently comparing the Canon 1d mark III to mamiya zd.

my first take on this project was to go for a 5d, but my boss would rather i bought a great camera compared to something that might b obsolete in a few years (though it'll take longer than that for the 5d [probably])

Has anyone got any experience with these cameras? I'll be fixing the camera on a tripod and attaching a macro lens for the jewelry pix (that's how i remember the original photographer shooting the pieces).

Also, how important is it to attach the camera to a laptop? i undestand it's clearly a convenience issue, but is transferring the pix via a compact flash card something i'll get tired of dealing with in a few months?

Thanks for any help you could offer.

~ Albert
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Welcome to the forum.

Personally, I think that a sub $1000 DSLR camera would be sufficient for this type of work...but if you want to get a better one, I won't tell you no.

I still think that a mk III is over kill and a ZD would be way over the top. Maybe if you are expecting to to have the photos printed on bill boards, buildings etc...then I could see the justification for one of those...but a magazine add should be good with something like the 5D or even the 40D.

A macro lens will probably be in order. There is a 100mm macro lens from Canon. I wouldn't go shorter than that, if only to give you more working room. I think there is a 180mm macro as well.

More than the camera and the lens...the lighting will be paramount to the quality of the photos. I'm not sure which is best, a light tent maybe, and some lights to light that up. To get top quality images though...there will be some expertise involved...I'm not sure where you are at in that regard.

You certainly don't need to attach the camera to a lap top...but you could, if you wanted to. Transferring with cards or camera after the shoot is what 98% of us do...it's not so bad.

Also, post processing of the images will be needed. That also will take some expertise.

*edit*
No need to post the same thing in different parts of the forum. I'll move this to the equipment section.
 
How large do you want to print? If you're only doing poster-size displays the Canon is more than enough... and frankly, probably the 5D will do. But go with the Canon, it's simply easier to use.
 
thanks, guys. After reading your comments, I'll probably go with the 5d. We weren't sure what level of megapixels we'd need to get sharpness in a magazine, so thanks, u cleared it up well.

sorry for the multiple posting, i wasn't sure how soon to expect a response n my boss is breathing down my neck :)

thanks again
 
thanks, guys. After reading your comments, I'll probably go with the 5d. We weren't sure what level of megapixels we'd need to get sharpness in a magazine, so thanks, u cleared it up well.

sorry for the multiple posting, i wasn't sure how soon to expect a response n my boss is breathing down my neck :)

thanks again

I'd have to agree that the higher end Canons are overkill for small print. See my results here using clients cheap Lumix.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11784055@N02/

Regards,
George
 
Jewelry macro for publication is more about lighting than the camera. Run a search on this forum, someone just recently posted some interesting comments about it.
 

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