Best camera for sterling silver jewelry photography?

[cjpea]

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate any recommendations for a camera to take photos of my sterling silver jewelry.

I am leaning towards Canon or Nikon, am looking seriously at the Nikon D3300, but would like all of your expert opinions (including considering other brands).

Macro ability and detail capture are important. My budget is $700.

Thank you for your help!

 

[D Cox]

The camera is not so important as the lighting. You also need a good tripod.

Any decent DSLR or mirrorless camera with a good macro lens will do. The kit lens that usually comes with the camera is not very suitable for this kind of work.

This site will give you some ideas:

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www.tabletopstudio.com

There is a good book called "Light Science and Magic" which helps in understanding lighting.

And I like an old booklet from Kodak called "Studio Lighting for Product Photography", dating from way back. There are usually copies of this on Amazon.com.

 

[cjpea]

Thank you, D Cox! I'll absolutely look into the book. Just want to make sure I don't spend a lot (to me!) of money on a camera that's not appropriate.

 

[NancyP]

I assume that you want to be able to shoot up to 1:1 (life size). You want any interchangeable lens camera, a macro lens, a tripod, and some lighting gear. $700.00 is a tight budget. I am a Canon shooter, so I can suggest the following used kit:

Canon body: Deluxe: 60D (handy for that articulating screen), $305.00 to $450.00 used; Also very good: Rebel T2i or T1i. $120.00 to $300.00 used. I use a T1i at work, along with the EF-S 60mm f/2.8, for documenting pathology specimens, excellent kit, you probably could get the T1i and one of the two Canon lenses listed below for around $500.00 used, allowing you some money for a used tripod and improvised lighting and reflectors/diffusers and background paper, etc.

Canon lens: EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 USM AF (but allows full time manual focus) or EF 100 f/2.8 (no IS, no autofocus) The EF-S used goes for about $300.00. The EF 100 f/2.8 goes for $150.00 to $400.00.

Nikon experts please weigh in. Nikon has some really old but good all manual macro lenses, but I don't know enough about compatibility with low end Nikon DSLRs to be sure of recommendations.

Improvised lighting can be done with flashlights fitted with diffusers and reflectors made from home objects like yogurt cups, tin foil, parchment paper, etc.

 

[axcentphoto]

Well I think 'leaning' toward the Nikon D3300 is not a bad idea. 24 mp is a very manageable size for a DX camera. Now your bigger question is lens and lighting. Good luck with your decision.

 

[JCB123]

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate any recommendations for a camera to take photos of my sterling silver jewelry.

I am leaning towards Canon or Nikon, am looking seriously at the Nikon D3300, but would like all of your expert opinions (including considering other brands).

Macro ability and detail capture are important. My budget is $700.

Thank you for your help!

The important thing is to get the lighting right. Any current camera should be just fine as long as it can synch with off-camera flash, but even a decent compact camera could yield excellent results with continuous lighting for product shots. Next up is the lens. Canon, Nikon and micro 4/3 systems all have the lenses you need.

Suggest you post on the lighting forum for lighting. You could use a light tent and either flash or continuous lighting, for product shots.

I second the earlier post suggesting the book "Light Science & Magic"

Regards

John

 

[Nass]

I second the earlier post suggesting the book "Light Science & Magic"

Thirded, although if you're very new to photography it maybe a bit much. But the bottom line is worry about the camera last, and consider the lighting above all else.

 

[cjpea]

Thanks for the helpful information, everyone! I'll go with the Nikon D3300, and check out the recommended books. I have a lighting setup from tabletopstudio.com so hope that I can make that work.

 

[D Cox]

Thanks for the helpful information, everyone! I'll go with the Nikon D3300, and check out the recommended books. I have a lighting setup from tabletopstudio.com so hope that I can make that work.

If you get some good results, post them here.

 

[NancyP]

It isn't a read-in-an-hour book, but it is very well written and logical.