Which lens for food photography

Hello everyone!

I'm having a hard time to look for the best lens for my X-T10 for the purpose of food photography. I'l be starting a blog and need to buy a lens for my camera soon. Any suggestions? I've been reading that the 60mm is the best one for food but is like, according to some, the worst fuji lens ever?

Thanks in advance!

Funny -- I just read an article of professional food photography.  This top pro who makes her living shooting food and table layouts talked about her equipment.

There is no food lens.  It depends on what you are shooting.  You might shoot the tip of a sprig of asparagus, a single piece of fruit or food, a plate full of food, ten plates on a table, or the whole room....

around 70 to 90 equivalent is good for a plate from above, but it depends....

This lady used primes and zooms.  She shot at 24, 35, 50, 90 and 120 equivalent with primes or just brought one 24-70 or 24-105 type equivalent lens.  I'm talking FF equivalent here.

So the close focusing capability of the 16, or the 23/35/50 F2 primes, or the 90, or the 56...  The 60 would be great.  The 50-140.....

More importantly is how you light it.  You are going to have to use artificial lighting.  Off-camera radio controlled speedlights with various diffusers is a great way to do it without transporting a lot of lighting gear.  Or, at a minimum, get an on-camera speedlight with a Fong Light Sphere kit....

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Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/139148982@N02/albums

The 60 is the most logical choice at it has good close up abilities and nice rendering.

True.  The 60 is a good food lens.

But all of the Fuji primes have good rendering.  Well .... the zooms do too.

I would never discard a Fuji lens from the food shooting list because of bad rendering.

I use the 16/1.4 but the 18/2 would also be a good choice. You need a relatively fast aperture for low light of restaurants and a somewhat wide angle focal length.

I also sometimes use the 23/1.4 but prefer the 16mm.

I also do a lot with the Pen F and the 12/2 when I want to have a smaller kit.

KwhyChang wrote:

I use the 16/1.4 but the 18/2 would also be a good choice. You need a relatively fast aperture for low light of restaurants and a somewhat wide angle focal length.

I also sometimes use the 23/1.4 but prefer the 16mm.

I also do a lot with the Pen F and the 12/2 when I want to have a smaller kit.

To shoot what?

The whole room?  The whole table?  Part of the table?  A place setting?  The whole plate?  Part of the plate?  Some or all of the food on the plate?  One piece of asparagus?   The tip of the asparagus?  I even saw a nice macro food shot of an ant on a fork one time.....

You get the point.   It depends.

But I'm all for using the Mighty 16.

You could even use the Brick!

Hi there,

I just started food photography several months ago and trying utilizing my collecting dust XF60mm lens. It's a slow to focus lens but sharp and cheap on other side. For me...this lens is a good one to start with if you want to shoot closer and details.

Here are some of my shots:

Sticky rice sweet cake

Granola with fruits

Pan grilled salmon

Eggs

The new 80mm macro lens should be a good lens for food