Best prime for product photography

Hello,

Let me apologize in advance for the noob question!

I like to take photos of products, mostly watches. Currently I have the 35mm f2 on a X-T10 body, but I don't think this is the most adequate lens for product photography.

With that in mind, what would you consider the most adequate Fuji XF lens for this kind of photography among the newer f2 lenses? I know the 60mm 2,4 macro and the 80mm macro would be good candidates, but they are above my budget, specifically the 80mm, hence my focus on the f2 lenses.

Do you think the 50mm f2 would be more suitable than the 35mm? Would I achieve better results for this kind of photos with this lens?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kind regards,

Pedro

PedroM wrote:

Do you think the 50mm f2 would be more suitable than the 35mm? Would I achieve better results for this kind of photos with this lens?

The 50mm is the way to go. It's one of their sharpest lenses ever, and you'll need good magnification for close-ups.

Beware that the 35 f2 suffers from intense distortion. The camera mostly corrects this, but it creates IQ problems elsewhere in the frame.

In addition, the close-up IQ on the 23 and 35 f2s may not meet your needs for this application. They are outstanding walkaround lenses, just not perfectly suited to close-up product shots.

Consider the 35 1.4 as well – better magnification than the 50 f2 (0.17x vs. 0.15x) and it's very sharp past f2. It has its own quirks though... they all do

What sort of products?

Depending on the  answer, you may want to consider the Laowa 65 mm f/2.8.

I am very happy with it (but I use it mostly for macro).

You'll find a lot of opinions about this lens here in the forum.

BR,

Martin

Rightsaidfred wrote:

What sort of products?

Mostly watches.

Depending on the answer, you may want to consider the Laowa 65 mm f/2.8.

I am very happy with it (but I use it mostly for macro).

You'll find a lot of opinions about this lens here in the forum.

I wasn’t aware of this lens existence! Seems like a good candidate for my use case.

Thanks for the info!

Regards,

Pedro

PedroM wrote:

Hello,

Let me apologize in advance for the noob question!

I like to take photos of products, mostly watches. Currently I have the 35mm f2 on a X-T10 body, but I don't think this is the most adequate lens for product photography.

With that in mind, what would you consider the most adequate Fuji XF lens for this kind of photography among the newer f2 lenses? I know the 60mm 2,4 macro and the 80mm macro would be good candidates, but they are above my budget, specifically the 80mm, hence my focus on the f2 lenses.

Do you think the 50mm f2 would be more suitable than the 35mm? Would I achieve better results for this kind of photos with this lens?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kind regards,

Pedro

I would have recommended the 60mm as I really like mine. But if the 60mm is above your budget, then so is the 50mm. If those two are above your budget, you might want to look at 3rd party offerings. Heck, even an adapted old Nikon mount macro from Tamron or similar would work out well.

I'd definitely suggest holding out for a real macro lens. There are plenty of good used ones out there, and you'll be happier with the results in the long run.

PedroM wrote:

Rightsaidfred wrote:

What sort of products?

Mostly watches.

In this case, I definitely recommend a macro lens.

Depending on the answer, you may want to consider the Laowa 65 mm f/2.8.

I am very happy with it (but I use it mostly for macro).

You'll find a lot of opinions about this lens here in the forum.

I wasn’t aware of this lens existence! Seems like a good candidate for my use case.

Thanks for the info!

You're welcome.

Regards,

Pedro

Pedro

You realized the Laowa 65 mm is a manual lens?

This means, there is no AF, no auto aperture, no EXIF transfer.

All that is not a problem, you just need to be aware of it.

It also means you cannot do AF stacking with it - but the X-T10 lacks this function anyway.

Of course, with a manual lens, you can do manual focus stacking with a rail. I do that oftentimes with my X-T20. With respect to the narrow DoF, stacking may be a good idea in your case.

The optical performance of the Laowa 65 mm is excellent IMO.

BR,

Martin