Product/ commercial photography. Camera gear please.

[Sunnyphotog]

I hope A7r is still good for product/ commercial photography.If I am right, comes the lens choice. I have Canon 24-105,i.4 IS USM and a 50mm Minolta MD Macro Roccor-x(do not know how good it is)

Color is one of the important factor.

1. Which lens ?
2. Sony or Carl Zeiss or similar alternative lens?

Lighting is another factor.

1. Which kind of lighting ?

Commercial photography involves Product and model photography too.

Recommendations please.
Thanks in advance.

 

[LenRivers]

If you are getting paid vs not that has baring on a decision I'd make...

I might compare medium format Fuji X vs Sony A7R iii or IV vs Nikon D850. Cant speak to Canon but why not see what they offer.

Nikon is updating the Z7 etc so add Nikon mirrorless.

Search Youtube lots of videos

 

[ZilverHaylide]

I hope A7r is still good for product/ commercial photography.If I am right, comes the lens choice. I have Canon 24-105,i.4 IS USM and a 50mm Minolta MD Macro Roccor-x(do not know how good it is)

Color is one of the important factor.

1. Which lens ?
2. Sony or Carl Zeiss or similar alternative lens?

Lighting is another factor.

1. Which kind of lighting ?

Commercial photography involves Product and model photography too.

Recommendations please.
Thanks in advance.

If by "A7r" you mean the original one (not a later one in that series), well, that's getting a bit long in the tooth. I wouldn't go buy one, but if you already have it, that's a different matter. That it's a bit old doesn't mean that you wouldn't be able to do satisfactory work with it, but I can think of a couple of significant potential problems:

1) that original camera of the "R" line was notorious for shutter-shock. No personal experience with it, but you may need to pay attention to what shutter speeds you use, and possibly avoid certain ones. If using flash, the shorter effective exposure duration should significantly or entirely solve that problem.

https://photographylife.com/reviews/sony-a7r/

2) even with software updates, some lenses may not perform (electronically and mechanically) well enough on an older body like the A7R, so AF might hunt unacceptably, or be very slow. (The A7r is pure contrast-detect for focus, not hybrid like later models). Not sure what sort of compatibility tables Sony might have on their site, but might be worth a look before buying any new Sony glass. For other brands adapted, inquire on the adapted lens forum.

A lot of people worry about "color", and laud one camera or lens brand over another, but really, a lot of this is people buying into advertising-generated confusion. Yes there are differences in color rendition but modern post-processing software is flexible and with a few adjustments in post you should be able to make the color from any camera or lens' fully acceptable.

 

[LightCameraAction]

I hope A7r is still good for product/ commercial photography.If I am right, comes the lens choice. I have Canon 24-105,i.4 IS USM and a 50mm Minolta MD Macro Roccor-x(do not know how good it is)

Color is one of the important factor.

1. Which lens ?
2. Sony or Carl Zeiss or similar alternative lens?

Lighting is another factor.

1. Which kind of lighting ?

Commercial photography involves Product and model photography too.

Recommendations please.
Thanks in advance.

If color is important, look into the x-rite ColorChecker Passport. Also look into calibrating your screen if you have not already. Solving color accuracy issues by purchasing different cameras and lenses seems like a losing battle to me.

I will let others comment on lens options and lightning equipment.

 

[RE Alpha]

I hope A7r is still good for product/ commercial photography.If I am right, comes the lens choice. I have Canon 24-105,i.4 IS USM and a 50mm Minolta MD Macro Roccor-x(do not know how good it is)

Color is one of the important factor.

1. Which lens ?
2. Sony or Carl Zeiss or similar alternative lens?

Lighting is another factor.

1. Which kind of lighting ?

Commercial photography involves Product and model photography too.

Recommendations please.
Thanks in advance.

There are already some good recommendations in previous posts. From a practicality point of view, the A7rii hit the market running and from that one version on, I would say they are still really good cameras for product and commercial photography. No client of magazine will decline your images because of resolution (that never ever happened to me, not even with previous cameras and models, having less megapixels).

When it comes down to lenses, I have found (like many others) that an 85mm is great for models and for products. You can always go for top of the line (so the 85GM) or for less expensive 85 models. There are a ton for Sony on the market. Myself I am using the 85GM as my go to lens on all fashion shoots I do. The next one up id the CZ 50/1.4 for me; gorgeous lens in use. With these two I shoot 95% of my fashion material.

Some people like to use the 135GM also for model shoots. Personally I do not find the bokeh very pretty when there are light sources in the background (too much cat shape balls). But if you are not bothered by that, it is an excellent lens by all standards.

For products a macro lens (90mm or so) can be great as well. Sony's version is great lens.

When it comes to lighting equipment, Godox is very popular at the moment. When you would like to go top of the line, think about Broncolor and Profoto. Both have an excellent line-up. Also for battery operated flash lights. I use the Siros L (800J) and they are very powerful and can do anything I want them to do. As the light output and their colour temperature consistency is really high (Broncolor tends to deliver as promised) this would be excellent for product photography as well.

But it all depends on your budget of course.

 

[Nikolai Vassiliev]

MD Macro 50mm lens is very fine, some manual focus is tad better (Micro Nikkor or Contax Zeiss). I use i occasionally on A7r (now A7rIII). Without a set-up ring it provide only 1:2 magnification - but it more than enough for most applications.

For some applications you will need longer lens and for some tilt lens or focus stacking.

It is very useful to setup a PC Tethering (generally Capture One Pro is better there but A7r did not supported very well)

More important is lighting setup, tripod stability and whole rig stuff like white box, table etc.