Photography Equipment

(Last Updated 10/6/11)

I’m often asked as to the camera equipment I use to take the photos for this blog. I’m happy to hear that many people like my photos but I’m definitely not an expert. I haven’t taken any photography classes. Everything I’ve learned has been from reading photo tips on various websites and just practicing. For those of you who are interested, this is the equipment I use and my thoughts on each one. I bought all my photography gear from Amazon, which usually has the best prices.

Canon EOS Rebel T3i

I actually have the T2i, but I’m going to link to the T3i because it is the newer version of my old one and is the version being sold on Amazon.  This is a great first dslr camera for those wanting to venture into this territory. I use this dslr for most of my cooking/baking shots as well as restaurants with low lighting. This camera has amazing specs for a very good price. As a result, it’s quite a popular camera for food bloggers. One of the things I was looking for was a higher iso range without it being too noisy. This is needed for low light situations. I was having a really hard time taking restaurant photos without flash until I bought this camera. The iso goes up to 6400 and while it is a little noisy at 6400 the shots still come out pretty well.  It also offers 18 MP and records videos at 1080 HD. If you are going to get this camera, I recommend getting the body only and not the camera with the lens kit. The lens kit is really worthless. For my previous camera, I bought it with the lens kit and it is the one lens I never use. The pictures using the lens kit are almost the same as pictures using my point and shoot camera.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

This was one of the first lenses I purchased and it’s a great everyday lens and portrait lens. It’s probably also the cheapest high quality lens that Canon carries. I use it at restaurants because it works well in low light setting since I can set the aperture at 1.8. There is a much more expensive similar lens, the 1.4/50mm, which I have been thinking of buying, but so far I haven’t pulled the trigger. If you buy one lens for your camera, I would suggest this one. One of the reasons it is so cheap is that it is made of plastic rather than glass.

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

This was my first big splurge based on recommendations by other food bloggers. If your focus is on photographing food, then you I’d recommend you splurge on a macro lens.  I use this lens for all the food shots of my baked goods and other stuff I make at home. A macro lens allows you to capture the tiny details on a close up of a food image such as the bread crumbs on the bread.

 

Canon EF 35mm f/2 Wide Angle Lens

This is one of the lenses I now use at restaurants. I was finding it frustrating at restaurants that I could not properly capture an entire dish in my photo frame. Instead I could only capture part of the dish unless I stood far away from the food. A wide angle lens allows more to fit inside a photo frame. The 2.0 apeture allows me to photo well in low light. The 35mm means I can be up close and capture an entire dish while sitting at my dining table, without having to move the dish to the other side of the table or stand up. I use this camera for most of my restaurant photos now to capture the entire dish and then I will sometimes use the 50mm for more of a close-up of the dish.

Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens

This is one of my most recent lens purchases. It’s similar to the 35mm lens above, so if I were to do it again, I would have just purchased the 28mm. But I discovered this lens after and it happened to be on sale. If price and weight is a concern, the 35mm is lighter and cheaper. Like the 35mm, this lens is also a wide angle lens which is heavier and actually bigger in size than the 35mm.  It’s about the same length as my 60mm/2.8 macro lens. The benefits of course include an even wide frame that fits into your photo and slightly better ability to take photos in low light setting since it has an aperture of 1.8. I usually switch between the 35mm and 28mm lenses. I don’t carry both on me.

Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8

For my upcoming vacation, I was looking for a walk-around zoom lens so that I could capture landscape, building, and other things I wasn’t standing directly in front of.  I’ve been pretty loyal to Canon, but with the specs for what I was looking for, the Canon lenses were simply too expensive and out of my budget. I got a recommendation to get this Tamron equivalent and I’m quite happy with the purchase especially since vacation or walk-around photos is not my primary focus. I would have liked an even greater zoom length, but this one properly captured almost everything I wanted to photograph on my trip. In addition, the 2.8 aperture is a big plus. A lot of the similarly priced canon lenses have an aperture of 3.5 to 5.6 (with 5.6 needed when you use the zoom), requiring a very bright day to capture images and making those lenses almost useless in low light situations.  It also comes with a free lens hood, whereas you have to purchase the lens hood separately for the Canon lenses.

 

Point and Shoot cameras

Canon S95
My brother got this camera for his birthday. It costs a lot more than your average point and shoot but it also takes better quality pictures. Sometimes when I don’t feel like taking out my big camera and he is around, I’ll use his camera. The camera has an option to adjust the aperture, but that function is basically useless. However it does have better low light capabilities and the picture quality is noticeably better over the cheaper point and shoots priced around $100. So if you are looking for something that is better than your average point and shoot with pretty good low light settings and you don’t want a dslr this may be a good camera for you.