Food Photography Starter Kit

If you’re on a low budget, we recommend the Canon EOS 70D Camera with the 18-55mm Lens or the Canon EOS 70D Camera with the 18-135mm Lens.

But if you want to start with or upgrade to a more comprehensive gear, check out the list below of cameras, lenses and accessories we use.

Cameras

We use two cameras for food photography, the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 70D. Both cameras are great. You can buy either one or both.

We use the 5D Mark II for food photography and the 70D for the videos we make.

The 5D Mark II has a full frame sensor which generally yields higher quality images. The 70D is also great but has a cropped sensor. Beyond food photography, it’s good to have both cameras because the 70D and its cropped sensor can be particularly helpful for telephoto and portrait photography where the additional reach can be handy.

At some point, we will upgrade from the 5D Mark II to the 5D Mark III which is the newer model.

Lenses

We use the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens on the Canon 5D Mark II camera for most of the food photography and the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L lens on the Canon 70D camera for the videos.

Tripod

We use the Dolica AX620B100 62-Inch Proline Tripod and Ball Head.

Lighting

We use the Fancierstudio 2400 Watt Lighting Kit. We find the soft boxes very useful for photography and videography instead of using a flash for photos and another lighting solution for the videos. But if you don’t have enough room, many get by with just the Lowel EGO Digital Imaging, Tabletop Fluorescent Light Unit.