My #1 Favorite Food Photography Lens – 105mm Macro lens hands down! It’s got great glass and snaps crystal clear photos and minute details.
I’m really excited to share this post with you today – because I get to share my lens love for my 105mm Macro Lens.
I feel like I’m introducing you to my best photography friend. I feel like this lens speaks my love language for food photography. You know what I’m saying?
This lens never disappoints, and I get a great shot every.single.time. Who doesn’t love a lens like that?
When I wrote My Favorite Camera Lenses for Food Photography post, I said I’d share what I use, when I use it, how I use it and most importantly why I use it. So, let’s get to it!
What I use:
105mm Macro Lens. This exact lens is the Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G ED Vibration Reduction fixed lens with Auto Focus. You can find and buy the lens in the Amazon affiliate link listed above.
The cost of this lens is roughly $900, and you can also get it at Amazon, B&H Photo and Adorama, and possibly your local camera store. I’ve owned this lens since February 2013, and it has consistently been my favorite since then. I spent a while reading things like lensguide’s recommendations before I bought it and I’m so glad that I did. Since it cost me so much money, I wanted to make sure I was getting a great lens! If you’re in the market for a new camera lens, I highly recommend reading some reviews and guides.
When I use it:
This is my primary go-to lens in my bag, and the one I am the most comfortable with. 90% of my food photography is shot with this lens. When I shoot a recipe, this lens feels like home to me when I grab it out of the bag. I know that when I screw it onto my camera, I am going to get a great shot, every single time.
How I use it:
Because this lens is a 105mm macro lens, to use it effectively means that I need to stand a significant distance AWAY from my food to get a great shot. This lens is designed to bring everything up close and personal from a distance and is often used to photograph fine details in flowers, leaves and butterflies – really {{upclose}} photography!
Why I use it:
I feel the “why” is the heart, and most important part, of me sharing this series, so I don’t plan to skimp on the details. If you can’t understand the why of something, why keep on doing it, right? You need to understand why you’re doing something, or choosing a particular process over another one, so that you can understand the value in it.
This lens helps me not only really see the food, but more importantly, it helps me feel the food. Not just see it, but feel it for what it is (beyond what you see with the naked eye). It’s high level of details shows me the taste, the texture, the ingredients, the way the ingredients behave on the food and the plate – all the subtleties in the dish that make me want to taste and experience the sophistication of the dish and savor all of its flavors.
Can you tell from that description that I adore this lens? 🙂
With that said, all of that “over-sharing” this lens provides, also brings me to my earlier comment in my Favorite Camera Lenses for Food Photography post that “every bed of roses has its thorns”.
For all that I love about this lens, it also comes with a warning… this lens will capture every single detail you didn’t know you had. 🙂 That means, if there is a fuzzle on your linen, it will see it. If you have a pet hair on the plate, it will see it. If you have a messy drip where you didn’t want it, it will provide the magnifier to help you find it. It’s “helpful” that way. 🙂 #helpful #nothelpful
What does that mean for you? Well (a) you have an awesome lens and (b) you’re going to be doing more post processing photo editing that you didn’t expect you’d need to do. 🙂
I cannot count, on an entire village of people’s hands, how many times this lens has found something that was indetectable to the naked eye! YIKES! That can be scary and disappointing when you think you’ve shot the perfect shot! At that point, post processing becomes your friend. 🙂
You’ve been sufficiently fore-warned – it’s a micro-scopic speck finder!
PROs:
- captures a high level of detail
- very high quality glass that produces extremely high quality photos
- captures minute details and subtleties in food that help convey the entire picture of your dish – flavors and textures
CONS
- limited versatility and usage due to macro focal length
- high cost, this lens will cost you roughly $900 at the time of this post
- captures minute details and subtleties in food, which means more post processing time
- very heavy, weighing approximately 1 pound 12 ounces, which causes arm fatigue while shooting (remember it’s this weight + the weight of your camera!) – trust me, it’s heavy and exhausting if you’re doing long photo shoots
SUGGESTION: ** If ** your budget allows, and you like up-close photography, and you realize that a macro lens has limited use, costs a lot, and that it is heavy – I recommend you try it (you can also rent them!). And then, after you’ve tried it and you decide you also love it to pieces like I do, then BUY IT!!! It’s definitely one of those lenses that you will love it or not!
You can find the lens at this affiliate link here:
My #1 Favorite Food Photography Lens – 105mm Macro
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