Lenses make or spoil the outcome of food photography. A sharp, distortion-free image will entice your audience with mouth-watering imagery of their favorite food. Thus focal length and sensor size are very important factors to consider when buying a lens for food photography.
Before buying a lens, you first need to decide whether you want to buy a prime lens or a zoom lens. Prime lenses produce a sharper and distortion-free image than zoom lens. Its larger aperture also makes it better than a zoom lens in a low light environment.
However, the prime lens gives the best result when used with a full frame camera. If you are planning to upgrade your camera to a full frame in the future, its best to go for prime lenses. If you own a Nikon camera, you, fortunately, have a wide range of Nikon lenses to choose from for your food photography.
1. Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D or f/1.8D Prime lenses
The ‘Nifty Fifty’ prime lens is a staple lens for food photographers because it gives awesome results at a very decent price. It might be the best lens for you if you’re just starting out or if your budget is tight.
The 50mm lens is perfect for capturing wide scenes like overhead shots and table scapes. The large aperture also means that you can pull off decent shots even in low light conditions.
2. Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S Macro prime lens
The Nikkor 60mm lens provides the a near 50mm crop with the versatility of a macro lens. On a cropped sensor camera, this lens acts like a 100mm lens and when mounted on a full-frame camera, you can use it like a 50mm lens as well.
The 60mm Macro lens produce a nice bokeh and a beautiful vignette. On a crop sensor, it can be used to capture a medium shot while on a full frame camera, you can use it like a 50mm lens for wide shots.
3. Nikon 105mm f/2.8G micro/macro prime lens
If you want to get close to your subject to show beautiful textures and intricate details of the subject, this is the lens you should go for.
The Nikon 105mm Prime lens lets you back off from the table to shoot awesome table scapes and overhead shots or gets close to your subject to shoot an extremely close shot.
4. Nikon 35mm f/1.8G lens
This lens is great to use for food photography when you need a wider angle of view. Though it is a DX lens, it is perfectly usable on FX/full-frame cameras (though you may need to crop the corners of the picture).