Good Question: Best Camera for Food Photography

Dear Readers,

I am so inspired by the absolutely stunning photos on other food blogs. For example, there's 101 Cookbooks. Sure, Heidi Swanson is a professional, but I can't help but drool at the photos on her site, thinking one day, maybe, just maybe, I can take photos that look that good.

She's not the only one: Chubby Hubby turned me on to Delicious Days, Kuidaore, Nordljus, and The Traveler's Lunchbox to name just a few. Some are professional; some are just good at taking pictures. But I also suspect they have the right gear.

The question is: what are the best digital cameras for shooting food? Often this means low-light situations, and also shooting very close to the subject. It seems most use digital SLRs and we've heard the Nikon D70, it's cousin, the Nikon D50, and the Cannon EOS Digital Rebel XT are favored among the food and photo blogger glitterati.

Can anyone speak to the point-and-shoot category? Or are we crazy not to spring for an SLR?

(To All Good Questions)

(photo: Heidi Swanson)

Comments (4)

Boy, am I late to this conversation! I'm a new blogger who's taking pretty horrendous photos at the moment (www.thewickednoodle.com). I had a pretty decent p&s that I was comfortable taking decent pics with, but it broke a few months ago and now I'm stuck with an even older model that I kept around for some unknown reason. So...I'm looking for a good p&s or possibly even something better. I appreciate all the feedback from this post, and love the blog!!

I take my photos with a Panasonic DMC-LX2, with a tripod. and edit a bit on photoshop. if interested check them out at dansgoodgrub.blogspot.com

I just broke my camera and am interested in getting another digital camera to replace it. mostly using it for up close photos of food.

I have been trying to take food shots with my Nikon Coolpix - they are the worst food shots ever. My old Sony Ericsson phone takes close up food shots a million times better than the Nikon Coolpix.

Since starting my food blog almost a year ago, I have been using a point-and-shoot camera (Canon PowerShot SD550 Digital Elph) for all my photos, since this is the only camera I have. My results have been varied, but they have been solely dependent on the availability of natural lighting. This camera has a great macro setting!

Some nice results can be had with this camera with a little post-processing to bump up brightness and contrast:
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/05/gigantes.html
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/04/sometimes-you-just-want-to-eat.html
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/03/linguine-with-seafood-fresh-fennel-and.html
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/02/date-with-destiny.html
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/01/galette-des-rois.html

But then there are ones taken with the same camera that I'm not so keen on, thanks to a lack of natural light:
http://www.apricosa.com/2009/11/home-cooked-and-gourmet.html
http://www.apricosa.com/2010/02/fresh-for-first-time.html

While I'm hoping to get an SLR one of these days, a point-and-shoot camera has great capabilities!