best food photography lens?

[s_w]

What is the most useful lens for food photography on a 20d? I'm looking to buy lenses for macro, food and wildlife. I think my macro lens will be the canon 100 macro. I could see this being used often photographing food. I'm also considering the 24 -70 2.8 and 70 200 f4. Would they be useful or is there a better option? The 50 f1.4 sounds good - for my needs could I get by on this and hold off on the 24-70 2.8? I would eventually like to shoot editorial stock for a living. Lots of questions, I know -

[Jon]

You might find one of the TS-E lenses better for photographing food, as the tilts will allow you to have the camera at an angle to the offering and keep the plate all in the plane of focus. Maybe either the 24 or the 45.

[s_w]

Thanks. The TS-E lenses were suggested in another forum I posted to. It seems like they don't work as well with the 20D body. I will definetly revisit the TS-E when I get a full frame though. Other lenses suggested were the 50 macro, 50 F1.4, 24 - 70 2.8 and 85L. Any thoughts?

[Poe]

i'd suggest a macro if you need to get up close photos. the 24-70 requires about 16 inches for it to focus at macro. Unless that is acceptable for your line of work.

[Bill Ng]

I find any lense dipped in a strawberry or chocolate sauce especially suited to food photography. Just be prepared to do a little post processing.

Bill in Brooklyn

[Jon]

Originally Posted by s_w

Thanks. The TS-E lenses were suggested in another forum I posted to. It seems like they don't work as well with the 20D body. I will definetly revisit the TS-E when I get a full frame though. Other lenses suggested were the 50 macro, 50 F1.4, 24 - 70 2.8 and 85L. Any thoughts?

Well, the cra^hop factor would make the 24 act more like the 45, and the 45 more like a 70 for FoV, and the 20D won't be able to use the entire image cone the lens puts out, but that's true of any EF lens on an APS body. They'll have just as manty mm of shift eithrt way, and thr tilt, which gives you control over DoF, works regardless.

I'd expect any non-macro on your list will need extension tubes if you want to avoid cropping, but they'll also need to be short ones. If you go that route, I'd say that the longer the better, as that will minimize the effect of any given extension tube. But I really think the TS-E lenses will give you best DoF control.

[René Damkot]

IMHO, TS-E lenses are only usable when shooting thetered. Otherwise focussing is too difficult on a 20D. I would use at least the 45. 24 is way too wide. YMMV.
Lens choice depends entirely on your wishes (perspective wise). I've done food with a 100mm macro, 100mm and 70-200L on 1D(s) bodies. I think any of these lenses will do fine. On a 20D you might even use a 50mm or 60mm macro without problems if you dont want to be too close. The 50/1.4 focussus up to 45 cm, so you could fill the frame with a dinner plate easily on a 20D, but the perspective & working distance might be so-so...
Of course you probabely will not get everything sharp with any of these when standing non-parallel to the food.

[Jon]

On a 20D, the TS-E 24 isn't all that wide Plus there are the TS-E 45 and TS-E 90 if you really don't like that. They're right in the range with the other suggestions as far as focal length, plus they allow you to use the Scheimpflug principle for maximum DoF. For any kind of critical close-up work, you need to use the Angle Finder C, or other magnifying viewer, regardless of the lens. AF close in leaves altogether too much to chance. And a TS-E is the only way you're going to get the plane of focus favorably aligned with the subject unless you aim straight down at it.

[s_w]

Jon,
I see you have the 20d and ts-e 90. This is a review I read on this combination:
These bodies utilize a mirror box that is smaller than other Canon bodies, so any time the lens is shifted up (towards the viewfinder), vignetting will occur along the bottom of the frame due to mirrorbox cutoff. This makes vertically-framed panoramas essentially impossible on these bodies. Additionally, exposures of pano left or right frames is much more distorted and unreliable (even if shot with manual settings).
That's what scares me away from going with this lens for the 20d. Have you found this to be true? Do you know any sites with examples of the 20d and ts-e lens being used? I really like the idea of this lens, but I'm still leaning toward the 100 macro. thanks.

[Jon]

I don't have the TS-E 90; I have the FD-mount T-90 camera, which is what you're seeing in my sig. However, I would be more than a little surprised if this happened, as the angle of coverage the TS-E 90 is capable of corresponds roughly to a 40 mm non-shifting lens used on an APS-C sensor. If it were true, then you'd expect to see problems with other lenses at that focal length or wider wouldn't you? As for exposure, trhere's a basic optical law, the cos()^4 law, which describes light falloff as you move off-axis. But the reviews I've seen of the TS-E 90 say that it's very good at providing even illumination. It's a different lens - you can't shoot with it like you would with a regular, non-shifting, lens - which may account for that report. In any case, for food photography you're going to want to tilt, rather than shift, the lens (Scheimpflug effect involves tilting the lens to alter the plane of best focus), so shifting issues are going to be minor.
There's a review of this lens on the D60 (also APS-C) at Fred Miranda.