Best lens for Product photography (Nikon D500 compatible)

[EdwardMH]

I have a Nikon D500, My smallest lens is the 16-80 zoom. Will this work for imaging my sublimation products in a light box or should I invest in a special lens? Products range from coffee mug size up to 12”x18” glass panel photographs.

[Rick Helmke]

That lens will do but there are better options. I’d go with something like the Tamron 28-75/2.8 which I’ve had a lot of success using or perhaps 28 and 85 primes. These can all be purchased at reasonable prices, especially used. Another good one is the 24-120 which might actually fill your needs a bit better but can be pricey.

 

Rick H.

[Niels - NHSN]

I certainly wouldn't buy new lenses before you figure out what possible limitations your current one may have. 

Use what you have until you can define what it may be lacking. It may well turn out to be just fine for your purposes.

[AJG]

While there are undoubtedly macro prime lenses that will have better optical performance than a zoom lens, what are you doing with the images?  If these are simply going to a web site your current lens is probably fine.  If you expect to make large prints then you might want to go with something better.  I shoot lots of artwork professionally so I have a set of macro lenses (50, 70, 100, 150) for my Pentax K 1 since my clients sometimes want to make prints. For another client that I travel for and photograph many different sizes of objects in a very limited amount of time I shoot with a zoom lens since they won't need to make large prints (8x10 max) and the Pentax zoom that I use is actually quite sharp and the Photoshop lens correction in camera raw gets rid of linear distortion quite effectively. As NHSN suggested, try your current lens and see if it does what you need.

[Jochen_S]

Macro and maybe tilt shift lenses might be handy. I'd lean towards 60mm or a tad shorter. But as others said before: If you get your frame filled, imaginable distortion corrected and enough sharp pixels for your publishing purpose together: Why bother?

[roachyy_]

I personally use a mixture of the nikkor 35mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.8 on the D3200. On an APS-C sensor the latter has an effective focal length of 75mm. I would recommend the G version of that lens over the AF-D variant simply because modern optics are better than vintage. They're about the same price on the used market, so there is almost no reason to get the older one.

 

It's worth noting that I don't do this professionally. I only do product photography to sell my gear locally.

Edited October 17, 2022 by roachyy_
Added what body I use.