Shooting food

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bourgogneboy

Bourgogneboy
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Oct 17, 2007
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Has any one tried to use the M8 to shoot dishes in restaurants? What's the best lens to use for this purpose? I tried to use a 24 mm and a 35mm but found that I had to push myself quite far away from the table to be able to focus.
 
yeah...a m8 really is not the right tool for the job. I have done a menu shoot before and used a 20D and a 17-40 with a flash. It came out pretty good, I needed the close focus ability of the 17-40 for taking details of the food, very important. You wont get great results because the m8's minimum focus is .7 meters, anything closer then that with a lens that can focus closer and you no longer have any confirmation of focus from the rangefinder because the focus cam get uncoupled from the lens.
 
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A rangefinder is not really the tool for the job. If you absolutely must use your M8 you might consider getting back from the food or up on a ladder and shooting with a longer lens--sort of telephoto macro. I would guess you don't have a lot of lights, so outdoor light or light from a big window is good too. The pros I work with these days usually shoot with a giant mkII or III and a 50 or 100 macro lens.
 
Low-res digicams (under 20 megapixel) are pretty marginal for serious food shoots; 15-20 years ago, when I was shooting quite a lot of food professionally, even 6x7cm met with a lot of resistance and 4x5 inch was preferred. On 6x7cm I normally used 135mm; on 4x5 inch, 210mm (rough equivalents in Leica terms 65mm on full-frame, 50mm on M8).

His dictis, for web illustration I tend to use a D70 + 90/2.5 Vivitar Series 1 Macro. If I wanted to use the M8 I'd probably use a 90/4 Makro Elmar, taking care to use the UV/IR filter, or maybe the 65/3.5 Elmar and a Viso III. And I'd light it carefully...

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
If I wanted to use the M8 I'd probably use a 90/4 Makro Elmar, taking care to use the UV/IR filter, or maybe the 65/3.5 Elmar and a Viso III. And I'd light it carefully...

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

I borrowed the Macro Elmar with the attachment when it first appeared, and I was terribly disappointed in the framing/parallax of the googles. With the M8 you'd have the ability to chimp, so maybe it would work out better. I often shoot food dishes when I travel, and use a 90 or 135, whichever I happen to have along, although I read somewhere that the 75mm gives the greater magnification.

Of course I have to push back from the table 1 to 1.5 meters, but that's something I should probably do more often :D
 
I do a lot of food photography and wouldn't even think of doing it with my M8, that's definitely a job for the Nikon's
 
well...one more tally for not the right tool for the job.
I still shoot 4x5 and 8x10 for food shots.
But as far as doing it with an m8, it's possible, but I'd pick a longer lens ... preferably in the 75+ area.
 
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