The best camera for product photography in 2024

The best camera for product photography is no longer just the purview of the professional. With more and more people selling from home, whether their products are craft creations or second-hand jeans, there’s a real need to capture high-quality product images and stand out from the crowd. The best way to do that is with a brilliant camera – one that provides quality and versatility that are a step up from your phone.

Our guide to the best product photography cameras is based on our experience testing and reviewing cameras of all different types – every camera on this list is one our team has tested and rated. We’ve included options of different types, and at different price points, including compact cameras with fixed lenses as well as mirrorless cameras and DSLRs where you can pick the lenses you use. If you’re looking for more on how to pick a good camera for product shooting, scroll to the bottom of this page where we’ve put together a few pointers. 

First up, we’ve put together a quick list of all the options we’ve included, before getting to the list proper. So, without further ado, here are our selections of the best cameras for product photography.

Jon Stapley

Jon one of our go-to specialists when it comes to all aspects of photography, from cameras and action cameras to lenses and memory cards, flash diffusers and triggers, batteries and memory cards, selfie sticks and gimbals, and much more besides. Here, he has worked with our review team to select the best cameras for product photography, based on DCW’s testing.

The quick list

Best camera for product photography in 2024

Best overall

A good product photography camera ideally should do a bit of everything, and do it pretty well. For this, we’d recommend a capable all-rounder like the Sony A6100. This APS-C mirrorless camera is very easy to use, but still capable of producing images of excellent quality thanks to its 24.2MP sensor. The Sony E-mount lens selection is extensive, with plenty of large-aperture optics to capture images with a shallow depth of field. 

Lightweight and compact, this is an easy camera to take anywhere you need to go, and it also has some handy features like the option to shoot in 1:1 aspect ratio. If you need something similar cheaper, then the original Sony A6000 is still available at a great price, though it lacks the latest super-speedy BIONZ processor. There’s also the more expensive A6600, with a higher-resolution viewfinder and a headphone jack for video. We reckon for product photography, the A6100 represents the best balance. 

See our full Sony A6100 review and check our Sony A6000 vs A6100 vs A6300 vs A6400 vs A6500 vs A6600 guide

Best for style

Almost as important as the images a camera produces is the way it handles, how it feels to use in the hand all day. If you’re going to be embarking on long product shoots, it makes sense to get a camera that feels good to use, and the Fujifilm X-S10 is a big hit in this regard. 

Using a regular mode dial makes it a little less intimidating to newbies, but the X-S10 still produces fantastic images thanks to its sophisticated X-Trans sensor. You can experiment with its film simulation modes for a classically cool look, but one of the main draws is the Fuji X lens mount, which grants you access to some of the sharpest, best lenses available right now. 

Fujifilm has released an update to this camera, the excellent Fujifilm X-S20. However, overall we’d say that for product photography you can save some cash and stick with the X-S10, as the image quality is more or less the same, and you probably won’t benefit much from the much better tracking autofocus on the newer release. 

See our full Fujifilm X-S10 review.

Best compact

A good compact camera can be great for product photography, providing everything you need in one convenient package. We’d definitely recommend getting the Sony RX100 VA, which pairs a 1-inch sensor with a 24-70mm equivalent lens that has a maximum aperture range of f/1.8-2.8. This is pretty much all you’ll need for product photography, and means you’ll be able to capture great images in any lighting conditions, with a camera small enough to take everywhere. 

This camera is a very minor refresh of the Sony RX100 V, providing essentially the exact same formulation of camera, but boosting the shot buffer and viewfinder responsiveness, as well as making other general operational tweaks. It isn’t  the latest in Sony’s hugely successful RX100 compact range – that’s actually the flagship Sony RX100 VII. We’ve included the V here as we think it’s the best balance of price and features at the moment, but nearly every model in the series is still available. 

Need something cheaper? Try the RX100 IV, or an older model than that (you may have to shop second-hand). Want a longer lens? The Sony RX100 VI and VII can reach equivalent focal lengths of 200mm. Whichever RX100 model you pick, you’re getting a great camera!

See Sony RX100 III vs RX100 IV vs RX100 V vs RX100 VI vs RX100 VII and our full Sony RX100 V review

Best beginner mirrorless

If you’re a little new to photography and want to shoot products, a camera that’s well-oriented to beginners is the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV. Nippy and lightweight, with intuitive, dial-based controls, this is a top-notch camera for getting to grips with the basics of photography.

We’ve included a couple more beginner models further down the list, but the E-M10 IV is our pick for beginner mirrorless models. Its sensor-shift stabilization system makes shooting hand-held easier in all lighting conditions, and having access to the huge stable of Micro Four Thirds lenses gives you real flexibility when it comes to your setup. 

See our full Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV review.

Best beginner DSLR

While the Canon EOS Rebel SL3 (also sold as the EOS 250D depending where you are) is still replete with beginner-friendly modes, it caters to a slightly more advanced user than the likes of the now-discontinued Nikon D3500. Its vari-angle touchscreen allows for much easier variation in shooting angle, and its battery life is hugely impressive. Wi-Fi is present and correct as well, making for super-speedy image transfers, and the EF lens library is one of the biggest in the business.

While Canon does make cheaper DSLRs, the Rebel T7 (EOS 2000D) and Rebel T100 (EOS 4000D) are too stripped-down for our liking, making this the cheapest Canon DSLR we’d happily recommend buying. It’ll allow you to produce excellent product images with ease.

See our Canon Rebel SL3 / EOS 250D review

Best Canon mirrorless

A replacement for the popular EOS M50 Mark II – which for a long time occupied a space on this list – the Canon EOS R50 is a solid and inexpensive all-rounder that is well-suited for product photography. Delivering excellent image quality from its APS-C sensor, the EOS R50 also has a guided-UI that helps new shooters get their heads around the basics. It’s an ideal stepping stone into EOS R, which is a powerful and capable mirrorless system that’s filling out with some brilliant cameras and lenses.

The light build of the EOS R50 is a boon in some respects, though it does mean it balances a little awkwardly with some lenses. This is less of an issue in the studio shooting products than it would be for street or wildlife photography, but it’s worth mentioning. Otherwise, this is a camera that has hugely impressed us, and for the price it offers great valiue for the product photographer.

Read our Canon EOS R50 review. 

Affordable full-frame

If you want to use a full-frame camera for product photography, the Nikon Z5 is a great option. It’s much more affordable than many of its rivals from the likes of Canon and Sony, and while it lags behind a little in terms of features like autofocus speed (it’s a few years old now), for shooting still products, this doesn’t matter too much. What matters is the image quality and the lens selection, and both are excellent here.

The Nikon Z-mount range of lenses has been expanding nicely, with plenty of great macros and short telephotos that are excellent for product shooting (see our Nikon Z lens guide for some suggestions). The 24-50mm kit lens that is often bundled with this camera is a little lacklustre – we’d say skip it, get the camera body-only and look for a good close-up lens either new or second hand.

Read our full Nikon Z5 review.

Best pro full-frame

If you’re looking for a professional-grade camera for product photography, the Sony A7R IVA is one of the best you can get. Not only does it have a 61MP sensor boasting one of the highest resolutions around, but it also has Pixel Shift Multi Shooting, which can combine multiple images to create images up to 240MP in size. 

And when you’re shooting products, a.k.a. things that don’t move, you’re free to take full advantage of such modes! This also means that the handling niggles of the A7 series – their slightly boxy construction and balancing issues with big lenses – aren’t such an issue, as you likely aren’t trekking outdoors with them when shooting products. 

(Note that the Sony A7R IVA is a refreshed version of the A7R IV, all but identical except for a higher-resolution rear screen).

There is a newer Sony A7R V available – but that costs more without increasing resolution. The A7R IV is one of the best high-resolution cameras you can get for product photography – to get more pixels and image detail than this, you have to venture into the world of medium format. Speaking of which…

See our full Sony A7R IV review

Best medium format

It’s been a few years since Fujifilm turned the world of large-sensor medium format cameras on its head with its mirrorless GFX series. The GFX 100S, while still costing a chunk of change, is the most affordable camera in the series with a massive 100MP sensor, and is the best way to capture products with unprecedented levels of detail. 

A triple-digit megapixel count meets an in-body stabilization system and an easily understandable control layout, making medium format more accessible than ever. It’s a heavy camera (though your wallet will be much lighter once you’ve bought it if that’s any consolation), but it’s one of the best ways to capture professional, high-resolution product images right now. 

See our full Fujifilm GFX 100S review

How to choose a camera for product photography

For product photography, getting the exact right type of camera isn’t as important as it is in other disciplines. As you’re effectively shooting still-life, likely in a fairly well-controlled environment, there are quite a few camera comparison features you don’t really have to worry about – autofocus speed, for instance, isn’t much of a concern when your subjects don’t move. Nor is burst speed, and stabilisation is less essential when you can easily pop up a tripod. 

You need a camera that captures images at a decent resolution – 24MP is fine, though you’ll want more if you’re photographing for print. Ideally, you also want to be able to shoot with a shallow depth of field – this means having the main subject of an image sharply in focus, and the background artfully blurred. This is more to do with the lens than the camera; you want a long-ish lens with a wide maximum aperture. So if you’re choosing a system camera (mirrorless or DSLR), it’s a good idea to have a look at the lens selection before committing.

How we test cameras

When we test cameras – as we have tested every model on this list – we put them through a series of benchmarks in carefully controlled lab conditions. We measure resolution, dynamic range, and signal-to-noise ratio. Resolution is measured using ISO resolution charts, dynamic range is measured using DxO Analyzer test equipment and DxO Analyzer is also used for noise analysis across the camera’s ISO range. 

However, this is only half the story, as we also look at how cameras perform in the real world for tasks like product photography. Our reviewers take cameras out into different shooting situations and put them through their paces with a range of subjects. This helps give us a complete picture of how a camera performs, and how suitable it is for specific applications like product photography. See more about how we test and review at Digital Camera World. 

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