With the best camera for food photography, you can take your plate-snapping game to the next level. Whether you're just taking pictures for Instagram, or you fancy your chances for the next round of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year, the right camera is essential for making your food look as good as it tastes.
This can be quite challenging. Bad lighting, dodgy angles, and the wrong kind of gear can leave you disappointed with the results when it comes to food photography. So, we’ve selected a wide variety of different cameras to help you get the right shots. We've included options for a range of expertise levels and budgets, so you should almost certainly be able to find something that suits you. All the cameras on this list are ones our team has tested and reviewed, so you can be sure we're not recommending you anything we don't personally rate.
Scroll to the bottom of this page to see more detail on the criteria we used to make our picks, as well as some information on how we test cameras. So, with all that in mind, keep reading to discover our choices for the best camera for food photography – and if you want some good food photography lenses to pair with these cameras, our rundown of the best macro lenses is a good place to start.
Amy Davies
Amy Davies has been writing about photography since 2009, and used to be a colleague on Digital Camera magazine and Techradar.com. She is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, but still finds time to shoot and write freelance.
If you're looking for ultra-high-resolution images, where every pixel counts, the Sony A7R IVa is a superb choice – and isn't quite as costly as the Mark V version.
The full-frame Nikon Z7 II is another resolution monster, and the brilliant selection of Z-mount lenses will let you make the most of it for great food images.
Sure, it ain't cheap. But the sublime user experience, powerful camera and clever computational tricks of the iPhone 15 Pro Max make it sublime for food shots.
For creating professional-quality stills and video, the Panasonic Lumix S5 II is tough to beat. It's a superb camera for those who want to make cinematic food imagery.
A portable, capable camera that exhibits the best strengths of the Micro Four Thirds system, the Lumix G100D gives you access to tons of brilliant lenses.
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Sitting on its own in the resolution stakes for a full-frame camera, with 61 megapixels to play with, your food photographs will sparkle with dazzling detail. It’s also got a great array of AF points right across the frame to help with composition, while there’s a decent selection of macro optics available should you want to invest.
Manual focusing is made easy with both focus peaking and the ability to zoom right into the scene for checking critical focus. The screen is a decent performer, though as it only tilts it’s not quite as handy as those with fully articulating devices.
The biggest drawback here is likely to be the high price the Sony A7R IVA commands. If you’re a dedicated food photographer, you might think it is worthy of the investment, however.
Here’s another full-frame mirrorless camera boasting a very high resolution. At 45.7 megapixels you’ve got lots of scope for capturing fine detail, as well as cropping to enhance your composition.
There’s also a fantastic spread of AF points right across the frame, while manual focusing benefits from focus peaking and a focus magnifier too. Like the Sony, the Z7 II’s screen only tilts, so that’s something to take into consideration.
Nikon has only just launched macro lenses for its Z series, but you also have the option to use DSLR lenses via the F-mount adapter, giving you much more flexibility.
If food photography is just one of the genres that you like to shoot, the Z7 II is a sensible choice since it’s a good all-rounder across a number of subjects.
If it’s not just stills which are your concern when it comes to food photography, then the Sony ZV-1 II is a fantastic option.
This little pocket wizard is mainly designed to appeal to vloggers. Those with a penchant for food could perhaps make use of the product showcase mode which is designed to use the optimal settings for product review-type videos.
The good news is that the ZV1 is also a very capable stills camera too, so you get the best of both worlds. It offers very close focusing, good manual focusing options, an articulating screen, and a good spread of AF points across the frame.
A smaller sensor than most of the cameras in this list is potentially the only major downside to this model, but the trade-off is that it’ll fit neatly into your pocket.
Canon’s latest mirrorless marvels show off a fantastic about of photographic prowess. The Canon EOS R6 Mark II has a lower resolution than its stablemate, the EOS R5, but it’s available at a much more affordable price.
You get a good range of manual focusing options, but it’s the incredible 6072 autofocus points across the entire frame which really help it to stand out. There are some macro lenses available in the RF mount, but you can also use Canon’s DSLR lenses via an adapter which are even more numerous.
Another great benefit of the EOS R6 is its fully-articulating screen, which is extremely helpful for composing from those awkward angles. Like the Nikon Z7 II, the Canon EOS R6 is a good all-rounder, so if you also want to photograph other subjects, you won’t be disappointed.
You can absolutely capture brilliant food photographs on a smartphone – plenty of people do. If you're looking for the right phone for food photography, we'd go with the latest and greatest of Apple's flagship camera phones, the iPhone 15 Pro Max. While there are arguments to be made for the quad-camera arrays of Android rivals (the iPhone still uses a triple camera array), the broad optical range of clever software optimisations of the iPhone make it a tough prospect to argue with.
If you're not a fan of Apple's processing, the iPhone 15 Pro Max also offers the option to shoot in 48MP RAW, giving you much more scope for editing images to taste.
The original Lumix S5 was something of a hit, packing a full-frame sensor into a reasonably affordable body, with an attractive suite of L-mount lenses. However, the Lumix S5 II came along and blew it out of the water by adding something that users had been crying out for – a proper phase-detection autofocus system that's brilliant for locking onto and tracking moving subjects.
Granted, food is not known for moving quickly, but it's still impressive how much more smoothly the Lumix S5 II operates than its predecessor. It's an all-around great camera, and if you're mixing in video with your food photography (as many such specialists are called to do), then you will notice a real, tangible difference.
The image quality from the Lumix S5 II is absolutely brilliant – in our review, we were super-impressed by how easy it was to create filmic, cinematic-looking images. The quality of the full-frame sensor is quite simply a cut above the rest, with excellent colour depth and detail, as well up to 14 stops of dynamic range. For creating professional-looking food images, the Lumix S5 II is a winner.
This is another great option for everyday or travel use. This light and highly portable Micro Four Thirds camera come with the advantage of a flexible range of native lenses, which also includes several Macro options.
The fully articulating screen comes in handy when composing from strange angles, while there’s a good array of manual focusing options here. AF points might not be as numerous as some of the other cameras mentioned here, but they are spread well across the frame to give you a good choice.
Having a smaller (than full frame) sensor may put off some, but with an overall small system, it’s a great option for those who want to travel to find their food photography destinations.
How to choose the best camera for food photography
Choosing the best camera for food photography isn’t necessarily as simple as picking one of the best mirrorless cameras, the best DSLR, or the best compact cameras. Although the cameras in those guides are great, they are often all-rounders that perform well in a number of areas but don’t necessarily excel at food photography.
It’s therefore worth thinking about the following features if food is your preferred genre:
Resolution: To really make your food photography sing, using a camera with a high-resolution sensor will show it off in super-fine detail, perfect for making sure every crumb is shown off to perfection.
AF points: When you’re composing your food images, sometimes the object you want to focus on will be in the far edge of the frame. Therefore, a camera that boasts a good spread of focus points across the frame will make things a lot easier.
Screen: Food photography is often shot while the camera is mounted on a tripod, allowing you to adjust the composition of the food while keeping the camera steady. It also allows you to use lower ISOs for the best-quality imagery. Therefore, a high-resolution screen is a must. It’s also helpful if it can be rotated or tilted to allow for awkward compositions.
Manual focusing: options For a precise focus on often small details, manual focusing is a great option. Look for cameras that help with that. Easy manual adjustments, focus peaking, and being able to zoom into the scene (focus magnifier) are all extremely beneficial.
Macro lens / close-focusing: For finely detailed shots, nothing beats a dedicated macro lens. Look for cameras that support that type of lens. If you’re using a fixed lens camera, look for those which offer close focusing.
Food modes: Many modern cameras and smartphones have dedicated food modes. This isn’t essential by any means, but if you’re going to spend a good amount of time photographing food, a mode like this can come in handy.
Remote control possibilities: As already mentioned, you’ll often find you’ll be shooting food photography while the camera is mounted on a tripod. Having the ability to remotely trigger the shutter is therefore very helpful. Most modern cameras have compatibility with a smartphone app which can be used for just that purpose.
How we test cameras
We test cameras both in real-world shooting scenarios and in carefully controlled lab conditions. Our lab tests 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. We use both real-world testing and lab results to inform our comments in buying guides.
Amy Davies has been writing about photography since 2009, and used to be a colleague on Digital Camera magazine and Techradar.com. She now works as a freelance journalist writing for nclude Amateur Photographer, Stuff, Wired, T3, Digital Photographer, Digital Camera World, TechRadar, Trusted Reviews, ePhotozine and Photography Blog. She has an undergraduate degree in journalism and a postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism, both from Cardiff Journalism School.
