The best Canon lenses for food photography

Food photography is a rewarding way to experiment with your Canon camera – and not just because you can eat the subject at the end of a session. Take the time to style your ingredients, control the lighting and fine-tune your settings and you'll find that you can produce food photos worth savouring.

There are, however, some items and equipment that can help you to get the best quality from your camera. A tripod can be useful when you're photographing food from above in a flat lay format, in low light or when you're shooting extreme close-ups, although Canon's range of lenses with image stabilisation (IS) will also really help in these situations. Adding a Canon Speedlite flash or other form of artificial lighting to your kitbag can offer more creative options when you want to give your food photography a professional feel.

Upgrading your lens can have the biggest impact on your food photography. Many lenses have a focusing distance short enough to capture small details, but only a true macro lens gives you a magnification of at least 1x. This means that the subject is recorded on the sensor at 1:1 or life size when the lens is set to its minimum focus.

A macro lens is ideal for revealing the hidden textures, intricate patterns and subtle structures of food that might otherwise go unnoticed, but that's not all that food photography is about. Here we'll look at the best lens options for Canon EOS cameras.

Works with: EOS R System cameras

With a field of view neither overly wide, nor narrow, the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM is suited to a range of shooting angles. With its fast maximum aperture of f/1.8, the lens gives you plenty of control over depth of field, allowing you to isolate individual elements of mouthwatering dishes and create blurred, artistic backgrounds when shooting from frontal, diagonal or side-on positions. The wide aperture also lets in plenty of light, for shooting in poorer lighting conditions, such as dimly lit restaurants.

An affordable entry to Canon's full-frame EOS R System, the RF 50mm F1.8 STM features an aspherical lens coating for sharpness to the edge of the frame – especially useful when shooting frame-filling overhead flat lay shots. Compact and light, it's a seamless yet powerful addition to any food photographer's kitbag.

Canon's first EF-S macro lens capable of producing life-size images makes a great first choice for food photographers. It's small, light and very sharp, and features a large maximum aperture which helps to position the subject between a beautifully blurred background and foreground.

With an angle of view equivalent to a 96mm f/2.8 lens on a full-frame camera, you effectively get more 'reach' with the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens, so you can take frame-filling shots from further away. Not only does this mean you're less likely to cast a shadow across the subject, it also makes it easier to isolate the tastiest-looking morsels on a plate.

A versatile macro lens designed for the full-frame mirrorless Canon EOS R System, the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM is capable of capturing both a wide-angle shot of a table arrangement and a half life-size close-up – as well as everything in between.

It's small and light enough to use without a tripod, where the 5-stop Dual Sensing IS technology helps you to make the most of the lens's impressive resolving power.

Like other lenses in Canon's RF range, the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM features a customisable control ring at the front of the barrel, to which you can assign an important camera control such as aperture, ISO or exposure compensation. This enables you to easily and precisely adjust the setting with a quick turn of the ring. This feature is also available when using EF lenses with EOS R System cameras, via the Canon Control Ring Mount Adapter EF-EOS R.

Try using this lens with the Canon EOS RP, where you can take advantage of the camera's Focus Bracketing feature to bring a new level of sharpness to your food photography.

Offering 1.4x magnification, the RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM will accentuate even the finest detail of an elaborate meal, while its L-series optical build quality delivers superb image clarity. With up to 8-stops of compensation when paired with a camera with in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) such as the Canon EOS R6, the lens delivers razor-sharp handheld shots, even in low light. What's more, the relatively long focal length of 100mm means that you don't have to get as close as you do with a shorter lens. This can make it easier to position lights, reflectors and other accessories, and ensures your lens won't become steamed up when shooting piping hot plates.

The Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM boasts super-fast autofocusing thanks to the high speed RF mount, and a silent Dual Nano USM drive, which makes it ideal for hybrid food photographers shooting video. It also features a Spherical Aberration Control ring, which enables you to adjust bokeh and soft focus effects for creative food shots.

Less expensive than its 100mm counterpart, the Canon RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM is a fantastic choice for food photographers seeking a short telephoto lens with macro capability.

Slightly wider than the 100mm, this lens will provide a little more flexibility in framing when space is at a premium. With its telephoto 'reach', 0.5x magnification and a 35cm minimum focusing distance, it has no trouble getting up close. The lens features a generous f/2 maximum aperture and offers 5-stops of Hybrid IS, leading to clean, sharp results in all lighting conditions. Additionally, it features a Super Spectra optical coating to reduce flare and ghosting – useful when lighting is difficult to control, such as at outdoor food events.

At the low end of the focal spectrum, every millimetre makes a noticeable difference. If you need extra space and movement is limited – while filming in a tiny restaurant, for example, or when shooting a large flat lay – the enormous width of the Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM can save an entire shoot. Worried about ultra-wide barrel distortion? Don't be: all Canon EOS R System cameras, including the Canon EOS R, EOS RP and EOS R6, feature lens distortion correction built in, so your shots will always look natural.

This super compact lens, which weighs only 165g, has a minimum focusing distance of just 13cm, even shorter than some macro-capable lenses, so you can get super close and maximise the details. Like the other prime lenses on this list, the RF 16mm F2.8 STM also features a bright maximum aperture for flexibility with depth of field and lighting.

With a zoom range from 24mm all the way to 105mm, the ultra-versatile Canon RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM is perfect for whatever position you're shooting from. With a minimum focusing distance of just 13cm and 0.5x magnification when manual focusing at 24mm, it's also a more than capable performer for food photographers who demand delicious close-ups.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM is that its incredibly wide zoom range and 5-stops of IS fit into a body that measures less than 9cm in length and weighs just 395g. Thanks to this diminutive form factor, the lens fits effortlessly into compact kitbags and makes handheld shooting light work, with reliably sharp results.



Written by Marcus Hawkins