theofanis wrote:
I have a Sony A7ii camera,and I am getting conflicting information regarding the type of lens I need. Most of the items are jewelry, women's handbags and toys. Is a macro lens the best option,and if so,what are the options?
Thank you!
I mostly use tilt-shift lenses for product photography. Not sure what's available for Sony full frame (I use Canon). But I use either a 45mm or 90mm, depending upon the size of the item (and the camera sensor format). The Canon TS-E lenses are pretty close focusing, but if even closer (higher magnification) is needed with smaller items, I use macro extension tubes behind the lens.
The advantage of a tilt-shift is that you can to some extent control the plane of focus and depth of field with the tilt movement. The shift movement can be used to "dodge" reflections (i.e. unwanted "self portraits") and correct perspective distortions.
For really small pieces of jewelry, a macro lens might be needed. But for larger pieces I'd use a 45mm or 90mm tilt-shift.
Depending upon camera sensor format, I look for a focal length that positions me far enough from the item to not be in the way of lighting, but close enough that I can reach out and adjust the item positioning while keeping my eye to the camera's viewfinder. That's a huge time saver when you have 200 small items to shoot in an afternoon!
Canon offers four different TS-E lenses: 17, 24, 45 and 90mm. Nikon has their similar PC lenses: 85, 45, 24 and a recently announced 19mm. Schneider makes two PC-TS: 28 and 50mm (also a 120mm but it's designed for medium format cameras). Rokinon makes a fairly affordable 24m Tilt-Shift, and there's a relatively new Laowa Venus 17mm with some limited movements, but both these are wider focal lengths than I'd normally use for tabletop studio shots (24, 19 and 17mm are more useful as landscape/architecture lenses, IMO).
There may be some others out there and there are tilt-shift adapters available for some lens mounts, to add movements to a standard lens. There are also vintage tilt-shift and PC that might be usable or adaptable (Nikon made one of the first lens of this type for 35mm SLRs back in the 1970s... a 35mm PC). Some vintage tilt-shift lenses were designed for medium format, but even those might be adaptable.
Most tilt-shift and perspective control lenses are manual focus only. Some of the vintage ones and the Rokinon are both manual focus and manual aperture only.
Incidentally, the longer focal length TS and PC lenses also make for interesting portrait lenses.