Photo and Video Equipment We Use

One of the most common things we get asked about is our equipment. What camera do we use? What lens do we use the most? and so on.

We love getting questions like this, so please keep them coming!

In this post I will cover what Photo and Video equipment that we use to create the eye-catching food photos and videos that keep people coming to our blog. We’ve built this lot up over more than 3 years (one camera with a remote and a tripod was pretty much all we had for the first 2 years).

If you wanted to check out any of our work head over to KitchenSanctuary.

Canon 5D mk IV

I absolutely LOVE this camera. It’s full frame so really good in all conditions (including low light). The auto focus system on recent Canons is AMAZING! It’s great for HD video – up to 60 frames a second, which is pretty decent for smooth slow mo. Did I mention that i love this camera?  If I was to have only one camera in my arsenal it would be this one…
Nik uses this one more nearly 100% of the time for food photos.

Link: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Panasonic GH5

This is our newest camera. First impressions are AWESOME but cant really give a full review yet. We bought this because it goes all the way up to 180fps (great for slow mo shots) at 1080p (full HD) and also shoots 4k footage. We want to start shooting more slow mo and 4k in the future.

Link: Panasonic LUMIX GH5 4K Camera

Canon 7D mk II

For a while this has been our second camera. We both like using it, it’s especially good for sports/high speed photography because of its high frame rate. Also, because it’s an APS-C sensor (which is smaller than the sensor on a full-frame camera) we get a bit more range out of our lenses (i.e the 35mm lens is actually 56mm when using this camera) which is always useful.

Link: Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Sigma 35mm

This little prime lens gets used sooo much that we have been thinking of buying a second one.  Its super sharp and creates a lovely background blur (bokeh). A lot of our food photos are taken with this or the 105 macro below.

Link: Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART DG HSM Lens for Canon

Sigma 105mm Macro

Just like the 35mm above, this lens is super sharp.   And a cheap macro lens will really help you to get beautiful close up, detailed shots, if you shoot food photography. This one and the 35mm get the MOST use for our photo shoots.

Link: Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro Lens for Canon

Canon 50mm Lens (the nifty 50)

Bang for buck you can not beat this lens.  Its sooo cheap for the quality you get.  Everyone should have this in their kit bag.  True its not as good as the other lenses I have, but its still a nice lens and pretty good for things like portrait shots. I have the old version that has been discontinued by Canon so the link is to the new version of the same lens.

Link: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

Manfrotto 475 Tripod

We have this tripod, boom arm and head combo.  It’s a bit of an expensive tripod but its REALLY sturdy and gets a load of use in the kitchen. We use the boom arm when creating overhead photo and videos.

Sirui 240S MonoPod

Ok having used this on 3 shoots (both video and Photo) I don’t know how we lived without it. It makes moving around the kitchen so much easier with way more stability than handheld.  We have done some full shoots both video and photo with this thing.  Its fantastic!
Nik really likes this one for photography too, as it gives the camera better stability than handheld, whilst being able to move around the food quickly and easily.

Manfrotto 535 Carbon Tripod

We have this tripod primarily for video purposes.  With the fluid pan head it makes for some really nice panning shots that are near impossible without a nice video head.

Joby GorillaPod SLR-Zoom

This is a great little tripod for getting into those tight little spaces or taking on a shoot with you.  With the arms folded together you can use this as a sort of selfie stick too.  I would say when the 5D mk4 with a heavier lens is on it, it does struggle to stay stable, but for the lighter cameras like the Panasonic it works great!

Aputure AL-528W

We have 2 of these Aputure Amaran Lights with the Soft Box attachments.  They create a lovely soft light and have a high CRI rating so you know the colours you are getting are good.  They are also flicker free (Important when shooting videos).

Link: Aputure Amaran AL-528W LED Light

Reflector

If I had limited budget but wanted to improve the lighting of my shots, the first thing I would do is invest in a decent reflector.  We have various methods we use to bounce light to get the perfect lighting but the main thing we use most often is this reflector.

Link: Neewer 43-inch / 110cm 5-in-1 Collapsible Reflector

Aputure AL-198

Not used too often in the studio but it’s a great little light that can be used for loads of occasions and its small enough to travel with if you are out and about.

Link: Aputure H198 Light

Other Items

Here are some of the other items we use during our Photography and Video Production processes:

Memory Cards

We use Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards.  If you are planning to shoot video you need to get a high speed card and some cameras will have a minimum specification too, there are sooo many out there but SanDisk are an industry leader and there cards are great.

Dell XPS 13 Laptops

We both are Windows users and love the compact yet powerful nature of the Dell XPS 13

External HDD

If you are going to take lots of photos and video then the chances are that you are going to run our of space on your laptop.  This is what we use for local storage.

Remote Shutter

We use this Hahnel Combi TF as a remote shutter for the Canon Cameras.  This enables us to have the camera completely still when taking shots from the tripod.  Still camera = crisp photo (no camera shake).

For those lovely smooth slider and dolly video shots.  I have not put this to enough use yet!

If you liked this post then why not check out our other posts on the equipment and resources that we use to create photos, videos and manage our blogs.

Also, please sign up to our mailing list so you don’t miss a post from us.  Its completely free and we will send you updates and posts on how we do what we do.

Some of the links in the text above are affiliate links.  This means that if you decide to purchase any of these items from Amazon we get a small commission at no extra cost to yourself.  This helps us continue to run the site and is really appreciated.