Need advice on lens for product photography

[dpinion]

It looks like my company is about ready to splurge on equipment to make our product photography better. You can see the shots I have taken by looking at our products (we do not sell to the public):

Trenton Technology

Anyway, our products are mostly computer oriented: Rackmount computers, motherboards and other internal computer boards. It looks like we are leaning toward the Nikon D300 for a camera, but I need to know about lenses.

Current Lenses: Nikkor 18-55mm "kit", 50mm 1.8, 55-200mm

Current Camera: Nikon D40

Our room is fairly small-ish (14x14 I think, although it could very well be larger), so something in the 18-35mm range would be good for getting everything in the shot easily. My main concern is trying to avoid any warping of the objects along with clarity and sharpness. I have taken shots with other lenses were a straight line on a chassis suddenly became a slight arc. I can correct these sorts of things in photoshop, but the less time I spend doing it the better.

Not concerned too much with shallow DOF as mostly we want the whole product to be in focus. Of course I can adjust the aperture on the camera, but I am thinking out loud here.

Thanks for your suggestions. Please let me know if there are any questions about what I am trying to accomplish.

[inkista]

I'd actually say consider getting a 60mm macro lens. Macro lenses tend to be the sharpest ones around, and they'll let you get in and do those close-ups. As long as you're not doing actual macro shots where you're within inches of your subject, you can probably control the DoF with aperture, and as long as you're using a tripod and good lighting, you'll be fine.

The difficulty will come when you're doing close-up work. The subject distance there will probably still give you a shallow depth of field, even with a smaller aperture. There are two ways to get more DoF, neither of which is particularly easy.

The cheapest way is a software post-processing method called focus stacking, where you take a series of images focused at different points, and then combine them with software that can recognize which bits are sharpest/in focus.

The expensive in-camera way, is to use a tilt lens. That's what those four-figure PC lenses are for. This won't give you an infinite amount of DoF, but it does reshape how the DoF lies, and you can eke out a bit more than with a regular lens.

[sk66]

I would suggest a Macro (I prefer longer....150mm) or a PC lens.

[inkista]

The reason I suggested the 60mm is because the objects the OP is taking pics of are larger: computer racks, computer towers and boards, etc. If we were talking jewelry or the like, then yeah, a 105mm macro. But given that the studio space is 14'x14', and the subject framing was a much wider FoV than typical macro shots, it just seemed as if a 60mm macro would be a better fit.

It's not like the boards are gonna fly away from the photographer getting too close.

[sk66]

I didn't actually look at the example shots..my mind went to macro shots of "chips" etc...

Having looked at the examples, and emphasizing the desire for lack of distortion, I say go with a PC lens....something around 50mm.

The Nikkor Micro PC-E 45mm f/2.8 would be a great (expensive) choice.
You can get the 35mm Shift lens (no tilt capability) in f/2.8 or f/3.5 for much less used.
With any of them you will loose autofocus capability.

I probably wouldn't go wider than 35mm nor longer than 85mm..

[mattdm]

The current images you have could be improved significantly without changing camera equipment. Particularly, they've been downsized for the web page, but no sharpening was applied after rescaling.



vs. attached sharpened version.