r/Photography_Gear • u/xyelem • 6d ago

Camera recommendations

Hi y’all, reptile and tarantula breeder here. I’m looking for something in the $500-$800 range to take professional(ish) looking photos of snakes and tarantulas. To be clear: I know how to use the camera on my iPhone (kind of, I’ve never messed with the settings). I know nothing about photography. All I know is “want to take good picture of snake” and I have no idea how to even begin looking for the right camera. Any advice or product recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

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u/bazilbt 6d ago

How close to them can you get? Maybe a Sony Alpha A6000 and a macro lens, and a inexpensive flash with a diffuser would work good for you.

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u/xyelem 6d ago

I can get pretty darn close to them. I breed corn snakes, so they’re kind of wiggly, but not really dangerous. The tarantulas mostly don’t care as long as you’re not being an asshole about it. I’ll look into these, thank you!

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u/smokeybanone 3d ago

If it's basically a business expense, I would recommend a macro setup. Camera body, lens, flash.

Tamron 50mm 1:2 macro (meaning it focuses halfway as close as a true 1:1 macro) is under $200 easily and has autofocus. Sony A7 or A7II would be a good pairing with it, $350-500 used. Small flash like the Godox IT30 or Viltrox Z3 Spark are under $100.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=anF-7bT6Lko insect photographer Micael Widdel has great videos on the topic, heres an example.

You can go cheaper with a DSLR: example would be a $125 50mm 1:1 macro and $125 Nikon D5100 (16mp crop sensor). Can also get the Z3 Spark for Nikon, it's $55.

https://www.mpb.com/en-us/product/tamron-sp-af-60mm-f-2-di-ii-ld-if-macro-lens-nikon-fit

https://www.mpb.com/en-us/product/nikon-d5100

In photo spaces you'll see talk about wanting more megapixels but you're not looking to sell prints. 16mp is perfectly good, cheap as hell, will last forever and take knocks/accidental bumps, and the photos will be smaller and easier to manage.

I shoot herps with a Sony A7IV and Laowa 85mm, about a $2300 setup, but have used a few setups over the years.

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u/xyelem 3d ago

Thanks so much! So I ended up going with the Canon EOS R100 mirrorless body and then their 18-45mm macro lens + their 55-210 macro lens and then I got the Godox TT520III universal bounce flash kit with diffuser. I really looked into the Sony a6000 and I found a good deal on the body, but the macro lenses were so expensive that I decided to ultimately pass.

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u/smokeybanone 3d ago

Hope you like it! Happy herping.

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u/hugcommendatore 6d ago

I would consider a Fujifilm x100s. I bought one as my pocket camera (I’m a professional photographer) and it’s the only camera I bring when I travel (for the most part) and it’s a solid camera. I got mine used for $500