The Most Important Gear Consideration For Toy Photographers
Photographers love to talk gear. Most of us have Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) meaning we simply buy lots of gear (most of it we don’t need) in the hope that the new gear will solve all our problems.
Fortunately, when it comes to photographing action figures/toys, the gear isn’t all that important. You don’t need the best camera or most expensive lens. Your smartphone is really the only thing you absolutely need. But there are some nice to haves.
There is one aspect to the gear that you should pay strict attention to if you want to photograph toys. And it’s probably not what you think.
It’s not focal length, or brand, or aperture or even the ability to deliver a creamy bokeh. It’s not even related to the camera at all (much.) It is related to lens choice and the thing you need to think about is close focusing distance.
In order to make your small toys BIG in the frame, you need to be able to get in close. Of course you can just use a macro lens. Then you’re sure to be able to get close enough to fill the frame. But if you want to use a non-macro lens, check with the manufacturer to see what its close focus distance is.
If you’re using a newish iPhone as your camera, you have this covered. Apple’s macro mode, while not optimal because you have very little control over how it works (It relies on AI and computational photography) it will allow you to get very close to your subjects.
If you’re using an interchangeable lens camera (mirrorless or DSLR) you do need to either get a macro lens or you need to get lenses that have relatively short minimum focusing distance.
I use an iPhone 13 Pro or my Sony A7c. My lenses are:
Tamron 17–28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD Lens —
Tamron 28–75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 Lens —
Tamron 70–180mm F/2.8 Di III VXD —
Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS Lens —
The Sony 90mm lens is a macro lens so I can always rely on it to help me fill the frame. The other lenses are Tamron lenses which offer amazing performance for about half the money of the Sony gear and all of these have good to great minimum close focusing distance. I should note that the mirrorless cameras will usually offer a lens selection that allows for closer focusing than DSLR cameras due to the difference in flange distance. Mirrorless has the advantage for toy photography.
CONCLUSION
Don’t spend a ton of money on camera gear and lenses — unless you just have money to burn. You’re gonna need that money for props and action figures. Whatever you have already is almost certainly good enough to get you going. If you run into trouble with close focusing distance, then consider a macro lens or just use your iPhone if you have one.
