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I have to buy a camera to shoot high quality photos of furniture. The furniture will be both indoors and outdoors. What kind of lenses do I need? I was considering a Nikon D3200 or a D5200 for the job. I would also use the camera to learn more about photography besides the furniture.
Any other recommendations about cameras are welcomed. Thank you.
What is your budget for the Camera?
The camera models which you have stated - Nikon D3200 and Nikon D5200 are entry-level-to-mid-level consumer cameras mostly recommended for beginners.
Both these cameras have a sensor of 24M-pix resolution so the image-size/resolution-quality of the pictures taken from both of these should be pretty much the same. Yes-the photographs will definitely be high quality on both these models.
Depending on the coverage area of the furniture you are trying to photograph, the kit lenses with both these cameras - 18-55mm lens are pretty good quality when aperture is stepped down to f/8. The zoom will also be convenient for shooting indoors.
For beginners, the kit lens is a good lens for learning photography and is a bargain at the price along with the camera.
If you want to add a bit of creativity to your pictures, consider the 35mm 1.8 DX lens along with the kit lens - this lens can go up-to f/1.8 aperture and will give excellent results on both these cameras. This f/1.8 lens on the 24mp sensors produce really high quality photographs.
Also consider following if you are taking the furniture photographs for commercial work:
Tripod - this will help in shooting static subjects and reduce motion blur in pictures producing sharp photographs
Lights/flash - if you have good lights then shooting indoors will produce less noise and you can get good pictures at ISO-100 or ISO-200
Reflectors/fill-in-flash - for outdoor photographs (depending on the angle of sunlight)
A wider-angle lens than 18mm - probably not required initially unless you need to fit in more furniture in the frame
The Nikon D5200 can have an added advantage of the flip-out LCD monitor to change the angle of view while the camera is on tripod and using live-view for taking pictures (specially when you need to adjust the tripod height frequently)
Other recommendations of higher model cameras would increase your budget - or you can go for similar range budget cameras in other brands like Canon, Sony, etc..
