Best Photo Booth Lens

There are dozens of lens options available to a Nikon or Canon photographer, so it helps to narrow down the options to find the best photo booth lens in your price range.

The general guidelines are:

  • Primes are preferred to zooms. Primes generally give better image quality at a given price, and the flexibility of a zoom isn’t required as you are in control of camera and subject placement.
  • Focal length should be on the wide side (18-35mm on a crop sensor, 28 – 50mm on a full frame camera)
  • IS and fast apertures aren’t required, as you’ll typically be shooting between at middle apertures (between f/5.6 and f/11) and using a tripod.
  • Lower price is better, as parties and events can be a harsh environment for expensive gear.

With that in mind, here are a few suggested options

Canon Lenses:

Crop sensor bodies (ie, Rebels, 70D/60D/50D, 7D):

24stm EF-S 24mm 2.8 STM pancake lens. At $149 us it is one of the least expensive canon lenses available, has impressive image quality at middle apertures, and hits the sweet spot for focal length.
18-55 18-55 3.5-5.6 kit lens (IS / IS II / STM). Generally included with a camera body, these lenses aren’t the most impressive optically, but give decent results at middle apertures, so long as your subjects avoid the corners at the wider focal lengths. Can be helped quite a bit by lens correction in post production.

Full frame bodies (ie, 6D, 5D, 1D series):

40stm EF 40mm 2.8 STM pancake lens. Similar to the 24mm crop version, it isn’t overly expensive at about $199 us, gives great image quality at middle apertures, has a good focal length for this application.
50 EF 50mm 1.8. The “nifty fifty” or “plastic fantastic” is literally the cheapest lens you can buy from Canon, but is just as sharp at f/8 as the 20x as expensive F/1.2 version. A little bit on the long side in terms of focal length.

Mounting Options

Before you begin using SLR Booth, you’ll need to setup your equipment. One of the first challenges you’ll face is getting your mobile device and camera physically mounted together. Fortunately, a number of products exist to solve exactly this problem.

Phone:

As phones are small and light, the easiest solution is to mount your phone directly on your camera using a hot shoe adapter. Once your phone is mounted to your camera, you can then put your camera on a tripod, or any other convenient location such as a shelf or table.

mountphone

http://www.amazon.ca/ChargerCity-Adjustable-Smartphone-Motorola-simultaneously/dp/B00C3QF4GY

The downside to this mounting option is that it prevents you from using an on-camera flash

Tablet

Tablets are a bit bigger than phones, but are still light enough to be mounted on a standard tripod. Using a Mic stand tripod mount, you can clamp a tablet mount directly to your tripod, and position it so the lens is close to the screen.

tabletmount

http://www.amazon.ca/Universal-Microphone-Concerts-Wedding-Meetings/dp/B00JFLAVFY/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1417559081&sr=1-3&keywords=mic+stand+tablet

Large screen / All-in-one

Large monitors are excellent from a user’s perspective, but much more difficult to mount. A standard photo tripod isn’t sturdy enough to hold up a large LCD monitor, so something a bit beefier is required.

PA speaker stands are designed to support 100+ lbs of gear, and are sturdy enough to hold a monitor, but unfortunately aren’t designed for that job. However, they can be drilled to accept a standard VESA LCD wall mount, which can then be bolted on and secured with nuts. An articulating mount designed for mounting on a single stud is perfect for this use.

allinonemount

http://www.amazon.ca/Mount-It-Panel-Monitor-Articulating-inches/dp/B001DKMO0A/ref=pd_cp_ce_3

pastand

http://www.amazon.ca/PYLE-PRO-PSTND2-Tripod-Speaker-Stand/dp/B000E0PPG0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1417559125&sr=1-1&keywords=pa+speaker+stand

SLR Booth Supported Cameras

SLR Booth for iOS is designed to work with Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras which support wifi connections. Cameras which support wifi include:

Canon:

  • Rebel T6s, T6i
  • 80D, 70D
  • 6D
  • Models which support the W-E1 wifi adapter

Nikon:

  • D750
  • D7200
  • D5500, D5300
  • Models which support the WU-1a wifi adapter

SLR Booth for Android is designed to work with just about any modern Canon or Nikon DSLR which supports tethered Live-View.

Canon:

  • Sl1
  • T6, T5, T3
  • T6s, T6i, T5i, T4i, T3i, T2i, T1i
  • XSi, XS
  • 80D, 70D, 60D, 50D, 40D
  • 7D Mark II, 7D
  • 6D
  • 5D Mark III, 5D Mark II
  • 1DX,
  • 1Ds Mark III, 1Ds Mark II
  • 1D Mark IV, 1D Mark III, 1D Mark II

Nikon:

  • D4S D4 D3X D3S
  • Df
  • D810 D800/D800E
  • D750 D700
  • D610 D600
  • D300S, D300
  • D7200 D7100 D7000
  • D90 D80
  • D5500 D5300 D5200 D5100 D5000
  • D3500 D3300 D3200

It has been directly tested with the following Cameras:

  • Canon 60D
  • Canon 80D
  • Canon Rebel XSi
  • Canon Rebel XS
  • Canon 6D
  • Canon Rebel T6s
  • Nikon D5000
  • Nikon D3200

The following cameras do not support tethered Live-View, and thus do not work with SLR Booth:

  • Early Nikon D3000 series (D3000, D3100)