Most folks that take pictures of their food for Facebook use their phones, but real foodies and artists bring a real camera. It’s a tough gig with low light levels and rapidly cooling morsels, so a dedicated foodtographer has to be quick and the gear has to be up to the taks.
Under these challenging conditions the Pentax K-01 performs admirably, with good low light performance and in-body image stabilization. The K-01’s Auto White Balance performs well also in a variety of lights, and AF is snappy. The shutter is quiet too, so as not to draw attention in the poshest of places. If you get the yellow K-01, however, the quiet shutter isn’t going to counteract the sheer yellowiness of it.
I do with that the DA21mm F3.2 was a stop faster though. This shot is 1/15, F3.2, ISO3200. Previously, I would have brought the Panasonic GF2 with the 14mm F2.5 for this shot. The GF2 tops out at ISO800 before noise floods in, so that’s 2 stops slower. There’s also no image stabilization, so that’s another stop or 2. The 14/2.5 is roughly a stop faster, so that’s 2+2-1 = 3 stops difference. In other words, the GF2 might not be able to get this shot. The GX1 might shoot ISO1600 clean, so that’s one stop back. The 20mm/F1.7 might get another stop back, but we’re still talking about 1/8s. So maybe the Panasonics would struggle more.
The Olympus PENs have IS, so that helps, but their typically a step behind the Panasonics in ISO, so they give it back. See, serious foodtography is not child’s play!
P.S. – I can’t really claim that no animals were harmed in the taking of this photo, can I?