Buying Camera For E-commerce

Welcome to the forums Obelisk, glad to have you here!!!

So some thoughts, the brand and model of camera really are not the determining factor in getting the great shots you want. You will find Canon and Nikon are very popular by a large sector of the IRL photographers, due to a number of factors but we don't need to have a huge history lesson. You may want to think about camera format of sensor technology, the DSLRs are great and I for one am deeply invested, but they are slowly getting phased out by all manufacturers as they are going all in on mirrorless.

Right now the best mirrorless are spendy and seem to be out of your range, and maybe that's ok because the EF mount has lots and lots of options, and they will have a strong second hand market for the next decade or two as mirrorless becomes standard for working photographers as they upgrade their gear. You also have full frame vs crop sensor with DSLR but I think as long as your buying a mid tier and above body you'll get something with the customization you'll need and ruggedness to be a go to daily camera.

Lets talk lenses, you say big but I'm not sure where the word came from, pro lenses do tend to be larger as they have wider apertures are built with metal over plastic and are weather sealed. So IDK if the photographers you mention said that, for that reason, I doubt they meant long lens as big because you haven't described the need for any really long telephoto.

• For portraits - you will find 35mm and 50mm for full body works well and 85mm to 120mm work well for 1/2 and 1/4 headshots. I am using full frame numbers, but keep in mind with apsc cameras your 50mm will be cropped in due to smaller sensor and you'd have more of a 75mm angle of view. So if you plan to do full body you want to have some wide lens options at some point its just a question of how wide based on camera.
• For Products - here you probably want to have a macro lens so you can get close and show detail. I recommend a 100mm macro as you can double this for head shots as well but you may find it tad sharp for portraits.

SO I went to wex, a uk used retailer, found a 100 2.8 macro condition is 9, not to shabby. £345
Its not an L but that is a good non L lens, they also have a EF 24-105L £376 which may be a good starter for you as its wide and medium length in zoom for your portraits and your products, and has a decent close focus distance for a non macros at about .5 meters.
You can start with that zoom but will prob end up getting some primes at the lengths you like and a macro for your products.

That leaves ya about £400 so lets see.... 289 for a well used 5mk2, 376 for amk3 ( which i know some people had focus issues withh them, and 419 for an 80d with little signs of use.... I think if you can get a good deal on a m2 5d, a m2 7d a mk2 6d all would be good cameras. The 70/80/90d line are al good as well.... Gives you some options to shop other places used. the 5 and 6 d line are full frame, others are crop sensors and you'll want to adjust lens purchases accordingly.

I did not suggest mirrorless due to your budget, the RF line is new and bodies are costly. Personally I would not bother with an entry camera either especially for product photos, because you will want to invest in some lighting, be it a macro ring light, or some strobes, but a lighting setup will give you product shots but can also eat up 800 quid pretty quick.