For this kind of shoot, I usually use a 24-70 lens on one of my cameras, but lately it's my Canon 90D. Why the 90D? It's my newest camera, but I used my 77D and 6D for many years with a similar lens. For objects that are angled that you want to keep fully in focus, and a high F-Stop setting doesn't work to solve the problem, a shift - tilt lens helps, but they are quite expensive. The 24 mm that I have is selling new now for about $1,300 US, and it's a DSLR lens. It lets you angle the lens so as to keep more of the important parts of the shot in focus. You won't need this for 95% or more of what you do, so only buy one, preferably a used one in good condition, when doing this kind of shoot justifies having one.
For lighting on a 34" square table, you can get by for starters with just a few speedlites at first, but adding soft boxes, snoots, gels, etc becomes difficult when working with speedlites, because things don't attach easily to them and you need cold shoe adapters for most to attach them to the tops of light stands. So, after first starting with speedlites, I now use some 300 or 400 watt / second studio strobes for most of my table shoots, because what I have uses the Bowens type mount, and soft boxes and other lighting support accessories attach easily to them. It's becoming the industry standard way of attachment to the lights and most any soft box or other light modifier either comes with Bowens, or there is an adapter for Bowens mount. You won't need anything of higher power than this, as most of my light settings tend to be at the low and very low power settings and even the speedlite power of 72 Watt/seconds or so can handle most needs.
I recently bought 3 of the Godox AD200 Pro II lights that are intended to be used more for field portrait shoots, but I might use these for the table shoots too, since they have the capability of a very low 1/512 power setting and a few times I have wanted this capability. Increased distance between the light source and subject works too. Speedlites also get used occasionally now, but mostly behind a jar or vase, to put light through the colored glass or it's contents. I use the Godox SK300 or SK400 lights now for most of my product or still life table shoots. They don't have batteries, so they run from mains power, and you will need to buy the more expensive versions that have battery power if you want to avoid the power cords. I added electric power strips to my studio ceiling, so the power cords get plugged in above to minimize power cords on the floor. There is an electric outlet every 6" along each of these, giving me power within 5' of anywhere in the 10 X 16' studio shooting area.
Godox makes small soft boxes with Bowens mounts. I use the 12 X 12" square, and the 10 X 36" rectangular sizes most of the time for these shoots, but also have and use 38" square occasionally when I want to back light around a black background card to light the back while still providing a black background. They also offer 7" reflectors for the Bowens mount, and barn door assemblies that hold grids and colored filters well and these attach to the 7" reflectors. For the 7" grids, there are several sets of grids available through Amazon, and likely many other sources. I have a 10, 30, and 50 degree set, and found another 20, 40, and 60 degree set, so with two of each size of these combined I have two full sets of 10 - 60 degree grid capability to choose from. I haven't needed two grids of the same degree very often, so just one of each size grid will likely do all you need. I would start with the 10, 30, 50 degree set and add later if you find the need.
A good place to watch and learn this type of photography is on Youtube. The channel is called "Camera Club Live" and he is one of your fellow countrymen. Every Wednesday he has a new video that he posts at about 3 PM US East Coast Time. His teaching methods are the best. He begins by showing the finished shot, then takes you step by step through the entire setup for the shot to the final image. Don't think that you need any of his expensive top of the line gear for this. Any camera with a 24-70 lens, or close, that has manual adjustments, can be used for most of what he does. My gear is mostly Godox or similar quality, and Canon DSLR cameras, but I have used a 10 year old 16 megapixel Fuji with a fixed lens for this kind of work too. I do many DIY things when I can, and the shows of his that i have been interested in trying, I have been able to duplicate or nearly so, the results that he gets with just what I have. If you have questions as you get into this, don't hesitate to ask here, or by a personal message. I do my best to help you get started with a minimum of capability. There are many alternatives, but almost always a low budget solution.
Charley
I'm definitely thinking manual focus to keep cost down. I can look at an auto focus lens for other situations later down the line.
