I work for a small company that sells handcrafted luxury wooden jigsaw puzzles and we are currently doing our product photography in house using a Nikon d3500 with a AF-P Nikkor 18-55mm lens. The problem that I am looking to fix... our puzzles are flat and can be as big as 23" x 23" or as small as 4" x 4", we typically like to do a full product shot and some closeups of the crafting. I am trying to decide on what lens would help us get sharp, HD-like shots of the cutting lines AND edges of the entire puzzle on the wide shots and less blur on the edges for close up. Our team is no where near the calibar of photographers that are in this group but have beginner - intermediate knowledge. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
No expert here but I've done some copying and macros in an informal way. Because you're using a DX format camera, some of the best possible suggestions for a copying lens with flat field are out because of the distance required to get the larger puzzles in.
About the closest thing I can think of in my own experience would be the manual focus 24/2.8 AI lens. That's reasonably free of distortion and reasonably sharp out to the edges when stopped down a bit. You'd have to use it entirely manually, metering either by experimentation or histogram or both, and probably focus with live view, but it would get the coverage from close enough to use a copy stand or a tripod with independently splayed feet shooting from above.
You might be able to get there with 35 mm. but that's pushing it. I'd first experiment with your current lens, running in the middle range, stopped down a bit, and play with the lighting to get an even glare-free surface combined with a bit of edge definition - perhaps a big diffuse light from above and a spot from low to the side. I suspect that if you experiment enough with lighting, you might find it solves many of the problems. The 18-55, especially in its later versions, is better than one might expect. You can solve some of the issue of soft edges by shooting a bit wider than need be and cropping.
For sharp, detailed shots of your puzzles, consider a Nikon 40mm f/2.8 Macro lens for close-ups of crafting details and edges. For full product shots, a Nikon 35mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.8 will provide sharp, distortion-free images. Use a tripod to eliminate blur and ensure consistent framing. Shoot at f/8–f/11 for maximum sharpness and depth of field. These lenses are affordable, user-friendly, and perfect for beginner-to-intermediate photographers.