What About Using Compact Cameras For Real Estate Photography
July 18th, 2008
Sabrina Huang, a San Jose, CA Realtor that I met at the PFRE Seattle Workshop last April pointed out that I shouldn’t excluding point-and-shoot from my review of real estate cameras. She’s right, today’s point-and-shoot cameras are pretty amazing. I haven’t mentioned them because the majority of readers of this blog are professional photographers and DSLRs are more appropriate.
The primary selection criteria for point-and-shoot cameras to use for real estate has to be the ability to shoot wide-angle. Sabrina teaches photography classes for other Realtors in the San Jose area and has put together a list of point-and-shoot cameras that will work well for real estate photography.
I have the first camera on Sabrina’s list, the Canon G9, although I don’t have the wide-angle converter for it. The G9 is the most amazing camera I’ve ever owned! It never leaves my side. This is the camera I use on my PAP pole. What blew me a way when I first started using the G9 is that it’s RAW files were slightly larger than RAW files from my 1Ds. There is certainly no quality problem with the images from these pocket sized cameras. The only real downside with using them for real estate is that you have to live with a fixed focal length in the area just above or below 24mm (35mm effective focal length). This is in now way a show stopper, it just reduces flexibility.
Update 7/27: A reader pointed out that Sabrina’s post indicates that the a wide-angle converter will get the Canon G9 to 24mm. To do that you need to use the Raynox HD-6600PRO58 58mm wide-angle adapter. The Canon WCDC58N does not go that wide, it only has a focal length multiplier of .75 where as the Raynox has a multiplier of .66 which makes the G9’s 35mm lens get to 23.1mm.
8 Responses to “What About Using Compact Cameras For Real Estate Photography”
Anonymouse July 18th, 2008 at 6:26 pm #
“you have to live with a fixed focal length”
When you need a shot wider than 24mm, just shoot 2 pics vertically side by side and stitch them together with Hugin or photomerge in PS.
Mike Martin July 18th, 2008 at 9:46 pm #
I looked at the Canon G9 and thought it was great (RAW, etc.). However, it misses one requirement on my list for all around use: AEB (auto exposure bracketing). I use a Canon PowerShot SD430 for my PAP shots. The quality is amazing. It doesn’t do AEB either. But it goes with me everywhere in my shirt pocket.
larry July 19th, 2008 at 7:59 am #
@Mike- The G9 does AEB just like most Canon DSLR bodies. In fact it works almost identically to my AEB on my 1Ds. It will even cook coffee and scrabbled eggs:)
Andy Anderson July 19th, 2008 at 8:36 am #
Take a look at the Lumix dmc-fx35. Has a 25mm wide angle, will auto bracket and is 10mg (only need 3mg) It is a super point and shoot. At one time I thought it was apoint a shoot, but you can tweek the thing for almost any shot”
Jim July 21st, 2008 at 12:38 pm #
Check out the Canon A650. Probably the best point and shooter around. Not quite the pocket camera, but not quite the DSLR,
Mike Cole July 23rd, 2008 at 8:21 am #
What about the new Lumix DMC-LX3? Any input of those yet?
Dylan Darling July 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am #
I haven’t used a point and shoot in a while, but I’ve heard great things about the G9. A lot of people use it for PAP.
Mike Martin July 25th, 2008 at 2:43 pm #
@Larry- I’ve read you can get a wide angle converter for the G9 but only down to 28 - not quite wide enough. Is that true?