Photography For Real Estate

9 Responses to “Cameras”

• Ron Gregor September 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm #

  Beyond the cameras listed here, how does one know if what they have already will be adequate? My particular camera is a 20D – I would hate to start over but would rather do that than build this one up and fall short of where I should be. Thx.

• larry July 21st, 2009 at 4:30 pm #

  Ron- You raise an important question. How do you choose a camera for real estate work?

  Here is my formula:
  1- DSLRs a the best because you can find a Ultra-wide angle lens for most DSLRs.
  2- They need a hot shoe or jack to fire an external flashes although external flashes can be triggered optically from a built-in flash.
  3- The need at lease 3 meg pixels.

  That’s it. The wide-angle lens you use it more important than the body. If you have limited funds spend your money on good glass and then buy the minimum body necessary.

• Shelby Hull August 17th, 2009 at 5:21 am #

  I use a Nion Coolpix 8400 which is not longer made but you can sometimes buy them on ebay. It has 24-85 mm lens and a hot shoe. I find it to be a good real estate camera. I am an agent and I take my own pictures as I sometimes work the lower end of the market pricewise and it is prohibitive to hire a professional when you do not make a lot of money on a sale. We all do not work in markets that pay a lot of money per house like they do in the city and our volume is also not as large. This camera takes better than average pictures because of the wider angle lens. I need to work on lighting now and would appreciate some tips on lighting that won’t break the bank. Even lower end housing market buyers appreciate good pictures

• Michael August 21st, 2009 at 6:39 am #

  Do any of those compacts have provisions for an external shutter release? I’m thinking PAP or aerial photography.

  http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/naturalight

• Cathy January 22nd, 2010 at 8:19 am #

  I am trying to decide on a camera for real estate. Can you please give me the best suggestion a point and shoot and for a DLSR CAMERA or ? I would like to stay under $600.00 or so. Thank you for any help that you can give me..

• larry January 22nd, 2010 at 9:47 am #

  @Cathy, If your $600 budget is firm, you have no choice but to use a point and shoot.

  Here is a recent post that goes into detail about why I currently recommend the Panasonic LX3 as a real estate camera.

  http://photographyforrealestate.net/2009/08/16/compact-cameras-for-real-estate-photography/

  If you are planning to be a real estate photographer I would seriously recommend that you save up another $600 and wait until you can afford a low-end DSLR and Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens. Here is a post on that combination:

  http://photographyforrealestate.net/2008/07/16/the-best-entry-level-real-estate-photography-combo/

  The DSLR (Canon Rebel T1i) + Sigma 10-20mm combination costs about $1200

• Lee Jinks February 11th, 2010 at 3:27 pm #

  There have been a bunch of 24mm P&S come on the market lately. With all the possible choices, you might consider raising the bar a bit for those P&S cameras on your list. I would suggest that in addition to 24mm add external flash ( hotshoe ). Then you could remove the Samsung NV24HD and add the new Fujifilm FiinePix HS10 which, by the way, claims some incredible features. Oh and the Ricoh GXR.

• Dallas March 5th, 2010 at 7:27 am #

  You mention the D5000 Nikon but not the D3000. Is there a reason for not discussing the D3000? I recently bought my wife a D3000 packaged kit and have been very happy with it to this point. We have several Real Estate firms in our area and I have always been intrested in the Real Estate market. We were thinking of offering our services of photographing their properties for marketing purposes and even re-touch capabilities. I work in the computer industry as a Systems Administrator and have some experience with Photoshop. I guess my real question is have we made a mistake in the model of camera we purchased to try and enter the market of photographing Real Estate for Agents in our area.

  Thanks in advance for your assistance!
  Dallas

• Janie March 9th, 2010 at 9:35 am #

  I need to take a lot of indoor real estate type photos for my new website and have a limited budget. My sister is going to loan me her old camera body (Nikon D40X) for 5 months so and I can need to buy a wide angle zoom lens.
  Eventually, I would have to return the body and get my own so the lens would need to be compatible with new cameras too. Can you recommend a lens that can take good picutres in both small powder rooms or spanning 2 story great rooms and in all type of light? (keep in mind that these photos will be resized for the web to xsmall so MP is not that important) I was going to buy a $100. lens and save my money for the Nikon body. Any suggestions? And do I need to buy an external flash as well? and if so please recommend that too.
  Do any point and shoot (with wide angle lens) work well indoors and in low light for real estate or is that just a waste of money?