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The Sony A7III has pro-level features and excellent quality. However, when shooting property photos, you must pair the camera with the right lens to avoid distortion or vignetting. For this reason, we're listing options for the best lenses for the Sony A7III., along with their pros and cons.
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Considering a versatile focal length, constant maximum aperture, and fast autofocus, I find the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 as the best lens for real estate
Whether you are looking for a budget wide-angle or a fast zoom lens, several lenses are available for the Sony A7III. I'm going to walk you through the top picks and see which ones can help level up your real estate
Comparing the features of the lenses can help you better see which one would suit your real estate
Lens | Type | Image Stabilization? | Weight |
---|---|---|---|
Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 | Ultra wide-angle zoom | No | 1.5 pounds |
Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G | Ultra wide-angle zoom | No | 1.5 pounds |
Sony FE 28mm f/2 | Wide-angle prime | No | 0.37 pounds |
Sony Zeiss Vario-Tessar FE 16-35mm | Ultra wide-angle zoom | Yes | 1.14 pounds |
Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 | Standard wide-angle | No | 0.98 pounds |
Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm | Prime | No | 1.39 pounds |
Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 DG II | Wide-angle | No | 1.48 pounds |
Zeiss Batis 18mm | Kit | Yes | 0.73 pounds |
Tamron 17-28mm | Ultra wide-angle zoom | No | 0.37 pounds |
Combining wide-angle perspective and zooming capacities, the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM is the best wide-angle lens for Sony A7III. It offers excellent exposure settings for expansive subjects, perfect if you specialize in interiors and exteriors with landscapes.
Being a G-Master lens, this wide-angle lens optical engineering captures powerful resolution. Meanwhile, the faster maximum aperture enables you to achieve a gorgeous bokeh quality. This lets you highlight elements in a frame.
In effect, you can use a fast shutter speed and get enough light, especially when using a full-frame camera. Even when you shoot outdoors, the weather sealing makes the lens well-built and protected against moisture and dust.
Aside from that, this wide-angle lens allows the use of filters to minimize glare and enhance colors. You can shoot even if the room has several reflective surfaces, like mirrors and metal countertops.
Being the widest lens currently available for the A7III, the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G is perfect for real estate photographers who need a wider starting focal length. The broad perspective is ideal if your style adds drama to the scene.
Even if the slow maximum aperture of f/4 would make it difficult to separate the foreground from the background, your shots remain sharp when you use f/5.6 onward. Despite the lack of image stabilization, this lens doesn't create much blur when paired with the A7III.
The Sony 12-24mm f/4 is less expensive than the 16-35mm f/2.8 GM. Thus, when shooting at the widest aperture, expect a bit of vignetting and softness in the frame's corner.
Finally, it features a Nano AR coating that reduces flare, ghosting, and surface reflections. As a result, you achieve increased contrast and better color rendering.
Are you looking for a wide-angle prime lens for interior photos? The Sony FE 28mm f/2 is the best wide-angle lens for Sony A7III when you want to get more of the scene in focus. You can also pack light when you pair this small and affordable lens.
With a fast maximum aperture and broad depth of field, this lens is great for interior photographers who also like taking close-up shots. Although this wide-angle lens has an outstanding center sharpness at the f/2, you might lose clarity at the corners.
Moreover, the wide aperture also supports fast shutter speeds, perfect for interior and outdoor lighting. This wide-angle lens also does an excellent job of creating a shallow depth of field.
Similar to the FE 12-24mm, this one lacks stabilization. As a result, it tends to rely heavily on the A7III for corrections. While this may result in loss of sharpness, you can use smooth autofocus and manual focusing to improve clarity.
The Sony-Tessar 16-35mm ZA OSS is a versatile lens that allows you to capture a wide range of real estate
When paired with the A7III, shooting at f/4 achieves sharpness from corner to corner. The biggest drawback of this lens is the distortion when shooting at 16mm, making the lines curve inward a bit.
You may add a reversible lens hood to counter lens flare. In this way, you can shoot exteriors quickly, even if the sun shows up toward the frame's edge.
Lastly, this Vario-Tessar lens has a dust and moisture-resistant construction like the FE 28mm, making this suitable for unexpected exterior shoots. This wide-angle lens remains light and compact despite the maximum aperture and angle of view.
The Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 is one of the best lenses for real estate photographers who prefer to shoot wide open. It also compliments the high-megapixel sensor of the Sony A7III. This exhibits excellent picture quality from the center to the edges.
Although this lens for Sony A7III has a fixed focal length, it's the best wide-angle prime lens thanks to a maximum aperture of f/1.4. This produces images that maintain their clarity and quality across the frame.
More than that, its precise and consistent autofocus works well in low-light situations. Since it uses a new type of AF motor, the focus is snappy, high-torque, yet silent.
Although it lacks optical stabilization, the A7III built-in stabilization can resolve this. Unlike other wide-angle lenses faster than f/2.8, the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 doesn't suffer chromatic aberrations.
Do you struggle with compositions or cartoon-like exaggerations? The focal view of this lens greatly helps frame subjects according to the rule of thirds. The Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm lens is one of the best lenses for real estate photographers who need to pull many background elements into the frame.
However, it would be best to use this ultra wide-angle lens for Sony with a tripod since it doesn't have optical stabilization. Similar to the Vario-Tessar 16-35mm lens, this one incorporates Zeiss quality optics to provide superior color contrast and resolution throughout the photo.
More than that, the 35mm f/1.4 is among the first Sony E-mount lenses to include a physical aperture ring, making it more convenient to control light. The responsiveness results in smoother, more natural defocusing, although it's slower than other wide-angle lenses.
This ultra-wide-angle lens looks heavy and bulky. Despite that, the aspherical lens design significantly minimizes spherical aberration.
The Sigma 12-24mm DG II HSM is the best third-party ultra-wide-angle lens for Sony compatible with the A7III. Even with an extreme field of view, you can achieve high-quality images throughout the zoom range without exaggerated perspectives.
This lens features four low dispersion and one special dispersion glass element to prevent aberrations. In addition, a multi-layer coating reduces flare and ghosting, which is common when extraneous light hits the glass.
Although slightly softer at 24mm, this lens provides sharpness in the center, even with a wide-open aperture. However, stopping down gradually improves the corners at 12mm.
The unchanging barrel length in this lens also enhances balance and stability in the overall camera and lens setup. Since the front doesn't rotate, you can conveniently use polarising filters.
The Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 is another powerful lens for real estate
The sweet spot is around f/4 to f/11, yet there's sharpness across the whole frame, even at the maximum aperture. However, setting beyond f/16 results in little distortion and vignetting, especially at the extreme corners.
Image stabilization isn't its most vital asset. Although connecting it to the A7III saves you from unwanted motion shakes, mainly when shooting handheld.
Aside from fast and accurate autofocus, an infinite scroll focus ring makes it easy to control the focus. You can also set the aperture down for an on-the-spot focus, even in high-contrast situations.
If you want a budget wide-angle lens, the Tamron 17-28mm DI III is a great option for Sony users. With a competitive price and optical performance, this is the best wide-angle lens for real estate photographers who want superior quality without overspending.
Moreover, there are no other external features on this wide-angle lens barrel other than the zoom and focus rings. This gives it a minimalist design like the Zeiss Batis.
The biggest drawback is that the focusing ring is much narrower than the zoom ring. In effect, the focusing ring can sometimes be difficult to locate when moving too fast.
The Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 isn't exactly small and lightweight. However, the weight is somewhere between the Sony 16-35mm and the Zeiss Batis, despite having the same fast maximum aperture of f/2.8.
The right wide-angle lens for your Sony A7III largely depends on your photographic needs. However, whatever your requirements, any lens from this list can serve as your camera's partner for several shoots and help grow your real estate photography career.
Steven, re: I’m checking Amazon every day..........
GREAT care is needed with Amazon or for that matter any online shop offering anything including the kitchen sink. One doesn't always receive a NEW product but a return which has been in someone else's hands. I myself have received such a product which I sent straight back. A colleague of mine ordered a LEE filter set. He had to spend a very long time cleaning these before he could use them. I use LEE myself and no way would they send products out in such a condition. As for buying a camera or lens on Amazon - NO WAY!! You are better off going to a reputable camera dealer. OK, it may cost you a dollar more but the extra price is well with it thus ensuring you get NEW UNUSED equipment. In addition you don't have the hassle sending it back.
If a reputable camera dealer does get a return then they will offer this complete with a guarantee as used equipment.
One final point, our equipment is tax deductible so why risk getting secondhand goods?
When the new Nikon APC 10-20 came out I pre-ordered from Amazon and was pleased with the service. My serial # on the lens is very low but I will heed your warning and inspect it carefully. How reputable is a NY based company who doesn't even have the ability to answer phones in the U.S anymore?
Steven...Don't limit yourself to Amazon, and I say that as a Prime customer. I buy a lot of things there, but given a choice, not camera or lens. Remember, prices are controlled by the manufacturer so "factory authorized" will be the same everywhere. If lower, probably gray market. Sometimes dealers will give special deals to get around it, like B&H and Adorama will have 4% rebates for future purchases, but they still have to charge the manufacturer's price. Best Buy even gets into it with their free "My Best Buy" as all purchases qualify for the the basic rebate, and $1500 bumps it into the mid-range, where the top level and 6% back hits at $3500. Just don't go too far over $3500 as the excess doesn't carry over Jan 1 for a head start repeating the next year. On the A7III, it is too early for B&H or Adorama to offer the rebate like they do on the A7RIII and A9. I personally use the FE 16-35 f4 for real estate, as well as a walk around. It is a great little lens. While Best Buy can pick up or ship to store. Amazon always goes to my home. B&H have no problem re-directing to UPS Store a mile from home with "My UPS" where ALL packages have to be signed for - even if not otherwise required. Adorama's shipping policy prohibits re-direcing and either sits at my front door, or I have to make special re-delivery request if signature required. Guess who my preference is!
Steven, I am currently using the Sony Zeiss FE 16-35mm Vario-Tessar and the Sony FE 16-35 f/2.8 GM. Both are great lenses, but the GM lens is overkill for real estate because it really shines at larger apertures. For real estate, I'm going for higher depth of field and sharpness (almost always shoot at F8), so I don't recommend springing for the GM over the Zeiss. However, I don't know anything about the Sigma lens. I generally avoid using non-native lenses because I've had mixed success in the past with autofocus capabilities and it introduces another possible point of failure in my system. When I started out, I used a less expensive, non-native lens, and I was disappointed with the lens quality. If it were me, I'd spend the extra $ on the Zeiss FE 16-35 Vario-Tessar.
While I agree with the sentiments above about buying a camera in store, it's not out of fear for receiving a faulty product. Amazon is solid and if something is off, they almost always make it right. When you spend a lot of money on an important item, it's nice to have a professional there to walk you through the options, answer questions on the spot, and provide the opportunity to actually see and handle the item. Do this with your camera equipment, it's worth the time. Also, when buying a wide angle lens for RE photography, you can skip the extra cost associated with a f/2.8 aperture, f/4 is totally fine, you're typically shooting somewhere between f/8 - f/16. If you decide to grab a more diverse focal length (24-70 or some variation) it's valuable to pay up for the f/2.8 as you'll likely use that same lens for other areas of photography that can benefit from the shallow depth of field obtained with the wide aperture.
I have both the 16-35 4, and the 12-24 4, they are both excellent lenses. The 16-35 4 is my staple, pretty much perfect for most homes. The 12-24 4 works great too, but it naturally vignettes, so it requires more steps in LR, and you just about have to apply lens correction before you do anything else in LR, because the vignette correction radically changes how you set the exposure level overall. It's not the order I usually work in, but if you do the vignette last, you have to redo the exposure slider on every frame.
The 12-24 is my goto video lens though, since switching to video gives you a different usable focal length then stills, perhaps a 5-10% crop.
@Larry Gray, if you have or get a PO Box, you can sign up (free) with them to receive packages from other services so you don't have stuff sitting on your door step. The post office puts a card in your box to notify you they are holding a package or the keys to a parcel locker if they have one. You use the post offices physical address along with your box number, ie: 123 main st. #1234, which is also useful when companies won't ship to a PO Box or can't (UPS, FedEx). I don't have anything delivered to the house and haven't for years.
Don't overlook the ZEISS Batis 18mm f/2.8 Lens for Sony E Mount. It's my go-to for video hands down.
"Another reason for getting a native Sony lens is, the A7III has software in it to do all the lens corrections in camera." If you use a lens mount adapter with electronic couplings and a modern Canon-mount electronic lens, the lens information will be relayed to the image file and and any processing software will be able to use this info to apply the necessary lens profile corrections. I believe that it works the same with other modern lenses by other manufacturers. I use a variety of Canon lenses on Sony A7 series cameras via an adapter. This is a major advantage of using a mirrorless camera. Regarding lens profile corrections, I believe the only strong reason to have this done in the camera is when shooting jpegs. When shooting RAW, I believe it does not matter, except for lenses that are recently released and for which the various RAW processors do not yet have a lens profile.
I see B & H has a few in stock so I wanted to share this with my fellow NJ Photographers and I'm sure a few other states have this. No sales tax is required on cameras in NJ if you are using them professionally to manufacture something else.
Business Purchases
The purchase, lease, or rental of cameras, lenses, filters, tripods, processing equipment, and lighting
equipment used by a professional photographer is exempt from New Jersey Sales Tax as equipment
used directly and primarily in the production of tangible personal property. Under the manufacturing
exemption, replacement parts with a useful life greater than one year are also entitled to an exemption.
In addition, chemicals for processing film are exempt from Sales Tax under the catalyst exemption.
Purchases of qualified equipment and processing chemicals may be made with a completed Exempt
Use Certificate (Form ST-4) or Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement Certificate of Exemption
(Form ST-SST). The purchaser must complete all fields on the exemption certificate in order to claim
the exemption. Purchases of replacement parts with a useful life of one year or less and supplies,
however, are taxable. See N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.13(a) and N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.20.
Film that, after processing, becomes positive photographs (such as slides, transparencies, and “instant”
contact prints) that are transferred to the customer and become the property of the customer may be
purchased without paying Sales Tax. In this case, the film is being purchased for resale and the
photographer gives the supplier a completed New Jersey Resale Certificate (Form ST-3) or
Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement Certificate of Exemption (Form ST-SST). Purchases of
flash bulbs, camera batteries, and like supplies are subject to Sales Tax, including film that produces a
negative image that must then be developed into a photograph.
Sales
Retail Sales
Sales of portraits, photographs, motion pictures, slides, frames, photograph albums, picture postcards,
and brochures are subject to Sales Tax as sales of tangible personal property.
Newspapers and Periodicals
Sales of photographs in newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and other publications are taxable.
However, sales or licenses to use photos as advertising in newspapers or periodicals are specifically
exempt from Sales Tax. The photographer must get a completed Exempt Use Certificate (Form ST-4)
or Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement Certificate of Exemption (Form ST-SST) from the
customer when photos are sold for use in newspaper or magazine advertising.
Sales for Resale
When services and photographs are purchased by a customer who intends to resell the photos, the
photographer is not required to collect Sales Tax as long as the purchaser provides a completed resale
certificate.
Publication ANJ–2 About New Jersey Taxes: Professional Photographers
Rev. 5/17
When purchasing supplies and equipment specifically as inventory for resale, the photographer may
give a completed New Jersey Resale Certificate (Form ST-3) or Streamlined Sales and Use Tax
Agreement Certificate of Exemption (Form ST-SST) to the supplier and not pay Sales Tax. Supplies
removed from inventory for the photographer’s personal use are subject to Use Tax. Use Tax is
remitted to the State on the monthly Sales Tax remittance (Form ST-51) or quarterly Sales Tax return
(Form ST-50). For more information on Use Tax, see publication ANJ-7, Use Tax in New Jersey.
Electronic Transmission
If a photograph is either scanned, taken with a digital camera, or computer-generated and then
transmitted solely by email or other form of electronic transmission, the transaction is treated as the
sale of intangible property, which is not subject to tax.
SONY FE 12-24MM F2.8 GM - I am considering picking this up - I know the price is high but wondering why it wasn't mentioned in this article?
Jason: The FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM is a great lens, especially if you shoot in lower light conditions where the wider aperture really comes into play! We included the FE 12-24mm F4 G which is the slightly more affordable option (though you do lose out on the F2.8 aperture).
Having the ability to go to 2.8 is a nice feature and capability to have, though often times, real estate photos are taken in the f/5.6-f/16 range, as well as being taken on a tripod. Because of this, we chose to highlight the FE 12-24mm F4 G instead. 🙂
We also included the FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM which does have the F2.8 aperture, (though is not quite as wide-angle as the 12-24mm), for photographers interested in having a lens with a wider aperture. All this to say, the FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM is still an excellent lens, and if you also plan to use it for other types of shoots here and there, it can be a great investment!
I am surprised there is no mention of the Sigma 14-24 F2.8 Art Lens... or any Fish Eye options for those shooting 360 panos.
There is something to be said for photographers starting in the business and if they don't have the budget for full frame lenses they could easily shoot in crop mode. Crop lenses would deliver roughly 3500 pixel images that are fine for some print scenarios and more than enough for online. When using the A7R3 or R4 crop lenses are a great choice, processing time is reduced you have more depth of field and quality is more than enough for Real Estate work.