Which camera would be good for taking photos of properties (houses, etc), both internal and external shots?

Question

I need a camera that will be good to take photos of houses, both external and internal. What features should I be looking for? Will 6x optical zoom be enough? It will really only be used for this purpose so i'm not looking for something that has too many features, as they won't be used and will only confuse the salespeople. I just need a simple camera, that is easy to use and takes high quality photos.

Answer 1

For the interior of a room, what you don't want is a 6x optical zoom but a camera that has a WIDE lens. The "6x" "3x" or "whateverx" zoom does not tell you how wide the camera lens goes.

In photography, a lens's angle of view is represented by a millimeter number (technically the focal length of the lens). The lower the number, the wider the lens goes. With digital cameras, you can often find an "equivalency" number. You want a camera that goes as wide as 20 to 24 millimeters "equivalency" to photograph the interior of a room. Otherwise, the view will be too narrow, and the room will look too small.

Kodak makes several cameras that have two "switchable" lenses--one that is a regular zoom lens, and one that is a superwide lens. These cameras are simple and easy to use. They're worth looking at for your application.

If these are expensive houses and you are a real-estate agent, it may be worth it to find a professional photographer to do the photography. There are many that have "tilt-shift" lenses that reduce distortion when photographing an edifice, and the results they will get from their equipment and technique will be much better than what you could ever dream of doing by yourself.

Here are some cameras to look at:


Kodak EasyShare V570 $250 at B&H Photo.

Kodak EasyShare V705 $290 at B&H Photo.

Answer 2

6x optical zoom should be more than plenty for large-scale photography like you'd be doing. The things that you should be looking for include image stabilization, media format, size, and battery type. Panasonic has the best image stabilization in the industry right now, but you can offset that by using a tripod. You should try to make sure that you can dump your photos to a laptop on-site instead of waiting until you've driven home to find out that you'll need to reshoot some of them. For size, you probably won't want a fullsize camera for what you're doing. A regular compact should be sufficient, while still being very portable, but a sub-compact will trade off a lot of functionality just to reduce the size more than you should really need. Stick with AA batteries because there's nothing worse than finding that you've driven half an hour to take pictures with a camera that has no power (and you can always find a quick replacement set of AA batteries, even if they are expensive). You could probably get away with as little as 3x optical zoom and 3 Megapixels, but 6x/6 should give you some room to be flexible without breaking the bank. Price range I'd say would probably run from $200-400 for a camera that'll do what you need it to do, and that will also be a nice size to take with you on vacations.

Answer 3

I agree with the tip to at least get something that will take an attachment wide-angle converter. Point & shoots cameras generally start at 35mm at the wide end of the zoom, or sometimes at 28mm, but that doesn't cut it.
When realtors send a pro to photograph a house, the photographer usually shows up with a digital SLR camera - either Canon or Nikon - and (s)he invariably uses a super wide-angle lens for all of the interior shots. Something like a 12-24mm zoom. This enables pictures of an entire room. Without such a lens, you can't even capture small rooms - you'll only get pictures of the back wall.
Pros also use an external flash for indoor shots. That's in addition to turning on all the lights in the room. A tiny built-in flash dosen't have enough power to illuminate large areas.
A dSLR setup needn't cost more than $1400 and it can be set to automatic for idiot-proof snapshooting.
An inexpensive setup would be something like a Canon Rebel XT or a Nikon D50 - either one with the 18-55mm kit lens, plus a Tokina 12-24mm zoom, a Canon 420EX or Nikon SB600 flash (don't mess with 3rd party alternatives - they don't work as well in automatic mode), and a 1GB memory card. This gives you all the power and flexibility of professional gear at just 20% of the cost. True, this is a lot more expensive than a point & shoot, but a point & shoot isn't the right tool for the job.

Answer 4

Most of the time, when you take picture of houses, you won't be zooming in at a lot anyways... e.g. taking a picture of the whole exterior of the house, you would be in the sidewalk or curb so it will have to fill in the entire shot anyways... so 6x optical would be more than enough. Aside from megapixels, around 4 would be fine if you are not blowing up the pictures to more than 8 by 10. For web postings and email, it would be more than enough.

What you should conside getting would be an attachment for your camera, a wide angle lens. What is does (especially for interior shots) allows the feeling of a big space. Don't use the zoom while using wide angle lens though, it becomes obvious. Big space (even in picutures) could mean more clients.

Answer 5

A 6x optical zoom is an excellent choice. Don't go for any camera that has doesn't have an optical zoom. A digital zoom use software interpolation to increase the resolution. You should get a digital camera that has at least a 5 Megapixels and optical zoom.

Answer 6

One thing to remember is that you are viewing the billboard from a large distance- if you got right up close, you'd see the image break down a bit. Resolution isn't as vital as you might think at the distance billboards are viewed at- your brain interprets the entire impression; your eyes can't discern the fine details at a distance of 200 feet or whatever.

Answer 7

Get a professional to give your sales people a quick workshop on photography. Having the camera doesn't mean they will know how to use it! He might as well instruct you on which model would best serve you.
Good luck!

Answer 8

canoan

Answer 9

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