What is a Good Camera for Real Estate Agents?
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Finding a good camera for real estate agents is an easy task once you know what the important features are in order to be able to use the techniques that make for outstanding real estate images.
You might even already have one of the best real estate photography cameras, since many agents I know tend to like some pretty sophisticated electronics.
There’s more involved than having good enough real estate photography gear, you’ll also need to learn a few real estate photography tips that result in the great images you’ve been seeing online.
Essential Features
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What are the features to look for when choosing or adapting a real estate photography camera?
The image quality is the most important thing to look at. You don’t have to have the highest megapixel count, simply a good enough sensor to provide high resolution, good color depth, and low light capability.
So, cameras with larger sensors tend to be better choices as good cameras for real estate agents. A larger sensor size is beneficial for many types of serious photography including real estate photography, but there is a wide range of camera sensor sizes that provide the essentials we want.
RAW image file capability is also a huge plus for serious photography. While a JPEG from our excellent cameras will look great, RAW file formats record more information in our exposures for our post processing programs to adjust and allow us to specify a color balance after shooting, which can become very important for real estate photography.
Manual exposure control is absolutely vital for certain real estate photography techniques such as the bracket and merge method explained here in this YouTube video. Manual exposure control also lets you decide on the optimal lens aperture for good depth of field.
Automatic exposure bracketing (AEB) makes the bracket and merge technique an easier task when shooting, but you can still do the bracketing without it simply by changing the shutter speed setting, but you’ll need to really pay close attention to your changes so as not to lose track.
A wide angle lens or the ability to change to a wide angle lens rounds out what I consider to be essential features of a good camera for real estate agents.
Easy Cameras for Real Estate Agents
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Now let’s look at a few specific examples of easy cameras for real estate agents to highlight the choices available.
Keep in mind that there will be multiple examples of similar cameras in these categories from various brands. Also, buying used cameras is a valid option since we can often find very recent and even current models used which can really lower the cost of these high quality tools.
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Apple iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max
The sensor size for iPhones is among the largest of any smartphone plus the 12 allows RAW image capture, full manual control, and auto exposure bracketing. Since many real estate professionals already use iPhones, this is a wonderful option to use for real estate photography.
You should get yourself a bracket that can be mounted on a tripod or light stand to take advantage of the bracket and merge technique as well as for leveling the camera before taking pictures.
There are also several Android smartphones with similar camera specs, check your instruction manual to determine if your iOS or Android smartphone is a contender for your needs. As far as easy cameras for real estate agents, it’s hard to beat the portability and ‘always with you’ status of a smartphone.
Nikon Z6 ii
Nikon is one of the names you always hear when discussing pro level cameras, the Z6 ii mirrorless camera is one of the best examples of a Full Frame sensor digital camera with professional level quality and features while still maintaining a fairly budget friendly price point.
Since it’s a mirrorless camera, the lens options are plentiful especially if you take advantage of a deal including the FtZ lens mount adapter. Nikon optics are superb and new lenses are coming out for the Z-mount Nikon cameras all the time.
Canon EOS 6D Mark II
At a slightly less steep price point for a Full Frame sensor camera, look into a DSLR such as the excellent Canon EOS 6D Mark II digital camera. It has all the features we want for real estate photography as well as outstanding image resolution and access to the full range of superb Canon EF lenses and 3rd party lenses.
Canon has a long history of making excellent cameras for all types of photography, the EOS 6D mk II is carrying on that legacy wonderfully.
Fujifilm X-S10
Fujifilm is one of the brands that all photographers know as a photographic powerhouse, making everything from medium format cameras to tiny pocket cameras and everything in between.
They also made films that were one of the main options of 35mm photography, so Fuji knows a thing or two about superior photographic equipment. I state all of this up front because the average consumer may not be aware of the status of Fujifilm professional gear.
The Fujifilm X-S10 is an APS-C format camera in a mirrorless configuration, making it one of the smallest and lightest ultra high quality cameras available as an option for a good camera for real estate agents. Fujifilm lenses are also superb and there are multiple lens mount adapters for fitting all sorts of lenses to this mirrorless camera.
Pentax K-3 Mark III
Pentax is the brand your friends or maybe your parents learned on when taking photography classes as an elective in high school. Like Fuji, Pentax may not be a brand the average consumer is aware of, but they have been making amazingly high quality and full featured cameras for pros and serious photographers for decades.
Their K-3 Mark III is one of the latest DSLR cameras in the APS-C format and it has all the quality, features, and lens availability one would expect from a professional photography gear manufacturer.
A huge plus for Pentax is that almost every DSLR they make has some form of weather sealing which is a nice feature for real estate photography, since your listing needs don’t always wait on the best weather.
Many More Cameras
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These are only a small sample of the amazingly high quality and full featured cameras which qualify as good cameras for real estate agents. Read our reviews of some of these and also check out the links in our reviews for other cameras, new and used.
Don't forget to also look at all of our articles about tips and techniques for real estate photography and other ideas for serious photographers.
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