Camera for real estate

It’s hard to find a good camera for taking real estate photos.

The ideal camera for real estate will have:

• The widest angle lens possible so you can see as much of a room as possible in one photo
• The best flash possible so you can minimize the dreaded window burnout where the bright light coming in through the windows makes everything else in the room way too dark
• The smallest and lightest camera possible because you’ll be schlepping it around everywhere
• The lowest price possible

Whoops!

Yesterday, I thought I had lost my crazy-expensive Nikon camera set up ($2,500 and I still need a tripod). To console myself, I spent hours on the internet researching replacement cameras… that is, much less expensive replacement cameras.

I found what I think is an extraordinary camera set up for real estate, a great value.

For only a few hundred more than the cost of the pocket cameras that are popular with Realtors, you can have a camera that will make the photos of your listings jump off the page.

Real Estate Camera

The Nikon D40 is a super camera for Realtors. (You don’t need the more expensive D40x.)

You can get a Nikon D40 kit including an 18mm-55mm lens, an SD card and a bag for $569.95 at Amazon.

Flash

It’s super important that you also buy the Nikon SB-400 flash which is $107.99 at Amazon. You gotta have a good flash to get good interior photos. There’s no way around it. The flash is key. Tilt the flash up at the ceiling to illuminate the room when you shoot.

Lens

That lens is pretty darn wide angle at 18mm. (Be careful, the Nikon D40 can come with other lenses.) Professional photographer quality wide angle lens go down to about 12mm. The “wide angle” pocket cameras popular with Realtors go down to 23mm.

So for wide angle, the 18mm-55mm lens is halfway between the wide angle pocket cameras and the wide angle pro lenses. Keep in mind that a 12mm wide angle pro lens can cost $500 to $1000 for the lens alone - no camera! So to go from an 18mm wide angle lens to a 12mm wide angle lens is very expensive indeed.

This Nikon D40 camera, 18mm-55mm lens and SB-400 flash are not the top of the line, professional photographer Nikon equipment… but they are indeed Nikon equipment.

Cost

For only $677.94 you can have a lightweight camera that isn’t bulky that will create photos that will blow away the pocket cameras. The pocket cameras aren’t that much cheaper anyway, one popular pocket camera is $388.00 on Amazon.com.

To see some other cameras recommended by a Realtor, check out the cameras at the bottom of the right-hand column here.

Sure, this Nikon set up is larger and more expensive than a pocket camera but it is also much smaller, much lighter and much less expensive than a professional quality Nikon camera set up.

Is real estate photography important to you?

If the quality of your real estate photos is important to you, I think you will find this D40 set up well worth your money, .

If you own a Nikon D40, tell me if I’m right.

Happy Ending

By the way, I got a call last night, Thursday, that I had indeed left my camera bag at the lunch house for the Heart of Scottsdale Realtor Tour on Wednesday.

I had called the listing agent about the camera bag twice earlier on Thursday and she said it wasn’t there! I assumed, of course, that the camera bag must have been stolen out of my car after the Realtor tour.

Whew! I’m glad they finally decided to quit blowing me off and look for the camera! Now I have to call the police and cancel the stolen property report.