Property listings with professional photography sell up to 3 weeks faster.
These are exactly the kind of stats potential vendors want to hear and the kind of stats that help you win more instructions.
Where possible, it’s always recommended to hire a professional property photographer to ensure that your images are of the highest possible quality. However, where this is not an option and you are going to be taking your own property images, you need to ensure you are using the right kit!
What Is The Basic Estate Agent Photography Kit?
The basic photography kit for estate agents include 5 pieces of equipment:
- A DSLR Camera
- A Wide Angle Lens
- A Tripod
- SD Cards
- A Spare Battery
Compiling this basic kit will require an initial investment of at least £1500 but is an absolute necessity as camera phones and compact cameras simply can’t produce the type of photography that attracts buyers and wins over vendors.
Our Ultimate Property Photography blog gives a complete breakdown of how to get the most out of your photography kit and provides simple tips to help you take the best possible photos.
1. The DSLR Camera
A DSLR is a “Digital Single Lens Reflex” camera – in summary, this is the best type of camera for an estate agent wanting to produce high quality photography.
Nikon & Canon cameras are highly recommended because there are a wide range of lenses that are compatible with them. Both these brands are typically quite user friendly meaning that you’ll be able to navigate the settings and set the camera up easily.
Why Do You Need A DSLR?
A good DSLR can produce good property photos because it has a range of features that allow you to capture great photos with a good resolution in varying settings. In particular, the ability to still take quality photos in less well lit conditions is a particularly important benefit of the DSLR over other options such as a camera phone or a compact camera.
Benefits of a DSLR:
- The professional look. Vendors are impressed by professional looking equipment.
- The size of the sensor. Although the sensor size on DSLRs varies, they tend to be larger and therefore capable of producing a better resolution image.
- The range of ISOs. A good ISO range enables the camera settings to be adjusted to handle different lighting conditions.
- Other important benefits of the DSLR are their superior battery life and flexibility of lens attachments.
What DSLR?
Our recommended DSLR is the Canon EOS 800D. The EOS 800D is a great choice for estate agents because it’s reasonably priced at just over £500, produces high resolution images (24 megapixels), is lightweight and has a battery life of 600 shots.
You can see our list of 4 other great picks for DSLR cameras for estate agent photography here.
2. A Wide Angle Lens
This is possibly the most important part of the estate agent photography kit. The wide angle lens is what enables you to capture more of the room you’re photographing. Without a wide angle lens, it’s easy to end up with cropped images showing small, insufficient portions of a space.
Benefits Of Wide Angle Lens:
- As with a DSLR, adding a lens to your kit leaves a very good impression with vendors
- You can capture a wider “spacious” image even in cramped spaces
What Wide Angle Lens?
Before you buy a wide angle lens, you need to check its compatibility with your DSLR. As we mentioned, Nikon and Canon cameras are preferable because they offer more flexibility where compatibility is concerned.
The other thing to look out for is the focal length of your lens. The focal length you need will differ depending on whether your DSLR camera has a full frame or cropped sensor. If you have a full frame, you should go for a wide angle lens of 16mm and one of 10-18mm if you have a cropped sensor camera.
The Tamron is a good lens for estate agents. This is a great choice because it’s effective for exterior and interior property photography. This lens is also lightweight compared to others so is particularly attractive for estate agents.
You can have a look at our other top picks of the best wide angle lenses for estate agents here.
3. A Tripod
Estate agents who want to create high converting photography should use a tripod as it will enable you to take photos at the most effective height and avoid any distortion caused by a “shaky hand”.
To learn more about the perfect set up for taking great interior and exterior photography, visit our Ultimate Property Photography blog here.
Where tripods are concerned the main considerations stability, durability and extendability. This generally means that an extremely cheap tripod won’t cut it.
Benefits of A Tripod
- As with all of the other pieces, a tripod looks highly professional and leaves a good impression.
- Reduces distortion as it provides a stable, fixed position for the camera that a hand cannot provide.
- Less wonky photos! The tripod allows the camera to be set up in a straight position so your photos have great vertical lines and are better aligned.
- Photos can be more easily taken at the optimal height so that your photos are more appealing and inviting to potential buyers.
What Tripod?
Our recommendation for a great, stable tripod for real estate is the Neewer Tripod. This tripod has great extendability and is reasonably priced at under £130.
Check out our other recommendations for tripods here.
4. SD Cards
It’s vital to have quality SD cards in order for you to safely store your photos so you can use them later. As high quality images can be quite large files, we recommend you have at least two SD cards that are at least 64MB.
The Sandisk Extreme Pro is a great SD card for estate agents and compatible with a DSLR camera.
5. A Spare Battery
A simple #protip to avoid running out of battery mid-way through a shoot. Simply, purchase a spare battery for whichever camera you’re using!!
At Focal Agent, our pro photographers expertly shoot 1000s of properties each month. We’ve condensed all of that expertise and experience into our easy to apply FREE ebook on Property Photography Mastery which you can download here.
