What camera to shoot a property with?

Are you an owner or an agent? Maybe a friend of them? You will surely want to know a bit more about the cameras to get into the field if you wanna have better quality images.

This post is made to guide you a bit when choosing your camera for interior and architecture photography.

Not about the camera

I have been shooting real estates for a while. Architecture photography is a bit a life for me. Wherever you are now in RE shooting there is a fact: RE shooting is about the post-processing of photos. I spend about 10 minutes on each interior photos on-location. But the post production can be up to 30 minutes or even an hour for a normal house.

Shooting a hotel will make me work on each photo for more than 2 hours. Why? Because your eyes see differently and to achieve the same look you need a lot of post process to manipulate the photos to have the same feeling as your eyes would see it.

So choosing your camera will not affect the outcome of the final image as much as you would think now but I am glad to give you a piece of advice.

Crop sensor vs. Full frame

Camera bodies are suited with sensors which can sense the touch of light. The size of them is a mayor thing when we talk about the quality of the final image. Do not misunderstand me, the sensor size does not mean a final judge over the quality. But there are real advantages on the behalf of the full frame sensors.

Why are they full frame? Well, they got this name after an older system, where the camera film had 35mm diameter normally so this diameter is told to be the Full Frame these day in the digital world.

Body is not the mayor point

Many people who are not working on this field think that the body itself carries the quality but it is not true. The sensors are inherited between bodies, even if they are cheaper so the image quality can be quite similar in many cases you would never imagine.

But what makes a photo to be outstanding then? Well, not the camera body. In terms of quality the lens is a more important point. Of course I don’t mean like you can have any camera body with a good lens and you will get your goal.

Full Frame Lenses

There are some really obvious reasons to choose a full frame camera body when you buy a camera. One of them if you really want to achieve the best results is that the best quality lenses are made for Full Frame bodies. Why? Because a real Pro camera user will not buy a crop sensor camera. (it is not because they are rubbish, just because a car racer will not buy a Fiat for example but a Ferrari) So the real high quality lenses are developed for Full Frame bodies. This means whatever your goal is the quality lenses are for FF bodies.

Life without FF bodies

But it doesn’t mean you cannot achieve good results without a FF body. Just you have to know your target. If you are a non-professional then a crop sensor camera can also be in your pocket. The most important is the auto bracketing mode. This will make your camera shoot in different brightness results within a second without any further touch on the camera itself.

Why is it important? Because the dynamic range you wanna catch with your camera is way over the limits of the human eye as well, not to mention the cameras. You will need to shoot more shots at different brightness levels to capture the whole dynamic range.

Where to go if you like Nikon?

I am sorry for everyone who is having a non-Nikon gear. Nikon is not “better” than Canon. But anyway. I started my photographer carrier with a Nikon and with every step I took I got closer to be Nikon’er. So this is the brand I know well. If you are a non-Nikon’er you can have a look on the cameras your favourite brand offers.

Nikon DX (crop sensor cameras) these days in 2020 are the D3xxx, D5xxx, D7xxx cameras. The 7xxx is a really semi-professional line so you will have everything with you to achieve good results in case you choose the right lens.

Nikon FX (Full Frame) cameras are not all good for RE shooting. The most important ones you should consider (not to mention the ones which are not fabricated anymore nowadays) are the D750, D780, D810 (no articulating screen), D810E (no articulating screen), D850.

In RE shooting we usually deliver photos at around 4000×3000 which is 12 Megapixels. So high resolution should not be a must in most of the cases but the cameras with higher resolution come with further options and possibilities which you just cannot forget when choosing a camera. Think about it just like when you choose a more expensive car. Not just the top speed is different. There are so many extras which will make your life easier, you couldn’t even count them.

Final thoughts

So what shall you do?

Do you have a property to shoot quickly to somebody? Do you want to buy a camera quickly? Consider your needs. You are buying a TOOL, not a camera. I would never underestimate my needs because you might find yourself in buying the next camera in 2 weeks.

Know everything about the technique you are going to shoot with and plan for that.

OR if you have any concerns or you need help, just ask me. I am more than glad to help you.