Real estate photographers looking for the best photo gear know they need their equipment to be three things: portable, adaptable, and affordable. The reason why is shooting real estate photos can present unique challenges for you as a photographer and for your gear, including cramped locations, bad lighting, and meager client budgets.
You need to be able to get in, get out, and get paid so you can move on to the next real estate photography assignment. So, what’s the best gear for real estate photography? That, of course, depends on a lot of factors. But to help you make informed buying decisions for your real estate photography equipment, we’ve chosen five of our favorite pieces of gear for capturing houses, apartments, and buildings in their best light.
If you’re looking for the ideal camera, lens, tripod, lighting gear or drone for real estate photography, chances are you’ll find something you need on our list. If you’re looking for more photo gear recommendations, check out our story on the best equipment for event photography here.
Camera: Sony Alpha a7 III
The Sony a7 III has been available for a few years and its successor was recently announced but all that means is you can get this high-quality camera for a great price right now. Indeed, this 24-megapixel, mirrorless model is currently selling for around $1800 at both B&H and Amazon, which is a bit of a steal. For real estate photography, we like how compact and portable the a7 III is while still providing crisp photos even in low light. And since it’s a full-frame camera, you’ll be able to enjoy the true, wide focal range of your zoom lenses to capture rooms and exteriors in their full glory. Sony’s tried-and-true five-axis image stabilization is also available on the a7 III for when you want to keep things steady and might not have a tripod handy. If you need to shoot some video for a real estate client, the A7 III can capture 4K at 30p, which is more than enough for a web listing. Other real estate-friendly features we like include the a7 III’s 3-inch folding rear screen, which will help you capture low or high angles, and the camera’s dual SD cards slots for backing up your real estate photos instantly, or for shooting images to one card and videos to another.
Check the price on the Sony Alpha a7 III at B&H and at Amazon.
Also Good: Two other cameras we recommend for real estate photography are the 20MP Canon EOS R6 ($2499) and the 24.5MP Nikon Z6 II ($1996), two relatively lightweight full frame models that perform well in challenging lighting.
