I hear it all the time… “I just bought a brand new camera! It’s a 26.0 MP, mirrorless DSLR with 4k/60p 6K Oversampled 4:2:2 10-Bit Recording With Long GOP Or All Intra Formats..” and they go on and on. (Confused? Don’t worry, most of the real estate agents who just bought the camera don’t know what any of that stuff is either)
Once they are done telling me the absolutely mind numbing cost of the camera and read me all of the features, I always ask the same question.
What kind of lens did you get?
The answer is almost always the same….
“Lens?” and then I try to hide a deep sigh and a look of pity because I know someone just paid way too much for something they don’t know enough about. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to have the right equipment for the job and I’m all for getting a really good camera. But most photographers would tell you (and so will I) “Price of equipment does NOT equal quality of shots”. In other words, just because you paid a year’s salary for your camera, it does not mean you are suddenly a better photographer who will take perfect shots all the time.
In fact, my experiences through the years would indicate the opposite. The more you pay for the camera, the more you need to know about all of those buttons, knobs and wheels on the camera. The other thing I learned early on is the lens makes a huge difference when shooting a home.
By the way, this is a good time to remind you this is not an advanced blog on photography, we are keeping these very basic here. When I talk about a lens, I am not talking about all of the features that make lenses range from $100 to $8000. I am going to talk about what focal length (the millimeters that determine if it’s a wide angle, standard, or telephoto lens) and not go much deeper than that.
Lenses
OK, let’s talk a bit about lenses and why they matter. Most ILC’s “Interchangeable Lens Cameras” or simply put, cameras that have removable and exchangeable lenses may or may not come with a lens.
The high end camera bodies usually do NOT come with a lens. The logic behind this is pretty simple. If you are buying a high end camera, you are probably going to match it up with one or more high end lenses that work best for the type of shots you are taking.
Less expensive, and especially starter level ILC’s will come with a standard lens (35mm-85mm) These lenses are a great starting point for most people because they are very versatile. They adjust down to 35mm, which is a little wide screen all the way to 80mm which is a little zoom. In fact, for most casual camera users, a 35mm-85mm standard lens is probably all you will ever need. Eventually, you may want to shoot things from further away and you may buy yourself a zoom lens (anywhere from 85mm to 300mm and beyond)
I don’t know why, but I see real estate agents follow the path I just described. They buy a painfully expensive and complicated camera, pick up a reasonably priced standard lens and eventually buy an inexpensive zoom lens.
So let’s review… They buy a really expensive camera which is almost guaranteed to give them WORSE photos (until they learn how to use it), then they use an inexpensive lens, which further deteriorates the quality of the photos, and then finally buy a camera with even more focal length in the form of a Zoom lens.
Now let’s analyze these decisions…. If you want to take good photos and are planning on using the “Big A” (automatic mode), then buy a less expensive camera. The fact is that most entry level ILC’s are more than good enough to take photos that will look GREAT on your MLS in the automatic mode. If you want to get better looking photos, upgrade your lens a level or 2. However, please don’t overdo it… Just like with the camera body, the higher you go in price,and the more features, the more opportunities you have to make lots of mistakes. Trust me on this, I’ve had to do more than 1 reshoot because I bought equipment I couldn’t handle early on.
Finally, when real estate agents are ready for a new lens, DO NOT buy a Zoom lens. You are going the wrong way! Zoom lenses are great if you’re looking to take photos from far away… How often in real estate do you find yourself taking photos from far away? Pick up a reasonably priced, good quality wide angle lens. In other words, instead of going to 85mm, go down to somewhere between 14mm-35mm. The lower the number, the wider the angle.
Why does Wide Angle Matter To a Real Estate Agent?
Look at the photos above. I quickly shot this picture with 2 different lenses in an extremely small room! The photo on the left is using an 18mm lens, a good length for a wide angle lens, perfect for shooting a small room. Now look at the pic on the right. It was taken with a 35mm lens. 35mm is the widest end of a standard 35mm-85mm lens. Look at how little of the room you see on the right and how much you see on the left. Which photo would you rather have on your MLS? How many times have you gone into a 10×12 bedroom and taken a picture of little more than a corner of the room? The wider the angle, the better the view of the small and larger rooms. (I apologize for not lighting those photos better, I just wanted to take a couple of quick pics for this blog and didn’t have much time to set the shot)
As you can see from the example above, you can see much more of a small room if you buy the right lens for the job… For our job, that right lens is a wide angle lens.
How Wide is Too Wide?
If we keep everything really basic it’s pretty easy… the lower the mm, the wider the shot, the more of a room you can pick up. In the pic above, I could have gone down to a 4mm-14mm lens and would have seen even more of the room. In fact, the 4mm lens probably would have shown the whole room. This probably has you thinking “OK Greg, go by the smallest length lens you can find!” Right? Wrong! Wide Angle Lenses are broken down into 2 categories:
The Two Types of Wide Angle Lens
“Wide Angle” (14mm-35mm) is the standard wide angle lens. It’s great for landscape and for shooting inside houses, especially for small rooms. It is wide enough to show as much of the room as possible without distorting the photo.
“Fisheye” (4mm-14mm) is an extremely wide angle lens that has the advantage of taking photos that could show you corner to corner in a 12×12 room, BUT will distort the photo and give you a fish eye effect. Have a look at the photo above. This was taken in a very small bedroom, roughly 10×10. The lens shows the whole room, but look at how distorted it is. Not a great photo for the MLS, wouldn’t you agree?
Let’s Review
- The longer the focal length, the more zoomed in of a shot. This means the narrower the point of view. This is good for close-ups of items far away but bad for shooting small rooms (like bedrooms).
- The shorter the focal length, the wider the point of view. This also means you will zoom in to further away subjects less. This is good for small rooms but bad for close-ups of subjects far away.
- A good length for wide angle shots in real estate is 14mm to 35mm. The lower, the more of the room you will see and the more you are likely to pay for the lens. 14mm is about as low as you can go without getting any significant distortion.
- Anything below 14mm is considered a “fisheye” lens and will give you incredible results showing as much of a small room as possible, but will highly distort the photo, making it a much better lens for creative photos than for real estate photography.
- Don’t pay too much for a camera body. The more you pay the harder the camera will be until you know the basics of photography.
- If you are going to pay more for anything, make it the lens, not the body.
- Learn how to use the buttons, knobs, and wheels on the camera and get yourself off the “auto” mode before spending too too much on a camera body.
