Primary marketWhat Should You Look For In A Digital Camera?
What kind of digital camera should you buy? Is one brand better than another?
By and large, most companies make very good cameras, and they could all be recommended. It"s such a competitive market that the "bad" ones have already been weeded out by the market.
Instead of asking "What"s the best digital camera?", ask "Exactly what am I going to be using a digital camera for, and what"s important to me?"
There"s a number of things that you need to consider:
Make money - First and foremost, ask yourself how you"re going to make money with this
camera. If it"s primarily just for personal use, it"s easy.... just go get the one with the most whistles and bells that fits your budget. If it"s a business investment, read on.
Price - You can pay anywhere from $200 to $1000 for a consumer-type digital
camera (excluding the SLR types). If you"ll think through the questions below, you"ll very possibly find that a $300 camera will work just as well as the $1000 camera for most real estate applications.
Resolution - Do you really need 3 or 4 megapixels? Are you going to be printing 8x10 photo quality pictures from your camera? If not, lower resolution (which relates to lower cost) will work just fine.
Size - Do you want a camera that will fit in your pocket or purse, or is a
larger style camera like the Sony Mavica acceptable?
Media - Do you think it"s important to have a floppy disk in your camera?
If so, that narrows your choice down to the Sony Mavicas. The newer models have
both the floppy and the memory stick, so you"re not limited like you once
were to the number of pictures that you can take at higher resolution. All
of the cameras now have easy, quick ways to download into the computer,
whether it"s a simple docking station or a USB cable. This used to be a
real potential problem area... it"s not anymore.
Movies - Is taking MPEG movies important? If you"re using the camera for business
purposes, it"s doubtful. I know I haven"t seen any Realtor posting mpeg movies
of their listings on their sites, so obviously it"s more of a gimmick than
it is a practical feature. Now, if you"re planning on taking short clips of
the kiddies playing on the swings and in the pool and show them to grandma,
that may be a good reason to want this feature.
Lens angle - With a real estate agent"s normal day-to-day use of
a digital camera, the lens angle is the single most important criteria. Try to
find a camera with a native (no add-on lens required) wide angle of
28-29mm. The lower the number, the wider the angle. Frankly I really don"t
know right now who has the widest angle lenses as Kodak, in their infinite
wisdom, decided to stop making their wide angle cameras. As others have
mentioned, they did have a DC215 that was under $250 that was one of the
best digital cameras ever made for this industry.
When I see a camera that
advertises that it has a great 10X zoom lens I"m not impressed. As a Realtor, you"ll have
much less use for that telephoto lens than you will for a wide angle lens that
you are going to use on virtually every shot you take - inside rooms, the outside
of the house without having to go 200" away. Most cameras now have
anywhere from a 35mm - 40mm wide angle setting. Believe me.... there"s a
big difference between 35mm and 29mm when you"re shooting inside shots.
Use - The most important feature of a digital camera is use. Figure out what you want, then go do your homework, buy the camera that meets your needs, and then use it. I"ll guarantee that the next time
someone asks for a camera recommendation you"ll be recommending your camera.
Steve Jarrell is the CEO of VisualTour.com. Steve founded TRF Systems, the parent company of VisualTour, over 11 years ago. He has extensive experience in the practical application of digital cameras and virtual tour technologies to the real estate market. VisualTour has been enabling agents to easily create their own online virtual tours with any digital camera for over six years. Contact him at sjarrell@visualtour.com