Choosing the right gear is half the battle when it comes to real estate photography. There are many products to choose from, and the process can be overwhelming.

Must-Have Equipments for Real Estate Photography

Camera 

If you have a few real estate gigs under your belt, you’ve likely already chosen your camera brand and workflow. A camera brand alone won’t make you a better real estate photographer, but there are some features I can’t do without.

Because real estate photographers tend to eat through shutter mechanisms, the majority of my team has gladly moved over to the mirrorless systems from Canon and Sony. There are certainly other cinematic video-only options like the Black Magic Pocket Cinema 6K, which can be helpful if you’re willing to manage multiple bodies and systems while on the go.

If you already have a camera/lens system but are looking to upgrade, these are my favorite features:

• Built-in level for making sure your horizontals are on point
• On-screen grid for lining up those beautiful one-point-perspective architectural shots
• Large touch screen with touch autofocus
• Crop sensor switch to assist in one-point-perspective framing and focus
• LOG (Logarithmic) Video capability for the best dynamic range and grading opportunities

Tripod

Speaking of tripods, this is one piece of gear that sees the most wear and tear. A solid mid-level tripod will last the average photographer two decades, but the hustle and bustle of a real estate photographer’s day-to-day will wear out the clamps in less than a year. It might seem crazy to spend $1,000-$3,000 on a Gitzo or Really Right tripod and high-end head, but there is a strong return on investment if you’re in the field all day, 5-6 days a week. Gitzo tripods are very popular, and for good reason — a hardcore veteran that just retired last year left a 40+ year professional architectural photography career with a Gitzo he first bought in 1982.

Real Estate Video

Good audio is key to high production value. Great video content needs great audio to help drive the narrative, context, and tone. While music usually sets the tone, an agent interview or voiceover is key to a successful listing video. But because the audio input options on most DSLRs or mirrorless cameras are subpar, an external recorder and capture device is a prerequisite in my book. And since I’m usually the solo shooter onsite, I need a solid recorder that is reliable and acts as my “audio guy.” This means clean input and output and watching levels or running back up tracks. It also means I need on-board microphones so I have redundancy from laveliers or if I want to level up the video with ambient sound design like ocean waves, water features, etc.

Drone

The majority of listings where I shoot video also include aerial video. It’s no surprise that my drone of choice is the DJI family, specifically the Mavic 2. While I generally love it for its small size and solid runtime, I’ve noticed that the lens begins to soften when stopping down the aperture. Yes, this seems very counterintuitive and contradictory to how most lenses operate, but I can quantify it based on how I shoot in DLOG. In order to fix this and to maintain a theoretical 180º shutter angle, I recommend adding Neutral Density (ND) filters to your DJI.

3D Virtual Tours

3D Virtual Tours have been a prerequisite for agents in the COVID era. Although, we at OHP have been a market leader in 3D Tour development for a decade. Matterport started in 2011, and OHP bought one of the first available Matterport scanners. OHP is now an enterprise customer and I think they have one of the best virtual tour workflows.

Along with Matterport, OHP now also uses the Ricoh Theta Z1. The Ricoh is tiny, high-quality, and relatively cheap. Moreover, if you’re an independent shooter, the Ricoh is mostly platform agnostic, meaning you can use it for Matterport and any other platform (Zillow, Ricoh tours, etc,) which supports tours from panoramic images.

Gear Bag

All this great gear needs a safe and comfortable home. There are a ton of options when it comes to gear bags and finding the right fit comes down to personal preference. That being said, Think Tank’s bag comes highly recommended from a few of the team’s top photographers.