What Digital Camera Should I Buy For Real Estate Needs?
I work for 3 realtors and we're looking to purchase a camera (no more than $350) that will take great pictures of both the outside & inside of homes to include the photos in our brochures and flyers about the house. Currently, we are using a pretty old kodak and the biggest problem we have is with the interior pictures — if it's a sunny day and we try to take photos of a room with a lot of light pouring in — the photos are usually really washed out. We also have an interest in doing virtual tours (I have a Nikon Coolpix and I know that it has the Panoramic assist mode that will show a bit of the previous photo you took so you can line up the photos.) I was looking at the Canon PowerShot A700, and also the Nikon P1, but i'm open to other suggestions — thanks in advance for your help!!
Filed under Qestions and answers by on Feb 4th, 2010. Comment. 
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Comments on What Digital Camera Should I Buy For Real Estate Needs?
If you don't want to spend too much money but want good quality. than try a 35mm camera that uses film, like the cannon EOS for about 200.00 you can develop the film on Cd disc and get the same effect..
The camera will adjust for light and as a great built in flash, you can buy different lens for wide angle shots like for the living rooms or face of the houses..
If you use 100 speed film you can make larger prints with not much loss..
Look into this type of camera
the nikon is a good choice go for it
but if u want another camera u can look at the panasonic DMC-FX01K
its a 6 megapixel camera with 3.6 otical zoom + an image stabilzer
its a very gr8 camera not only for real estate needs but for all other needs its a gr8 choise and it costs $350
check this page for more info http://www.panasonic.com
and its available in many colors
good luck with finding the best camera
just a Kodak Carma if it is for real Estate
Too bad your budget precludes a digital SLR.
I ran a search at http://www.dpreview.com with the following constraints:
* budget < 400
* zoom wider than 28mm (you need that for indoor shots)
I got 7 results. Of these, the camera best suited was over budget (Coolpix 8400) and one of the cameras had just 4MP (FinePix E500). Of the 5 remaining cameras, the Coolpix 5400
has unacceptable distortion at the wide end of the zoom and the PowerShot S70 has unacceptablr purple fringing. This leaves just 3 contenders:
* Fujifilm FinePix E510
* Samsung Digimax A55W
* Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01
I recommend the Panasonic. Here's the review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfx01/
I am a real estate agent and I know you may not want to spend a bundle on a camera but you may have to if you want great photos. Maybe a used digital SLR might be your best bet. I found that the SLR's can take great photos in almost any light situation and with a 18mm to 55mm zoom, you can get some fantastic room shots without being out in the hallway or farther back. I just bought a new Nikon D50 with a 18mm to 55mm zoom and a 70mm to 300mm zoom and I just love it. A great picture can sell a home as quickly as anything else. With most people looking for homes on the internet, a picture is a must and great pictures grab attention.
I'm not sure how old a "pretty old Kodak" is, but Kodak has made some strides improving their products in the past two or three years, especially in the areas you complained about.
On the other hand, even the "best" digital cameras will get fooled by high contrast lighting, so you may need to reset the exposure level on any camera.
Nikon, Canon, Sony, HP, Kodak, all make good cameras and some in your price range. Check a few out at your area WalMart to see what's out there and has the features you want before you buy (from Walmart or elsewhere or online).
Since you're mostly be going to making flyers and brochures (I'm guessing 8" by 10" or less in size) and possibly posting to a WWW site, I'll suggest a 4 megapixel camera will be adequate for you. I doubt you'll be making huge prints, and posting large files pictures to the WWW is just annoyingly slow upload to download, so more megapixels will be a waste in either case.