I need a recommendation for a digital camera that will be primarily used for selling homes on the internet. I will be taking bright Florida sunny outdoor shots and some indoor shots as well.

I need clear images for 4X6 images and it would be great to have clarity for the 8X11 image as well. LCD is not the highest priority but I want to get the best features.

Thanks in advance for the response. I appreciate your time. :)

-- Diane Johnson (dianejcomputer@yahoo.com), October 13, 1998

Answers

I'll invite some of the real estate experts to chime in here, but the Kodak DC210 has been very popular in the real estate market. I suspect this is at least partly due to its wider-than-normal 29mm wide-angle end on its zoom lens. You'll have a hard time going all the way to 8x10 with it though, and it's lens is a bit soft at infinity for the outdoor shots. A lot of the first-generation megapixel-plus digicams are getting pretty cheap now, and would be good for your purposes. You probably want the full 1280x960 or so if you're looking to do 8x10s, so something like the Olympus D-340L would be good, and they're pretty cheap nowadays too. (Check our "Deals" page - http://www.imaging-resource.com/DEALS.HTM) If you can afford one, cameras with "true" zoom lenses are *very* nice - saves a lot of walking back and forth to get the shot framed right. Again, keep watching the Deals page, and see what shows up... (Another thought - it only comes with software for the PC platform, but the HP C20 camera is on super-sale at Office Max this week, for only $399. 8x10 would be pushing it a little, but this camera does *VERY* well in low light, such as you're likely to encounter indoors. (Use a tripod or brace yourself well when shooting though, because the exposures can get LONG.) The reason I like the HP for real estate work is that you'd be able to shoot a lot of the interior stuff without using flash, giving a much more natural look... Hope this helps - any real estate pros out there want to take a stab at this one?

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), October 13, 1998.

This is the best camera I have seen on the digital camera market. This camera blows all the high price cameras right out of the water. Excellent picture resolution,1280 x 1024. The only drawback is there is no optical zoom. It was purchased at Best Buy for $499. Included was a 2 & 8 meg smart media cards. I have tried the Nikon Coolpix 900 and this is definitely a better camera. Check out the clarity of the photo at http://members.tripod.com/~thanniedo/testpic.jpg We live in Northwest Indiana, and we were traveling west on Interstate 94 going about 65 miles per hour and this truck caught my eye. Very colorful, so I thought I would see how this camera reacted to quickness. It definitely passed in my book. I would highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a digital camera. It takes excellent pictures outside and inside. I have some great shots on the inside of my house. I would be happy to e-mail them to you.

-- Ruthann Dreyer (biski@adsnet.com), October 15, 1998.

In the above message I was refering to the Fuji MX-500 Digital camera. I did not realize I did not type the brand and model number. Sorry about that. Dont forget to check out the picture of a moving truck. Very colorful.

http://members.tripod.com/~thanniedo/testpic.jpg

-- Ruthann Dreyer (biski@adsnet.com), October 15, 1998.