Best 360° Camera for real estate agents?

If you are considering using 360° imagery to strengthen your agency marketing and property sales, but are not sure which camera to invest in, we’re here to help. There are three ways to go when it comes to 360° capture.

The old and costly

One of the more expensive options to produce quality 360° real estate photography is to take photos using the more sophisticated photographic equipment – a combination of a DSLR camera, fish lens and tripod designed to capture images from 4 different angles

This method is time-consuming and requires post processing experience. After shotting each room from four different angles you end up with between 12 and 24 images, depending on the camera settings. These then have to be changed into one image in a process called 360° image stitching. This process has to be then manually corrected for any stitching issues and repeated for each room. As you can see apart from the equipment cost (between $1000 and $2000) this is a time-consuming process. However, if you need top quality photos to present expensive and luxurious apartments, this solution will get you the best quality photography and stunning results.

The easy way

One of the more popular methods of shooting 360° images is using the ‘single click 360° cameras. They can be compared to shooting from your phone – press a button and the camera captures the room in its entirety in a second. This allows you to get a session of whole flat in literally a couple of minutes. The quality of the on the market cameras is much surprisingly high and camera manufacturers like RICOH and Insta360 are improving on quality releasing greater products each year. If you want to equip your team with 360 cameras there are currently two cameras worth looking at on the market – the Insta 360 One X and RICOH Theta V.  

Both cameras can deliver high quality 360° images of properties but what is more important are the easiest and the most intuitive way to create 3D property offers. The two are probably the best devices a real estate agent can get to quickly create 360° tours from a property visit.

The new way

You feel like a smartphone is enough to create digital content, and you don’t want to carry an additional device with you, you might want to try some of the 360° smartphone accessory cameras. These are often one of the cheapest solutions on the market and are manufactured by both phone makers and 360° camera manufacturers. The two best options you might want to consider are PanoClip and Insta360 Nano S – both cameras are iPhone devices only.

The quality of the pictures you take is satisfactory; the cameras do not take much space, you can carry them with you at all times.

The verdict?

For real estate agents, the best current market option would be any of the two Instant 360° cameras – relatively inexpensive and easy to use. Both cameras are compatible with Evryplace app and our plugin so you can quickly turn a 360° photo session into a property tour available online. Now it’s up to you which one you choose.