Need help selecting camera and/or camcorder for real estate

[Peter Nelson]

We are a Seattle-based property management company. We need to purchase a good camera and camcorder for taking real estate pictures and videos for both marketing as well as inspection purposes..

What are the important features to look for in each device? Which features are "gotta have" vs. "nice to have"? We're probably looking in the $2-500 range for each. Can we find good (enough) equipment in that range. Do you have any recommendations?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

[Anthony L.]

We (the company I work for) just recently purchased a Nikon D3100 for the exact same purpose. It's on the higher end of your price range, maybe even above, but the features made it worth the investment. Very easy to use, great picture quality, tons of additional settings and features.

Ultimately you want to find something with as wide of an angle as possible to hopefully get pictures of an entire room in one shot. The standard lens that comes with this camera is more than sufficient. I'm admittedly a camera rookie, especially one of this caliber, but a friend of mine in the electronics industry pushed us towards this one for all the reasons I've mentioned.

Good luck!