Which Is the Best Focal Length for Real Estate Photography?

Related Factors for Choosing a Lens

Focal length is a characteristic of the lens you choose. When it comes to lenses, we have different categories. You can inspect a lens on its own or combined with the camera. Let’s check out each to see what the difference is.

Lens features minus camera

The focal length and zoom capacity are the chief players when assessing a lens on its own.

Focal length

When buying a lens, the manufacturer has put a number on its outer barrel in millimeters that states the focal length. Usually, that number becomes the first name of the lens, the last name being its brand. This number indicates the distance between the camera’s sensor and the optical center of the lens. A shorter focal length provides a wider angle of view, while a longer focal length gives a narrower one.

According to this correlation, there are five classes of lenses:

Ultra-wide angle

Lenses with a focal length under 24 mm fall under this category. Since the lens is capturing a vast outlook, the objects’ size does not match reality, and there will be distortion.

Wide angle

Lenses in the range of 24-35 mm focal length are in this class. Because of the depth of field provided by these lenses, you can take equally sharp shots from close and far objects.

Standard

These lenses have focal lengths between 35-70/80 mm. They offer an image similar to what the eyes see. Their depth of the field is somewhat shallow, so they detach the subject from its background.

Telephoto

In these lenses, the focal length lies between 80-300 mm. They single out the subject with a narrow-angle.

Super telephoto

lenses above 300 mm belong to this category. They capture far and/or tiny objects vividly.

Zoom Capacity

A lens can offer either one fixed focal length – a prime lens, or a range of it – a zoom lens. Each has its own qualities:

Prime lenses

They are mostly lighter and optically sharper compared to zoom lenses. Due to their wider maximum aperture, they work better in low-light situations.

Zoom lenses

Since they offer a range of focal lengths, you can save time by not having to switch between lenses. This way, you avoid dusting the camera’s sensor or the mirror box. Also, if you choose the one with a suitable range, that would be the only lens you carry.

Tilt-Shift

This dual feature capacity is only available in prime lenses, and together they offer control over focus, depth of the field, and perspective.

The tilt lets the lens bend downward and upward, letting you play with the depth of the field in your shot and bring two apart points into focus simultaneously. When you tilt the lens, the plane of focus is no longer parallel to the camera sensor, and that is why you can maximize or minimize your depth of the field. Tilting also allows for capturing miniature look shots where all the objects appear small-scaled.

The shift makes it possible for the lens to move up and down and side to side. This feature is most desirable with architectural photography, where you have multiple lines. Using its capacity, you can point the camera straight and level with the ground and capture the picture by moving the lens up to avoid distortion. You can also overcome key stoning in post-production, but that is achieved by cropping the image resulting in the loss of pixels and, evidently, image quality.

As you can see, having a tilt-shift lens can be very useful with real estate photography, but there are caveats:

Tilt-shift is only offered in prime lenses. So, if you opt for a zoom lens, you won’t have this option at your disposal.

They are often expensive. Tilt-shift lenses by brands cost around $2000-3000.

The focus system is manual. With a tilt-shift lens, you can’t rely on auto-focus, and you’ll need to adjust it yourself.

Bottom line, if you have a limitless budget, you can go for one of the wide-angle prime lenses on our recommendation list; otherwise, budget for proper editing to overcome distortion.

Lens Features Plus a Camera

The above analysis was of a lens not attached to a camera. But, when they are combined, we have other terms that require clarification.

The equivalent focal length

When digital cameras were introduced, their sensor size was made similar to 35 mm film negative: 36 mm x 24 mm. That is the sensor size in all full-frame DSLR cameras. As technology progressed, cropped sensor cameras were introduced to the market. They come in various sensor sizes. When you have a smaller sensor, the view is narrower, and some parts of it are left out of the shot.

All the focal length measurements we discussed earlier are based on a full-frame camera. Generally, a full frame (DSLR or Mirrorless) is a better fit for real estate photography and we recommend it. However, you’ll need to calculate the equivalent focal length of the lens if you use a cropped sensor camera.

Companies that manufacture lenses for cropped sensor cameras enlist a number called “crop factor.” The crop factor is calculated using the diagonal of the full-frame sensor and a cropped sensor. If you divide the first using the second, you get a ratio that works as the crop factor.

So, if a lens description is a 24 mm focal length, that would be the field of view in a full-frame camera. To figure the field of view in a cropped sensor and get the equivalent focal length, all you need to do is to multiply the stated focal length number of the lens by the crop factor.

For instance, with a 24 mm focal length lens, if the crop factor is 1.5, your lens will have the equivalent focal length of 36 mm.

You should remember that nothing changes inside the lens. Only the lens combination with a cropped sensor camera alters the achieved field of view.

Lens mount size

A lens mount is referred to the size of the opening part on every camera where the lens gets attached to. Each camera manufacturer has its own defined size for the mounted lens; they differ in throat diameter, inner diameter, flange distance, and angle of incidence.

You can find out the lens mount of your camera by checking out its manual, or if it comes with an additional lens, you can find the information on the lens.

It is worth mentioning that most manufacturers have different lens mounts for their Mirrorless cameras. For instance, Canon introduced RF lenses specifically for its Mirrorless line; the same applies to NIKKOR Z lenses that are designed for Mirrorless. Of course, they are others like Sony that offer the same size mount across their cameras.

Due to the difference in lens mounts, generally, you cannot mount a lens from one brand to another brand’s camera unless you use an adopter.

Lens mount adapter

With a lens mount adapter, you can use a lens with a different camera mount size on an un-matching camera. Some companies offer adapters that are perfectly compatible with their products. Also, some third-party manufacturers make adapters, but they typically fall short in transmitting the electronic data from the lens to the camera.

So, keep in mind that if you are upgrading or going for a different mount lens, you’ll need an adapter that perfectly matches the two gears. This is of utmost importance because if the camera and lens are unable to communicate thoroughly, it will reflect in image quality.

Best Focal Length for Real Estate Photography

Now that we have a clear picture of the options at hand, we can decide on the best focal length and the proper lens.

Based on the subject of real estate photography, you definitely need a wide-angle or an ultra-wide-angle lens. The 24 mm works well with capturing the outdoors on most estates and the narrow rooms inside the property. You can go to 18 mm to get the ultra-wide for big mansions and even lower, like 11 mm or 12 mm, to capture narrow interior spaces.

With lower focal length lenses, while they give you an ultra-wide angle, they cause massive distortion and may misrepresent the property. These lenses show a vast view, so you may end up capturing a room much bigger than it actually is. They are best used when shooting the exterior.

While shooting the interior or the property’s noteworthy features, wide-angle up to standard focal length works well. This focal length range allows you to bring out unique attributes.

Taking all that in mind, if you have the budget and the time to carry multiple lenses and change them on location, you can go with prime lenses with ultra-wide, wide, and standard focal points and even a tilt-shift option as a bonus. If you want to save time and move lightly from one project to another, we recommend a zoom lens with ranging 16-35 and 24-70 mm focal lengths to cover all your needs during a real estate shoot.

Let’s check out the lenses in the market that cover your needs as a real estate photographer.

Best Lenses for Real Estate Photography

As we discussed before, prime and zoom lenses are both an option for real estate photography, depending on your budget. Here we will give a selective list of both types of lenses, and you can pick from them accordingly. Since DSLR cameras have been in the market longer, their lenses are more established and used. However, we will also share our suggested zoom lenses for Mirrorless cameras. Our list of lenses is prepared in relation to the best cameras for real estate photography.