8 Best Focal Length for Real Estate Photography: (2024 Guide & Reviews)

Last Updated on January 22, 2024 by Sharon Advik

Hello, everyone, real estate photography is about capturing buildings and their interiors for realtors.

It is a simple passion and a great business; a good picture can change the face of anything.

But to achieve that, you need a great-quality lens.

There are several market options, making it challenging to choose the best one.

This article compiled a list of today’s top 8 best focal lengths for real estate photography.

Let’s drive in:

Which is the Best focal length for real estate photography?

Here are my recommended top 8 Best Focal Lengths for Real Estate Photography:-

Canon 16-35mm F2.8: (Best wide-angle focal length for real estate photography)

I just finished a real estate shoot yesterday.

I primarily use this lens, which is the Canon 16 to 35-millimeter f 2.8 version three wide-angle lens, and I love this lens.

So I figured now was the perfect time to review this lens; I used it for over a month, and I have used it in many different environments.

So, I figured I’d gathered enough experience to discuss this lens.

It just feels like quality glass.

There’s it’s not flimsy at all.

So you feel like you’re getting the quality glass to the contrast, and the colors are spectacular.

I noticed a vast difference between the photos taken with this lens and my beginner lenses.

And when I put them on my computer, I can see they’re so beautiful even before editing.

So I have to do much less editing because it looks excellent from the start.

The sharpness blows my mind; every photo I take with this line is super sharp.

I’ve noticed that when I take photos a lot of times.

I’ll get you to know the darker vignette around the image.

And I don’t always want it to be something that I can edit.

But still, you know, that’s something you must live with.

But the vignetting will occur when you have it around 16 millimeters.

You will not get that vignette if you’ve got the 35 millimeters.

So, what is this lens suitable for?

Well, for one, it is perfect for real estate photography.

When you’re doing real estate photography, you need something super wide.

So when you’ve got the 16 to 35 millimeter, you can get those epic shots to make even the tiniest room look huge.

Just make sure not to put them in the edges because there will be some distortion, and they might get a little stretched out.

It’s also great for landscapes and Astrophotography or anything where you want to show the entire region that you’re into the beauty of the landscape.

And, of course, it is fantastic for vlogging; if you watch many YouTube videos, you’ll probably see many photography vloggers using this lens because it’s so wide.

So it’s great for that.

If you’re a Vlogger, you can consider a lens like this.

This is the best focal length for real estate photography if you’re in the professional photography game.

Canon 24mm F/2.8: (Best full-frame focal length for real estate photography)

This lens is an absolute beast.

I needed a wide-angle lens that would give me low-light capability, and the fact that it has one is a plus.

So then I purchased this.

The construction of this lens is well built.

The focus ring is nice and smooth and has a focal meter.

Also, it has a manual focus switch on the side and image stabilization.

That means you’ll get sharp pictures while shooting in low-light situations.

Even under 24 millimeters, even under 120-fourths of a second.

When it comes to shooting, your shutter speed will eliminate that handheld camera shake.

If you know you’ve had it ever shoot that slow for video, it will give you smooth footage.

You can see every little jolting step, but when it comes to turning the stabilization on.

It was smooth, and you can use this lens for video.

The focus is super-fast when you choose.

So, I have nothing wrong to say about this lens.

If you are looking for a 24-millimeter lens on your full-frame camera, then look at this lens.

If you want to use this on your crop sensor camera, you can also.

This is an excellent option if you’re looking for a 24mm focal length.

Samyang 12mm F2.0: (Best cheap ultra-wide-angle focal length for real estate photography)

So, this lens has an aperture of F 2.0, which is a pretty wide aperture.

This means the aperture opens wide to allow a lot of light into the sensor.

Which means you could take those handheld indoor shots.

This lens is made specifically for mirrorless bodies, which makes the small form factor possible.

And because of that small size, this lens only weighs 260 grams.

This lens is pretty buttery smooth, which makes it suitable for pulling focus for video.

This lens is half plastic and half solid metal, but the plastic is pretty good.

It’s like solid plastic also; it’s a thick type of plastic.

It doesn’t feel flimsy; of course, this half-madly inbuilt plastic quality does not come as a surprise because this lens comes at a budget price of $300.

It has an NCS nano-coating system, which reduces ghosting flaring and other chromatic aberrations.

It has two spherical elements and two dispersion elements.

That sounds like Magic the Gathering terminology.

Anyways, it has six aperture blades, creating a pleasing bokeh.

Its focal length of 12 millimeters is equivalent to an 18-millimeter lens mounted on a full-frame sensor.

This means if my calculations are correct, it gives this lens about a 99-degree field of view.

The images taken with this lens look super great.

The lens is sharp throughout all apertures.

Although there’s a little softness around the corners, you can avoid that with ultra-wide-angle lenses.

A little barrel distortion is also present with this lens, which is easily correctable with Photoshop or Lightroom.

So, the bokeh from this lens is smooth, buttery, pleasant to the eyes, and does not distract me.

The chromatic aberrations on this lens are very controlled.

Who is this lens for?

This ultra-wide-angle lens is for real estate photographers, architectural photographers, landscape photographers, and Astrophotographers.

Prosumers and consumers could easily enjoy it, and even because it’s very cheap, anyone could afford it with all that said.

This is a great, relatively cheap ultra-wide-angle lens to add to your camera bag.

It’s a great size, and super optics make this a must-have for enthusiasts and professionals.

Sigma 10-20mm F3.5: (Best focal length for real estate video)

It has to be an excellent product; ultra-wide-angle lenses are fun and handy.

This lens’s zoom range ends at 20 millimeters, which is quite a wide angle, but it zoomed out to 10 millimeters.

Which is very wide, indeed the full-frame equivalent of 16 millimeters.

That’s wide enough for getting large rooms.

As well as capturing the whole image while shooting in large buildings.

It can also help take pictures in tight spaces.

10 millimeters is a lot of fun.

So this lens has a nice enough zoom age, and the sub this lens’s sleeve is reasonably fast, with a constant maximum aperture of F/ 3.5.

This lens can let in quite a good amount of light, better than most ultra-wide-angle lenses, and that aperture does not start when you zoom in.

That makes it useful for on-the-fly video work or shooting in darker situations.

F 3.5 can also give you some reasonably out-of-Vegas backgrounds if you’re close to your subject.

The lens does not have image stabilization.

The build quality is outstanding indeed.

It’s pretty big and heavy and excellent to handle.

The lens has very smooth zooming, that’s nice to use.

The lens has a focus ring that stands smoothly and precisely but is quite heavy to turn.

There is full-time manual fixing, so you can turn that focus ring any time.

The lens’s front element does not rotate as he changes focus segments.

HSM autofocus motor focuses very quickly and relatively accurately without making much noise.

The lens is heavily built, working very well, and demanding.

This lens is designed for APS-C and digital SLR cameras, not the more expensive full-frame cameras.

I’ve put the lens on my 20-megapixel Canon 70D camera at its widest angle of 10 millimeters and widest aperture of F 3.5.

This lens’s bokeh is relatively smooth.

I’d say it’s quite a good option for real estate video work.

Sony 16-35mm F4: (Best Sony wide-angle focal length for real estate)

I got this lens about a month and a half ago.

And I’ve been using it for various real estate shoots main videos for my corporate clients.

This is my new favorite one in my bag; it’s such a versatile lens.

I know that’s a bit extreme, but the quality of this lens flows that one’s out of the water.

Considering it’s a nonprime lens, the sharpness of this lens is believably sharp.

And I’m saying that because of the detail you get in the shots and the bokeh.

I was amazed at how much bokeh you get with this lens, considering it’s an f4.

It’s so good for real estate virtual tours for doing any landscape work or even those wedding shots where you’re just trying to capture the entire moment.

I found this one to be good at 16 millimeters.

Now it goes to 35, like a semi-portrait focal length, and the bokeh you get 35 is outstanding.

It’s like a wide-angle and a portrait lens all in one.

If you’re thinking about buying this lens, I would highly consider it for the price point.

Canon 16-35mm F/4: (Best affordable focal length for real estate photography)

That is a mouthful lens, one of my favorite lenses. I’ve used it for many different things.

And it’s honestly one of my best focal lengths for real estate photography.

This is a very versatile focal length.

You can use this lens for many different things; you can use it for weddings, use it for landscapes, and use it for real estate.

This lens is stabilized, and I love a stabilized lens that comes in handy.

Especially if you need to shoot slower shutter speeds for the correct exposure.

But it’s also really great if you’re shooting a video.

This lens is excellent for adding a stabilization layer for gimbal work or handheld.

This takes out a lot of micro jitters of your footage.

This lens focuses very fast, and I haven’t had any issues with being too slow for anything.

One thing I like about this lens is its size and compact size.

This can fit in my camera bag and not take up a lot of space, and it’s not too heavy, either.

This is on the cheaper end of the L series of Canon Glass.

But I don’t think they’ve compromised the build quality; this lens is still built very well.

Let’s dive into the sharpness of this lens, and let me say this lens is sharp.

If your subjects are focused, your image will be sharp.

Now, let’s talk about the price of this lens.

Considering the quality you get from this lens, I think that’s a great price.

This is a great lens, and it is sharp and built.

It focuses fast; it has image stabilization.

There are a lot of great things going on with this lens.

I want to address vignetting.

And yes, there is some vignetting in this lens.

If you’re shooting at 16 millimeters or some wide apertures such as f4, it’s nothing crazy.

There’s also some mild distortion when shooting at 16 millimeters.

That will go with any wide-angle lens, and you’ll always get some distortion.

Overall, this is a fantastic quality lens, and it’s affordable.

It’s a great intro to L series glass, and it gets the job done; this lens performs what it needs to.

Tamron 15-30mm f2.8: (Best focal length for Interior real estate photography)

This is an f. 2.8 lens, and suggests it zooms from 15-30.

15 is incredibly wide on a full-frame camera.

It has a nice round-bladed aperture in there.

Most importantly, what differentiates this lens from many others on the market at this focal length with this aperture is that this lens has VC vibration compensation.

I’ve been able to get this around the 3 stops.

Tamron plays for some people who may have seen your hands and think the lens’s weight and construction make it much easier to get slow shutter speeds and balance.

But he’s a big thing; we weigh about 1.1 kilos.

That is quite heavy.

So, my thoughts on this lens are that I’m impressed with the sharpness, including the edges of even wide open.

This is a sharp lens, particularly in the center; it does slightly towards the edges.

This is a hell of a lot wider than you’d expect, which is why it makes it perfect for interiors.

You can get that whole room in.

This is going to be fantastic for those shots.

So, summarize summarizing thoughts on this is fantastic.

It’s great you can still manipulate depth of field with a lens.

I love the look and the feel of the lens.

The build quality is excellent.

It is heavy but well-balanced and will be great for real estate.

That’s the price you pay for this kind of package, and I think this lens is excellent value for money.

That’s an excellent price for the actual build quality of the optics you’re getting.

Tamron 17-35mm f2.8-4: (Best Compact size focal length for real estate photography)

Think about owning a full-frame body camera that can shoot much wider than usual.

But on top of that, one of the worst things about owning a full-frame camera is how expensive it is to get a wide-angle frame lens.

Luckily, Tamron has released a new 17 to 35 F 2.8-f4, an entry-level wide-angle lens for full-frame bodies.

So, when you pick it up, you instantly notice that it is super lightweight, weighing only 460 grams.

It is compact, meaning you can fit into many bags and won’t be a nuisance when traveling a different way.

Secondly, it’s well-rubberized with a soft focus and zoom ring.

And on the left-hand side, we’ve got an autofocus to manual focus switch.

It is made out of plastic, is strongly reinforced solid, and is weather-sealed.

As soon as I picked up this lens, I noticed that the lens focused externally when I instantly pushed the autofocus button.

It’s going to a max aperture range of F2.8 to 4.

This means you get a bit more control over the depth of field that gets tightest in terms of the actual aperture blade diaphragm at its widest.

The lens is coated with B barcoding to help control chromatic aberrations, reflection ghosting, and flaring.

And it’s doubled up with fluoride coating to help protect against the elements.

It has some distortion but can be fixed with a picture profile.

It says chromatic aberrations and ghosting color fringing the 17-35mm handle it well.

Overall, the Tamron 17 for 35 miles excels above its price point, and optically it’s pretty damn good.

What I like about the Tamron 17-35 is its size.

Because, honestly, compared to any other full-frame wide-angle lens, they’re usually a lot bigger.

So, my final thoughts on this are a fantastic choice for anyone looking to get into wide-angle photography.

It’s a massive bang for your thoughts, especially for its performance and optical quality.

Conclusion:

Alright, guys, that concludes all the lenses we will discuss today in this article.

Do you guys have any experience with these lenses? What are your thoughts on them?

Which is the best focal length for real estate photography?

Is there a lens I didn’t mention in this article that you love using for real estate photography?

Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

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