Has anyone successfully used their DSLR as video for business?

Rylan Zolinski

Rylan Zolinski

Well-known member
I own two XHA1's but want to go tapeless and I am thinking of either picking up two XA10's when they are released or two HMC40's. I've shot dance recitals, corporate training videos and Christmas concerts. But now I have a new idea that isn't in the area: video tours of homes for real estate agents. I was thinking of picking up two t2i's and two monitors and using that for video. I know I can use the video cameras, but hauling around DSLR's is much easier and for the real estate purpose, it would be simple shoots. Also, DSLR's are fantastic in low light.

Is it worth investing into this? I was thinking of either that or saving up for two X100's but everyone is jumping on the DSLR boat and I understand why.
 
I'm not an expert but I've been using my 7D for corporate work for the past 6-8 months. I also own 2 XHA1's but frankly, they have been collecting dust lately. I did just purchase an AF100 so the 7D will probably end up being a b-roll or still camera. But I can see a DSLR working well for what you are doing.
 
DLSRs aren't automatically fantastic in low light...you need fast glass. Then, guess what happens when you open up the aperture: shallow DOF. That's not the greatest thing for real estate, where you would want some nice wide shots that give a full view for the client. Also the dlsrs, other than the GH1 and GH2 look pretty plain to maybe even bad with wide deep shots...esp. if you consider the rainbow moire on the Canon's can happen a lot on roof shingle patterns, brick. etc. The DLSRs are great for a lot of things....but I happen to think that for REAL ESTATE, you would be far better off with the HMC40s or XA10s. Yes the shoots might be simple....but the type of stuff you are going to be shooting causes havoc with most DLSRs, other than the GH1 and GH2. Check You TUbe or VImeo for examples of rooftop moire and then you'll know for sure!
That's not to say they can't work or you couldn't shoot around the problems...but why? There are better things for that specific job. INDIE Movie.....DLSR. Indie REAL ESTATE VIDEO.....something else
 
If you're considering going the DSLR route I'm not sure I would look at the canons if concerts are part of your bread and butter.
They all have a 12 minute record limit as far as I know (I know the 7D and 60D do, can't speak for the T2i but I imagine it's the same).

The GH2 has no record limit as far as I know - but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that.
 
I wanted to keep two video cameras and purchase 2 DSLR's. Depending on what work, I could use one or the other. I like shooting short films and I would love to get the best bang for my buck in terms of image quality and the obvious route is DSLR for that. For long continuous shooting, I would use the video cameras. I just thought two DSLR's would be better for real estate but I guess not? I actually own a D90 but want to sell it for a different DSLR. I just don't know which would be my best choice.
 
One of my first successful *aesthetic wise* photoshoots was a "Parade Of Homes" (it's this thing where a big, new neighborhood will showcase entirely new homes that are all decorated minimally with furniture, enough to make the house look more appealing.), and I got a few outstanding photographs with my T2i, truly a few magazine worthy shots IMO, just using the kit lens. I didn't have time to pull off some videos, there were tons of people herding in and out, but having a photography/video hybrid camera for real estate is an insanely great idea, both to incorperate those photos into a slideshow-esque video, or to use the video feature in the camera itself (be warned, though, many architecture gets a lot of moire on the Canon's, in video mode.) Here's a couple examples of what I was able to get:

http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac77/buttercupblessing/IMG_0864.jpg
http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac77/buttercupblessing/IMG_0852.jpg
http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac77/buttercupblessing/IMG_0855.jpg
http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac77/buttercupblessing/IMG_0862.jpg
http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac77/buttercupblessing/IMG_0869.jpg

*Disregard any low quality, those photographs were originally 18Mp before I had to kill them to upload them to photobucket* - Anyway, it was just a practice shoot, but I say it really proves how handy a high-quality digital camera would be for quick and tremendously high quality shots for magazines, booklets, and slideshows going into real estate, and with a camera as small as the T2i (get the 60D though if you go with Canon, exact same price as T2i yet has the super handy swivel screen and optional manual audio, as well as a built in level and better exposure modes for indoor work - all essential for real estate photography, exception of audio!), it truly is so easy to swing around and capture the best shot. The GH series are a tremendously popular bet too, the only thing is you do have to install the 3rd party softward (hacking), which seems to be pretty easy to do, unless you can work with interlaced footage well - interlaced may actually do better for "local purposes" too, like television and Youtube. Not sure there.

All in all, the big negative thing about digital cameras of any sort, mixed with natural lighting like you'll come across in real estate photography, the windows will get tremendously overexposed, like the photos above. That's where framing is really important, if you notice in the photos, I at least tried to get the window lighting to align well with the framing to the point it makes it much less noticeable, or even feels nice to the photograph. Super important in real estate photography. It makes it easier if it's a falsely decorated home though, creates much more distractions from the lack of good light equality. And I'm sure something in post could have helped, but I didn't even run those photos through anything.
 
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I'd definitely recommend a DSLR for shooting real estate. Some of the rooms in homes are large and without enough windows. Unless you bring a huge light kit it can tough to fill the room, but you'll get way better low light capability from a DSLR than a typical video camera. I've been shooting real estate photos and videos for a little while now. Unfortunately, I can't recommend it. You really have to hit the higher-end of the market to make it worthwhile, unless you're okay with cranking out quick, cheap work that's well below your own standards. I'm not, and it also turns into a bunch of busy work for little pay. But if you can somehow get in with the $1million+ homes, then you should be all right.

Here's a thread we had going on the subject: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...-Estate-Video-Tour-Feedback-Wanted&highlight=

I also use my 7D for all sorts of other stuff, both video and photo. It's paid for itself many times over during the past year.
 
I would re-think your business model. Real-estate right now is a dead end, photography wise, and here's why; most real estate agents have their own camera's, or someone in their office has one...or, their "uncle Bob" has a video camera.....you see where this is headed??
I live in a "resort/retirement/2nd home city", you may have heard of it, Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The number of foreclosures far out weigh the number of homes sold. Real Estate agents are starving, there is a glut of properties on the market, and they are going no where. I have properties that I have been inspecting for over a year, that have never been lived in.....brand new......and they aren't selling.

It's a complex problem...but one of the reason is that banks are not loaning money....even well qualified buyers are having trouble.

I used to do real-estate photography part-time, with Nikon equipment(had about $6 grand worth-sold it). That changed to nearly full-time, photography of delinquent and foreclosed homes, with a point and shoot, for the banks and finance companies(they only require 1024X768 resolution pictures).

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. But, before you start spending any money on equipment, call some of your potential clients and see if there is any interest in the services you want to offer them. Figure out what you can do for them, and show them some of your prior work.
Also, contact the local Multiple Listing Service and see if you can't find some work there.

I would recommend looking at the GH2 for what your thinking of doing. Or even the GH1, save some money.


Doing anything with real-estate right now is really, really, bad.
 
I just read some of that post (I will read the rest later as I am busy right now) but it's worth the shot to try it out. I can see how it will and will not profit. No one wants a video tour of a dumpy house as it will just make it look worse than it already is. Only the higher-end housing will benefit from something like this and that's what I am aiming for. I will see if I can somehow make this work. I really thought I tapped into something that hasn't been found yet for this area and I have. I just don't know if it will fly or not. I guess it wont hurt trying. I plan on making a mock video and sitting down with a few agents and showing it to them.
 
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havasuphoto said:
I would re-think your business model. Real-estate right now is a dead end, photography wise, and here's why; most real estate agents have their own camera's, or someone in their office has one...or, their "uncle Bob" has a video camera.....you see where this is headed??
I live in a "resort/retirement/2nd home city", you may have heard of it, Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The number of foreclosures far out weigh the number of homes sold. Real Estate agents are starving, there is a glut of properties on the market, and they are going no where. I have properties that I have been inspecting for over a year, that have never been lived in.....brand new......and they aren't selling.

It's a complex problem...but one of the reason is that banks are not loaning money....even well qualified buyers are having trouble.

I used to do real-estate photography part-time, with Nikon equipment(had about $6 grand worth-sold it). That changed to nearly full-time, photography of delinquent and foreclosed homes, with a point and shoot, for the banks and finance companies(they only require 1024X768 resolution pictures).

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. But, before you start spending any money on equipment, call some of your potential clients and see if there is any interest in the services you want to offer them. Figure out what you can do for them, and show them some of your prior work.
Also, contact the local Multiple Listing Service and see if you can't find some work there.

I would recommend looking at the GH2 for what your thinking of doing. Or even the GH1, save some money.


Doing anything with real-estate right now is really, really, bad.
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I live in Canada and it's a completely different story here. Where I am, we're in a boom right now. Real-estate prices are shooting up again and people are trying to buy in before it does. It's quite the opposite here to what you're experiencing. I don't even live in the U.S and I have heard how bad it is in Arizona. As a matter of fact, some of my family members are looking into buy a house there for winter vacation (it gets down to -50 celcius here) because they are so cheap. What you can buy there for $50,000 would easily sell for $200,000 here.
 
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Morox said:
I live in Canada and it's a completely different story here. Where I am, we're in a boom right now. Real-estate prices are shooting up again and people are trying to buy in before it does. It's quite the opposite here to what you're experiencing. I don't even live in the U.S and I have heard how bad it is in Arizona. As a matter of fact, some of my family members are looking into buy a house there for winter vacation (it gets down to -50 celcius here) because they are so cheap. What you can buy there for $50,000 would easily sell for $200,000 here.
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Judging by the license plates in town now, I would say roughly half of all Canadians are here, now. We call them Canadian Snowbirds. It was in the 60's here today, that's Fahrenheit....brrrr!!!!

I've done high end, and low end, real estate. It always shows better with still photography, because you can control everything(lighting). "Virtual Tours" as they are called, are just several pictures linked together to make a panorama or a GIF.

If I was going to do video tours of high end homes, I would look into the Go Pro HD camera-seriously. If your scene is well lit, shoot at 720P/60, and you will have 170 degree's field of view. The size of the video files will be manageable, and you would be surprised at the quality.

For real estate, you really don't want super-duper high definition. You want softer images.

Another thing you can look at is shooting/producing a local weekly/monthly TV spot featuring/interviewing local Realtors, and having them talk about he homes they are selling, along with your video walk through. Remember, these Agents are the sales people...that's their skill set-they sell homes. So why not have them give you a narrated guided tour of the home. Then produce a show with a small set, and have a local TV spot to showcase all this. The Realtors can also talk about the financing options, etc.
Include in your video scenes of the neighborhood, local schools, and a walk through of the local super market or shopping center.

That way people can see what it looks like to live in that house, in that neighborhood. What it looks to take the kids to school, shopping, etc.

You need to become a DP. Think outside the box. Most communities in the States have a local cable channel(nobody watches it, but it's there). Find out what the interest would be for a weekly/monthly real-estate show. Part of the job of the Realtor is to educate the buyer not only about the house, but also about the community and it's services.
 
If you like dabbling in short films as well as your other plans...then maybe an HMC40 plus DLSR would be a good route to take and all your bases would be covered. One of the best videos I ever saw on Vimeo was an HMC40 (shot by a member here I believe). It was truly like Discovery HD (of course in good light)...and the DLSRs can make dramatic stuff shine.
 
pulpfiction007 said:
If you like dabbling in short films as well as your other plans...then maybe an HMC40 plus DLSR would be a good route to take and all your bases would be covered. One of the best videos I ever saw on Vimeo was an HMC40 (shot by a member here I believe). It was truly like Discovery HD (of course in good light)...and the DLSRs can make dramatic stuff shine.
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I was thinking of selling both of my XHA1's and getting two HMC40's. Also, I would sell my D90 and then get two DSLR's.

Either that or getting XA10's instead of HMC40's. I will have to think it over though.
 
I hear you...I'm looking to get a combination of DLSR plus video camera as well and I also have a D90 which I really hate to see go simply because it's a great photo tool (not so much video). I think the XA10 looks great, but the HMC40 is a great bargain as well. The pros of the XA10 are probably the low light and dynamic range, great screen, the gain control by 1db increments and what sounds like a fantastic build quality. The HMC40 has 720 modes, professional image parameter adjustments, sharp image, and it's a steal right now. It's a tough call on those two. For the DLSRs...I think the two that are the most shooter ready are the GH2 and the 60D.
 
I've done some design and marketing work for a TX company that makes home videos for the web - but they only work with supplied stills and animate them.

For what you want to do, I'd think a standard video cam with AF would be much more useful because of focus issues - moving shots really need to be planned with DSLRs and focus needs constant attention.

I'd take something like an HMC-40 for overall shots, and get out the DSLR for details - expensive lighting fixtures and kitchen gear, nicely styled details of homes that aren't empty - and intercut to give a more hollywood feel than the usual walk-through videos.

These kind of videos are usually unimaginative "here's the layout of the building" things - the person who covers that aspect but really gets across "here's what your life would be like in this home" - the technical details and the emotions associated with "home" - might do well in a strong market for upscale homes.
 
Our business has 2 departments, corporate/advertising and weddings/events.
I handle the corporate and the wedding dept gets hand me downs from corporate dept.

For the past year ive used nothing but DSLRs in corporate, over at weddings/events I handed down our 2 JVC HD100/200 with 35 adapters, 2 DVX100/100a with 35 adapters, also SONY HD1000.

My corporate work does a lot of tourism/real estate/transport stuff.

Heres some samples of recent DSLR work we did;

[size=+2]Panglao Island Nature Resort[/size]

[size=+2]Simply Life's Essentials[/size]

[size=+2]Costabella[/size]

[size=+2]Bantayan Island[/size]


High pay and high profile work in my country. ..with cheap DSLRs, makes business sense.
 
I've done a couple national broadcast spots with the T2i, and several web videos where I wanted a more "cinema" look.

Funny thing is, the one video I did with the D90 has this cool punchiness to the color and grain - I still need to play with Canon footage and see what the difference is.
 
Interesting discussion on real estate video.....

Interesting discussion on real estate video.....

I use DSLRs for real estate. To debunk a few of the myths I've seen in this thread...

I use a 5D Mark II (sometimes a 7D). They do extraordinary well in low light, which is imperative with this business. I also do stills as well for most jobs, which allows me to use one camera for both. I use a 17-40mm wide angle lens. DOF is NO issue whatsoever. I use no exterior lighting, only what is available.

I do two bedroom garden style condos. Just today I did three, tiny, 3 bedroom capes. I've done $20M homes as well. It's not about the high end at all. That's a HUGE misconception. It's also not about targeting the younger, more techy 'hip' agents. One of my regular clients is 76 and another is 94 (not a typo!)

It's about finding and working with the best Realtors in the market who know how to run a business and know and understand how to market real estate properly in these days of "web appeal", not "curb appeal". Most agents just don't 'get it'. By most, I mean 90-95% DON'T GET IT. Those are pretty heavy odds stacked against you. For that reason, I absolutely refuse to do ANY marketing to Realtors. It's a complete waste of time to market to 5% of your potential target audience. And yet, 99.9% of my business is from Realtors. The key is figuring out how to do that!

"For real estate you don't want super duper high definition, you want softer images".

Huh? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Why would you want soft, fuzzy images? That's just silly. You want bright, crisp clear images. You're marketing and selling an expensive product.

The 12 minute limit is of no issue. Unless you're shooting an hour long lecture, most people don't shoot more than 12 minutes at a crack. It's never, ever once been an issue. Not even close.

Real estate is NOT dead everywhere. There is plenty of business out there if you know how to find it. I shoot 3-5 houses every day (sometimes up to 7 houses a day) almost 7 days a week. Average cost $300-400 a pop. You can figure out how dead real estate is. This is all I've done for 6 years. Every single day.

95% of Realtors haven't the slightest interest in paying for pro photography or video, but about 5% do. Once you find that 5% you will have more business than you can handle, because video WORKS. Quite well in fact. It helps sell houses. It helps brand agents. Sellers love it. Buyers love it.

Now having said that, a DSLR is NOT the same as a regular video camera. There are other negative issues such as a weird form factor, weird balance, lack of auto focus, the need to transcode the video before editing (except in Adobe Premiere), and other funky issues that you have one you try and make a still camera a video camera.

BUT, I wouldn't trade it for a video camera - ever. The quality is beautiful, and for what I do this is absolutely the perfect fit.

I do real estate video tours in New England - you can see some samples here.
 
It's about finding and working with the best Realtors in the market who know how to run a business and know and understand how to market real estate properly in these days of "web appeal", not "curb appeal". Most agents just don't 'get it'. By most, I mean 90-95% DON'T GET IT. Those are pretty heavy odds stacked against you. For that reason, I absolutely refuse to do ANY marketing to Realtors. It's a complete waste of time to market to 5% of your potential target audience. And yet, 99.9% of my business is from Realtors. The key is figuring out how to do that!
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Very well put....you hit the nail square on the head, and it was what I was referring to in my original post.

"For real estate you don't want super duper high definition, you want softer images".
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This came out wrong. what I should have said was; you don't need a 21 mega-pixel camera, if your images will only be shown online, or on the local multiple listing service.
However, if your images are going to be printed-go with more pixels. The price of 16+ mega-pixel camera's that do video has dropped to less than $1000 dollars, making that a win/win situation.

Real estate is NOT dead everywhere. There is plenty of business out there if you know how to find it. I shoot 3-5 houses every day (sometimes up to 7 houses a day) almost 7 days a week. Average cost $300-400 a pop. You can figure out how dead real estate is. This is all I've done for 6 years. Every single day.
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Really??!!! Really?? Good for you!!! Proves there are exceptions to the "rule".

Checked your website. Good work.

My advice would be to solicit business first. You have two good video camera's(referring to the original poster). Sell one/both, and buy one video camera, and one still camera.
 
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