I have always carried two cameras with me while doing real estate appraisals. I had my main camera and carried and older camera for backup. The backup camera was just in case my main camera broke or if I forgot my main camera. Well, I carried two cameras with me until I got my iPhone.
The first iPhone I bought was 2 mega pixels. While 2 mega pixels isn’t enough to print a quality 8×10 print, it is good enough to take a photo or two for my real estate appraisal. The iPhone I have now is 3 mega pixels.
Is the camera on the iPhone good enough to replace my camera?
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The short answer is No. Not because it is only 2 or 3 mega pixels. That is plenty for a picture for my appraisal. Even if the iPhone took a 5 mega pixel photo, my appraisal software would reduce the size and quality of the photo while importing it into the appraisal. In fact, many of my clients request that I reduce the quality (and in turn reduce the size) of the image I take for my appraisals. Why would they ask that? Because lender are requiring more and more photos to be included in the appraisal. The more photos included in the appraisal, the larger my appraisal file. Larger appraisal files means it takes longer to send to my client, it takes longer to open, and it costs more to store. Depending on the condition of the house I am appraising, I might easily include up to 30 photos.
The iPhone can not replace my regular camera because it does not have a flash. Each week I appraise foreclosed properties that do not have any power or average homes that are poorly lit and I need a camera with a flash. In fact, some of the best lit homes are fairly dark inside on overcast or stormy days. I don’t want to take some photos with my iPhone and some photos with my camera and then have to consolidate them. Not to mention that I do not think the average homeowner would like to see the appraiser take interior photos of their house with their phone.
Below are photos I took with my iPhone vs photos I took with my camera. The images from my iPhone are 600 x 800 pixels. I resized the photos from my camera to match. I did not retouch the photos. The photos on the left are from my iPhone.
The photos from the iPhone are not bad and could probably be used in my real estate appraisals. They are a little blurry and not quite as clear.
Below are photos I took while appraising a bank owned property. It was hard to get a picture with my iPhone that I would be able to use.
Most of my photos from this house did not turn out because the house was so dark.
I tried to take a few comparable photos with my iPhone. They were a bit of a challenge. The iPhone camera has a small delay that makes timing photos difficult sometimes. I was driving about 5 mpg when I took the photo below.
While the iPhone can not replace your camera (yet), it definitely makes a good backup camera.
Posted by Bryan McDonald (Follow me on Twitter)
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