battles
Posts: 12
Location: United States
Registered: 4 Feb 2010
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before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 14:16 GMT
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Morning all,
So my friend, a real estate agent contacted me to possibly do some 360˚ panos of some listings. This could go beyond her and spread to other agents.
Anyway, before I invest $$$ into equipment, I have a few more questions.
1. Seems like if I rent an 8mm lens, pano head, et al. Unless I do more than one house in a day, I'll barely break even. I guess that's based on what I think the market here will support.
2. Do your real estate clients like the full-spherical or cylindrical panos?
3. Would the 8mm lens on a cropped DSLR, be good for both spherical and cylindrical panos?
thanks!
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hindenhaag
Posts: 729
Location: Netherlands
Registered: 7 Mar 2010
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 15:23 GMT
updated: 12 Apr 2011 at 15:25 GMT
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Hi,
www.lensrentals.com/contact
Ask Bill at Nodal Ninja about renting a pano head. www.nodalninja.com.
3. Yes that will do. If renting a lens is too expensive, you could go for a Samyang 8mm/f3.5, a manual lens but very good optical quality for €289.
Just check Amazon or B&H.
That way you might start up with lower risk.
I think Doug will step into 2. 
Regards,
Heinz
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 16:17 GMT
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battles
I do a lot of real estate still photography and virtual tours
1. I'd suggest the Sunex 5.6mm and their proprietary pano head on a cropped sensor DSLR. Three shots around horizontal with no need for a Zenith or Nadir shot, and lots of overlap for easy stitching. Resolution & sharpness is more than enough for real estate work.
But I don't think you can rent one.
Or look at the Sigma 4.5mm
Making any money depends on what your can charge
The cost of the Sunex with pano head is about $1,000, so I'd pay for it in 10 tours not counting what I charge for still photos. I did 33 last year, but would have done more as I was out of town a lot.
2. Most real estate agents don't know there's a difference. I promote my full spherical images as a way to show expensive vigas, beams and cathedral ceilings, that some of my competition can't. My appraoch has been to offer what I consider a better product (spherical) at a competitive price and point it out to potential customers.
3. An 8mm like the Sigma can produce both types of images as can the Samyang, but the Samyang usually needs more shots.
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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DemonDuck
Posts: 312
Location:
Registered: 10 Mar 2011
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 17:10 GMT
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You got a contract and you don't even have equipment?
Man, I'm jealous.
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hindenhaag
Posts: 729
Location: Netherlands
Registered: 7 Mar 2010
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mediavets
Posts: 1980
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 18:01 GMT
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Doug Aurand said: battles
I do a lot of real estate still photography and virtual tours
1. I'd suggest the Sunex 5.6mm and their proprietary pano head on a cropped sensor DSLR. Three shots around horizontal with no need for a Zenith or Nadir shot, and lots of overlap for easy stitching. Resolution & sharpness is more than enough for real estate work.
But I don't think you can rent one.
Or look at the Sigma 4.5mm
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
If these lens options are the optimum for real estate work in your opinion why don't you use either of them?
Andrew
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 18:20 GMT
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mediavets said: Doug Aurand said: battles
I do a lot of real estate still photography and virtual tours
1. I'd suggest the Sunex 5.6mm and their proprietary pano head on a cropped sensor DSLR. Three shots around horizontal with no need for a Zenith or Nadir shot, and lots of overlap for easy stitching. Resolution & sharpness is more than enough for real estate work.
But I don't think you can rent one.
Or look at the Sigma 4.5mm
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
If these lens options are the optimum for real estate work in your opinion why don't you use either of them?
Andrew
Because I was lucky enought to buy a $4,500 Coastal Optics 4.88mm (shoots a like the Sunex 5.6mm & Sigma 4.5mm) for $1,500 on eBay
If I hadn't I'd use either the Sunex or Sigma 4.5mm
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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battles
Posts: 12
Location: United States
Registered: 4 Feb 2010
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 18:39 GMT
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@Heinz: thank you, I was not aware that I could rent the NN from them and thank you for providing that link... very useful.
@Doug Aurand: great advice, thank you. I might try the Sigma cause I can rent that one relatively easily.
@DemonDuck: Well, no contract yet. Preliminary talks... fingers crossed.
So I think I'd try the Sigma 4.5.
I am assuming I could also use that to provide either the spherical or cylindrical, by way of software.
Which goes to my next question, which I am sure has been asked to death. Software...
I used a trial of PTGUI, and honestly, I didn't really like it. That was a year ago and perhaps they've made a few adjustments.
I'd like something that would allow me to provide many options to the client, ie spherical/cylindrical, different formats, HTML, swf, .mov. I dont think I'd be getting into the linked tour thing, but maybe. I can do my RAW processing in Capture One/photoshop then import the images to the pano software. I use a lot of software thru out my 9-5 and Im not looking for a huge learning curve, but something I can churn out some panos for clients pretty fast.... Any thoughts there?
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 19:26 GMT
updated: 12 Apr 2011 at 19:28 GMT
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battles
You'll mainly need a stitching program and a tour authoring program.
And a few others that are very handy
PTGui is what most here use, if you use the Sigma 4.5mm and have the No Parallax Point set correctly on your pano head, it will stitch pretty easy.
There's a set of source pics from the Sigma 4.5mm on www.360precision.com you can download and test stitch. They have a Zenith shot, but you don't need it
For basic real estate tours, Easypano's Tourweaver Lite and Standard are affordable and easy to use
Here's a tour I did with it. The skin is a modified skin that came with the program
vabq.com/9705DesertMountainNE/TourWeaver_9705DesertMountainNE.html
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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battles
Posts: 12
Location: United States
Registered: 4 Feb 2010
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 21:10 GMT
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Thanks for the links Doug. The 4.5 seems to have a lot of purple fringing. I could correct this in C1. The longer focal lengths seem to look better to me. I know they'd require more images, but I dunno, they look better.
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mediavets
Posts: 1980
Location: Isleham, Cambs., United Kingdom
Registered: 8 Feb 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 21:46 GMT
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battles said: Thanks for the links Doug. The 4.5 seems to have a lot of purple fringing. I could correct this in C1. The longer focal lengths seem to look better to me. I know they'd require more images, but I dunno, they look better.
What camera(s) do you plan to use for shooting panos?
Andrew
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battles
Posts: 12
Location: United States
Registered: 4 Feb 2010
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 22:55 GMT
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Hello Andrew,
I plan on using a T1i.
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tturner
Posts: 218
Location: Dallas,TX, United States
Registered: 28 May 2006
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 12 Apr 2011 at 23:47 GMT
updated: 12 Apr 2011 at 23:50 GMT
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Greetings Battles,
Just some thoughts and I am not trying to discurage but just passing on knowledge from shooting real estate pans for over 6 years.
Have you set a price with your friend for the panoramic services that they want? Realtors want to pay as little as possible.
Do you know what the other potential realtors are willing to pay for your services or how much your competitors charge?
The pans need a platform to be viewed from. Web page, hosting services whatever. I use VRGuild for my hosting platform. They have access to Realtor.com which most realtors requesting VT,s want (at least in my area). You can set up your own account with Realtor.com if you want after their approval of your platform (Doug has his approved).
If you rent you gear you will have to set up the camera, lens and head everytime you work (look up nodal point on this forum). Most people set and forget due to the fine tune and timely process. Rental gear settings I would guess would be different everytime.
Finally, I have found that realtors use of VT's in my market is on the decline. Most now only want 25 stills for posting on the local MLS and their agency website and call it a day. This is true for shacks up to multi-million dollar homes.
Good Luck,
TTurner
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 13 Apr 2011 at 1:07 GMT
updated: 13 Apr 2011 at 1:08 GMT
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TTurner
I just found out what the deal is about 25 still photos.
If the agent participates in one of Realtor.com's marketing programs and their listings have 25 photos, the listing gets a higher placement in the search results.
I'm pitching my still photos and virtual tours to a group of Prudential agents tomorrow morning.
In prepping for the presentation, I discovered none of my competition has full screen viewing of either stills or virtual images like Tourweaver does. So my emphasis is going to be Full Screen Viewing option of without paying to be in the marketing program.
I'll let you know what the response is
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: before I get started...
Posted: 13 Apr 2011 at 2:31 GMT
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battles
Before you decide on a lens, you should take a look at your future competition's product.
Spherical v cylindrical
Flash v Java viewers
Full Screen v not full screen
If they charge extra for stills
Those are the things that decide what you need as far as equipment, software, etc
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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