Best Canon Lens For Real Estate Photography – (The Ultimate Review)

What is the best canon lens for real estate photography? If you are in search of this question, the article should meet all of your queries.

First thing first. You will need a wide-angle lens for taking successful building pictures. Apart from this basic feature, it would be best to look for other attributes like focal length, low-light compatibility, low distortion level, optical stabilization, and many more that make you better than the ordinaries.

The article will discuss the best canon lens you can use for shooting property pictures and assist you with the appropriate buying guide to buy the best one.

My Recommended Top 5 Lens at a Glance:

Best Overall: Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Runner Up: Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens

Best Budget: Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Ultra-Wide-Angle Fixed Lens

Best For Full-Frame Cameras: Canon EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II USM Standard Zoom Lens

Best for Crop Sensor Cameras: Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art DC HSM Lens for Canon

Types Of Lenses For Real Estate Photography

As mentioned above, a wide-angle lens is preferable for this type of photography. If the lens is way too long, you may miss important details within the frame. Again, be careful while choosing an ultra-wide-angle lens as it may distort the image. However, wide-angle ones attract the customers’ attention and get the whole view within a single shot.

Tilt-shift Lens: The type of lens features its capability to alter the perspective and expand its angle. You will be able to get the exact vertical lines in your photos, which eliminates the convergence problem that most wide-angle lenses face. Tilt lens offers distortion-less images where you can still get the entire building in the frame by controlling the lens’s angle. Tilt shift lenses are usually expensive, but if you have the budget, get the best quality lens.

Fisheye Lens: This type of lens is generally used for taking interior pictures. The lens creates distortion within the images. If you are taking photography professionally, you should avoid the type of lens.

Zoom vs. Prime lens: Most young professionals get confused about whether to buy a zoom or prime lens when it comes to photography. The zoom lens offers versatility, which is suitable for the particular type of photography we’re discussing. You’ll have different subjects of different shapes and sizes. A zoom lens should assist you with its capability to maneuvering focal lengths. Additionally, they produce sharp and almost distortion-free images.

The prime lens, on the other hand, comes with a fixed focal length where you need to use your feet to adjust the subject properly. A prime lens provides many other benefits, including sharper images.

Most professionals end up choosing a wide-angle zoom lens for their daily usage utilizing the zoom lens’s versatility.

5 Best Canon Lens For Real Estate Photography: The Reviews

In search of the best real estate photography lens, we researched a lot from various sources. Based on our thorough research process, we could choose the following products and categorized them accordingly where they fit best.

1. Best Overall: Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Lens Specifications:

• Maximum focal length: 35mm
• Aperture range: f/4-f/22
• Diagonal Angle of View: 108°10′ – 63°
• Filter Thread: 77mm
• Aperture blade: 9
• Canon’s premium quality camera lens

Available On Amazon

If you are after amazing image quality with a wide-angle lens to capture real-estate photos, the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L is for you only. Its light resolution and sharper corners are better than any other contemporary wide-angle lenses.

Canon EF 16-35mm offers top of the class L-series optics and compact construction. The ultra-wide-angle zoom also integrates an optical image stabilizer and offers up to four stops of correction for admirable performance, even in low light conditions. It includes three aspheric lens elements and 2 UD lens elements to diminish aberrations throughout the zoom range. As a professional property photographer, you ought to be amazed by its sharpness from corner to corner.

The lens features inner focusing and ring USM for accurate and faster AF. It also offers full-time manual focus and has a minimum focusing distance of 0.28m across the entire zoom range.

The aperture the lens provides is perfect to date for taking pictures of buildings in the wide zoom category. The lens is designed to function even in unfavorable weather conditions as it is dust-resistant and water-resistant.

2. Runner Up: Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM Lens

Lens Specifications:

• Maximum focal length: 18mm
• Aperture range: f/4.5-f/29
• Diagonal Angle of View: 107°30′ – 74°20′
• Aperture blade: 7
• Filter thread: 67mm
• Closest Focusing Distance: 0.72 ft

Available On Amazon

If you are looking for a durable camera lens with great picture quality, the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 can be a great option. The ultra-wide-angle lens captures a wonderful landscape of property photos.

The Canon 10-18mm is great for interior shots that cover a lot within the frame. It is equipped with a four-group optical zoom system. It includes a large-diameter element, an aspherical lens element, a UD lens element and enhanced lens coatings for high-contrast, high-resolution photos with minimal glare and aberration.

The Canon Optical Image Stabilizer system is incorporated into the lens to provide up to four equivalent stops of shake correction. A circular, 7-blade aperture ensures fine background blur. It also has a rear focusing system with a high-speed CPU and an improved AF algorithm for high-speed AF. Moreover, it offers full-time manual focus that allows you to adjust settings easily and according to your criteria.

If you are interested in making videos for clients and your looking for the best lens for real estate, the lens offers you a stepping motor and a refined focus mechanism for easy and continuous AF during video recording. Its f/4.5-5.6 aperture takes amazing photos during daylight but deteriorates a bit in dim light situations. Also, shooting at 10mm may create distortion that can be fixed in post-photography processing.

3. Best Budget: Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Ultra-Wide-Angle Fixed Lens

Lens Specifications:

• Maximum focal length: 14mm (fixed)
• Aperture Range: F2.8 to F22
• Minimum Focusing Distance: 10.8 inches
• 7° view on full-frame cameras
• Aperture blade: 10
• Filter thread: 87mm

Available On Amazon

If you want a cheap yet excellent quality wide-angle lens, nothing beats the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 full-frame ultra-wide-angle lens. The lens is designed to provide a dramatic 115.7° view on full-frame cameras and 90° with Canon APS-C cameras perfect for real estate photography and other landscapes.

The lens is equipped with advanced 14 elements 10 group design that focuses on a close 0.28mm to produce sharply defined images with a minimum of distortion and chromatic aberrations. It also utilizes 2 ED elements, one hybrid aspherical element and one glass aspherical element, for outstanding, sharply defined rectilinear images.

The ultra-wide-angle Rokinon utilizes Ultra Multi-Coating to reduce flare and ghosting while increasing light transmission and contrast. Its low coma helps prevent comatic aberration that looks like a comet’s tail that can occur from a point source of light.

4. Best For Full-Frame Cameras: Canon EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II USM Standard Zoom Lens

Lens Specifications:

• Maximum focal length: 70mm
• Aperture range: 2.8-22
• Diagonal angle of view: 84° – 34°
• Filter thread: 82mm
• Closest Focusing Distance: 1.25 feet
• Aperture blade: 9

Available On Amazon

If you own a full-frame camera and want the best Canon lens for real state photography, Canon EF 24-70mm F/2.8L II USM lens should meet your thirst. The updated L-series model aims to establish a new standard for superb optics, high-end durable construction and performance in professional zoom lenses.

If you still haven’t decided which focal length is perfect for you, the EF 24-70mm can be a great option to explore. The wide range of focal lengths allows us to take versatile photos, including houses’ interior and exterior.

The lens excels with the latest optical lens design that utilizes 1 Super UD lens element and 2 UD lens elements to minimize chromatic aberration in the periphery at wide-angle. It also reduces color blurring around the edges of the subject.

Besides, two types of aspherical lenses combinedly help reduce spherical aberration over the whole image area and through the full zoom range. It’s optimized lens coatings also ensure exceptional color balance while minimizing ghosting.

5. Best for Crop Sensor Cameras: Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art DC HSM Lens for Canon

Lens Specifications:

• Maximum focal length: 35mm
• Aperture range: f/1.8- f/16
• Minimum focusing distance: 28 cm
• Aperture blade: 9
• Filter Thread: 72mm

Available On Amazon

Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 DC HSM is the first wide-angle to standard zoom lens to achieve a large aperture of 1.8. specifically designed for APS-C sized sensors. The lens comes with a Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) to ensure smooth, fast and accurate autofocusing that you will love the most.

The 18-35mm is ideal for landscapes, including real estate photos, portraits, still life, snapshots, casual, and close-ups. The lens also incorporates a wide glass-molded aspherical lens with Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass to eliminate aberrations and curvature at the widest angle.

The Sigma lens offers a maximum aperture of f/1.8 that allows you to take incredible pictures even in the low-light. If you are interested in capturing interior pictures, you won’t regret getting a high-quality lens.

The manufacturer claims the lens to be strongly durable using Thermally Composite Material (TSC). It also works with the Sigma USB dock for further customization.

Things to Consider Before Buy: The Buying Guide

When choosing the best lens, you need to consider the focal length, notably. Also, there’re some other factors to take care of. In this section, we will discuss those for a smart buy.

Focal Length

It determines the field of view of any particular lens and is represented in millimeters (mm). As said earlier, wide-angle lenses perform better for capturing pictures of the buildings. The shorter the focal length is, the wider the angle gets.

As newbie photographers, many blindly go and buy ultra-wide-angle lenses. But the wider the lens gets, the level of distortion and edge-stretching increases. That’s why we recommend sticking with the focal range of 15-35mm. Also, consider the focal length based on the type of sensor used in your camera. Crop sensor cameras require a smaller focal length lens than full-frame cameras. Remember, the wrong focal length can affect your photos drastically.

Aperture

It controls the amount of light getting into the lens that affects the depth of field. Aperture is measured by f-stops. A high f-stop like f-16 represents a narrow shutter opening. Again, a low f-stop like f/1.8 or f/2.8 represents a wide opening.

For property photography, you mostly need lenses with higher apertures. If you even shoot in low-light or indoor, you hardly need a lens over f/2.8 aperture. The most commonly used aperture range is f/5.6 to f/22. So, don’t spend much just to buy lower aperture lenses.

Distortion

Wide-angle lenses capture beautiful building images, but they offer a high distortion and flare level. Most advanced lenses are designed with elements that effectively minimize flare. They also help in minimizing the level of distortion. Even after if you find them in images, you need to fix them in post-photography processes.

The pricier the lens becomes, the less distortion it offers. Also, if you want to remove the straight lines from your camera, a Tilt-Shift lens can come handful. This may be expensive, but the small things will make the client pay you more if you are doing it professionally.

Image Stabilization

Stability is vital for a property lens. You may depend on a tripod that minimizes the shaking effect. However, you may not carry a tripod everywhere you go. That’s why having an image stabilization feature should be present in your wide-angle lens.

How To Fix Lens Distortion In Real Estate Images?

Distortion in any type of photography is undesirable as it intentionally distorts the actual image. Distortion in photography is also unwanted as it very often turns a straight line into a curved one. Sometimes, distortion appears in pictures by making two parallel lines seem “lean” in or out.

There are different ways to lessen the level of distortion from real estate images. You can either do it manually or look if the lens has a correction option in the post-photoshoot software. Most advanced camera lenses offer correction profiles in the raw conversion software you’ll be using, like Adobe Lightroom or Photomatix. Make sure the correction profiles are turned on, and you are good to go. Expect not to get any wobbly line in the photos.

If your lens doesn’t have any electrical contact, don’t panic already. The profile is still available in Lightroom. You only need to select it manually.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing gears for a camera, you need to consider the kits that ensure excellent image quality. For photography, you need a lens that reduces distortion and offers good light transmission. The lenses we have covered are quite popular in the market and to the enthusiasts for performing better than the others.

We hope the article helps you choose the best lens. Also, don’t forget to look into the buying guide section before purchasing a lens with such expense.

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