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What’s the Minimum Amount of Megapixels Needed for Real Estate Photography?

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What's the Minimum Amount of Megapixels Needed for Real Estate Photography?

The absolute minimum amount of megapixels needed for real estate photography is 12 megapixels. However, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t purchase a camera with at least 20 megapixels, even if you only intend to photography real estate.

In this article, I’ll explain why 20 megapixels should be the standard minimum for real estate photography.

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Megapixels Needed for Standard MLS Photos

If we’re talking about the bare minimum, 12 megapixels is sufficient for standard MLS listing photos because it provides a high enough resolution for most real estate uses.

A camera with 12 megapixels, like the Sony A7S for example, is still able to produce high-quality images that can be enlarged on a phone or computer and still retain their sharpness and clarity.

Also, many MLS systems have a standard size and resolution requirement for photos, and 12 megapixels is often enough to meet those requirements.

Generally speaking, 12 megapixel cameras provide a decent balance of image quality, file size, and purchase price. They make a great entry level type camera for someone that is just exploring real estate photography and isn’t sure if they want to make it a full time job.

However, there are some major drawbacks that become very apparent once you start to get a lot of jobs and real estate photography becomes your full-time job, or even a large portion of your income.

 

More Megapixels is Great for Editing

Working with more megapixels when editing real estate photography is very helpful because the larger amount of pixels provide more information and detail in the image.

This becomes important when cropping, retouching, bringing out shadows or turning down highlights, and making other adjustments. When an image has more megapixels, it has more pixels that capture information about the scene.

For example, when cropping, there are more pixels available to work with, which can help to maintain image quality and sharpness. If you are going to crop out 1/5 of the photo, you are also going to crop out 1/5 of the pixels.

Additionally, more megapixels can be useful when retouching an image as there is more detail to work with, which can make it easier to make adjustments like pulling details out from shadows or removing blown out highlights.

Of course, there is a point at which you simply are going overboard with the amount of megapixels. Some cameras, and even some phones, come with 60+ megapixels, which would cause far more problems for a real estate photographer than it would help.

Keep in mind that megapixels directly effects the file size of the image. So the more megapixels, the larger the file size. Unless you have an extremely fast computer, an image with 60+ megapixels is going to take forever to download, edit, and upload. To the point where it’s simply not worth it.

In my 8 years working as a professional real estate photographer, I’ve found that 24 megapixels is the perfect amount. I’ve come to this conclusion for a few reasons:

  1. Most full frame cameras come with 24 megapixels, and I highly recommend using a full frame camera.
  2. 24 megapixels allows you to use your photos for more than just MLS listings.
  3. Images shot at 24 megapixels are small enough where they won’t slow down your computer, but large enough where you won’t sacrifice any quality.

In truth, anywhere between 20 – 28 megapixels will probably achieve all 3 things listed above. Likewise, cameras with 12 megapixels have a much harder time achieving the same results.

Licensing Your Photos to 3rd Parties Needs More Megapixels

Beyond the editing advantages that come with ~20 megapixels, there are serious and practical reasons that you need at least 20 megapixels in order to make as much money as possible as a real estate photographer.

Using images shot at at least 20 megapixels is better for high-end clients like interior designers, architects, home builders, etc. because it provides them with more flexibility and higher quality images.

High-end clients often require images that are captured at a higher resolution and quality than what is required for standard MLS listings.

They may use the images to create detailed architectural and interior designs, or to create marketing materials like brochures and billboards, which require images with a high level of sharpness, detail, and available data.

Additionally, high-end clients may want to make large prints of the images, such as posters or murals, which require a high resolution image to maintain image quality when enlarged.

Creating a large scale print with an image captured using a 12 megapixel camera is a dangerous game. The larger the print, the more you risk losing a large amount of sharpness and quality, which won’t be tolerated by high-end clients.

With 20 megapixels, the images have a much larger number of pixels, which makes producing high-quality large prints easier and eliminates the danger of not being able to license your photos to high-end clients.

Another factor to consider is that high-end clients may want to do extensive editing or retouching to the images, such as removing unwanted elements or changing the lighting and color of the scene.

This goes back to everything we talked about in terms of why more megapixels are better for editing. If you send them a file that’s so small they won’t be able to make the adjustments needed, then you won’t be able to actually license them your photos.

The most important thing to understand here is that there is a lot of money to be made by licensing your images to 3rd parties. To learn more about it, check out our article A Guide to Licensing Your Past Real Estate Photos.

Recommendations

There are so many low cost options for 20 – 28 megapixel cameras that I don’t think the price tag justifies buying a 12 megapixel camera anymore. Check out our article Best Cameras for Real Estate Photography and look at the budget options.

The Nikon D750 in particular stands out as an excellent camera for real estate photography that is inexpensive and shoots at 24 megapixels. Check out our Nikon D750 Review for Real Estate Photography for more info.

Additionally, if you understand that there are more ways to make money in real estate photography than simply delivering images for the MLS, you can easily come to the conclusion that 12 megapixels in not enough pretty quickly.

Additional Resources

If you’re just getting started in real estate photography, check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of helpful articles and tips that will guide you in the right direction as you begin your real estate photography journey.

You can check out our Gear section as well to see reviews and recommendations on the latest real estate photography gear.

If you’re more interested in other resources that can help your real estate photography business, check out our Business Resources page.

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About author
Matthew Digati is a professional Real Estate and Architectural Photographer. Matthew has worked as a Real Estate and Architectural Photographer since 2015 and has photographed properties and projects all over the United States.
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