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360 CamerasCivil EngineeringInventory BuildingMarketingNewbies

Best camera and tour software for inventory building11040

sam17 private msg quote post Address this user
Hi all,

I wish to leave my employed job on a civil engineering company to start my own business.
Actually, where I live, and on this field, we do always more and more inventory of the neighborhoods (houses, roads and etc), before starting a new project. This type of work is growing exponentially since almost every neighbor, now, ask for an inventory for their house before new construction.

The company where I work does those kinds of reports, but old school. We simply take pictures, we make a draft of the floor plan, and to a word report. I think, nowadays, that is too much work for bad quality.

So I would want to start this business, but I'll need to find the best compromise with the camera and software. Here are the most important points:

- Great quality image for 360° image. I really need to have a great zoom feature with great quality, to see the even smallest details. This is the most important point.
- Tour feature needed to be easier to understand where the defaults are (having a schematic floor plan, with the positions of the 360° images would be great)
- Easy platform to share with the house owner and the building company. Those reports need to be available to watch at the end of the construction.

Also, not to rely only on those kinds of reports, I will do 3D tours for real estate companies.

Which software and camera would you recommend for this kind of work?

Thank you!
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WeGoVirtual private msg quote post Address this user
Hi Sam17,

good decision! Regarding your questions:

360 cameras lack the kind of resolution you need. I see an easy and a less easy choice, depending on your experience with DSLR cameras:

The easy (if less experienced) is to combine a good 360 camera (Insta360 Pro 2) with a DSLR camera. Shoot the tour with the 360 camera, and use the DSLR camera for additional photos whenever zoom/detail is needed. The tour software will allow you to integrate the photos easily into the tour via clickable hotspots.

A more demanding way is to shoot the whole tour with a good full frame DSLR camera (e.g. Canon 5D Mark IV) and a good wide angle objectif like the Canon EF 16-35 III USM, which has an electronic focus and zoom, thus avoids changing the lens frequently. The camera is mounted on a panoramic gimbal head (e.g. Nodal Ninja Ultimate M2) which in turn is mounted on a tripod.

Software: 3DVista Pro which runs on your desktop and offers a wide range of possibilities - all you'll need.

Good luck!
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VTLV private msg quote post Address this user
This is where I am stuck at. Using matterport is great, but not everyone has the budget to pay for the service. So things like dslr shoots certainly help to keep business rolling in and offering Zillow 3D as upgrades to have some 3D.

Floor plans have been a great offering with CubiCasa.

@WeGoVirtual - mentions 3D vista as a great resource to use. Where again cost comes into play to host your tours. You can add a floor plan into the tour as well as links to galleries and other information.

I keep looking at other alternatives. But everything becomes monthly hosting platforms.

Take a look at 3D vista as mentioned above and report your thoughts back. Might save some time before investing 130 different platforms Dan has taken the time to document for us all. I got about 30 deep and got too busy to get back to.
Post 3 IP   flag post
WeGoVirtual private msg quote post Address this user
With a good (non-Matterport) 360 camera like the Insta360 Pro 2 and a good dslr for high res shots you are independent from hosting sites, you chose your own. It can be any web hosting company and doesn't need to be one specialized in 360 tours. That makes it a lot (!) cheaper. In the market Sam17 is aiming at, many clients may want the inventory tour been copied to their site anyway.
Post 4 IP   flag post
sam17 private msg quote post Address this user
Thank you for your replys!

Well i'm not really experienced with DSLR cameras, so the easy choice will be better for me.
I'm going to check 3D vista to see if it suits me! Of course that it would be better not to rely on a cloud, on my case.

I forgot to mention that I will also need to do road inventory, so need to find a camera to mount also on top of a car...I believe that for the insta360 II, it exist this kind of support?

Thanks again!
Post 5 IP   flag post
WeGoVirtual private msg quote post Address this user
Sam17, the Insta360 Pro II is a bit heavy to put on the roof using a commercial device to hold it. Insta also have a light weight model, much cheaper, the "Insta360 One X" that does the job. Dan made a list of the most common rooftop mounts (see: 9 Rooftop Car Mounts for 360º Cameras for Google Street View). I use the Delkin, works fine.
Post 6 IP   flag post
WeGoVirtual private msg quote post Address this user
Matterport is not cloud based, they have their own servers and your tours stay on that server, Matterport "owns" them. With another camera model such as the Insta cameras - but there are many more - you are independent from Matterport and can copy the tour wherever you want. Any hosting provider will be OK, although some Virtual Tour hosting companies offer additional services, such as more or less sophisticated software to compose the tour, a decent bandwidth etc. You will pay that service, these companies are up to 10 times more expensive than normal web hosting companies.

For clients who need worldwide access, I use a hosting company in Amsterdam, which is a major world Internet node. For local Portuguese clients I have a hosting company in Lisbon. But many clients want the tour on their own server.
Post 7 IP   flag post
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