Best 360 camera for real estate: what to buy and how to shoot

For a real estate virtual tour, the right 360 camera is the one that takes clean 8K photos with HDR, fires from your phone and fits in an agent’s pocket. Today that means the mid-range (Insta360 X4 or X5, Ricoh Theta X). The high end, with larger sensors (Ricoh Theta Z1), handles dark interiors better and is what professional photographers pick. Entry-level cameras and phones are fine for experimenting, not for showing a home to a buyer. This guide covers what actually matters when you choose, which models sit in each tier, and how to shoot a listing in twenty minutes so the tour comes together in half an hour.

Once you have the photos, you can build your first tour free for 14 days, no credit card needed. (Andarama is ours, so weigh our software opinions accordingly; the camera advice holds whatever you use.)

What actually matters (and what doesn’t)

Manufacturers sell video: 8K, stabilization, slow motion. For real estate almost none of that counts. Here’s what does:

Criterion	Why it matters	What to look for
Photo resolution	Buyers zoom in; below 8K the image looks soft	Photos of at least 8192 × 4096 (about 30 megapixels after stitching)
HDR or bracketing	Living room with a window: either the window blows out or the room goes dark	Automatic photo HDR, or bracketing merged in the app
Sensor size	Dark interiors, noise	Bigger is better; 1-inch sensors are the high end
Remote-shooting app	You need to get out of the shot	Shoot from your phone with live preview and a timer
Clean automatic stitching	Seams at eye level give the tour away	In-camera or in-app stitching with no manual work
Equirectangular export	It’s the tour format	2:1 JPG with metadata; RAW (DNG) is a pro bonus
Battery life and startup	Ten listings in a morning	A full day’s battery and startup in seconds

What doesn’t matter: video resolution, waterproofing, stabilization and creative modes. If your marketing team will also use the camera for video, those count; for tours, they don’t.

The models, by tier

Prices change often and vary by retailer, so we give rough bands; check current prices before you buy.

Mid-range: the sweet spot

• Insta360 X4 and X5: 8K photos (roughly 70 megapixels), HDR, excellent stitching, and a very polished app with remote shooting and direct export of the equirectangular image to your camera roll. It’s what most brokerages that shoot their own tours carry. The X5 improves the sensor and the lenses (which are replaceable) over the X4. Price band: a few hundred dollars.
• Ricoh Theta X: photos up to 11K, a touchscreen on the camera itself (no phone needed to shoot) and good HDR. Less of an action camera, more of a work tool.

High end: for photographers and tricky interiors

• Ricoh Theta Z1: two 1-inch sensors, RAW in DNG, very clean 7K photos with little noise. It’s the benchmark among real estate photographers for interior image quality, in exchange for a lower nominal resolution and a higher price (around a thousand dollars). Stitching leaves a very small nadir.

Entry level and phones

• Older or used 360 cameras (Insta360 One X2, first-generation GoPro Max, Theta SC2): they work, and 5.7K to 6K photos are enough to get started, but it shows when you zoom in.
• A phone with a spherical panorama app: for testing the workflow, not for clients. We explain why in how to take a 360 photo with an iPhone.

Accessories you actually need

• A thin monopod with a base, 5 to 6.5 feet tall: the camera “erases” it during stitching because it sits in the blind spot between the two lenses. A regular tripod leaves its legs on the floor. If anything remains, a nadir patch with your brokerage’s logo covers it; Andarama applies it in the media library without touching the original.
• Spare batteries and a fast memory card.
• A bubble level on the monopod, or the leveling in the app: a tilted photo can be fixed later (Andarama has horizon leveling), but it’s better to avoid it.

How to shoot a listing in twenty minutes

1. Prep the home: lights on, blinds up, interior doors open, personal items put away, toilet lid down. A 360 photo shows everything.
2. Height: camera at about 5 feet; that’s eye level, and it’s what makes the viewer feel they’re standing in the room. Not on the table, not on the floor.
3. Position: the center of each room, or two spots in large and L-shaped rooms; one at the front door and one on the deck, patio or balcony.
4. HDR on for any room with windows.
5. Get out of the shot: fire from your phone with a timer while you stand behind a door or in the hallway.
6. Name the photos by room in the app if you have time; if not, Andarama’s importer renames them by pattern afterward.
7. Export the equirectangular JPGs to your phone or computer.

Eight to ten photos, twenty minutes. With Andarama’s 360 camera importer, the batch is uploaded, sorted, placed on the floor plan and turned into scenes in one go. The rest of the build is covered in our guide to real estate virtual tours.

From file to tour: what the software does

The camera delivers an equirectangular photo (2:1 aspect ratio, with XMP GPano metadata; if the term is new, see what an equirectangular image is). When you upload it to Andarama, the browser detects it as a panorama from the metadata or the aspect ratio and builds the tile pyramid on your graphics card, so the tour loads quickly at any zoom level. If an app has stripped the metadata, the aspect ratio is enough. The media library also has non-destructive fixes: horizon leveling, resetting the starting direction, nadir patches, and exposure and saturation adjustments.

Buy or hire out?

A mid-range camera pays for itself on the first listing if agents shoot their own tours: twenty minutes of photos versus a photographer’s per-shoot fee. A professional photographer with a Theta Z1 still makes sense for new construction, luxury homes and large commercial spaces, where image quality and lighting count and clients notice. Many brokerages do both: the office camera for everyday listings and the pro for the showcase properties.

A word on software, which is the smallest line item: Andarama is open source and installs free on an office computer, or you can use the hosted version from $2 a month for one tour; $500 a year gets you 500 tours without our badge and on your brokerage’s own domain. See how it fits an agency workflow on our real estate page. With Matterport, by contrast, the camera is only the beginning: the annual per-space fees and the closed export are laid out in how much Matterport costs.

Ready to turn this weekend’s photos into a tour? Start your free trial and upload the batch.