I just started my business in October, 2009. I bought a 12.1 mp Canon PowerShot SD780 IS and an 8 GB memory card. For a printer I purchased an all in one HP LaserJet M1319f. I don't find it necessary to print in colour as the real digital photos will be on CD for the client. My final reports will have thumbnails of the images in B&W ontop of each description of the item.
I'm using a HP Photosmart 435. I always use lowest reselution to take my photo's and that is so a client or Adjuster can download photo's to insurance companies if they choose. Insurance companies frown on large files. I use a Fuji S9000 for macro's of fine jewelary and Label's were clarity is a must. You can get away with not having macro to start if the pricing is too high for now.
We are using an Olympus E500. It came with two lenses and we also bought another Macro lens for the Jewelry shots. All in all we have put about $2000 into our camera (this includes the case and extra batteries and memory cards). We wanted it to look professional to a client, not just coming in with a cheap point and shoot camera. This is how we present it as something that we can do for them and not just something they can do themselves.
Darin- currently Iam using this camera but finding that when the extra-wide lense is attached, it gets in the way of the flash...so I'm trying to figure out what todo about that. Also will be using aother camera for the macro feature as well- camera overall is great though.
Being a big fan of photography for years I am seriously curious as to what cameras you all are using out there doing inventories. I thought that I would throw this one out there in hopes that it might help others just getting started since there are seemingly limitless choices available to us.
Maybe we could use a simple format like this:
Make/Model of camera
Megapixels/Resolution
Size of LCD
Optical Zoom Ratio
What resolution do you shoot at?
How much memory card storage do you typically use on a job?
