When choosing a camera, choose a great lens
Currently, the market is simply over-saturated with camera model choices that can be used by architects and builders, but you can rest easy that the #1 criteria is simple: all great digital cameras use a great lens. If the seller of the camera you're interested in doesn't list the lens, by all means ask for that information, and if they can't tell you what it is, you simply shouldn't buy it for this purpose. Great lens manufacturers include Canon, Olympus, Nikon and Car Zeiss. The optimal choice, if your budget allows for it, is a Leica lens, which are legendary among professional photographers for their incredible clarity, imaging, and detail.
A great lens alone, however, will not ensure that your pictures will be clear and crisp, but a mediocre lens is guaranteed to limit your ability to accurately document any construction project.
If the basics of photography and digital photo organization seem mystifying or just unnecessarily time-consuming, you'll be happy to know that thanks to the prolific advances in digital camera technology, it's now possible to contract dedicated construction photo specialists for a lesser amount than you'll end up saving by using the service both during and after construction, especially on large and/or complex projects. It's really only been in the last 2 years that this has become a viable or cost-effective option in most metropolitan areas, and it's definitely worth looking into considering the built-in organization and time/date indexing available for sorting your project's photos online as they come out.
Professional Construction Photographers
There is little doubt that there will soon be several professional construction photographers servicing all of North America, but at this time there are only a few highly recommended choices within the industry. The most highly recommended is Multivista, which is by far the leader in percentage of project square feet documented each year. Theirs is the only professional construction site photographer service able to perform regular, comprehensive construction documentation on any project in North America. Also worth noting is that their online photo viewer is heads-and-shoulders ahead of the competition at this time.
Almost any general contractor, risk management professional or lawyer will agree that construction photo documentation is a key strategy on almost any job. Uses for construction photos abound: as construction progress documentation; protection against future litigation; proof of pre-existing conditions on the job site; as-built documentation of mechanical, electrical & plumbing systems; and as a visual as-built reference for future maintenance work to name a few. The question of which pictures to take depends largely on how you plan to use the photos both during and after construction, which will be exactly the topic of the next column.
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