Suggested PPE Items?

Keep some band aids handy for cuts and scrapes. Also, think about getting a personal CO detector. I use the one below clipped to my tool bag that moves around the home with me. It is good PPE and a good inspection tool at the same time.

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So, it lasts for 2 years?

From your link:

Please Note: Once activated, these units cannot be shut down and will continue to run for their two year life span prohibiting these items from being shipped because the alarm may be activated during transit. Additionally, these items are unable to be resold after activation. Of course, if you haven’t yet activated your monitor, we will happily take it back.

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Yep. The idea being that you don’t have to mess with calibration and it is always on.

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And they can be shipped when new and not activated yet.

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Curious why you all use separate cameras instead of just your smart phones?
I was checking out cameras, but most of them don’t do wide angle like phones do. I’m always zooming out to get the whole room, or the whole side of the home.
Plus, some new phones zoom 100x

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Do you have a card in your phone like my camera does to backup images incase your phone goes to sh*it?

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3 reasons for me

  1. I do all my reports at my desktop so moving them from my phone would be an extra step.
  2. My phone battery likely would not last thru my commercial jobs.
  3. Old habits are hard to break. :wink:
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Well, for one thing, my iPhone can’t get through an entire inspection when using the camera before the battery craps out. :man_shrugging:

…and what he said :point_up_2:

What he said again.

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I use both my iPad and iPhone for pics onsite. They are both older versions but still take great pics. Both sync the pics to each other, so all are available on my iPad, where my reports are generated from. For me, it’s less trouble than cards and additional downloading.

I don’t plug in a card. I plug in my camera.
I didn’t think Hillbillies knew how to use a ipad. :grinning:

I just plug it in to my computer every night and download the pics to my hard drive. Takes about 30 seconds for each inspection. (couple hundred photos each) Then I can just drag and drop those photos to the report as needed.
Actually, most of my photos are already where they belong on the report while onsite, but I can drag additional as needed

Can your camera do wide shots?

Wow! That is a lot for a report. I’ve always averaged 50-75 per report.

Where would you need that?

They dont all go into the report, they just go into my files for CYA.

I use it all the time, to get the whole side of the home in one pic, rooftops, to get the whole kitchen, etc. Normal focus only gets about half the shot the wide can.

I do not thinks so, wide enough I suppose. Of course, I can always use panorama :smile:

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Not sure exactly what camera Brian is using, but the one I’m probably going to purchase has a 24-960mm focal length, that’s a pretty decent field of view to capture exterior images and should be good enough for anything interior except maybe a small closet. Most real estate photographers use a lens with a focal length between 14-35mm for exterior photos. Most cellphones have a fixed “wide” focal length of somewhere between 24mm and 27mm.

I’ve said it before, but if you’re using your camera for a web photo or a pdf too many megapixels is a waste. All your doing with high megapixel photos is making them take longer to load and require more space to store. PDFs will be too large to email. Either way the pictures will be displayed on a low resolution (comparatively) computer screen.

If you have a high megapixel camera you would be well advised to use an app like Fast Stone picture resizer to bulk change all your pictures to a smaller (lower resolution) size and you can add a custom watermark at the same time.

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yea, i just realized my phone did this recently. I use fish eye shots in almost every report now.

Not dan, but i recently got an extra phone, with an insurance plan, for reporting. If i drop it in a bathtub full of water, i may have to re-do some parts of the inspection but I can use my personal phone as a back up. then i go to the apple store and have the trashed one replaced for $100. new screens are $30

not the cheapest route for taking pictures, but i am finished with point and shoots! finished I say!

yea, that was happenings when I was using an iphone 12. it couldnt make it through two inspections without a battery pack.

This battery pack is great! I have two of them in my bag. it somehow charges phones VERY fast. like an entire charge in 30-40 mins

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