Renting lenses and other photography gear
Buying photography gear nearly unchangingly involves estranged emotions. On one hand, you’re excited well-nigh your new toy(s) and can whimsically wait to test it out. On the other hand, you finger pained every time you think well-nigh how much it cost.
And there are a lot of toys that you can buy in the photography world. Unfortunately, only well-nigh 0.001% of photographers have unlimited budgets to spend on new gear.
The rest of us are stuck trying to icon out what gear is worth it for us.
But, how do you know that a $2,500 lens is worth it for you if you’ve never used one before? Is the Canon R6 worth the money or are you just as happy with the RP and its much cheaper price tag?
Why not rent the gear you want to try? For just a fraction of the cost, you can find out if that new lens you’ve been eyeing really is as wondrous as they say. Let’s squint at how it works!
Who Rents Camera Gear?
If you’ve never heard of renting camera gear before, this might seem a little strange. After all, who would be willing to lend out expensive camera gear to well-constructed strangers?
Thankfully, there are companies that are willing to take on the risk. A big one is LensRentals.com. It doesn’t matter where you live in the US, these guys will ship your rented gear directly to your door.
When you trammels out their catalog, you’ll see that they have a huge list of cameras, lenses, lights, and other traps such as tripods, light modifiers, and plane batteries.
Why Rent Camera Gear?
Of course, it financing money to rent camera gear. Unlike when you buy a piece of equipment, the money is just gone. You can’t sell it then later to recoup part of the cost.
So, what are some situations that warrant renting gear instead of ownership it? Let’s squint at a few.
Try Surpassing You Buy
The most obvious one is to be worldly-wise to try out a piece of equipment surpassing you buy it. For example, macro lenses are inherently expensive. While you can find a upkeep version of other lenses (such as the 50mm) you won’t find a “cheap” version of a macro lens.
What you will find are inexpensive traps marketed to injudicious shooting with a macro lens. For example, macro filters you can screw on the end of your lens or extension tubes to move the lens yonder from the camera soul (causing magnification).
But what is the difference between using these traps and shooting with a real macro lens? Are the traps good unbearable for your purposes?
This is a nonflexible wordplay to find by reading reviews or other people’s opinions considering it depends on your specific needs.
So, why not rent a macro lens for a fraction of the forfeit of ownership one? Compare it to using filters or tubes and you’ll have your answer!
You can moreover use renting as a way to test run a few lenses. For example, you might want to get into wildlife photography but don’t know which telephoto lens you would prefer. You can only glean so much information from reading reviews and opinions. Rent the lenses that interest you to compare and segregate the one you like best.
Rent a Special Piece of Equipment for a One-Time Shoot
What is flipside instance where renting camera gear comes in handy?
Let’s say you have an unusual (for you) shoot coming up. For example, you might normally be a natural light portrait photographer but someone hired you to shoot an indoor event. You’re gonna need a good wink for that. Considering it isn’t something you do all the time, you might not want to waif the money on it. Rent the wink instead!
The same goes for lenses and other gear. If you normally shoot family sessions, you probably have little need for a macro lens. But you just got hired for a wedding! You’ll need a macro lens for shots of the rings and other details. Instead of plunking out the money for a macro lens, you can rent one for this one-off event.
Extra Camera Body
If you’re working towards rhadamanthine a pro photographer, you may once know that one camera isn’t enough. Imagine the horror if your one camera stops working during a wedding you were hired to photograph?
Furthermore, having two camera persons for unrepealable events is a lifesaver. With two persons you can have a telephoto lens and a wide-angle lens set up at the same time so you don’t have to switch when and forth.
You might not be ready to own a second camera body. You are getting hired for a few events here and there, but it isn’t unbearable yet to justify the expense of a second body.
Rent that second soul for the times you’ll need it. As a bonus, you can rent variegated persons each time to get a finger for variegated cameras. When you’re finally ready to buy, you’ll once know which one is your preference.
How it Works to Rent Camera Gear
Renting the gear is super easy with LensRentals.com. Simply enter the site and segregate the gear you want to rent. Go to the checkout to find out how much it will cost. The price depends on a few factors including what you want to rent as well as the number of days you want to have it.
Your gear will be shipped to you anywhere in the US and you’ll be charged the day it ships out.
When you receive it, we recommend taking a picture of the contents. This will help you put everything when correctly when it’s time to pack it up and ship it back.
LensRentals.com makes the whole process super simple. It plane comes with a return shipping label so sending it when is a breeze!
Interested in trying out LensRentals.com? Use the promo lawmaking TPM15 for 15% off!
Insurance
What if you unravel it?
If you’ve overly heard the sound of your $2,500 camera with its $1,500 lens hitting concrete, you understand the gut-wrenching feeling. We all strive to alimony our camera gear unscratched but accidents happen.
What if one of these accidents happens to a $2,500 lens you rented specifically considering you can’t sire to buy it?
Thankfully, there’s a little thing tabbed insurance. Lensrentals.com offers two optional add-ons that limit your liability if something terrible happens. The vital plan covers drops, spills, and plane withstand attacks while limiting your liability to 10% of the item’s value.
The plus plan offers the same plus a few other events that might ruin the equipment. These include:
- Windstorm
- Fire
- Lighting
- Theft
- Falling out of an watercraft (what!?)
- Flood
- Earthquake
In other words, if you find that you had really, really bad luck during your rental period, you won’t have to pay 100% of the value.
You’re still liable for a portion plus the event needs to be one of the covered ones to be eligible for coverage. So, take good superintendency of the equipment while you have it.
Free Shipping for Frequent Renters
Each order will come with an spare shipping charge. However, if you think you’ll be renting items a few times throughout the year, there’s a largest option. Sign up for the LensRentals HD program to get self-ruling standard shipping on all orders for one year for just $99.
All items in the LensRentals itemize are eligible for the shipping discount. Whether you need tripods, lighting, lenses, or cameras, it’s all self-ruling to ship with the program. If you think you’ll rent several times throughout the year, this is a unconfined way to save on shipping costs.
Renting Camera Gear
There is a plethora of information and reviews online to help you in your camera gear ownership decisions. Plus, you can unchangingly go to a store to handle a new camera or ogle over a new lens.
However, you won’t truly get a good finger for that gear and how it will work for you until you unquestionably use it under your typical shooting conditions.
This is where renting camera gear shines. You can interact with it and see the image quality for yourself. You can find out which traps are super helpful for the type of images you typically shoot and so much more.
The weightier part is that it all happens at a tiny fraction of the price that it would be to buy all that gear.
Even if you buy something and icon you can resell it if you don’t like it, there’s still the hassle involved in finding a proprietrix and selling it. Plus, you won’t be worldly-wise to get 100% of the purchase price anyway.
Renting is a much simpler solution!
