Lens rentals

ShepsMom · September 2, 2007

How many of you rent lenses? I was looking to rent one for upcoming shooting, and contacted local businesses such as Ritz/Wolf camera, i couldn't find anyone else in town. They apparently don't rent any longer :scratch So my question is, have you tried out of state/town rental services? How do they work, prices, etc?

Thank you for any information!

Andy · September 2, 2007

Try http://www.borrowlenses.com

ShepsMom · September 2, 2007

Thank you Andy, i visited that site earlier today, i'll give them a call.

Hmm, what are my choices there? I need a lens for 16th birthday, there will be a lot of teens, and it's inside of the large building. I'm assuming low light. I will visit location closer to the date. They want inside/outside shots, group shots probably. I'll be meeting mom on saturday to get more details. I need to figure out what lens to get..... Any suggestions? I'm thinking 17-55mm f/2.8 should do.

scottV · September 2, 2007

I have used www.rentglass.com before, pretty good.

claudermilk · September 2, 2007

I actually have a rental sitting next to me right now (starting my long tele research with a 100-400). This one's from a local place, but I've heard nothing bu good things about rentglass, I'm also looking to lensrentals as they have several I'm considering.

ian408 · September 2, 2007

ShepsMom wrote:

Thank you Andy, i visited that site earlier today, i'll give them a call.

Hmm, what are my choices there? I need a lens for 16th birthday, there will be a lot of teens, and it's inside of the large building. I'm assuming low light. I will visit location closer to the date. They want inside/outside shots, group shots probably. I'll be meeting mom on saturday to get more details. I need to figure out what lens to get..... Any suggestions? I'm thinking 17-55mm f/2.8 should do.

70-200 f/2.8?

ShepsMom · September 2, 2007

Thank you guys, i will check rentglass as well, it's funny, no one in my town rents. I'm assuming this isn't as common as i thought it would be. Ian, you suggesting 17-200? What would be the difference between this and 17-55, the reason i'm asking, 70-200 seems a lot bigger. I have 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 but it doesn't do a good job in a low light.

Bendr · September 3, 2007

While, I havn't personally tried them(might be trying them for the glacier shootout) some people in another forum have had good success with Lensrentals.com (http://www.lensrentals.com/)

They have good reviews on reseller ratings...

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Lensrentals

Anyway, Good luck!

ShepsMom · September 3, 2007

Thank you Ben, this site you mentioned doesn't have Nikon ??

borrowlenses.com · September 3, 2007

Hi Guys,

I saw some hits coming in from here and decided to pop in and introduce myself. My name is Max and I am the co-founder of http://www.BorrowLenses.com

First of all, Andy, thanks for the shout-out.

Ben, we partcipate in the resellerratings.com as well and while we don't have the number of reviews Lens Rentals has, the gist is the same

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/BorrowLenses

ShepsMom, we have just recently started enhancing our Nikon selection, you can check it out at:
http://www.borrowlenses.com/category/nikon

Finally, we are based out of the SF Bay Area, so if any of you guys are here, you can save yourself some shipping charges and pick up locally.

Let me know if you have questions.

Max

Bendr · September 3, 2007

They didn't but they do now...

http://www.lensrentals.com/category/nikon-rentals

ian408 · September 3, 2007

Max, where abouts are you located?

ShepsMom · September 3, 2007

They are in CA, SanFran area.

Harryb · September 3, 2007

ShepsMom wrote:

Thank you guys, i will check rentglass as well, it's funny, no one in my town rents. I'm assuming this isn't as common as i thought it would be. Ian, you suggesting 17-200? What would be the difference between this and 17-55, the reason i'm asking, 70-200 seems a lot bigger. I have 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 but it doesn't do a good job in a low light.

Check out this article. I would rent out the 85mm 1.4 for the indoor shots and use your 18-200 for the outdoor shots.

ShepsMom · September 3, 2007

Great link Harry, i bookmarked it. Thanks!

borrowlenses.com · September 3, 2007

ian408 wrote:

Max, where abouts are you located?

Like ShepsMom mentioned, we are in the SF Bay Area (San Mateo to be more specific).

Ian, your profile says Silicon Valley. Let me guess, you are in Mountain View or Sunnyvale?

ian408 · September 3, 2007

ShepsMom wrote:

They are in CA, SanFran area.

I got that part

But the place is pretty big.

That's OK. A little googling reveals San Mateo.

claudermilk · September 4, 2007

borrowlenses.com wrote:

Hi Guys,

I saw some hits coming in from here and decided to pop in and introduce myself. My name is Max and I am the co-founder of http://www.BorrowLenses.com

First of all, Andy, thanks for the shout-out.

Ben, we partcipate in the resellerratings.com as well and while we don't have the number of reviews Lens Rentals has, the gist is the same
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/BorrowLenses

ShepsMom, we have just recently started enhancing our Nikon selection, you can check it out at:
http://www.borrowlenses.com/category/nikon

Finally, we are based out of the SF Bay Area, so if any of you guys are here, you can save yourself some shipping charges and pick up locally.

Let me know if you have questions.

Max

More of you guys competing is good for us.

I've checked your stock & really there's only one lens I'm planning on renting that you have (the Bigma)--LensRentals does have a wider selection among that particular niche.

borrowlenses.com · September 4, 2007

claudermilk wrote:

More of you guys competing is good for us. I've checked your stock & really there's only one lens I'm planning on renting that you have (the Bigma)--LensRentals does have a wider selection among that particular niche.

The Bigma is a good choice and is a pretty popular lens of ours. LensRentals does have a wider selection - we are working on getting as big as them, but that will take some time

Max

com3 · September 7, 2007

i've used rentglass.com a crapload. before i ever owned any L lenses myself, that's where i'd go. else i'd go to Pro Camera Rental in san francisco.

borrowlenses.com · September 8, 2007

com3 wrote:

i've used rentglass.com a crapload. before i ever owned any L lenses myself, that's where i'd go. else i'd go to Pro Camera Rental in san francisco.

Very cool. The Pro Camera Rental guys up in the city are very nice - almost as nice as us

Max

com3 · September 10, 2007

borrowlenses.com wrote:

Very cool. The Pro Camera Rental guys up in the city are very nice - almost as nice as us

Max

haha! their rates are pretty dang good for being a brick-and-mortar. picking up a 100-400L on friday afternoon and bringing it back monday morning only would cost me ~$20-$40. i was renting it nearly every weekend.

borrowlenses.com · September 13, 2007

com3 wrote:

i've used rentglass.com a crapload. before i ever owned any L lenses myself, that's where i'd go. else i'd go to Pro Camera Rental in san francisco.

Out of curiosity, how would you pick when you rent from rentglass and when from Pro Camera?

claudermilk · September 13, 2007

I know the question was not aimed at me, but I do rent locally as well. What is driving me to look at renting from you guys (or rentglass, lensrentals, etc) is availability. For example, the local shop has a good selection of Canon glass, so I have rented 70-200/2.8L IS lenses a few times & most recently the 100-400 a couple of weeks ago. It's $30 for the weekend & a 5 minute drive from work. However, they don't have the 3rd party long zooms I want to try out, so I'm looking at you online guys for a weekly rental.

I know that I am fortunate in that I have 4 places I know of off the top of my head to rent locally (Irvine Pro Photo, Samy's SA, Calumet SA, and Cal's Camera)--there are a lot of folks with nothing local & you guys have to be a godsend for them.

com3 · September 13, 2007

borrowlenses.com wrote:

Out of curiosity, how would you pick when you rent from rentglass and when from Pro Camera?

i'm not sure that i understand the question... you mean: what was the deciding factor on who i'd choose to rent from? if so...

long term rentals are much cheaper from rentglass... ~$30 per week. sometimes i'd keep the lens for 3 or 4 weeks...in that case, it was much cheaper for me to get it from rentglass.com. when i only needed it for the weekend or for a day, it was much more convenient for me to just grab it from procamera for the day or whatever.

rentglass.com tends to have a limited amount of stock as well... more often than not, the lens i need is unavailable, and i have to wait...sometimes i can't wait, so i pick it up local. all the staff at procamera are awesome too. i've returned lenses late before and they've not charged me. i've sent a considerable amount of business their way as well for 1) their great pricing and 2) their fantastic customer service.

i've looked at your site before... i've compared prices... your prices are pretty high (nearly 7 times higher for the 400 f2.8L IS for the same 1 week period for the 400 f/5.6L from rentglass).

you want $600 for a three week rental for the 400 f/2.8L IS lens... rentglass charges $93 for the 400 f/5.6L. for what i do, i don't need a 2.8...i shoot at f/10 99.9999% of the time anyways...and i turn the IS off 100% of the time cause all it does is annoy me and burn up batteries faster.

it's the reach i need, not the speed of the lens.

just some thoughts from a renter to consider.

EDIT// for clarity.

blalor · September 13, 2007

com3 wrote:

i've looked at your site before... i've compared prices... your prices are pretty high (nearly 7 times higher for the 400L for the same 1 week period from rentglass).

you want $600 for a three week rental for the 400 f/2.8L IS lens... rentglass charges $93 for the 400 f/5.6L. for what i do, i don't need a 2.8...

The 400 f/2.8L IS costs nearly 7 times more than the 400 f/5.6L non-IS lens. That's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison...

com3 · September 13, 2007

blalor wrote:

The 400 f/2.8L IS costs nearly 7 times more than the 400 f/5.6L non-IS lens. That's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison...

true, however he also doesn't offer a less expensive alternative (like the f/5.6L) to people who don't need a 2.8 IS, thus ruling out potential clientel, agreed?

granted, he's by no means required to offer alternatives, i'm just saying that for someone like me, and what i do, he won't end up with my business.

blalor · September 13, 2007

com3 wrote:

true, however he also doesn't offer a less expensive alternative (like the f/5.6L) to people who don't need a 2.8 IS, thus ruling out potential clientel, agreed?

Agreed. But you were saying that his prices for the 400L are multiples of the competition's which isn't really true if you're not comparing f/2.8 to f/2.8 or f/5.6 to f/5.6. That's all.

com3 · September 13, 2007

blalor wrote:

Agreed. But you were saying that his prices for the 400L are multiples of the competition's which isn't really true if you're not comparing f/2.8 to f/2.8 or f/5.6 to f/5.6. That's all.

i specifically wrote the lens models in my post so there was no confusion... perhaps because i didn't write it specifically in both comparisions i've muddled things slightly?

i'll edit to make sure there's no more confuzzlation.

it's the reach of the lens i need for what i do...not the speed.

EDIT// fixed.

borrowlenses.com · September 14, 2007

claudermilk wrote:

I know the question was not aimed at me, but I do rent locally as well. What is driving me to look at renting from you guys (or rentglass, lensrentals, etc) is availability. For example, the local shop has a good selection of Canon glass, so I have rented 70-200/2.8L IS lenses a few times & most recently the 100-400 a couple of weeks ago. It's $30 for the weekend & a 5 minute drive from work. However, they don't have the 3rd party long zooms I want to try out, so I'm looking at you online guys for a weekly rental.

I know that I am fortunate in that I have 4 places I know of off the top of my head to rent locally (Irvine Pro Photo, Samy's SA, Calumet SA, and Cal's Camera)--there are a lot of folks with nothing local & you guys have to be a godsend for them.

That totally makes sense - you live in one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the nation. You are right about people who live far away from any cities, they have written us many times thanking us for the service.

Lens rentals

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