Rent Lens Online ?

[orchjoe]

Has anyone ever rented a lens online... I am thinking about renting a 10-22mm lens for my trip in a week and wanted to know if anyone has had good or bad experiences with this sort of thing.

I was looking at rentglass (but am open to others)

Thanks

 

[SharonLowe]

www.lensprotogo.com

great service!

 

[Golf4food]

www.lensprotogo.com

great service!

Maybe so, but they don't offer Pentax mount lenses...

Anyone know of a service that offers Pentax mounts?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Here's a comparison of some rental places:
http://photodoto.com/index.php/2007/08/10/8-online-lens-rental-stores-compared/

I've never seen Pentax glass for rent. Online lens rental companies are fairly new and they stock based on market demand. Given that Canon and Nikon dominate the DSLR market in sales, they are who the lens renters cater to as well. I think I did notice someone with a few Olympus lenses for rent, but that's the only time I've seen anthing but Canon and Nikon.

That may change as the DSLR market grows. It's really more about total demand more than market share. If current growth rates continue, C/N will probably still be the dominate players in a few years, but the overall market will be so large that I would be surprised if there weren't some Minolta and Pentax renters as well. It will also help as Minolta and Pentax release semi-professional and professional grade cameras and attract more serious shooters. These people are more of a market for lens rental than the typical Joe with a Rebel/D40/K100/A100.

 

[gokenin]

Here's a comparison of some rental places:
http://photodoto.com/index.php/2007/08/10/8-online-lens-rental-stores-compared/
These people are more of a market for lens rental than the typical Joe with a Rebel/D40/K100/A100.

See here i would have to disagree i think that the people that are owners of the entree level cameras would benefit more possibly than the pro shoters as we tend to have limited lens funds and a chance to take a lens out for a spin to see if its something that would benefit us is an option I think many entree level DSLR owners would like to have.
I know as a pentaxian that the industry is currently catering to the canon/nikon cartel but eventually those of us that are the "others" will eventually get good glass options beyond the ones we have, we just have to wait for them

 

[orchjoe]

the typical Joe with a Rebel/D40/K100/A100.

Thats me... the typical Joe with a Rebel Xti

I was checking out that link last night... It's got some good info.

 

[Scottwdw]

I highly recommend http://www.lensrentals.com/

Excellent service, fast shipping and you can reserve the lens up to 3 months in advance. They have a good selection of Canon and Nikon lenses including quality third party manufactureres like Sigma, Tokina and others.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

See here i would have to disagree i think that the people that are owners of the entree level cameras would benefit more possibly than the pro shoters as we tend to have limited lens funds and a chance to take a lens out for a spin to see if its something that would benefit us is an option I think many entree level DSLR owners would like to have.
I know as a pentaxian that the industry is currently catering to the canon/nikon cartel but eventually those of us that are the "others" will eventually get good glass options beyond the ones we have, we just have to wait for them

I don't disagree that entry level shooters would benefit greatly from the ability to rent lenses. I'm just guessing (I don't have any inside knowledge) that lens rental companies customers come primarily from the ranks of serious amateurs and professionals and that those people are more likely to own mid to upper level cameras. I may be totally off-base with that guess. In my experience, most Rebel/D40 users buy the kit lens and sometimes the complementary telephoto zoom and that's all that ever goes on their camera. The users here are an exception because they are a self-selected group that is interested in reading about photography.

But like I said above, the availability of rental lenses doesn't require that Sony and Pentax gain anything in market share. It only requires that the total number of potential customers is large enough. If the overall DSLR market keeps growing like crazy, it might not be long before you can start renting non-C/N glass.

 

[Groucho]

I have to agree with Mark - I'm not sure that the big places are necessarily snubbing the non-C/N lines, but that they're just following the big numbers. It would be interesting if one of them did a few Pentax or Sony lenses to see how successful they were. Pentax would especially be interesting as they probably have a more internet-savvy owner base (being that you can't just go into Best Buy or Wal-Mart and pick up a K100D.)

I would expect things to change over time - after all, it wasn't so long ago that Pentax outsold Nikon and Canon in the SLR market.

And I would certainly be curious about renting, say, a 70-200mm F2.8 lens before dropping the big bucks. Or a 35mm F2.0 and 31mm F1.8 to decide if I can justify spending 2x as much on the latter. (On second thought, I'll stick with going for the 31mm and I don't want to know how good the 35mm can be for so much less! )

 

[BorisMD]

Hi,

I've rented from both www.lensrentals.com and www.rentglass.com

I found both to have excellent service with reasonable rates.

I would not hesitate to recommend either service.

By the way, the 10-22 is a great lens. It was my first rental, and I ended up purchasing one back in October. You can have some fun with the extreme wide angle.

Here's a link to my shots (unedited collection) from a recent trip to Chicago.

http://borismd.smugmug.com/gallery/3787939#218427985

Regards,

Boris