How do you feel about Renting Equipment?

[ChrisAdval]

i.e. lenses? Have you ever experienced anything negative? Is the current pricing overpriced? I've seen the rental sites and they tend to price them very high for $100-$200 for a $1000 lens... Is $300-$400 lenses worth the cost to rent?

[andyw]

Absolutely nothing wrong with renting whatsoever. Many of us do it regularly.
It goes down as a cost against tax and is the best way to do things when you are only likely to need the equipment a few times a year.

These are the people I use when required. I know it is UK based but their prices are about average for here.
Rental

You don't say if that is the daily/weekly or monthly rate but if it was daily then find somewhere else as it is way to high.

Is it worth hiring a 3-400 lens? I personally wouldn't but again only you can say if it is worth it to you.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by andyw

Absolutely nothing wrong with renting whatsoever. Many of us do it regularly.
It goes down as a cost against tax and is the best way to do things when you are only likely to need the equipment a few times a year.

These are the people I use when required. I know it is UK based but their prices are about average for here.
Rental

You don't say if that is the daily/weekly or monthly rate but if it was daily then find somewhere else as it is way to high.

Is it worth hiring a 3-400 lens? I personally wouldn't but again only you can say if it is worth it to you.

I'm not sure but would these prices for this lens seem fair? I would maybe rent it for a week instead of the 3 day option as they only charge per 3 days and 1 week and I know I could do a lot if I rented a new lens I never used and may buy in the future, especially this one - Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS Rentals , I don't see a point to rent it anything more than a week long unless it was impossible to really afford and really needed for a paid gig.

Even if I rent it during my all day shooting event in Philadelphia doing environmental (outdoors) portraits I could use the wider lens and wider aperture and wouldn't really need it anymore honestly, until my next tour stop in another city which would be in January 2012.

[sk66]

I'd rather own if it's something I'm going to use more than a few times or doesn't cost much (<$1000). I can always resell it later and recoup much of my expense and the expense is a write-off.

If it's very expensive, I won't need it again anytime soon, or I'm uncertain about the lens, then a rental is well justified. A lot of the lenses I use/want are in the $2-6k range.

As Andy noted a rental is written off as an operating expense.

[Biomech]

I've rented a printer before to get me out of a jam :P
The printer cost £1,200 to buy. To rent it wasn't much at all actually, about £125 for the week I think. But they wanted a security deposit of £1,300 plus VAT on both the deposit and rental, the total cost to hire was..... let me look..... £1,575! So the issue is also, do you have the funds to rent? :P

[andyw]

The prices seem fair enough to me.

If you are only going to need it a couple of times a year then yes, renting is a good option as your cost is a tenth or less of buying outright.
But would you only use a lens like that a couple of times a year or so?
That sort of lens would get a lot of use from me and no doubt others so it would be a permament addition to the kit.


I have rented lenses for 2 weeks at a time before but they have been lenses which cost about £6k+ to buy outright and I could not justify the cost of purchase for the minimum amount of use I would get from them.

Ultimately it comes down to a mix of need, cost and desire.

I would love to have a 600mm f4 but could not justify the £7k outlay.
I can easily justify the £280 (if only to myself sometimes)or so that it costs to rent for a week.

I have also rented lenses to give them a full "field test" prior to buying before.

Something in the range and price that you are mentioning would be a lens that could be used for any number of things and thus more easily justifiable to me but whether it is to you is really something only you can decide.

[andyw]

Originally Posted by Biomech

I've rented a printer before to get me out of a jam :P
The printer cost £1,200 to buy. To rent it wasn't much at all actually, about £125 for the week I think. But they wanted a security deposit of £1,300 plus VAT on both the deposit and rental, the total cost to hire was..... let me look..... £1,575! So the issue is also, do you have the funds to rent? :P

No. the cost to hire was still only 125 +VAT for the week.
The deposit is returned and thus is not coming out of your p&l and not deductable.
Although, yes, you do have to have it available initially so obviously a factor to consider.

[sk66]

I'd just buy that lens if I had no intention of going FF anytime soon. It is the "pro" lens for crop body and an essential tool for most professionals IMO. If you are going to stay with crop bodies and work in that genre you will probably end up buying it eventually anyways. (unless you prefer primes)

[Biomech]

No. the cost to hire was still only 125 +VAT for the week....The deposit is returned

No what? That's what I said

To rent it wasn't much at all actually, about £125 for the week I think

Although I was surprised that they added VAT to the deposit - which they also refunded. Did it come across as though I was saying it was 1500 to rent? If so, my bad. What I meant was that if you wanted to rent the gear, you needed to outlay 1,500 initially so you have to look at whether you have the funds to cover the rental requirements

[ChrisAdval]

As of right now my top two lenses I want to own is the Canon Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 8014A002 and Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 II EX DG APO Macro HSM AF Lens 579-101 B&H ; may upgrade the sigma once I officially start profiting from photography to the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens 2751B002

As for the one I want to rent I only need for my crop sensor which I plan only keeping as a backup once I get my full frame 5D MkII late next year or early 2013. I don't see myself owning a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM just because its a crop sensor only lens which is too limiting to me, it will benefit me for the 12 shooting events I plan on running for the next 12 months, but that would cost pretty much the same amount of the lens lol... 12x$45 (3day rental) which is about $600, almost the $900 price tag of the lens, just for renting it too. If I had the choice between the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM and 24-70 2.8 L lens it would be the L lens of course. Just its not a crop sensor lens so the field of view would be too much for me on the streets (50mm field of view on a crop sensor). So don't know, maybe buying a crop sensor sigma lens for $200 would be the best option? - Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM Zoom For Canon D-SLRs 861101