Renting Lenses ?? Anyone do that..or just buy? But...

T

truehuss

Well-known member
I just bought a T2i and oh the horror of seeing what the higher quality lenses go for...ughh!!

So for a person like myself, who prides himself on saving money, ie: i'm cheap, I searched and ran into a guy in philly (if your from the area, I can link you) who has almost ALL of the L lenses, the most expensive & highly rated Canon lenses, for rent at , for me anyways, is dirt cheap prices! I had already bought a starter lens, 50mm f1.8, but from hear on out I think i will be renting not buying.

Do you guys rent vs own? or in this case, if you could get your hands on pretty much the top primes, why would you need/want to??
 
I guess that depends if renting for several gigs is cheaper than the cost of owning minus depreciation for the number of gigs x years you will be filming. I think it is cheaper in the long run to own especially if you use it for a fair number of times but the initial outlay is very high.

I would rent a couple first and see which lenses you use most, and I would buy those.
 
... said:
I would rent a couple first and see which lenses you use most, and I would buy those.
Click to expand...

that sounds about right..

but the other side of that coin is, for example, I am renting a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM for a shoot on Saturday with my T2i for $45 for 3 days.. thats a $1000 lens.

for me its just coming down to thousands of dollars to buy the top of the line stuff versus $50 here & there to rent em. I would love to own them dont get me wrong but damn , the expense!

 
Last edited:
Like others, I say there's a balance of owning and renting.

I wouldn't want to run without owning any lenses, even if they aren't top-dollar. In fact, a nice set of either Canon or Nikkor primes, at $200 - 400 each, would be a great place to start. You can find some very nice glass in that range. Three or four primes just as a basic kit (say, 24mm and 50mm and something long like 85mm or 105mm). That way, you're always ready to shoot if you need to.

Then, for larger projects, rent what you need.
 
Two perfect examples of lenses to rent would be glass like the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS lens, and pretty much any of the Canon tilt-shift lenses. They can run over $2K, and you might only need them for a certain job. Renting in this case is the way to go.

When it comes to owning, I prefer to carry only one or two top-quality lenses that cover a good range of focal lengths.
 
Like SM I own and rent.

Have Ziess zf.2 primes for my 5d and fujinon CAC lens for my 500. Usually gets me by. But Im surprised all the time by how often I need to rent lenses. A lot of jobs will require other options. Most often for the 500 I rent a HD canon wide angle (40k piece of glass). Often Im shooting on cameras I don't own anyway, so it goes without saying that I need to rent.

Have to say the main reason for having my own lenses is to cover my own production jobs, those where I am hired for a full production service and for my personal projects. When Im hired by another production co. I use / go with what the production company needs.
 
I honestly wish lenses were even cheaper to rent, there's a rental store an hour from me and I'm not really exactly fond of the prices. Over 50$ a day is a bit ridiculous on practically any sort of equipment (especially lenses), I wouldn't pay over 50$ to even use a camera for a day, much less a lens that's been used 50 billion times with the owner no doubtly making 100X more than what he paid for it.

But as always, the photography market is pretty outrageous when it comes to pricing vs. how much it cost to make/for the store to buy the product.
 
There are times when you may want, and have the budget for, a 400mm IS f2.8 Canon lens that would cost $8K but could be rented for less than $100 where I am, which could produce some unforgettable images.

But for the sake of convenience, it's probably best to own at least a few lenses for "normal" projects.
 
I bought a couple of lenses but now I'm renting. It's too expensive for me to get all the gear, I'm just getting started again after a few years, so I rent everything I need from lenses to a matte box and rail system. I dont' shoot that often yet so it really works out for me.
 
It's worth doing both but I would recommend buying because you really have a benefit of knowing your equipment inside and out. By owning your own lenses you can shoot tests at any time you fell like it and the more you do the more you can get better at it. Also for lower budget you can get jobs also based on not only your skill but you can charge a little more if you have equipment you can bring with you.
 
have you thought of adapting old lenses?

you can get standard set of old nikons for about $500.

haven't done this myself, but it's a great money saver.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top