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When I first started out in photography it took a while to learn one of the best kept secrets… rather than buy expensive lenses you can rent them. With the popularity of the Strobist it should also be noted that this is true of lighting equipment as well and numerous professional photographers prefer renting lighting equipment rather than owning. Ultimately renting photography equipment is one of the best ways to get the most out of your photographic experience.
Out With The Old
In the very near past the standard means of renting was through local camera stores. “Convenience”, loosely used, was the upside as you could drive down to your local camera store as needed. The downside of course was few stores provided this service, you’d end up with older gear, “modern” lenses lacked IS or VR, higher end gear often required insurance or a large deposit, lens selection was both sparse due to limited stock & subject to demand if a local events was happening in your area, and in some cases reservations prone to cancellation due to less than punctual renters not returning lenses on time.
In With The New
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Fortunately a new breed of online photography businesses have developed focusing exclusively on the lens and lighting rental market. One such business is San Mateo based Borrowlenses.com. Borrowlenses.com is in the unique position to offer a broad variety of equipment including lenses, lighting, tripods, light meters, filters and even camera bodies for Canon and Nikon alike. Due to the young age of Borrowlenses.com all of the gear they rent modern and in great condition.
Ease & Simplicity
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Borrowlenses.com rents photography gear to anyone in the domestic United States providing delivery by mail. Their web site is easy to navigate. Placing an order is as easy as finding the equipment you want and using a standard shopping cart to order your rental. You can create a regular account upon checkout or even become a member to obtain frequent rental discounts. Obtaining damage insurance is optional and there is no requirement for a deposit. For those in a rush FedEx overnight or 2 day delivery is offered and pre-paid return labels are included. If that was not enough, for those who are lucky enough to be in the San Francisco bay area you can save on shipping by picking up and dropping off gear in select locations in San Mateo, San Francisco and San Jose.
My Experience & What Others Are Saying
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I was very fortunate to have my Canon 500mm f/4 super telephoto lens rental comped to me as part of this review. Even still I went through the complete process of ordering my lens online to evaluate the process from beginning to end. The process was incredibly simple. I opted to pick up the lens in San Mateo both to see the Borrowlenses office and to meet their staff. The office was clean and professional in appearance. Their staff was friendly, easy to talk to and very helpful. Normally when picking up a lens you need to return it to the same location, but due to my tight schedule they were flexible in letting me drop the lens off at Action Camera, that is 1/2 a mile from my home in San Francisco. The folks at Action Camera were courteous and the drop off was super simple. I have to add that being able to drop off my lens at Action Camera, where I used to take my film to be developed, was extremely convenient. It gave me an opportunity to stock up on miscellaneous supplies that I had been meaning to purchase and support a great local resource.
I know what you might be thinking, all this praise surely must be tainted by the free rental provided by Borrowlenses.com. Don’t believe me on how easy & reliable this service is and how friendly the Borrowlenses.com staff are? Check out their stellar reviews on ResellerRatings.com (9.95/10 rating from 462 reviews) and Yelp (5/5 stars from 29 reviews).
The Bottom Line – Would I Recommend Borrowlenses?
Absolutely. Borrowlenses.com is easy to use, has a wide selection and the gear is top notch. I’ll certainly be using Borrowlenses again and it has moved to the top of my list for local resources to rent camera gear from.
Get a 5% Discount
If you’re interested in trying out Borrowlenses they’ve extended a special introductory offer to my blog readers. When placing your order enter the discount code “JJJ5” sans quotation marks to obtain a 5% discount.
On Twitter
Following the latest with Borrowlenses? Be sure to subscribe to their Twitter feed Borrowlenses and if you’re not already be sure you’re also following my Twitter feed jimgoldstein
Photos from the Canon 500mm
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm + 2x TC with a mild crop
Wild Turkey – Marin Headlands
Canon 1Ds Mark III at 500mm (no crop)
San Francisco Ferry Building as seen from Treasure Island
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm with a mild crop
Red-Tail Hawk – Marin Headlands
Canon 1Ds Mark III at 500mm (no crop)
Coit Tower as seen from Treasure Island
[tags]Borrowlenses, photography, rental, equipment, lens, Nikon, Canon[/tags]
I have a Borrow Lenses rental right now courtesy of the Epic Edits contest. I’m still halfway through the full process, but finding a lens, checking out, and receiving the product have been a breeze. From the looks of it shipping back will be easy too. At first I wasn’t sure where I was going to find a FedEx drop off point and then I realized there is a FedEx/Kinkos one street over. Simple! I will definitely use Borrow Lenses again.
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Wow, great resource! Thanks for the tip, I’m going to order all the spendy lens I’ve been lusting over to try out first.
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BorrowLenses has earned a high recommendations from me as well, I used them a number of times last year. They regularly have discount codes for added savings, which is another reason to follow them on twitter. Another nice thing is those in the Bay Area can pickup and drop off in person (which sometimes can be used to gain and extra day over the weekend).
Hi Jim,
Thanks so much for stopping by our offices and for providing this review. I am glad that you (and some of your readers) have found our service useful.
I will try to monitor this thread, so if anyone has any questions regarding our service or anything at all, feel free to comment.
Thanks,
Max
http://www.BorrowLenses.com
I used BorrowedLens.com and then immediately tried a local (20 miles away) camera store.
I wished BorrowedLenses offered UV filters instead of just bare glass… I ended up with a scratch (I didn’t inspect before shipping it back, so I have to take their word for it.) It would have cost me the full cost of the repair, but I had taken out the optional insurance…. so I had to pay the insurance plus the “deductable.”
The local camera store rental was much easier. In and out in a jiffy (I called the night before and reserved the lens I wanted.). Lens came with UV filter, and all the covers were marked so I didn’t mix up their covers with my covers. Good experience.
I have used LensRentals.com now for over a year. They always have the Canon bodies and lenses that I need, get them to me well in advance of the start of the rental and are very forgiving if my schedule prevents me from sending the lens back until the next morning.
When I make a mistake in my order, they are very quick to help me get things straigtened out and will combine separate orders into one shipment to save costs. They are always ready to discuss my needs and the order on the phone and have even contacted my when there was a question about how I placed my order.
I have used BorrowLenses also when I could not get a piece of equipment in time from LensRentals, and they were professional and on-time, but I prefer the personal touch and excellent service that I get from the folks at LensRentals
I wish someone started a business like this here in India. It would be really lucrative. That’s an interesting business proposition, I should ask some of my photographer friends to think on these lines.
BTW that Red-Tailed Hawk image is awesome
Jim –
Unfortunately I didn’t have a very good experience with them. I reserved a few lenses with them to be picked up in San Jose, and on the day of pick up I called to confirm that the lenses are in the store, and they said, oups, sorry, we haven’t read your email properly and the only way for you to get lenses would be to drive up to San Mateo, which I had to.
I’ll give them another chance soon, since I have to shoot a wedding (not something I do regularly), but my first experience was not a good one.
@Laurie good to hear that you’re having a great experience with them. I look forward to hearing more about your next rental through them.
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@Laurel I look forward to seeing the results of your new rental experiences.
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@latoga the pick up and drop off locally certainly provides some additional benefits. As you mentioned some stores they partner with aren’t open on Monday so you can get an extra day out of your weekend rental. Bonus!
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@drsPIX For pricier gear it pays to get the insurance if you’re not covered under a separate insurance plan. I’m sure the feedback on the UV filter will get picked up by the Borrowlenses folks. They seem to truly care and want to take every step to improve their business.
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@Richard Haber Good to hear you’ve had a good experience with BorrowLenses. I’ll have to research LensRentals. Ultimately multiple players in the market are a good thing for photographers. It helps drive innovation and new product offerings.
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@Thomas You might have a business opportunity yourself if there are no players like this in India. Something to consider.
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@Ivan Makarov Good to get another perspective. Sounds like a simple mix up, but still one that was a significant inconvenience. I had something similar happen to me in renting from a local store. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hear from BorrowLenses as a result of your comment. They seem very driven to provide the best customer service possible.
Hi,
My name is Max and I am the owner of BorrowLenses.com. I wanted to pop in and say hello!
@Jim Thanks so much for stopping by our offices and doing a review of us. I am also glad to see you have a vocal following and can get a good discussion going.
@drsPIX We have actually taken your (and a couple other people’s) experiences to heart and as of October of last year include free UV filters on every lens that can take a filter.
@Ivan I am sorry you did not have the best experience with us. You are right and around summertime of last year, we were having courier problems. Note that these have definitely been fixed and the courier shows up daily at 10am sharp. We have also put in a more automated system that catches all of these types of problems ahead of time. Do give us another try and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
@everyone else. Thanks for the warm words if you have enjoyed our service and let me know if you have any questions if you haven’t experienced it yet.
Thanks,
Max
http://www.BorrowLenses.com
Nice post, Jim.
One nice thing that lensrentals.com offers that I don’t see as on option on BorrowLenses.com (or rentglass.com, for that matter) is the ability to reserve a lens and have it arrive on a specific date. This is actually one of the main reasons that I’ve used lensrentals over the others- I don’t have try to remember to get my order in on an exact date, nor do I have to worry about them running out of stock when on the day that I need to order it on to have it within the window I want to use the lens in.
@Harrison
Thanks for the comment. We actually do take reservations on lenses exactly like lensrentals.com does. Please take a look at our policies here (it’s the first question answered):
http://www.borrowlenses.com/page/about
Thanks!
Max
http://www.BorrowLenses.com
I first used Borrow lenses last year. I reserved a number of pieces of equipment several weeks ahead of the date I needed them.
One piece of equipment (a tripod) was returned damaged from a previous customer. They called me right away & offered to replace it with a different tripod, but when I informed them that the particular tripod model they were going to replace it with would not be practical for my purposes. They purchased a brand new model of the tripod I ordered and got it to me on time.
I needed to extend my rental period from one week to two & was only charged the difference in price as if I had initially ordered the rental for two weeks. (resulting in a significant savings for me.)
I found their customer service to be professional, courteous, and they were also less expensive than other sites I checked out.
A five star experience from start to finish. Thanks Borrowlenses!!
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Really very nice photos that everyone wants to see. I like all the photos you posted here. Waiting for some new photos.Family Photographers Denver
Max,this was a dreaded long time ago, but I was hoping that it was still a medium to get directly in contact with you?
I’m looking for a cousin, Richard Haber originally from Jersey City NJ. If you are that Richard Haber, please contact me.