Want To Rent: 70-200, 300, 400 (L-is version)

[TwistedGray]

I want to rent one of the fancy lens for part of a day or you can bring it down and we'll shoot some pics and that's all. Just want to verify which lens I want to buy. Can't justify spending a month's salary if I don't know if it is what I want.

[Woogie]

Borrowlenses.com seems to be getting many praises from our forum members. They're located in San Fran.

[Poindexter]

I just noticed that one of the people behind borrowlenses.com is a POTN member :cool:

[drjiveturkey]

I want to rent one of the fancy lens for part of a day or you can bring it down and we'll shoot some pics and that's all. Just want to verify which lens I want to buy. Can't justify spending a month's salary if I don't know if it is what I want.

You can go to most camera shops & try them out. Just bring your camera & laptop. Most places have a 2 week return policy too.

[TwistedGray]

That's worth a shot so long as they do not charge % on the return. I will have to check that idea out as well

[markol]

Thanks for the shout-out, everyone! :D

We are in the BA. We have all of those lenses that you want. The 500mm will be back August 16th. Though you did not mention that you wanted to try that one. It's much cheaper to buy than the 400mm f2.8 if you can find it.

The others are all available available now. We have daily rental rates on all of them, and we are much much cheaper than the B&M alternatives in this part of the country.

[Poindexter]

markol - do you have plans to pick up a 600mm?

[markol]

We do. The plans would go a lot quicker if you would provide 9k towards the purchase. :D

It's kind of hard to justify the purchase right now. We thought there would be a lot of demand for the super-telephotos. I did a poll here on this forum to judge how many people would rent them. The response was tremendous. Everyone promised to take them off our hands just as soon as UPS delivered them. They have been sitting on the shelf for almost 3 weeks now. We spent almost 11k on them, and have not seen a single rental for the 400 and 300. The 500 has had a few takers, but that's about it. /vent

I am hard pressed to purchase the 600 and have it sit on the shelves as well. :( At least at this point. Maybe once the sporting season starts things will cheer up a bit.

[Poindexter]

I can understand that. I'd only rent it once - to see if I want to buy it.

[markol]

It's not an issue with the one time renters. That's totally fine, as long as there are a lot of them. I thought that based on the number of requests for 400mm f2.8, that lens would be flying off the shelf with people wanting to use it. One person posted on here asking that I let him know the day the lens arrives so that he can stop by and pick it up. I emailed, I called, and the lens is still there. Quite disappointing. :(

[Poindexter]

I'm not going to fully commit to you at this time, but when I can make arrangements I may give that 500mm a try. I'm by the beach on the opposite coast, so I'm sure there will be a heftier shipping charge on that for me.