Who rents photo equipment?

[JamieDubS]

so I recently switched from my sony to canon photo equipment to step my game up!

I was at MOTO GP in indianapolis Indiana. and saw guys walking around with lenses that were freaking huge! My buddy who is a photographer from FL said they were mostly rented and hardly no one buys these things. I was wondering what type of photo equipment is rented and what is or isnt the advantage?

[int2str]

There are many places that rent camera gear - especially lenses. Here are some examples:
http://www.lensrentals.com/for-canon
http://www.calumetphoto.com/rental/digitalcameras

The advantages should be obvious... You can use a very expensive lens at a fraction of the cost. You can also try a lens out before buying it to get a feel for whether you like the lens or not.

[DennisW1]

If you need something like a 500/f.4 for a one-time shoot, then yes rental is a much better option.

If you know you're going to be using the same gear on even a semi-regular basis, then you need to weigh the cost of rental every time as opposed to purchasing. Also remember that such lenses, if taken care of, usually retain their value fairly well. At some point despite the substantial initial investment it simply becomes more cost-effective to purchase instead of continuing to pour money into the rental of the same equipment over and over. For example, that 500 f.4 IS lens: $65/day, $195/week vs. $6400 purchased new. Obviously you would have to rent the lens 100 times to equal the cost of buying it, but remember that renting leaves you with nothing except rental bills and possibly a business write-off while buying gives you an asset that you own and still has considerable value.

Your "buddy" may not be exactly correct. If the guys carrying those huge lenses around were press or magazine photogs, then they most likely own the lenses or have been issued them by their employers.

I shoot a lot of motorsports and to be honest I see a lot of people in the spectator areas with some serious glass on their cameras, so maybe its not as uncommon as you might think.

[FlyingPhotog]

There's "Rented" and then there's "Rented"

Lenses are sometimes leased by Newspapers and Magazines and delivered to specific photographers based on need for an assignment.

[motofan]

Went to the Steel City AMA National a couple weeks ago. Maybe some of those guys rented, but mostly they would have owned them. And judging by the scars on them, have owned them for years. Was drooling watching all the guys with their 300mm F2.8's walking around. The shape of the exterior would lead them to be shot by any rental company. Those types of lenses in motosports pay for themselves eventually in the print business.
I didn't see anything crazy over 400mm though. You couldn't/wouldn't want to walk a track for 8 hours with one of those anywhere near you.

[DisrupTer911]

motofan, chances are if those guys you saw were press/media they weren't privately owned lenses but rather the agencies given to them on loan to shoot the event.

People who own glass like that generally take great care in keeping it in pristine shape so it performs flawlessly all the time.