Best Lens Rental Company recommendations?

Hey there everyone,

I am looking at renting a lens for 2-4 weeks this summer and really find that there are quite a few lens rental companies out there. Is there a favorite or best company that you do business with and why?

While I am here, I may as well ask for an opinion on which lens. I am undecided between renting the Cannon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS and the Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 HSM OS. I will be using the lens for wildlife and birds of prey and am even going commercial fishing for a week in July. I have no experience with Sigma lenses and really like the extra reach and the pictures that I have seen taken with it though. On the other hand with the Canon, I have been thinking of getting it and a tele-converter which will mean I will lose the auto-focus, but will still get the Canon quality and that little extra reach.

Thanks in advance,

http://www.lensrentals​.com

Roger is also a POTN Member here.

How about Borrowlenses.com?? the prices seem a bit more generous.

Borrowlenses because I live in California and can swing by for a lens on short notice. I can place an order the day before and it's ready the day after for pickup. They also offer pickup at a variety of California locations both north and south and even a couple out of state (Las Vegas and Portland) for $15 more for the northern and $25 more for all others for convenience when I can't make the way to their headquarters.

I'm sad they removed the SMDJ discount code now that they are bigger though. The 5% helped offset the CA tax.

aegid wrote in post #14301997
Borrowlenses because I live in California and can swing by for a lens on short notice. I can place an order the day before and it's ready the day after for pickup. They also offer pickup at a variety of California locations both north and south and even a couple out of state (Las Vegas and Portland) for $15 more for the northern and $25 more for all others for convenience when I can't make the way to their headquarters.

I'm sad they removed the SMDJ discount code now that they are bigger though. The 5% helped offset the CA tax.

Seems like i'll be using them since there's a pick up location near me. 50mm f/1.2L i can finally try you out.

Both Borrowlenses and Lensrentals are pretty worthless to many, as they don’t ship internationally.

Also, I happen to live in one of the world's largest cities (15 million people) but strangely enough, there is not even one place here where you can rent lenses.

Sucks to be me.

^^^^^sounds like it is time to start a new buisness! Haha

There's a lot more danger sending items overseas and short of requiring deposits in full and refunding that minus the rental fee there's not really a good way to do it. Distance, varying time it takes for items to arrive (unless you use something like FedEx and UPS global which don't come cheap!), inability to recover losses, increased possibility of items being lost, etc. Having it all in the U.S. allows them to use FedEx for relatively low shipping costs (as cheap as 2 and 1 day shipping can be) and keeps things from being tied up for large amounts of transit time.

+1 for borrowlenses.com. I use them when I get a hankering for some expensive glass. So far, I've been convinced to buy two lenses, a monopod, and a ballhead after trying out the rentals. Now, if only I had enough money to buy all that stuff...

It is funny in that I had narrowed my choices down to lensrentals.com, borrowlenses.com and arlingtoncameras.com before I had posted the question. I had not realized Roger was a member here though. Arlington is out as of now. Now to just compare the prices. I know that lensrentals.com include shipping in their price where Borrowlenses does not. Gee, one of the few times I wish I lived in California. lol

Thanks for the input.

Borrowlenses since Im in CA.

Lensrentals.com is excellent.

I recently rented a Canon 400mm f/5.6LO from Lensrentals.com. I placed my order and selected a delivery date of April 23. Wel, the lens arrived late yesterday morning, yet I'll only be charged for the week I originally wanted. I get a weekend for free.

A week's rental, with the optional damage coverage, was $75.00, plus $29.00 round-trip shipping.

Price? Seemed like six of one, half dozen of the other to me...

I believe they're located in Tennessee, and I'm in San Diego.

Piggybacking this thread aside, thanks for the info everyone, I was about to ask the same thing since I'll be shooting a friend's engagement party and it gives me an excuse to rent some lenses I can only dream of owning lol

Check out Lensprotogo.com, I've used them on several occasions. Great service and pricing, doesn't get much easier than a box being delivered to your door the day you need it, you simply package the lens back up in the same box when you are finished (pelican case inside) and send it back.