Do you lend out your gear?

Absolutely no, because I don't think they would treat it well as if it were theirs

Funny, my sisters partners brother, shoots alot for Nat Geo, and he is just sold most of his kit to upgrade. He phoned me up last night asking if i could borrow my 200mm as hes just been given a late assignment and he sold his primes...

Lucky he had just moved to Canon From nikkon, he treats his kit like his childrne like me so im not overly worried about him not looking after it

On the plus side he is lending me a 10mm (i think its a 10mm) Lens to play with for 2 days - otherwise, with out spending lots of money i would never be able to play with it...

And another thing, when he gets is 800mm he ordered, he said he would lend to to me for a weekend as a thanks for helping him out

But going back to the question, i would not lend anything out if i never had something of the same value as "Deposit"

He would have just the same to loose as i would

I find it interesting how few people ask to borrow camera gear. But yes, depending upon the person I will let them borrow some of my gear. A friend I know and trust (he babies his gear much more than I do) got some awesome photos at a few high school football games this fall with my 300 f/2.8 IS. I'd rather have my gear get used than sit around as a trophy. Again... as long as I know and trust the person.

He didn't even ask to borrow it, I offered. He was happy to take me up on it.

I've lent my 430EX II to a cousin-in-law and used one of my full manual flashes while he went on his way. He was more than happy and I'd let him borrow any of my gear. There's only a few people I'd lend gear to or ask to borrow gear from.

Yep - I have no problem lending my gear to other photogs.
It's a swings and round-a-bouts thing.
I'll occasionally borrow something from one of them.
There's quite a bit of overlap with some of the guys I shoot with but at the same time, they have some gear I don't and vice versa.
So if need be we borrow from each other when required.
One of the beauties of several people sharing the same system and one of the reasons I migrated to Canon when I upgraded to digital.
On more than one occasion, I've been able to help out with a lens or body when someone else has been stuck.
What goes around, comes around.

I only let others use my camera/lens if I am around them. If not, I generally don't lend them out.
One thing I do is that I tell them that it costs as much as their first car, and they usually are like oh... and back off a bit XD

I would loan it out to certain select friends and family. Friends are the ones with cameras who know how to handle a camera and know its cost.

Family - only certain ones that i would trust implicitly - there are certain members of my family i would not trust with a TV remote never mind a camera!

Never again. Reluctantly lent an old favourite A95 to someone recently for one day but they left it out it the sun and fried it - totaled!

The only person I would ever lend my gear to is my cousin. We are both very careful and anal about out stuff. Plus he's the one who got me started in photography so how can I say no? But besides him I don't ever see myself lending out gear unless I'm with them and usually only for a brief time. But besides that NO. I don't do overnights.

I work closely with 2 other photographers, we share copies of some lenses, studio strobes, stands, generators, ect. . . (our 300 f2.8 for instance) It affords us the ability to have more gear at our disposal for bigger gigs if needed. Within that group we have all loaned gear back and forth. I know Bill will treat my gear the same way he does his, and we all have adequite insurance should something dreadful happen. Outside those 2, no one gets to borrow my gear or the groups gear, ever, period.

Erik

No, I just can't, I can't afford to replace it all if something happened.
The only person who has ever asked was my cousin, I told him, no because frankly he thought he could just pick it up and use it like a point and shoot.
I only had my 50/1.4 with me and he wanted to get a telephoto shot, which was impossible.
I tried to explain that, he didn't "get it", I think he's still peeved at me LOL

I wouldn't lend out the main gear for the simple reason that I want to be able to use my gear at any time of day or night. Same reason for owning films or books. I wan't access to any book/film whenever I feel like it - not whenever a store is open.

My friends are similar to me. Equipment on load is treated better than own equipment, sometimes hindering the evaluation.

Loan to my wife, sure. No prob. I'll loan to friends in my photo club when we're out on a shoot together. I might to them also apart from a group shoot, but have never been asked.

Having said that, except for maybe switching while on a group shoot, it would never occur to me to ask someone else, regardless how close of a friend they were.

My uncle let me borrow his 24-105L and 70-300.

I'd let any of my camera literate friends / colleagues / and quite a large number of members from a local photography forum borrow any of my gear that I wasn't using at the time with understanding of you damage or break it you pay for it.
I find it’s a great way to try new lenses and other gear you wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to try out.