Do you lend out your gear?

Let someone take my camera equipment out of my sight for an extended period of time? There are few people I would trust with my camera. My brother is a Nikon shooter and very experienced so I would trust him. My youngest daughter has taken a photography course and shot with my AE-1 so I would trust her. My oldest daughter and her husband are pretty responsible so I probably would trust them. My middle daughter can't keep up with anything and is constantly dropping her cell phone in water so I would have a hard time trusting her with the equipment. My wife is afraid of the camera and would never try to use it. Anyone outside my family - not likely as I don't have any friends that have any experience with anything other than a P&S.

Sparky98 wrote in post #9125422
Anyone outside my family - not likely as I don't have any friends that have any experience with anything other than a P&S.

But only having experience with a P&S isn't the same as being careless. Who knows - letting them test a 40D may get them interested in getting one of their own.

In the end - lending out a DSLR isn't like lending out the keys to a Ferrari to someone who have only driven a Fiat 127 and then wait for them to drive themselves to death.

If I'm at a party/bbq etc & someone is interested I will gladly show them & let them take some photos, but I would be standing with them.

Other than that only to friends who will take good care of it.

To me lending is giving someone my camera to take with them, away from me, to use for a period of time without my supervision. I am not likely to do that. If someone is interested in my camera and wants to look at it and maybe take a few pictures then I am OK with that but I am never far away from the camera. I will try to help anyone that is interested in photography and will encourage them all I can but I am not going to allow them to walk off with my camera. Besides, I have the 1 camera and if I lend it to someone then I can't take pictures.

I guess it's not really gear per se, but, I was at an airshow and lent a guy shooting next to me a couple of 2GB cards so that he could keep shooting. The T-Birds were about to take-off and it just bothered me that he wouldn't be able to shoot them because he didn't have any more cards. Nice guy, and from the conversation we had shooting together for a few hours I felt like he would send them back to me when he could. Three days later I got them in the mail with a really nice thank you and a gift certificate to a nice restaurant.

Scout7id wrote in post #9130658
I guess it's not really gear per se, but, I was at an airshow and lent a guy shooting next to me a couple of 2GB cards so that he could keep shooting. The T-Birds were about to take-off and it just bothered me that he wouldn't be able to shoot them because he didn't have any more cards. Nice guy, and from the conversation we had shooting together for a few hours I felt like he would send them back to me when he could. Three days later I got them in the mail with a really nice thank you and a gift certificate to a nice restaurant.

Excellent! You're a good man.

Scout7id wrote in post #9130658
I guess it's not really gear per se, but, I was at an airshow and lent a guy shooting next to me a couple of 2GB cards so that he could keep shooting. The T-Birds were about to take-off and it just bothered me that he wouldn't be able to shoot them because he didn't have any more cards. Nice guy, and from the conversation we had shooting together for a few hours I felt like he would send them back to me when he could. Three days later I got them in the mail with a really nice thank you and a gift certificate to a nice restaurant.

Good Karma move...

Most of the people who ask to borrow my gear are my fellow colleagues, and I really don't mind. Pretty much all of them know their way around my stuff (they assist with me too, and vice versa) and I've seen how they handle their gear (always a good indicator) so I know they'll be fine with mine.

The only people I won't lend out stuff to are folks who have NO idea how to use my camera (meaning, point and shooters) and how to work the settings.

I lend to people I trust.