Renting a lens

kelway76 wrote in post #9784680
I rented a 100-400 from lensgiant.com and it was awesome. Cost me around 80 bones for 5 days w/ Insurance. I'd say well worth it. A tear falls from the eye when you have to return it though...

Wow, that is $5840 a year (not including the 73 different shipping expenses), I need to get into the rental business. I might have made $10K on my $1K lens!

tkbslc wrote in post #9821906
If I think I might want to keep it, I would buy used, mull it over and then if I didn't like I could resell later at minimal loss. There is still a hassle factor, luck, shipping costs, paypal/ebay feels, etc. It's rarely a total break even thing - especially if you don't have the luxury of spending lots of time looking for the best deal.

If I knew for a fact I was not going to keep it, $50 for a weeks' rental is probably safer and hassle free.

I'm with you, just find a good deal, buy the lens, try it out, resell it. I could only imagine what it would have cost via rental to have tried all the lenses I have. I would definitely rent a lens that I know I have no chance of buying or owning though.

I love renting lenses. fortunately I live in LA so i have lots of options. I almost always rent a lens before I buy it, but it does get pricey if rent for more than a few days. if I needed a lens for more than a week I would probably buy it and re-sell it after the trip.

I use www.lensprotogo.com. Good service, shipping to and from was painless and it was quick.