Do you have dreams of shooting a Canon 1Ds Mk III? The new Canon 5D Mk II? The Nikon flagship D3X? Or how about shooting with a $1,600 70-200 IS L 2.8? If you are like me, that’s pretty much all we can do is dream about the day we can afford high end gear like that. Rentals are always a good option either since most places require a deposit equal to the purchase price of the equipment. Hell, if I could afford the deposit I could afford to buy the equipment. Is there any answer? There sure is, BorrowLenses.com has not only affordable rental prices but doesn’t require a deposit. This opens up high end rental equipment to the rest of us.

Opening the Box for the first time

How Does It Work

Renting from BorrowLenses.com couldn’t be easier. Browse through their website and find the product you want, select the term of the rental you want, and select if you want to get the op

tional insurance (highly recommended). As soon as you place the order, an authorization hold in the amount of the order total is automatically placed on your credit card. This doesn’t withdraw funds from your card, but merely holds them. They will actually charge the credit card the day your order ships. (see their website for information on using debit cards).

Your package will arrive from FedEx ground and your rental period begins as soon as the package is dropped off.

Detail of the shipping box

My First Rental

I simply had to get my hands on the new Canon 5D Mk II and when I saw that BorrowLenses.com had the 5D Mk II available for rental I just had to get my hands on one. A few days later my package arrived with the 5D mk II, a manual, and battery charger all stuffed tight into thick foam padding.

It’s no surprise that the camera was in perfect

condition since it is brand new after all

Inside the box was instructions for sending the package back at the end of the rental period as well as a shipping label  When you are finished, simply pack it back up, seal it with some packing tape, slap the shipping label on the box and drop it off at any FedEx drop-off point.

The Cost of Renting

The big question is does renting something you will use on a regular basis make sense to rent versus purchase? Let’s say you really want to step things up and use some professional glass for your weddings, the 70-200 IS L f/2.8 lens will set you back around $1,600,then let’s assume you will need this lens for 15 different weekends over the course of the year. Since the lens will cost you $51 per week to rent, you would have to rent it 31 times before you would have spent enough to buy the lens, that’s two years of use that you can easily add to the cost of the individual jobs and not have to eat the entire $1,600.

Final Thoughts

There have been multiple times that I wished I could get a certain piece of equipment to rent but the local places are expensive, have a small variety, and require massive deposits.  The entire process with BorrowLenses.com is fast, easy, and painless. If you are wanting to try out a new piece of equipment before buying it, or if you need some extra for a special shoot, then do yourself a favor and call BorrowLenses.com. I will certainly be using them a number of times this year for different things. I will be evaluating the EOS 50D, Checking out Tilt-Shift Lenses, and probably using some high end glass for certain events. If you use them, be sure and tell them that I recommended them.

Author: Kerry Garrison

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Tags: camera, canon, eos, lens, new, Nikon, Review, shooting, Special, terms, wedding, Weddings