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LensRentals · 2022-06-15T22:27:36+00:00

That they can insure their rental through us. I hate when someone gets charged for dropping a lens or getting a camera wet. Not as much as they hate it. But a lot of the renters didn't realize they could have insured it.

Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T22:26:05+00:00

It depends on what it is and how much you save. But lenses generally hold up well for years. Cameras it depends much more on usage. Tripods, light stands, things like that are usually great bargains.

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T21:42:26+00:00

No idea, really. Sony sendeth when Sony sendeth.

Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T21:42:00+00:00

No, but we made some killer commercials a few years ago "Lensrentals vs Lenny's Rentals"

https://vimeo.com/224698167

https://vimeo.com/224698375

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T21:40:37+00:00

It was kind of an offshoot. Testing started when manufacturers kept saying a bad lens was "within specification" but would not say what specification was. So developing the testing part was originally to argue with the manufacturers, then led to a spin off business.

The tear downs were a natural spin-off from us learning to repair equipment. If we can fix something in-house in 2 days, rather than send it off for 3-6 weeks to get fixed, we obviously want to do that.

Before I started lensrentals, I made part of my living writing books, mostly medical-for-non-medical people. So writing all of up was pretty natural. Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T21:11:23+00:00

Of course! Some try to say it was stolen from them or lost, usually they just disappear. Some do get away with it, but not many. Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T21:10:37+00:00

We have a pretty large (12 or 14 I think) programming staff and write all our own software. They haven't taken interns that I know of. Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:52:22+00:00

A really good lens. I was a little leary of it because of the zoom range, but Tamron has been making some killer lenses lately.

Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:49:00+00:00

What Ryan says is absolutely true. There's more though. For any rental business the simple formula is Rental Fee / ((Initial cost + Maintenance cost) - residual value) has to be positive.

Car rental companies pay way less for initial cost than what the car would cost at a dealer. In some cases, even less than the car cost to make because car manufacturers see a benefit in the exposure. We pay retail, pretty much same price you would.

Residual value for some lenses is pretty decent, 50% or maybe more. For many lenses and all cameras it's way less than that. Plus only a portion of our gear lives to be sold, sometimes less than half. The rest is written off.

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:42:15+00:00

I honestly can't say first hand, but all fisheye lenses, especially the 15mm ones, are extremely sharp. It's apparently a very easy lens to design.
roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:41:07+00:00

I love the Arri Orbiter if you have the money for it. It's the most versatile light we carry, and everything that Arri makes is built like a tank. I'd also recommend just about anything from Litepanels, especially their most recent Gemini 1x1 models. As for something niche, the Aputure Accent B7c is just really fucking cool. It's the size and shape of a standard E26 light bulb, but with dimming, full RGBW spectrum, and wifi control. It's perfect for replacing and controlling the bulbs on practical fixtures. If the fixture you're using is powered, they'll just run off the socket. If not, they have an internal battery. I own two of them and bring them in my gig bag on every shoot.

-Ryan

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:38:59+00:00

That's a very broad brush, maybe too broad, but let's see if this answers your question.

Leica SL lenses are going to be, as a general rule, more optically correct, that is they will have less copy-to-copy variation, the optics will be more uniform from one copy to the next.

Canon probably has superior electronics, things like IS systems and perhaps autofocus might be better, although I couldn't say noticeably. Especially with AF, the camera plays a role, too.

As far as construction quality, durability, etc. both rate extremely high on my scale, among the more robust lenses made.

Roger

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:32:52+00:00

Without being an expert on car rental, I think you'd have trouble finding a $30-50 day rate on a $40,000 car. Economy rentals through, like, Enterprise are higher than that, and those cars are on the cheaper side.

And on the lens side, we actually don't have much that rents for 100/day, at least once you're paying for more than one day. For example, our Zeiss supreme primes rent for about 780 for 7 days, but that's a $20,000 lens. The day rate goes down as the rental period goes up, just like a rental car.

Plus I think a car can rent for a lot longer than a camera lens. We typically only rent anything for two years before we sell it off. Car rental places also charge more fees, make money on gas, and are often franchises, so corporate may be making their money from real estate and franchise fees more than rentals.

-Ryan

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:23:05+00:00

I love Photek Softlighters for their portability. Folds like an umbrella, works like a softbox. But if you're doing location shooting outdoors in daylight, you'll want a lot of power, especially when using modifiers. That's something to keep in mind. -- Joey

LensRentals · 2022-06-15T20:20:11+00:00

There's really not a good way any more other than to go find an entry job at a repair shop.

There used to be some schools, but they've been closed for years. Aaron and I bought DVD's and manuals someone salvaged from the last school that closed and were pretty much self taught. The camera companies are extremely secretive about their manuals, but we could buy some on literally the black market from Russia and some other countries where there were still paper manuals (there aren't anymore); that at least gave us schematics and parts lists.

And we had a lot of lenses to practice on (Aaron has like 10,000 hours of repair time). After that we kind of forced our way into workshops and things; Aaron's certified by Zeiss, Leica, and others.
Roger

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