Lens rental

[ivans75]

Does anyone knows where i can rent a lens for a trip/tryout? I tried camera house but they dont seem to rent out telezoom lens. Looking to try a telezoom lens as we are heading to weribee zoo this weekend
Thanks in advance

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nah forget it lol, just realised most of them wants minimum of 6 months
any thoughts of rent to buy tho?

[Tannin]

It is much, much cheaper to buy outright.

[ivans75]

yes i do realise that but spending $2300 for something i am not sure about using sounds a bit hard. My youngest one been asking me to go to the zoo since last few weeks and I went with a friend instead watching him taking photographs with his nikon and 500mm lens so I promised him to go this weekend. Thought I could use the trip for a bit of wildlife learning point with a 70-200 f4 or f2.8 depending on price per day but yeah as you said, they re not cheap either. $67 per day is a bit too much, almost like hiring a car (and car cost way more than lens)

[farmmax]

Rent a Lens (http://https://rentalens.com.au/index.php) is a mail order lens renting company. You would want to have a few days work lined up for it, because I think they rent for 4 days minimum.
I think trying before you buy is a sensible option if purchasing an expensive lens, but I'd probably try hunting around for a friend who owned one and suggesting a day out photographing :)

[ricktas]

There used to be quite a few lensrental places around. Problem was that nearly every one of them had lenses stolen. Fake ID used etc to get the lens. I think many of them shut up shop a few years back, simply because it was nonviable with lenses being stolen.

These folks seem to still exist: http://www.camerahire.com.au/

[arthurking83]

By the time you've wasted about $100-150 on renting a lens you may or may not like using, you could easily just buy something telephoto-ish for just a little bit more .... and use it over a much longer period

Tamron's 70-300 VC (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tamron-SP-70-300mm-f-4-5-6-Di-VC-USD-Telephoto-Zoom-Lens-Canon-EF-Mount-AU-/302371486914?epid=1733329754&hash=item4666bebcc2:g:LmMAAOSwnK9ZWht-) lens takes nice images to start with

I can't vouch for that ebayer, but it gives you an idea on price(you can probably get them cheaper from HK too).

As I remember, this lens took nice pictures(I tried it with the D800 years back at the photo expo here). It was indoors so high ISO had to be used, but I do remember images were not bad.
Don't be tempted by those 18-300+mm type all in one lenses unless you really hate changing lenses too. They have to compromise too much to do what they do(zoom a long way!)

[junqbox]

I've used Sun Studios in Sydney previously and I think they have a Melbourne outlet. There was also a guy in Manly Sydney I've used too. Thing I found was most gear is Canon, but there are reasonable amounts of Nikon around depending on what you're looking for.

[Geoff79]

How timely this one pops up today. I'd never heard of lens hire before but noticed in camera house in Hornsby they had lens hire available, across a huge range.

I'd also struggle to lay down the money for temporary usage but I can definitely see its purpose. Rates seemed ok at a glance, but that was a daily rate and I must admit I didn't look into any minimum hire periods.


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[Morgo]

Lens hire in Aus is expensive.
Your better off finding a nice clean used example of the lens your interested in and buying it. If it turns out it is not suited to your needs then you can sell it for the same $ or a bit less and call that your "rental fee"

[Geoff79]

Lens hire in Aus is expensive.
Your better off finding a nice clean used example of the lens your interested in and buying it. If it turns out it is not suited to your needs then you can sell it for the same $ or a bit less and call that your "rental fee"

Out of curiosity, do you guys here know of any good places / sites that sell good quality second hand equipment, at good (read cheap, lol) prices?

Or are your best bets the usual suspects, like this site's classifieds, eBay or gumtree?


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[Morgo]

Just the usual suspects for me.

[Brian500au]

Out of curiosity, do you guys here know of any good places / sites that sell good quality second hand equipment, at good (read cheap, lol) prices?

Or are your best bets the usual suspects, like this site's classifieds, eBay or gumtree?


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Generally Geoff I have found Australia to be rather light on places to buy second hand equipment. I often thought it was because we had such a small population but Singapore has about the 3rd the population of Australia and was the best second hand market I have ever come across. I then thought maybe it is because we are so spread out that people did not trust to send to someone without paypal protection but the US is very similar and once again they have a thriving used market.

I still check Ebay and Gumtree and do see some equipment priced at the right price every now and again, so really you just need to be patient. There are also some FB pages for buy and sell camera equipment now - some better than others but worthwhile to keep an eye on.

[Tannin]

Mainline Photographic is worth keeping an eye on. Their specialty is collectable and specialist gear (medium format film, Leica, and so on) but I bought a lovely little Canon pancake lens from them the other day.