Renting lenses - any pointers?

[DaveB]

I've been looking into the options for people to rent lenses short-term. The sort of application I'm thinking of is participants in my wildlife photography workshops wanting to rent a telephoto lens to take on the workshop.

So far I've found:

• Sun Studios (in Melb & Syd, with some Canon and Nikon lenses),
• Rent a Lens (who operate by post from Queensland, with Canon lenses), and
• CameraHire.com.au (who again operate by post, this time from Sydney).

I'm familiar with Sun Studios and am happy to recommend them, but the other two seem to be one-man shows and I can't find much info about them?

Does anyone here have useful knowledge I can pass on to workshop participants?
Should any of these be avoided? Do you know of any other lens rental suppliers in Australia?

Thanks!

[gstark]

Dave,

Don't Vanbar and Kayell also rent glass?

Vanbar would be batter suited for Melbourne and Sydney people - and quite possibly Nikon only - while Kayell are Sydney and Brisbane based ...

[DaveB]

Doh!

Ok, Kayell have 70-200 and 300/2.8 Canon and Nikon lenses, and they do have a Melbourne store (I should have thought of them, they're distributor for some of the products I sell in my store!).

Vanbar are a bit stupid in that their rental product list PDF doesn't include the Nikon cameras/lenses that are referred to on their web page. But they're reputable enough that I can refer people to them without having to dig up all the details myself.

Thanks for that.

[DanW]

Hi

I've rented some lenses and speedlights from Borge's Imaging in Port Melbourne http://www.borge.com.au/. The folks are helpful and rentals are at quite good rates.

Long telephoto might be a bit of an issue though. I know then rent both the Canon and Nikon 70-200 but there's nothing bigger listed on their website. Could be worth checking out.

[gstark]

Dave,

Doh!

You're welcome.

[jdear]

sorry to dredge up an old topic, but Ive hired from Christian at http://lensrental.com.au/ before (pickup for kellyville)
and he has pretty much every L series lense.

Ive hired the 45mm TSE, 24-70/2.8L, 50/.1.2L from him previously.

Wish he had the 200/2L

[DaveB]

sorry to dredge up an old topic, but Ive hired from Christian at http://lensrental.com.au/ before (pickup for kellyville)

The topic's not that old, and it's useful info.

Thanks!