Fast and painless lens and camera body rental with LensRentals.comI needed a second body for the big Treasure Island Yacht and Tennis Club New Year's Eve party job. This gave me a chance to finally try out LensRentals.com, a service I had heard about on photography podcasts, like TWiP, for awhile. Though the name has lens in it, you can not only rent camera bodies but also tripods, strobes and other photography accessories.
Once at the LensRentals.com website you check the availability for the piece of gear you need on the date you need it by. The minimum rental period is seven days. I chose to have the Nikon D90 body I wanted to rent arrive two days before New Year's Eve just in case something went wrong. Nothing did, except . . . .
Reserving and renting the D90 was very painless. The D90 arrived on the date I reserved it for, however, the UPS delivery person left the box in front of my neighbor's door! I was tracking the package and saw that someone signed for it. Well, I was at home all morning and did no such thing. None of this was LensRentals.com's fault, but it certainly made me think that UPS needs to hire more competent and honest drivers, as I know for a fact no one was home at my neighbor's house either to sign for the package.
The D90 came with all accessories you would get as if you bought one yourself, plus an included carrying bag. The only thing I had to add was my own memory card (SDHC).
Returning the D90 was also painless as LensRentals.com provided a prepaid UPS shipping label. All I had to do was reseal the box and drop it off at the UPS counter at Staples.
I can highly recommend LensRentals.com. I look forward to renting something more exciting next time, like a 400mm lens!