Another person's random thoughts:


I love the customer service of LensRentals. It trickles down to how they set their prices - fairly, from a cost-of-doing-business point of view. They adjust prices as they learn more and more about how they have to run their biz. Honestly, I will never switch to someone else unless they should happen to disappear, for rentals where I can plan ahead by at least two days.


I really enjoyed renting some lenses from Glazer's in Seattle when I was up there last year - they rent by the day, and their prices seem to track linearly with the cost of the lens. I rented a 14/2.8II for $30/day and a 200/2IS for $45/day. Deposit was 50% of retail, so I had to make sure I used my Amex where I have flexibility. Cool part was I could pick up the day before after 3PM or 4PM (can't remember which) and they were due back the day after by 10AM or so. This gave me two nights to play with the lenses, and boy was that fun and worthwhile.


I really hate renting gear from the only camera shop in my town that does rentals. Terrible inventory (no more than one of any one thing), all beat up, and they do a deposit of full retail price, even though the gear is in no condition to warrant a full retail replacement. Plus, if I remember correctly, a day's rental period is actually more like 18-20 hours, as it's due back the next day by 11am.


If I had a Glazer's shop in my town, I'd rent more often and own less gear, because of the option to rent by the day. I'd put a lot of miles on said shop's 200/2, because of my love affair with that lens.


What do I rent? Usually it's stuff either at the top of my wishlist (that I just can't buy yet) or stuff towards the bottom of my wishlist (when I feel that lens is right for a particular task). For my upcoming wedding, we're going to cut the photographer loose before we do the dinner (non-traditional wedding day plan) so I'm renting the 10-22 to survive such a small room. For our Alaska cruise, I'm renting the three lenses on the top of my wishlist (10-22, 24-70, 70-200/4IS), since the two of us will likely have a need for wide/normal/tele per-person. I'm also renting a 500/4 because I want the reach, and it's the best price/performance value I can find. I usually rent with delivery to my office, so I can receive it more directly (since signature is required). On rare occasions (price or transport reasons), I rent with delivery to a UPS shipping site and pick up in person there. I did that last winter with a tripod, so I didn't have to rent it longer and fit it into a suitcase, and will do it next month with the 10-22 so I can rent for 4 days (while we're in MD) instead of 10 days (to receive in TX before our flights and ship from TX after our return).