Hiring lenses abroad

sarahhj

sarahhj

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Sarah
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Hi,

I am looking to hire a couple of lenses for a trip next month. We are travelling to the US and want to hire the lenses when we get there for a couple of reasons - 1. It will be alot cheaper as we do not plan to hire for the whole duration of the trip 2. We are already concerned about hand luggage weight and are trying to keep this down.

Has anyone any experience of doing this? I was leaning towards borrowlenses.com but would consider lensrentals.com too. I have been in contact with both companies a couple of months ago as I had some other questions, and neither took issue to the fact I was travelling from the UK. But today I noticed on the borrowlenses website that they state they only accept US cards registered to US address for payment.

Just looking for other people's expereince / recommendations on the issue. I've emailed borrowlenses, and if they can't help, I contact lensrentals.

I'm a little bit peeved that I was led to believe in my previous email conversation with them that I could rent from them...
 
Just had confirmation that I cannot rent from borrowlenses unless I have a friend in the US with a credit card and ID who is able to pick up with/for me.

Next up, lensrentals (who do not mention a US-only policy).
 
Just checked, lensesforhire allow worldwide travel as long as your not going into a war zone :)

I've used them before and like a lot of people on here cannot praise them enough for customer service.
 
If you can't find anything abroad, then Lens Fettish allow customers to take it out of the country.

You'll probably find their prices aren't too bad either.

Have fun on your trip.
 
If you haven't tried LensRentals yet, I wouldn't bother. They're a great company, as are BorrowLenses, but they'll have exactly the same issues hiring to overseas visitors as we do: basically, if you "forget" to return the lens at the end of your trip, there's absolutely nothing they can do about it.

Having said that, both of them ought to be prepared to hire to you if you're willing to leave a security deposit. That's what we do for overseas visitors who don't have any friends or family in the UK. The card processing fees for the deposit pretty much wipe out all the profit on the deal, but we figure it's always worth trying to find a reason for saying "yes" rather than an excuse for saying "no".
 
PaulF said:
I think lensesforhire.co.uk (they sponsor TP too) allow travel abroad when you hire a lens from them.

See http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=265366 for more details.

Paul.

Ps, enjoy your trip.
Click to expand...



PaulF said:
Just checked, lensesforhire allow worldwide travel as long as your not going into a war zone :)

I've used them before and like a lot of people on here cannot praise them enough for customer service.
Click to expand...

Sarah wants to rent a lens from a US firm for a portion of her trip, she doesn't want to transport them to and from the US if you read her post.
 
Lensrentals.com is looking promising at the moment. They have no initial problem so I will place an order this weekend and see what happens...
 
Just an update for anyone else wanting to do the same.

Yesterday afternoon I placed an order online with lensrentals.com (2 copies of the 24 1.4 LII). I provided some contact details as part of the rental process, as a first-time customer (Work email, workplace website/phone number). Not long after, I received an email asking for me to email a scan of my passport in order to verify my identity.

Today I was emailed at my work address, and a couple of hours later I received a confirmation that my order had been accepted.

We will collect the lenses from a Fedex locaiton that I have chosen in Las Vegas, then we can ship back from a different Fedex location using the pre-paid return label.

I was really impressed with the quick and efficient service I received (especially considering it was Sunday when I placed the order) - the various employees I have dealt with have been nothing but helpful. Top notch service so far!

All in (lenses, insurance, shipping, tax) it will be about £315 for 3 weeks. We'd have needed to hire for at least 26 days if we took them from the UK so we've made a potential saving of £150.
 
Great result for you, Sarah AND you don't have to haul your own lenses across the Atlantic and 1/2 the USA!
 
Wow! Great result. Now I'm going to have to call Roger (CEO of LensRentals) and find out how he does that. As I mentioned I have great difficulties hiring stuff to overseas visitors because there really seems to be nothing I can do if they "forget" to return them.... but obviously LR have found a solution....
 
I don't know the workings behind it, but obviously they have my credit card details, work and home address, passport info etc so it wouldn't be hard to track me down. Why is it that you can't chase an overseas customer?

Nod - I wish it were that simple. We'll be dragging 3 bodies and 6 more L lenses along for the ride with Virgin. As they have a ridiculous 6kg hand luggage policy, we'll be pushed just packing our own camera kit and laptops, hence the need to rent when we get there :-)
 
Only 6 kilos? When I have taken my travelling, holiday kit, I've had to "hide" lenses in pockets to get under 7! Hence I'm picking up a Fujifilm HS30 this afternoon. Going to be a nice change next year to be able to take some extra clothes as hand baggage rather than just stuffing a change of clothes in in case of a main bag loss.

I should imagine that the cost of chasing an overseas customer (even for theft which should be a police matter) would wipe out any profits on the deal.

Just a thought, how much would the hit be buying the couple of lenses you're renting (maybe even second hand) and flogging them on when the job's done? Just a thought.

ETA, enjoy the trip and good luck at the tables/on the slots.
 
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Yeah, 6kg - awful allowance. There may or may not be some items that get forgotten in various pockets on the day.

The lenses (new) are £1250 each at the moment. I don't think they really come up s/h all that often so it would be tricky. We also had a small lapse a couple of months ago when we bought two TS-E 24L II instead of hiring them - justified by the fact that we would sell them after the trip. I don't think I will be able to let mine go though! It's a dangerous game to play :-)
 
Why not buy a multi pocket travel vest? Scott E Vests do a 22 pocket one, what you wear isn't weighed ;)
 
So you really could do with a little luck on those tables!

I also have a bit of a kit habit although I Am getting better - I even disposed of a lens today - a Sigma 150-500. however, I bought a Nikkor 105 Macro! Didn't do too badly with the trade in though, they gave me £410 for it, about 2/3rds what I paid for it new. Enjoy the trip.
You don't need to forget the items you end up pocketing - they seemed fine as they watched me re bag them after the bag had been weighed!
 
Stewart... did you speak to Roger in the end at all?

The lenses shipped yesterday so should be waiting for us at the end of the week. The only hiccup along the way was HSBC's fraud department working overtime to decline lensrentals from charging my card... twice. I won't be using HSBC again for this sort of thing!

The staff at lensrentals have been absolutly fantastic throughout the whole process with really prompt email communication.

Now we just need some clear skies at night, but with the right amount of "nice" cloud for the golden hours... :suspect:
 
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