CameraLends - Peer-to-peer camera rental

Peer-to-peer is the future!

Founder here, let me know if you have any questions :)

Welcome, @derwiki! How willing are people to lend their expensive cameras to one another? Photographers already have a camera so what's their motivation for renting one? (excuse my naive questions -- I'm not familiar with photography or the community) :) cc my buddy, @koesbong

@rrhoover people are *surprisingly* willing to lend out their gear, or at least make it available. Sure professional photogs have gear, but many freelance and just-out-of-art-school photographers/videographers end up renting anyway. And as someone like me, a "full arsenal" of lenses would be over 10k, so I just borrow lenses for trips/shoots as I need them. It's evolved into a pretty friendly community and I've learned a lot.

@derwiki, I have used many rental services like LensRentals and I've had thought about a similar idea as CameraLends before, but always got blocked by these questions: -. If I am renting out my equipment, is it insured and if so, by how much? -. If I have a big shoot, I wouldn't be looking to rent at the last minute, so sites like LensRentals seems perfect to me for scheduling. I also know that the equipments I receive has been inspected and cleaned (or sometimes even new). For a big shoot, those are important things because I can't afford a malfunctioning equipment the day of. If I am not mistaken, with LensRentals, if their equipment turns out to be a lemon, they'd send me a new one with next day air. How does CameraLends address those?

@koesbong as a lender, yes, you're covered. The renter can either assume full responsibility or add a protection fee to their reservation to cover up to 2500. I'm happy to say that there have been zero instances of damaged or lost goods since launching. "big shoots" imply big budgets, so yea, BorrowLenses or LensRental might be perfect for what you need. CameraLends is better if: - affordability is your #1 concern: most items can be rented for less than major competitors - you don't have enough time for a lens to be shipped to you I haven't dealt with any members lending faulty equipment, but I can certainly see your concern. Do you have any ideas on how CameraLends could handle this better?

@derwiki, so the coverage is for the renter to purchase - in that cause, it might make sense to have more options than just the "up to $2,500". If i have a Nikon D4, $2500 won't cover the cost of getting a new one if it's broken. There's also a possible scenario where a renter is renting out faulty equipment, got the protection coverage for a minimal amount, the rentee didn't verify when picking up, and then claiming the insurance. Have you thought about how you would mitigate that?

@derwiki by the way, I am not trying to shoot down your idea - I think this is great; I just wanted to hear your thoughts on all these issues that I had in mind before.

@koesbong no worries, this is a fantastic discussion. 2500 was arbitrarily chosen to limit CameraLends liability. Almost all equipment on the site can be replaced for less than that. Lender=owner, renter=borrower The renter adds the protection coverage, not the lender. But yes, it still allows your scenario to happen. Currently, it's the renter's responsibility to verify the equipment is in working order at the time of pick up. I very much expect the protection side to become more optimized as the site grows. But as I said, there has been no damage so far and my policy from the start was to pay for it the first time and then figure out a *real* policy. Feel free to email me at adam@cameralends.com if you want to discuss further!