Lately, I have been diving into the commercial and editorial photography business. My personal photography website has started to showcase more and more of this kind of photography.
Now, I am just getting into the business. Not sure how the future will pan out. What I do know is that I don't want to get into debt having to buy myself all new gear. I can just budget into my budget some rental equipment, use it for the shoot and ship it back. Way better than racking up the bills.
Not only is http://www.borrowlenses.com great for commissioned work, it is also great to try new cameras or lenses before you buy. Back in 2008 I made the switch to Nikon from Canon. This was right around when the Canon 1D Mark III was supposedly patched up with the "blue dot" fix and whatnot. I came to a crossroad; buy the Canon flagship model, or jump ship and go to Nikon. Nikon had just released the D3 and it's baby brother, the D700. If I would have known better (hindsight is 20/20) then I would have dropped $200 and tried out a Nikon system through http://www.borrowlenses.com. If I would have done that then I would have saved myself so many headaches.
Maybe 10,000 shutter clicks into the 1D Mark III, it just broke. Nothing worked. To make things worse I was on assignment. So I had to run and get my backup Canon 5D to finish the shoot. Not cool. Canon didn't look out for me (CPS membership and everything) and send me a replacement body until mine was repaired so I just said screw it and jumped ship to a more reliable system.
My first shot with a Nikon D700 was really a "Holy S#!#" moment! I couldn't believe the sharpness and high ISO abilities to shoot in low light. Now if I would have just bucked up $200 and just gone to http://www.borrowlenses.com to try out a D700 before buying that damned 1D Mark III I would have been impressed enough and would have just jumped ship at that point. I could still smack myself because that 1D Mark III was the one piece of equipment that I leased for 5 years. I ended up ditching it in 8 months, still paying for the lease today...
Awesome!
Another example. I have really been into Leica digital cameras as of late. I mean I was drooling over these things. So I smartened up and dropped a couple hundred dollars to rent a Leica M9 from http://www.borrowlenses.com along with a Leica 50mm f/2 lens. Sure enough, the camera wasn't for me. I am so glad I tried it out because I would have been like $10,000 in the hole for something that didn't fit my shooting style.
So if you are considering jumping ship, try before you buy. Maybe you want that new $3,000 lens. Try before you buy. Going on a little vacation for the week and want to bring an astronomically high priced piece of glass? Rent one for the week and ship it back when you are done...
Comment below and feel free to share your dumb photography purchases.
Learn from my mistakes. Thanks for stopping by.
~ Mike
Update: To celebrate their 5th year in business, BorrowLenses.com has a promotion where you can win a Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800 D-SLR. Click here to enter.
I have a website with Photos for Sale and have used the D800 for some of my collection. A good camera always improves a shot, but you need to find the shot first!, nice website, keep sharing, thanks.
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