[dylan604]

As the old saying goes, buy the glass, rent the body. Camera bodies change much more quickly than the lenses, so as an indie your money is better spent on the glass. However, shit is so cheap now that you can almost upgrade your gear like your phone. IF you’re a cut ally making money with it, you can pay off your gear in one or two gigs. Unless you’re the “nephew with a 5D asking $500” to shoot that project

[jeffbee]

Most shops that offered still photo rentals in my city have gone out of business, and it's a major city. I used to be able to count on renting a big telephoto that I didn't need to own, for a few hundred per weekend, but these days I'd have to take a long drive to get to the one remaining shop.

[dylan604]

Yeah, online rental places have pretty much made the locals fade away. The one in my local area requires a "deposit" worth the full sales price which makes it out of the reach of anyone but those well off.

We used to joke about the B&H rental by taking full advantage of the 30-day return policy. Even Amazon's return policy qualifies now. You just need to the up front funds available and hope that wear&tear is not noticeable to make the return acceptable. It's hard for local shops to keep up with that.

[genewitch]

Hard for local shops to keep up with fraud? You don't say.

[dylan604]

I like how the messenger is getting shot. It's as if my reporting of what actually happens is being interpreted as that's what I do. Just because I know of how the system gets played does not make me a player.

[genewitch]

I get upset when people defraud my neighbors and friends in my community. that's what a local shop is. Just today i went to my local pharmacy to look for l-theanine based on some commentary on HN yesterday. I could have gone on amazon, or to walmart, or to CVS. People interfering with that business aren't cool, regardless of the motivation.

let me put it this way - i never even thought of using amazon as a rental service. even though amazon loves me, and i could get away with it, my brain doesn't spend time thinking about unethical things to do.

read this as: "Someone should have gotten upset before the deposit went up from jerks either breaking or stealing the rental equipment" - as my sibling says, this is why we can't have nice things.

[igouy]

aka "This is why we can't have nice things"