As with many emerging photographers or even seasoned pros sometimes budgets are tight when you need to purchase a new piece of equipment for an upcoming job. Sometimes equipment can fail, break or can even be stolen. What do you do when you have a shoot in three days and no equipment? I turn to the awesome people over at
Borrow Lenses
B&H does not even offer rentals, Adorama and Calumet both place holds on your credit card.
Adorama "a major Non-Debit Credit Card with enough line of credit available to hold the full replacement value of the equipment you are renting. Once we receive your equipment back and if there are no damages or losses, the Security Deposit on your card is released."
Calumet "A deposit for the full-replacement cost of the equipment is required unless other arrangements are made in advance.We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Optima and Discover cards. Sorry, we cannot accept Visa or Mastercard check/debit cards or overseas credit cards drawn on non-USA banks. A valid driver’s license or, current passport is also required."
I see from a business stand point why they put a hold on a credit card for the full amount, they need to make sure that in the event of you not returning the item, it being broke or misplaced they can cover the whole cost of the item. It would make more sense to me if they put a hold on the credit card at their cost not at the retail value of the item. But then the public could see what the percentage of markup on the camera equipment is.
My answer to this dilemma is to check out
BorrowLenses.com Website, they have all of the major camera brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus and all of the accessories to go with all of the cameras. If you are looking to rent lighting, backdrops, tripods, strobes, pocket wizards or external flashes you can also get them at
BorrowLenses.com
