Top Rented Photo/Video Gear of 2020 on Lensrentals

Industry News

by Jakub HanJanuary 12^th, 2021

Lensrentals published its annual top rented photo and video equipment statistics. In 2020, the numbers got affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns, but certain trends are still visible. Dominated by Canon and Sony, the photo/video gear rental market still favors the Canon EF Mount, Cinema cameras, and shows a shift from DSLRs to mirrorless.

Founded in 2006, Lensrentals is – in their own words – the largest online rental provider for photography, videography, lighting equipment and accessories in the United States. The company’s headquarters is located in Memphis, Tennessee (with a satellite office in Nashville), but they ship rented gear all over the USA.

Since 2016, Lensrentals publish a yearly blog post with a summary of the top rented photo and video products of the year. This is interesting as it shows certain trends in the photo/video rental industry. Let’s take a look at the latest article with the top rented gear of 2020.

Top rented gear of 2020 on Lensrentals

As Lensrentals states, the 2020’s numbers are affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns that came with it. Most of the events were canceled and that had a huge impact on the events photo/video segment, but Lensrentals still rented out a large amount of gear. First, let’s take a look at the list of most rented products in 2020:

1. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
2. Canon 5D Mark IV
3. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
4. Sony Alpha a7 III
5. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III
6. Canon 35mm f/1.4L II
7. Canon EOS R
8. Canon 50mm f/1.2L
9. Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS
10. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
11. Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III
12. Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro
13. Sony NP-FZ100 Battery
14. DJI Ronin-S 3-Axis Gimbal
15. Canon 6D Mark II
16. Nikon D750
17. Canon LP-E6N Battery
18. Canon EF-EOS R Mount Adapter
19. Canon 85mm f/1.2L II
20. Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art for Canon

Interestingly, the top spot for a camera goes to the 5D Mark IV DSLR, which shows that it is still a popular photography workhorse. It is also interesting to see the DJI Ronin-S gimbal in the top 20 list among all the lenses and camera bodies. The dominance of Canon EF L zoom lenses is less surprising.

Lenses

Lensrentals published more tables with interesting data. When it comes to lenses, the most popular mount is still the Canon EF Mount followed by Sony E in the photo segment and by PL Mount in the video lenses segment. The Canon RF Mount gained a remarkable market share and is the second most popular mirrorless mount in the photo segment.

Looking at lens brands, the companies that improved the market share the most are SIGMA and Venus Optics (Laowa) in the photo segment and Canon and Fujinon in the video lens segment. Canon is the overall leader in all aspects when it comes to lenses.

Camera types

The market share of different types of rented cameras shows that cinema cameras are still the most popular category. Interestingly, mirrorless cameras were still less popular in 2019 on Lensrentals than DSLRs. In 2020, the places switched as mirrorless cameras have more market share than DSLRs. The fact that DSLRs still have almost 20% in 2020 is almost only thanks to the photographers in my opinion.

Brands

Finally, the last table shows brands market share of all rented products in 2020. It is not surprising, that the list is being lead by Canon with Sony in the second place. Interestingly, Blackmagic Design gained the most market share when compared with 2019.

Do you rent your own gear? What do you think about the trends published by Lensrentals? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

Source: Lensrentals