New Lens Rental Business Model

[distant.star]

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This guy wants to be the "Netflix" of lens rentals...

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20141203_Philly_startup_sees_itself_as_Netflix_of_camera_lenses.html

 

[dgatwood]

At $125 a month, you'll pay the price of a lens every 1–2 years, for everything but the biggest of the big whites, so I see one of three ways this can go:

1. People rent for a month or two to try lots of lenses, then go back to buying them.
2. People who want the most expensive big whites (but can't afford them) rent them and never send them back.
3. Clumsy people who shoot professionally will rent lenses and not take care of them, then send them in for replacement whenever they fail, because it is cheaper than their average annual repair bill.

For some reason, this business model just doesn't sound very practical. Maybe it's just me.

 

[raptor3x]

It looks like the lenses are going to divided into two levels and the higher level is $225 a month.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

They show 32 lenses available, 16 Canon lenses, and 16 Nikon Lenses. They could not buy even one of each for the $20,000 kickstarter target, so someone else is investing a lot of $$.

The promise of being to swap lenses may result in disappointment if the lens you want to swap for is out for a few weeks or months.

The turn-around time to swap a lens isn't given, but even with 2 day shipping, it could be 7 or 8 days before you received the shipped lens. Here is how it works. Ship Monday, arrive Wednesday. Return is shipped Thursday, and arrives Monday. If its 3 day shipping, its a long wait. Only overnight shipping could arrive before Friday if you shipped on Monday.