Recently, the well-known overseas equipment rental platform Lensrentals.com celebrated its 19th anniversary. Today, Lensrentals.com has become one of the largest equipment rental platforms in the United States. To mark the occasion, the platform released a review article, listing the most rented equipment over the past 19 years. Let's take a look and see what equipment is popular in the U.S. rental market!
First, here are the most rented camera bodies in 19 years:
It can be seen that the Canon EOS 5D Mark III takes the top spot. Released in March 2012, it is still widely rented on the platform, earning the title of a classic among classics. Lensrentals stated, "Even though it was released 13 years ago, you can still buy new units on e-commerce platforms, and it is still used in many work scenarios." Its successor, the EOS 5D Mark IV, ranks second.
The Sony α7 III is a "late bloomer". Despite being released in 2018, it jumped to the third place with its well-balanced performance. The video-focused α7S II and α7S III rank 6th and 7th respectively. It's worth noting that this statistic spans from 2006 to 2025, a period when DSLRs still dominated the market, and Sony had just entered the interchangeable-lens professional camera market not long before. As a "latecomer", securing 4 spots in the top 20 list is enough to show its strong momentum!
It's worth noting that Nikon made its first appearance at the 11th place, indicating that Canon and Sony have dominated the rental market for years. Moreover, the two Nikon models on the list are both DSLRs. Lensrentals also expressed hope that Nikon will gain more popularity in the mirrorless era.
Next is the list of lenses:
Naturally, the popularity of lenses in the rental list is closely related to that of camera bodies. It can be seen that Canon accounts for 15 of the top 20 positions.
In terms of focal lengths, there's a striking consistency – the most popular ones are still the classic standard zoom lenses of various brands, the 24-70mm, followed by the complementary 70-200mm focal length lenses. Overall, the demand for prime lenses is not as high as that for zoom lenses. However, it's worth noting that Canon's classic "100mm macro" (a relatively niche category) jumped to the 9th place.
Then there are the accessory products:
Of course, rental platforms also offer various accessories. Many users choose to pay a little extra to rent an additional battery when renting a camera. Therefore, Sony and Canon batteries occupy the top 4 positions. In addition, the Canon EF-RF mount adapter ranks 5th. DJI's stabilizers also made it to the 10th place, proving that the demand for video shooting has surged in recent years. Other accessories include Sennheiser microphones and Canon flash units.
Of course, it should be emphasized that this list is based on data from a U.S. platform. Consumer preferences vary by region, which can be influenced by many factors.
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