Last Updated on 12/21/2019 by Mark Beckenbach
Curious about this year’s most in-demand photo and video gear? Lensrentals shares some insights through their most popular rented products for 2019.
As we’re getting ready to close the year and welcome the next, companies are almost done consolidating their figures and reports for 2019. Lensrentals, for example, has just completed the data on their rental equipment for the outgoing year. Their findings prompted them to share some insights about the most in-demand photo and video equipment of 2019.
First, for those who are just learning about Lensrentals, the company prides itself on having the largest inventory of photography and cinematography equipment in the US for online rental. This has made their annual list a valued reference for the gear creatives are working or experimenting with.
The Lensrentals data covers equipment rented out from January 1st to December 12th of this year from both Lensrentals and LensProToGO. Out of this, the company came up with the following key insights:
- The most popular products haven’t really changed much over the years. In fact, Canon’s 50mm f1.2L lens from 2007 still features in the top ten list.
- There is growth in usage of photography and video equipment market. Almost every brand in every category has seen positive growth this year.
- Canon continues to dominate as the most rented brand.
- Does significant growth in more portable and manageable video equipment allude to the future of imaging being more about moving images?
- Mirrorless sensor adoption continues to increase in pace, up 20% in 2019.
Now, let’s focus a bit on the last one. According to additional data provided by Lensrentals, DSLR rentals may be on the lead at 50.22% of photography cameras rented out, but mirrorless cameras actually aren’t trailing too far behind. In fact, they make up 49.78% – nearly neck and neck with DSLR rentals.
The most popular among the mirrorless cameras they rented out is the Sony E mount, with Canon RF and Nikon Z significantly behind. However, both brands also saw over 800% incremental growth in rental figures compared to last year. The Canon EOS R also crept into the top 20 list and was rented out twice as often as Nikon Z6, Z7, and Z50.
Now, here are Lensrentals’ top five lists.
Top Five Rental Products Overall 2019
- Canon 24-70mm f2.8L II
- Canon 5D Mark IV
- Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS II
- Sony Alpha a7III
- Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS III
Top Five NEW Products 2019
- GoPro HERO7 Black
- Blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4K (the 6K made the top 20 list)
- Sony FE 24mm f1.4 GM
- Sony Alpha 6400
- Nikon Z6
Top Five Lens Rentals by System 2019
- Canon EF 45.5% (up 1.5%)
- Sony E 23.9% (up 18%)
- Nikon F 14% (down 1.5)
- MFT 7% (up 9.8%)
- Fuji X 3.5% (up 14%)
Top Camera Rentals by System 2019
- Canon EF 36.3% (down 7.5%)
- Sony E 27.1% (up 7.4%)
- Nikon F 13% (down 8%)
- MFT 9.23% (down 7%)
- Fuji X 4.3% (up 16.7%)
Top Lens Rentals by Brand 2019
- Canon 35.84% (up 5.5%)
- Sony 15.4% (up 14%)
- Sigma 13.9% (up 17%)
- Nikon 8.8% (up 12%)
- Tamron 4.3% (up 21.8%)
Top Camera Rentals by Brand 2019
- Canon 36.2% (up 1%)
- Sony 26.2% (up 8%)
- Nikon 9.7% (up 6.1%)
- Panasonic 7.66% (up 2.8%)
- BlackMagic 4.8% (up 130%)
In case you want to compare these figures to previous years’ data, check out the Lensrental Blog posts from 2018, 2017, and 2016.
