Today, Lensrentals released data around their most rented camera gear of 2023. It includes data about the most rented gear by photographers and videographers. At the top are the likes of Canon and Sony. Black Magic and Panasonic are also really up there with Nikon. And there are a lot of key takeaways from this data that are fascinating to look at.
Table of Contents
The Lensrentals Data in Brief
Here are some insights into the data from Lensrentals. You can see the rest of it all by clicking this link:
- The most popular cameras for photographers were the Canon EOS R5, Sony a7s III, Canon EOS R6, Canon 5D Mk IV, Canon EOS R6 II, and the Sony a7 IV
- The most popular lenses for photographers were the Canon RF 28-70mm f2, Canon RF 70-200mm f2.8 L, Canon 24-70mm f2.8 II (EF mount), Canon RF 24-70mm f2.8 L, Canon 70-200mm f2.8 II (EF mount), Sony 70-200mm f2.8 GM II, the original Sony 70-200mm f2.8 GM, the Sony 24-70mm f2.8 I and II, and the Canon RF 100-500mm.
- That data shows the most popular products. But the ones that were actually the most rented cameras are the Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, Canon 5D Mk IV, Sony a7s III, Canon EOS R6 II, and the Sony a7 IV.
- The most popular lenses are variants of the 24-70mm lenses, 70-200mm lenses, and the Canon RF 28-70mm f2.
Here’s some data on the market share:
It all makes sense, really. The photographers that typically rent gear are the ones that need to do work where they’re getting income from it. Otherwise, people tend to go to the touch-and-try style events that let them play with the gear. At those events, there are models and entire stations for them to use the gear however they wish.
Canon and Sony are at the top by far. Nikon’s market share isn’t all that far off from Panasonic’s, and even Leica’s isn’t all that bad. Fujifilm gained some, too! However, they’re still lower on the totem pole of things.
Because we’re curious, Lensrentals provided to the Phoblographer exclusively data around the most popular Leica and Fujifilm pieces.
- Leica Q2
- Fuji GFX 100S Medium Format Mirrorless
- Leica Q2 Monochrom
- Fuji X100V
- Fujinon 20-120mm T3.5 Cabrio Premier (PL)
- Fuji X-T4
- Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR
- Fujinon XA20SX8.5BERM-K3 B4 Lens for 2/3 Sensors
- Fuji XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR
- Fujinon Premista 28-100mm T2.9 Full Format Zoom (PL)
- Fujinon 85-300mm T2.9-4.0 Cabrio Premier (PL)
- Fuji XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR
- Leica M10 Monochrom
- Leica SL2
- Leica SL2-S
- Fuji GFX 50S II Medium Format Mirrorless
- Fuji GF 110mm f/2 R WR
- Fujinon 19-90mm T2.9 Cabrio Premier (PL)
- Fuji GFX 100 Medium Format Mirrorless
- Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH
The data suggests that there’s surely interest in Fujifilm and Leica. But overall, they’re still not beating out Canon or Sony.
Is Canon Better Than Sony?
Sony has been able to beat out Nikon’s dominion for second place — and that’s been the news for several years now. While Nikon is only now really starting to put out products to recover from these blows, Canon has still remained at the top — which is fascinating to think of. All the YouTubers made a bigger deal than they really needed to about the Canon EOS R5’s overheating issue. When, in reality, that’s not how the tool is supposed to be used. You don’t put rubbing alcohol in a whiskey sour when you need whiskey, and you don’t use a screwdriver when you need a wrench. For much of what those influencers and noise-makers were saying, you’d get a higher-end camera or one meant for shooting video.
It was such an issue that Canon made the Canon EOS R5C.
All this aside, Sony still makes great cameras and lenses. But personally speaking, I always reach for Canon’s reliability, the character in the lenses, the reliability, and even the feature set. Sony hasn’t put multiple exposure modes in their cameras at all, and doing it with Canon makes things such a wonderful joy.
The State of the Photo Industry
If you really look at all this data, it’s showing quite a sad story. Let’s dissect that:
- Two brands are at the top. It’s no longer three.
- One brand pretty much does everything in-house, with a few exceptions. That’s Canon.
- Sony mostly also does everything in-house, but with fewer exceptions, that’s Sony.
- Nikon does nearly nothing in-house. They use Sony sensors, and even recently, they’ve been rebranding Tamron’s lenses.
- Panasonic does some things in-house, but their cameras have Sony sensors, and they rely on Leica, Sigma, and Tamron for lens manufacturing and standards.
- Fujifilm uses Sony sensors but finds ways to make them very unique. Then, we suspect they often use either Tamron or Sigma for lens making.
- Leica makes some of their own stuff. But they’re using Sony sensors, Panasonic manufacturing, and, in some situations, Sigma’s lenses.
The problem here is that Leica, Fujifilm, Panasonic, and Nikon are all hurting quite a bit, and there isn’t really much healthy competition when they’re all so reliant on one another.