Have you ever lent a camera? Or borrowed one, for that matter?

[bjornkeizers]

Hey gang, here's something that I've never really thought about... borrowing or lending cameras. Have you done it?

The reason it popped into my head is this: A colleague and I visited a second hand store last week because she knew I'm into film cameras. They had a few busted Olympus SLR bodies in poor condition, nothing of interest. We started talking about it a bit, and she mentioned that she might want to try film again. She's from a previous generation, and didn't really take to digital as a medium.

So, she asked me to show her a light meter application on her iPod Touch, and I'm bringing a Minolta XG-1 with 50mm 2.8 to work for her to try. Will load it with a fresh roll of Tmax 100 and have it developed for her. I'll do the scanning... I'm very interested to see what a 'novice' might come up with.

The XG-1 is a good fit for a lending camera as it's not too big or heavy, it has full manual as well as metered modes and it has docile handling.

I've lent out lenses before, but never an entire camera. It's a relatively cheap one, so I'm not worried. We'll see how well she does.

I'd love to hear some stories!

[rbelyell]

i sometimes do when i'm trying to sell gear, or when i want to try another rig i will try to work up a trade with someone who has it. ive only done it through this or the manual focus lens forum. in fact i just sent a customized ricoh tls401 and 2 lenses to a RFF member, and a set of c mount lenses to a MFL forum member.
tony

[Corto]

I have no problem lending gear to people that i get the right vibe from.

So far nothing has gone broken or missing.

Cameras are inanimate objects that I dont have emotional attachments to.
I like them, But the only thing that would piss me off would be a heavy Financial loss.

[MartinP]

Good idea to spread the awareness that film still exists. Might not a C41 black-and-white film, or normal colour neg, be a more convenient idea? Much easier to get it developed and/or quicker for your friend to see the results.

[bjornkeizers]

The B&W was her choice; said she loves it. Who am I to disagree! :-)

I get my film developed at a larger chain, so color or B&W takes about the same time anyway. Even slides would've been doable. I would've picked 200 Fuji Superia for a total beginner, yes.

[jkrumsick]

I'm happy to lend my Nikon fm and 50 f2 out to anyone that asks. I think that part of that is because I bought it for $100.

Would I loan out my zeiss 21mm biogon or voigtlander or hassy? No. Sorry couldnt do it unless a friend maybe pleaded.

I used to have a lot of underwater photography gear and people would even ask me but I would never loan it. Some gear is too finicky and if something goes wrong it could flood. While hassles are not exactly in the same boat, it's easy to mess it up.

Sorry, I'm a stickler :-)

[jky]

Borrowed an x100 for a week and it solidified my decision not to buy one... Lent my old M8 to a friend and its frame line inaccuracy drove him nuts.
Lending/borrowing.... Best way to try before you buy.

[hrzlvn]

Very nice move. I bought my girlfriend a X-700 and a MC-SI 24/2.8 and it turns out she's into it so much. I am so glad that I turn a digital fans to a film devotee. It's cheap comparing to M and it's more acceptable base on the same SLR system., so why not? We should encourage more people to try film before it dead. I hate to see my son asking me questions like this in the future.

"Dad, what's the plastic frame inside your book?"
I love to lend my body with lens to someone who new to this field, I lent my Polaroid, Minolta and Olympus to the people around me before they get their own gears.

[raid]

I used about sixty RF lenses that RFF members sent me to compare in the past years. I did not damage in any way any of the lenses. It was sometimes kinda stressful due to the value of these lenses.

[peterm1]

My cameras and lenses are like members of the family so I do not loan them. On the assumption that others feel the same way I likewise do not borrow.

I have found that other people are never as careful with my stuff as I am with my own stuff. To them a ding or dent on a body or scratch on a lens may be nothing. To me its a betrayal of faith. Especially when you ask how it happened and the answer invariably is "It was not me. I know nothing".

Comedian Stevie Wright expressed it best when he once asked "Why its it that all your own "sh#t" is "STUFF" while everyone elses "stuff" is "SH#T"? Humerous but exactly accurate in terms of the priority we place on other peoples "sh#T" compared with the importance of our "STUFF".

[progie]

A co-worker left for a European vacation about five weeks ago. He had bought a $25 camera with AA batteries. I felt bad for him taking that on a vacation of a lifetime. I brought in my s95 a couple days before he left and let him try it out to see if he liked it. He used it on straight auto the whole time, but he did get some beautiful pics.

I wouldn't lend the x pro 1 or Leica to anybody though.

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have loaned cameras to people I know well.

[nikon_sam]

A friend asked me about what camera would be best for a photography student...I asked a few questions and it turned out it was his daughter who was the student...
I ended up loaning her one of my Pentax MX bodies with a nice 50mm 1.7 lens....these were two of my first cameras that I bought for myself when they were brand new...
She had it for a year or two and when she was done I got it back...she took great care of it and returned it without any extra dents or dings...
I didn't know if I would miss it or worry while it was gone...in the end I really didn't...plus I was glad that it was being used instead of sitting...

More recently and friend from church made a comment to me while I was shooting a church service...she said, "That's something I've always wanted to do..."I asked What??"
She said that she's always wanted to take up photography but now it was too late...
I returned the following weekend with a Nikon N2020, a nice Nikkor 50mm 2.0 lens and a roll of B&W film...I handed it to her daughter and explained that I was giving it to her mom...the daughter knew that her mother always wanted to take pictures but for whatever reasons never did...she said that her mom was going to be so thrilled...
The gear was given to me so I had no real attachment to it...I had used the body once and never shot with the lens...I don't miss any of it...happier that it's being used...

[CNNY]

I let a friend take my Leica m6 and 28mm lens to Thailand for a month. I also gave my m3 and 50mm to a friend who went to the desert in Utah for a couple of weeks. They are people I trust, otherwise I wouldn't have done that. Those are two of my favorite cameras.
In the end though I feel that my cameras need to be used, and if they have an opportunity to go somewhere interesting as opposed to sitting on my desk I will not stop them. I also find it too painful to bear the thought of someone I like who has an interest photography going to a unique place without a decent camera. That thought makes me cringe.
There are plenty of good cameras in the world, it is a shame not to put them to good use.

[willie_901]

I was shooting a gymnastics meet for a company that sold CDs and prints on the spot for the athletes and their families. The company hired local photographers to work for three days at this large regional meet. The athletes were 6 though 18 years old. The competition lasted for 8 hours a day.

Gymnastics is a difficult gig because you are not allowed to use strobes in order to insure the safety of the gymnasts. I was using a D200 with a Nikkor 50/1.8. I shot jpegs at F2 and ISO 800. My event was the balance beam. With a fresh battery, the D200 was barely up to the task as it would only do about 3 FPS and the money shot was when the atheletes were up in the air. The tracking AF did an amazing job but the burst rate was just a bit slow even though I always used a fresh battery.

The company also hired a full-time sports photographer. This guy shot sports all the time. He just traveled around with a SUV full of cameras and lenses. To give you an idea of how much he shot, he had a suitcase full of D2X bodies wrapped on towels he lifted from motels all over the central US. Each one had at least 200k actuations and he was selling them for next to nothing. Like an idiot I didn't buy one. Those Nikon DSLRs may be hughe, heavy and loud, but they are tough.

I asked him a lot of questions and he was a very nice guy who didn't mind sharing what he knew. Half way through the first morning he offered to lend me his brand new D300. He was shooting with a just-released D3 which was the first full-frame DSLR I had ever seen. He had jury-rigged a grip for the D300 (Nikon had not released one yet) so you could get 5-6 FPS. Not only could you get 5 FPS, but the camera would focus during the burst. He showed me how he set up the AF for sports and how to use it. I shot at ISO 1600 for the first time.

He let me use that camera for a day and a half. The D300's success rate was much higher than the D200's. He even offered to lend me his brand D3 for one session. They had just shipped at the time. "Go ahead,"he said, you can tell your buddies you shot with a D3!" I politely refused because I ddn't want to be responsible for such an expensive camera.

He was generous with his gear and with his knowledge. I sent him a thank you gift at his office. He was hardly ever there, and I often wondered if he ever got it.

[Captain Trips]

A friend of mine runs a photography basics course at a local community centre. I lend him my D200 regularly with a 50mm and a zoom of some sort. His students handle it and use it and it doesn't worry me. I hardly use the D200 myself so it is good that is being used for something useful.

[Dylan Hope]

Any medium format camera I've used has been borrowed, still undecided on whether or not to go for the Rollei on trademe (I think it actually belongs to someone on RFF) or if I should just get a headstart on my if-all-film-goes-away-somehow-emergency savings plan for a digital M, and all my SLR video work has been on borrowed gear. I've leant my digital gear out, but most of my friends are too scared they'll destroy my M6 if I lend it to them. I'd like to swap my mate his Ricoh GR1 for a street session though, and I've always got spare rolls in both colour and black and white for mates to shoot if they need a roll real quick.

Speaking of which, time to put in my 120 order, gonna be using an RZ67 for the next two weeks if all goes to plan

[JohnTF]

Young photo student still has my 8x10, she returned another camera, broken, after about two years.

Make sure you like them more than the equipment.

I gave away a lot of stuff, don't have to worry about getting it back. ;-) OTOH, she is a pretty good friend.

A store I worked at when starting out, used to loan out Demo and used equipment, sometimes -still does if you know the owners well enough. I returned stuff that I just did not care for-- at full value, and I think they do it occasionally now.

It was an agreed trial usage.

It does seem that few stores operate this way today?

Regards, John

[GaryLH]

When I was in college a friend of mine loaned me his Hasselblad 500elm.. For the weekend. I have loaned cameras to my friends as well.. Usually for no longer than a weekend though...

Gary

[Doug]

I lent an inexpensive RF to a co-worker for several months work in Philipines, and it was stolen there. Not such a good experience. Later when I worked part-time in a camera shop I regularly borrowed new and used gear for a day or two for familiarization. Which was a good experience. More recently in our photo club a member was disposing of some gear, and sold a Mamiya C330 to another member who asked me to give it some exercise to see if it was ok. I had used a Mamiya C from the camera shop, so it was interesting to discover the refinements. I would lend a camera to the right borrower...

[bugmenot]

I have no problems lending out film cameras to friends and acquaintances that I know, as long as I have some way of getting back to them if they 'forget' to return my possessions.

However, lending out a DSLR to friends can be a bit frustrating. Nowadays, I only lend out such a camera and lenses to people who are actually photographers, or know enough on how to operate and handle such equipment. Lending it out to non photographer or non enthusiast friends have led to unfortunate situations in the past.

[bjornkeizers]

Great stuff guys. I have to say: I'm pleasantly surprised that most of you would lend a camera or other equipment. I know how I baby my stuff, and I don't really have anything of great monetary value.

Good to know there's a few people out there who might be inclined to lend me something nice for a special occasion

[MichaelW]

A couple of years ago I borrowed from a friend a Leica R6.2 along with a 35mm f/1.4 lens and the 85mm f/1.4. I used this gear to expose my last ten or so rolls of Kodachrome before the final run at Dwayne's. Mostly portraits. Great camera and lenses.

[dasuess]

When I got married (many years ago), I gave my Nikon F and Leica M2 to a friend to take pictures durng the wedding and reception. They were loaded with Tri-X and provided a nice counterpart to the color pictures taken by the official photographer who was using a 'blad. It was obvious though that said friend was not very familiar with either camera, especially the M2.

[Mudman]

Lent a pentax spotmatic F to a friend, have lent lenses to others, and a crown graphic to a photo student. Haven't borrowed anything outside of shooting side by side with some very good friends before.