Just in time for CineGear 2019 comes the announcement from LensRentals and LensProToGo, online straight-to-user rental platforms, that they are making a major push into high-end cinema equipment.
Both companies, which are partnered together, work as an online rental platform that owns and maintains a large inventory of gear and ships rentals directly to customers, including return labels, to make accessing a wide array of motion picture gear as easy as ordering on Amazon. Their inventory has traditionally been more photo and consumer-focused, with items like drones, Canon C-line cameras, and of course, Canon glass being dominant, though there have always been cinema offerings.
However, we are now seeing a major push into the top end of cinema gear with two flavors of anamorphic glass (Masters from ARRI and the Atlas lenses), the rental-only RED Ranger camera, and more.
Some of the gear they are now offering includes:
- ARRI Amira
- ARRI Alexa Mini
- ARRI Master Anamorphics
- Canon C700
- RED RANGER 8K
- VRI Phantom VEO 4K
- Zeiss Supreme Primes,
- Panasonic Varicam LT
- Fujinon Cabrio
That's a pretty damn impressive offering for an online rental platform that owns its inventory and ships directly to customers. Perhaps the most exciting items on that list are the Zeiss Supreme Primes, which are both beautiful and very, very expensive lenses.
Why should filmmakers care? Well, first off, this is an amazing way to get your hands on great gear if you are in a market that doesn't have it easily accessible. If you are in NY and LA, there are a lot of options, but if you are doing a shoot in St. Louis, you'll likely have to drive to Chicago to get a really robust variety of cinema gear.
With online platforms that integrate shipping, that is no longer a worry. Additionally, sometimes it's just nice to have gear that arrives at your doorstep that you can later pack up and ship back, depending on the logistics of your shoot. You might even want to use an online platform for just part of your package, getting a camera body locally and getting a special set of lenses online.
More rental options for filmmakers are always a good thing, and we hope this is a successful venture for them so that they can keep expanding their offerings in the "fancy toys" space.
Check out the full lists for LensRentals and LensProToGo.
No Film School's complete coverage of CineGear 2019 is brought to you by:
Blackmagic Design, and Fyrfly.
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