Fujifilm Launches Its Own Camera Lens Rental Service in Japan

Camera equipment rentals is becoming big business. LensRentals proves it: the 7-year-old company was reportedly on track to take in revenues of $13 million last year.

Now it looks like camera makers may want a piece of the pie as well: Fujifilm has announced that it’s launching its own lens rental service in Japan.

Starting on May 12th, 2014, Japanese photographers will be able to rent the complete lineup of XF lenses directly from the company. The lenses will be available at the company’s Tokyo service center, and cannot be reserved in advanced or online. Renters will be asked to present ID and to fill out a rental agreement.

Equipment can be rented out for at most a week, and prices start at ¥1,080 for 2 days and 1 night (i.e. an overnight rental) and go up to ¥1,800 depending on what equipment you check out (apparently camera rentals are in the plans as well).

There is no word yet on whether Fuji plans to roll out this new business to other countries and markets, but we’re guessing that will largely depend on how this initial test in Japan goes. If more camera companies decide to start renting out equipment to photographers directly, it could drastically change the landscape of the still-emerging gear rental industry.

(via Fujifilm via Fuji Rumors)

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Image credit: Photograph by Kārlis Dambrāns