Lensrentals announces Keeper program, two new ways to directly purchase used gear
posted Friday, November 12, 2021 at 3:00 PM EDT
Lensrentals has announced a pair of new purchasing programs. The Lensrentals' Keeper' and 'Keeper Test Drive' programs allow customers to purchase used gear directly from Lensrentals. LensAuthority, a sister site to Lensrentals, has previously let customers buy used gear but will be wound down now that the Keeper programs are available.
Lensrentals will refurbish, test and grade available gear. In the case of cameras, they are graded in terms of cosmetic quality and performance. For traditional cameras, Lensrentals lists the shutter count. For cinema cameras, you can view for how many hours the camera has been used. Grades include 1 (Exceptional), 2 (Very Good), 3 (Passed) and 4 (Flawed). Lenses include cosmetic and performance grades but also add optical quality grading.
The Keeper product pages look similar to existing rental pages, so the user experience should be consistent across the entire Lensrentals site. If you rent gear and decide to keep it, the new Keeper Test Drive program is for you. When you decide you love the gear, you can contact Lensrentals, and they will work out a unique price for you. Up to seven days of rental fees are deducted from the final purchase price.
'We've maintained the highest reliability of video and photo gear, with the lowest equipment failure rate in the industry, by making our techs work incredibly hard to inspect, clean and repair equipment before and after each rental, and that now extends to purchases from Lensrentals through the Keeper programs,' said Drew Cicala, vice president and co-owner Lensrentals. 'Consumers want peace of mind that the used gear they're buying has been well maintained and suits their purpose. And this is exactly what Lensrentals Keeper Test Drive was built for. Customers can rent gear, try it and if they like it - keep it and we'll remove the cost of up to a seven-day rental from the final sale price. With that Test Drive purchase users know the gear is what they need and has received Lensrentals high quality of product care.'
On any given product page, next to the 'Rent' button is a new 'Buy' button. If any units are available for sale, they will then show up on the existing product page. For example, consider the Nikon 70-200mm F2.8E FL ED AF-S VR listing. On the rental page, you can see rental pricing options. There's also a product overview, Roger Cicala's take on the lens, technical specifications and links to resources, like a user manual. If you click the 'Buy' button, the purchase page appears and you can see the available stock, which at the time of writing is three lenses ranging from $1,558 for 'Fair' quality to $1,678 for 'Good' quality. The lens includes the hood, tripod foot, bag, and a retail box. Each listing shows the included accessories.
If you would like to see what's available for sale, including cameras, lenses and accessories, head on over to Lensrentals. If you prefer to rent, that option hasn't changed.