What were the most rented photo and video products of 2021 at Lensrentals?
posted Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 5:30 PM EDT
Earlier this month, Lensrentals posted about the most rented new products for 2021. The diverse list of the 18 top rented cameras, lenses and accessories had some interesting inclusions.
Topping the list was the Canon EOS C70 Cinema Camera (RF). The Super 35-format cinema camera proved to be very popular. The EOS C70 isn't the only cinema camera in the top six. The Sony FX3 was second, the Sony FX6 was fourth, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro (EF mount) was fifth, and the Red Digital Cinema Komodo 6K Camera Production Kit was sixth.
For your standard interchangeable lens cameras, the Sony A1 was third and the Nikon Z7 II was seventh. The Leica Q2 Monochrom is a surprising inclusion at ninth and the Fujifilm GFX 100S intrigued many Lensrentals customers, landing at 12th on the list.
Sony released some great lenses this year, including the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (8th) and the Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM (13th). To see the full list, check it out below. You can also see last year's most popular lenses, photo cameras and video cameras by clicking here.
If you remove the qualifier for new gear only, which is what Lensrentals did in a recent blog post, you can see a couple interesting trends. One, Canon absolutely dominates the list, and two, Sony is the only other company to make the top 19, save for Blackmagic taking spot number 13 with its Pocket Cinema Camera 6K (EF mount). The Canon EOS R5 takes the number one spot. It isn't just mirrorless cameras though, as the stalwart Canon EOS 5D Mark IV lands in second place with the Canon 24-70mm F2.8L II following in the third position. There are also some Canon RF lenses in the mix. In the top 10, the Sony A7S III is in fifth place and the A7 III is in seventh place. The A7R IV rounds out the top 19.
If we look back to 2020's list, which was a top 20 list, Canon and Sony dominate there, too. Although the Nikon D750 made the list at number 16. Sigma also cracked last year's list with the 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Art for Canon. The DJI Ronin-S 3-axis gimbal also made the list at number 14.
Looking at camera brand market share, Lensrentals' data is quite interesting. Canon held steady at just over 38% and Sony jumped from 22.8% to 26.3%. Blackmagic is in a very distant third, followed by Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji, and Leica with close market shares ranging from 3.3% to 7.9%. Over 64% of the total camera market share belongs to Canon and Sony, which is impressive, although perhaps not unsurprising given the prevalence of those two brands in the top rented gear lists.
There's a bit more variety in the lens brand market share, although the usual suspects, Canon and Sony, sit in the first two positions. Sigma is in third place, only a few percentage points behind Sony. They're followed by Nikon in a close fourth. There's a bit of a gap after Nikon, but then it's Zeiss, Fujifilm, Tamron, Angenieux, Fujinon (if you combine Fujifilm and Fujinon they would be in fifth), Panasonic, Leica, Venus Optics, Olympus, Rokinon, Hasselblad and then Tokina.
When it comes to cameras rented by lens mount, Canon has an overall advantage when compared to say, Sony, because Canon has two lens mounts that are very popular. The EF mount is still popular for still photography, but it's also an industry-standard mount for cinema cameras. Even so, the EF mount and RF mount both beat out the E mount. Micro Four Thirds is quite popular, too, sitting in fifth place.
Nikon provides an interesting test case, because F mount (DSLR) and Z mount (mirrorless) are not industry standards for video, so comparing those two lens mounts side-by-side focuses heavily on photography. Nikon F is at 7.04% and Nikon Z is at 2.64%. F has decreased slightly from 2020, and Z has increased slightly more than F decreased.
The story remains generally similar, although Sony switches with Canon RF when we consider just lenses rented by lens mount rather than cameras. Otherwise, the list is generally similar.
Rounding out the end-of-year recap is lighting gear. As Lensrentals notes, their system is set up to include grip gear into lighting data, which can skew things a bit. For example, Lensrentals offers Manfrotto light stands and LED lighting panels, so that data is combined in the list. Nonetheless, you see some familiar names here.
Lensrentals adds a lot more context for all the market share charts, so you should check out the full article. If you'd like to rent any of the gear mentioned in this article, just click our affiliate links which are peppered throughout.