Chamonix Camera Rental Services

[Hugo Zhang]

Dear members,

Over the years, people often ask me if they can try our cameras first before their purchase. They usually have our bigger cameras in their minds when they asked me this because the dollar amounts are not small.

So I came out with a rental idea a few months ago. It works this way: you tell me what format you like and I will have a camera shipped to your home, sometimes it will be a brand new camera from our factory and sometimes it will be a barely used camera shipped from California.

The renter will pay the shipping cost plus weekly rental fees from $50 for a 45 camera and $100 for an 8x10 camera. The rental fees can be applied to the purchase price if the renter like the camera and decide to keep it. Otherwise he/she can just pay the rental fees and ship the camera back to me. The rental clock starts when the renter receives his camera and ends when he/she sends the camera to the post or FedEx/UPS offices.

I have done this privately three times in the last year with good results. Everyone is happy. A good way to try our cameras without big commitment. It also works if someone has a special project that only needs the equipments for a short period of time. I have some lenses that are sitting here that can be rented with cameras as well.

At this moment, I don't want to put this serive in our website yet as I want to limit this to our forum members only since I don't want to ask for security deposit upfront.

Ideas and suggestions are very welcome.

[BrianShaw]

That is a fantastic opportunity… thanks for making your cameras available for rental!

[Peter De Smidt]

That is a great idea, Hugo. I hope it works well!

[Renato Tonelli]

Excellent idea. I think you will get a lot of interest, especially for the larger formats.

[Nodda Duma]

Dangit Hugo, lol. I want to try out ULF but I don’t want to *more easily* try out ULF. ;-;

Awesome idea.

[Ron McElroy]

This is a great idea!

[G Benaim]

Great idea, but will you ship overseas as well?

[Hugo Zhang]

Great idea, but will you ship overseas as well?

Not this time as shipping cost will be too much.

[djdister]

I think it is a great idea and can help folks determine if LF is for them as well as how they like the Chamonix camera. In addition to the matter of lenses (they may not have any) there may also be a need for some film holders not to mention a tripod. So their rental needs may be a bit more than just the camera body. But again, great idea.

[Hugo Zhang]

I think it is a great idea and can help folks determine if LF is for them as well as how they like the Chamonix camera. In addition to the matter of lenses (they may not have any) there may also be a need for some film holders not to mention a tripod. So their rental needs may be a bit more than just the camera body. But again, great idea.

Film holders is a good idea, especially those unusual sizes. Not sure about tripod due the high costs of shipping.