The Lensrentals Links List

Posted July 19, 2009
by Roger Cicala

I’ve thought about doing this for over a year, and changed my mind a dozen times. There are a lot of good reasons to do it: I get emails several times a day asking questions like “Where are safe places to buy online”, “What equipment review sites do you trust”, or “Where can I get a large print made”. And since we spend all day buying equipment, deciding what new lines to carry, working with vendors and reviewers and and trading hundreds of emails with photographers we’ve ended up with quite a lot of experience.

So why not do it? Because these days it opens a can of credibility worms. Go to most websites and you’ll find a list of “recommended vendors” and the website owner gets a little money if you click through that link and buy something. In general I approve of this (and even use it on occasion—if someone is taking the time to give me good information I have no problem letting them make a few bucks off of my purchase. Especially since it doesn’t cost me anything extra). And of course various websites “trade links” (I’ll link to your blog if you’ll link to my store—well both get more traffic) which is fine too. The problem for the online consumer becomes “Is Joe’s photoblog really thrilled with the service at Widget express, or do they just pay him the most per click”?

I do think some of you will find the links that we use here at Lensrentals useful, so I’m going to post them, but I want to be clear that we’re doing this as a service—we get nothing if you click on one of the links. The criteria are as follows:

  • We’re listing things we think will be useful informational, retail, or entertainment sites for photographers.
  • If we’ve listed a link then we’ve dealt with the people involved or used their site and believe they are credible and worthwhile.
  • If we advertise on a site (there are a couple) we will state that plainly on the list, but we pay them, they send nothing to us.
  • We do NOT and never will get any money, click-back fees, discounts, etc. from any site listed. We’re not in the advertising business, we rent equipment.

Finally we would like this to be a community effort. If some of you know of great sites that you think should be here, email us at support@lensrentals.com and we’ll add them. If you know a reason a site we’ve listed may not be ‘all that’, do the same. But please follow the rules above—if you profit from the site, or would profit from the site getting increased traffic, do not nominate it.

The Links

  1. Repair and Service
  2. Retail
  3. Review Sites
  4. Information
  5. Other Stuff

Repair and Service

Canon Factory Service (Eastern U. S.)
100 Jamesburg Road
Jamesburg NJ 08831
732-521-7007

Canon Factory Service (Western U. S.)
15955 Alton Pkwy
Irvine, CA 92618
949-753-4200

Canon Parts Department
866-481-2569

Olympus Factor Service
Olympus Imaging America Inc.

(Eastern U. S.)
400 Rabro Drive
Hauppauge, NY 11788-4258
800-622-6372

(Western U. S.)
10805 Holder Street Suite 170
Cypress, CA 90630-5145
714-503-5700

Nikon Factory Service (1-800-645-6678) can be handled almost entirely online HERE

Nikon Inc. Photo & Digital Service
Nikon Inc. Factory Service

(Eastern U. S.)
1300 Walt Whitman Road
Melville, NY 11747 1

(Western U. S.)

841 Apollo Street, Suite 100
El Segundo, CA 90245-472

Nikon Parts Department Phone: 1-310-414-8107

Sigma Factory Service
Sigma Corporation of America
15 Fleetwood Court
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
631-585-1144

Sony Factory Service
Online Service Form
Sony Parts 239-768-7691

Tamron Factory Service
10 Austin Blvd.
Commack, NY 11725
Tel: 631-858-8400

Tokina Factor Service
THK Photo Products
7642 Woodwind Drive,
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Third party and out of warranty repairs

Retail

General online retailers we use and trust

Direct Sellers

Tripod Heads and Accessories

Other Stuff
Edmund Optics Testing equipment and charts
PhotoBert’s Cheatsheets The laminated instructions summaries we send with cameras and flashes.

eBay and Overseas Retailers we’ve used (because sometimes you need it and the U. S. retailers don’t have it)

Photography Review Sites

Technical Reviews

Hands-On Reviews

  • DPReview
  • Photozone
  • The Digital Picture (Canon mount only) We advertise on TDP
  • CameraLabs
  • DigLloyd (some free, but mostly subscription. Very unique site with lenses others don’t cover.) We advertise and supply equipment to DigLloyd
  • Photodo (newly relaunched, was a technical review site, but now is mostly Hands-on)
  • 16-9 (specializing in lens-to-lens comparisons, and using lenses on adapters across brands)

Personal Reviews

Summary Reviews

Information and Education

Photography News, Blogs, and Rumors

Photography Forums and Discussion Groups

Photography Tips and Education

Lighting Tips and Tutorials

Other

Fun Stuff

Photography Calculators

Online Forms and Resources

Photographer’s Insurance

Photo Gifts and such

Large format and high quality prints

For the electromechanically inclined

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