The Most Rented Photo and Video Products of 2021
Each year, we try to share as much information as possible with our community here at Lensrentals.com. Being one of the largest rental houses in the world, we think that our end-of-the-year data can show a pretty broad scope of where the industry is heading and what we can expect into next year and beyond. Last week, we shared our data for the most rented new products for 2021, and it showed a focus on the videography world – with the number one rental being the Canon EOS C70 Cinema Camera (RF), and plenty of video cameras to follow on the list. But let’s use this opportunity to look further into our data, and go over the most popular rentals of 2021.
A list of usual suspects, if you’ve followed these posts from previous years, but to get a full comparison, let’s look at the list from 2020.
When comparing the top list from this year and last, the stark and obvious talking point is the Canon R5 jumping to the top of the list in just a single year. Released in the back half of 2020, the Canon R5 was on backorder for much of 2020, but now that it’s more readily available, it’s being used in droves. While this marks a lot of good news for the EOS R platform, the second most popular rental for 2021 was the Canon 5D Mark IV – a DSLR on the EF platform. Other mentions are the decline of other brands – the entire list for 2021 is Canon and Sony – with an EF mounted Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K also clearing the list. Does this mark more bad news for Nikon in particular, a brand that has been falling further from these lists each year? Well to get a better read on that data, let’s look at some more breakdowns – with market shares for each brand, and how they’ve done this year compared to last.
| Camera Manufacturer | Market Share 2021 | Market Share 2020 |
| Canon | 38.05% | 38.46% |
| Sony | 26.26% | 22.80% |
| Blackmagic | 7.85% | 9.71% |
| Nikon | 6.36% | 6.60% |
| Panasonic | 5.49% | 6.70% |
| Fuji | 3.94% | 4.38% |
| Leica | 3.30% | 2.92% |
| Insta360 | 1.91% | 2.41% |
| RED | 1.50% | 1.16% |
| BirdDog | 1.23% | 0.54% |
| GoPro | 1.10% | 1.29% |
| ARRI | 0.73% | 0.52% |
Despite Canon taking over the majority of the top rented products for 2021, they actually lost a small margin of camera body market share, while still holding a large lead over the next competitor – Sony. Even still, it’s pretty shocking to see that ~60% of the camera bodies we rent are either Canon or Sony. If we want to dive even further into the data sets, we can now look through the market share list, but for lenses – since we are named Lensrentals, after all.
| Lens Manufacturer | Market Share 2021 | Market Share 2020 |
| Canon | 37.16% | 34.52% |
| Sony | 15.76% | 16.08% |
| Sigma | 11.45% | 12.42% |
| Nikon | 9.93% | 10.53% |
| Zeiss | 3.37% | 3.51% |
| Fuji | 3.29% | 3.35% |
| Tamron | 2.69% | 3.11% |
| Angenieux | 2.44% | 1.96% |
| Fujinon | 2.01% | 2.21% |
| Panasonic | 1.87% | 2.58% |
| Leica | 1.83% | 1.88% |
| Venus Optics | 1.25% | 1.54% |
| Olympus | 1.17% | 1.46% |
| Rokinon | 0.70% | 0.86% |
| Hasselblad | 0.61% | 0.67% |
| Tokina | 0.58% | 0.49% |
Looking at the lens market shares comparing this year from last, you can really see how much of our rentals are Canon systems – which makes sense since the EF mount is still basically an industry standard for video productions – with brands like RED and ARRI making cameras with EF mounting camera systems.
Fujifilm’s market share also starts to look a lot better, when combining their Fuji lenses with the Fujinon brand. The difference between the two brand names comes down to build quality – with the Fujinon brand offering metal construction.
Going down the lens market share list, there aren’t too many surprises. A lot of the third-party manufacturers started to have their numbers slip a bit, which makes sense as brand leaders like Canon, Sony, and Nikon continue to release lenses for their platforms. With brands like Sigma and Tamron developing RF and Z mount lenses soon, we can expect their numbers to grow in the continuing years. But on the note of lens mounts, let’s look at the market shares for each individual lens mount platform —
| Mount | 2021 Rentals | 2020 Rentals | Change |
| Canon EF | 28.79% | 32.69% | -3.9% |
| Canon RF | 22.26% | 20.42% | 1.84% |
| Sony E | 14.58% | 9.58% | 4.99% |
| Fixed Lens | 8.99% | 9.62% | 0.63% |
| Micro 4/3rds | 7.17% | 8.88% | -1.71% |
| Nikon F | 7.04% | 7.74% | -0.70% |
| Fuji | 3.33% | 3.57% | -0.24% |
| Nikon Z | 2.64% | 2.06% | 0.57% |
| L Mount | 1.56% | 1.78% | -0.22% |
| Leica M | 1.32% | 1.30% | 0.03% |
| Fuji GFX | 0.96% | 0.98% | -0.02% |
| PL Mount | 0.82% | 0.82% | 0.00% |
| Hasselblad X | 0.32% | 0.30% | 0.02% |
| Pentax | 0.14% | 0.17% | -0.03% |
| Sony A | 0.07% | 0.09% | -0.02% |
As usual, these numbers don’t tell the full story, especially when you look at the changes in market share over 2021 and 2020. 2020 was a weird year for everyone, especially for a company that focuses on rentals for photo and video productions. Each of these brands has increased 100% in rentals from 2020 to 2021, which is obviously good news for all the brands in question. But if we just look at the percentages, the Canon RF mount systems had pretty large growth, as did Sony E mount systems. That’s no big surprise, with the Canon R5 becoming more available, and Sony’s release of the A1 and other systems. Other points of note are that the Nikon Z series just isn’t gaining the momentum that Canon is with their mirrorless platform, and that the Fuji GFX systems actually lost a little bit on the rental percentages, despite the Fuji GFX 100s coming out this year (and being among our top new products for 2021). But nevertheless, there is always more data to look through, so let’s look at lens rented by lens mount.
| Mount | 2021 Rentals | 2020 Rentals | Change |
| Canon EF | 38.56% | 41.94% | -3.37% |
| Sony E | 22.81% | 22.40% | 0.41% |
| Canon RF | 12.45% | 7.44% | 5.01% |
| Nikon F | 11.41% | 12.75% | -1.33% |
| Micro 4/3rds | 4.64% | 5.56% | -0.91% |
| Fuji | 2.96% | 3.11% | -0.15% |
| Nikon Z | 1.68% | 1.28% | 0.40% |
| PL Mount | 1.64% | 1.45% | 0.19% |
| L Mount | 1.45% | 1.62% | -0.16% |
| Fuji GFX | 1.05% | 0.98% | 0.07% |
| Leica M | 0.71% | 0.75% | -0.04% |
| Hasselblad X | 0.27% | 0.30% | -0.03% |
| Sony A | 0.19% | 0.23% | -0.04% |
| Pentax K | 0.17% | 0.20% | -0.03% |
Lenses rented based on mount shows a little more of the story. Still leading the pack is the Canon EF platform, despite Canon pushing nearly all their focus on the RF mount. That said, you can start to see the transition from DSLR to mirrorless platforms, with the RF mount showing a 5% growth, overpowering the 3.37% decline in the EF lens market share for 2021. Other points of note are with Nikon, showing a -1.33% change in their F platform, while their Z series only showed a small growth. Does this mean people are leaving Nikon for other brands? The numbers perhaps show just that. Additionally, the L mount platform – designed to be a universal mount for a variety of cameras and lenses – lost some momentum this year, with a small decline in market share.
And to complete the subset of data this year, let’s look at lighting brands, and where they sit within the market share in their groups.
| Light Brand | Market Share 2021 | Market Share 2020 |
| Aputure | 19.08% | 10.26% |
| Litepanels | 17.12% | 20.03% |
| Profoto | 17.09% | 18.58% |
| Manfrotto | 9.49% | 11.62% |
| Westcott | 7.81% | 8.17% |
| ARRI | 5.70% | 5.27% |
| Quasar Science | 3.90% | 3.65% |
| Paul C Buff | 3.04% | 3.57% |
| Kino Flo | 2.71% | 3.49% |
| Fiilex | 2.62% | 2.97% |
| Kupo | 1.92% | 2.55% |
| Chimera | 1.66% | 2.04% |
Some things of note, before we dig through this data. How our system is set up, we include a lot of grip gear into our lighting data, so brands like Kupo are on the list for both their lightstands, as well as the combo kits we have for the Litepanels products. This also puts some anomalies in place for Manfrotto, who offer both lightstands, as well as LED panels. Even still, the crowned champion of this category is Aputure, who have nearly doubled their market share this year in the lighting department with their array of LED panels and high-powered LED monolights. Each other brand showed either a marginal growth or decline in their market share (though again, we had way more rentals in 2021 than we did in 2020, as we are able to move past the global pandemic). Personally, looking at these numbers, it does bring some concern for brands like Kino Flo, who was once a market leader with their 4Bank systems but have since been replaced with more efficient LED lights like those from brands like Quasar Science.
So as a recap from our previous post, let’s end this piece with the data shown a week and a half ago, showing where the new products for 2021 are placed. Did any of the information above surprise you? Is there any additional info you’d like to see for future years? Feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments below.
31 Comments
Thom Hogan ·
So Roger, have you controlled for inventory in these tables? If you have 20 Sony X and 30 Canon Y and 10
Nikon Z, quite obviously you can’t rent as many Z as X or as many X than Y. There’s a chicken-and-egg problem inherent in doing such lists.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Inventory is always based on supply and demand. If something is rented out frequently, and we can’t keep that product in stock, we quickly alleviate the problem by ordering more units. Nikon is struggling, and has been for years…this isn’t a chicken-and-egg problem, it’s an innovation and market share retention problem.
Athanasius Kirchner ·
We’ll see how much they’re “struggling” once the Z9 hits the shelves ?
Rahul ·
Ohh, they have much more than z9 that i’m being nikon fan is excited about. I wasn’t fan of F mount 50 mm because the chromatic aberrations were killing me in post.
I don’t find them in Z mount 50 mm. colors still have same “nikon” impression and though i don’t find 50 1.8 bokeh that attractive, it is not “bad” or unacceptable (like those chromatic aberration on F mount 50 1.4)
Z9 just got their autofocus problem to “stop complaining” level. Z mount is going to give those guys, a LOT more to keep bringing.
I put canon r5, 50mm 1.2, 85 mm 1.2 and 100 mm macro (rented from lensrental) against my own, z6ii 50 1.8, 85 1.8 and 200 mm f/4 macro in high contrast studio photoshoot. (with 48″ para as key light and 32”x48” window from cheetah for separation)
When we looked at pictures and compared them together for which one we should have for studio, forget me being nikon guy, make up artist and model came to agreement that you are not shooting on canon for our next shoot.
Thom Hogan ·
You’re missing part of my point. LensRentals has lower Nikon inventory (compared to Canon/Sony) because they assess that the demand is generally not in Nikon. Nikon users tend to buy, not rent. We don’t see the same level of pre-order madness with Canon, for instance (witness Z9, which is essentially sold out for half a year just from pre-orders). So the questions become: (a) has LensRentals adjusted their inventory for their perceived demand, and (b) if they did, is the Nikon stuff still languishing, or is it out as much as the Canon/Sony stuff when controlled for inventory?
Another point: Roger and the rest of LensRentals have been quietly dissing Nikon for some time now, partly because they can’t get the same access to parts/info/product as they do with other brands. Perhaps not intentionally dissing, but I’ve caught plenty of overstatements and misstatements in their podcasts. So essentially they’re turning away Nikon users by your commentary. So of course the LensRental demand is lower for Nikon. You reap what you sow.
RC Jenkins ·
This is rental market share. If your claim is that Nikon users tend to buy and not rent, then Nikon’s rental market share will be lower. If 100% of Nikon users buy and don’t rent, their rental market share will be 0%. So what exactly is your issue, when your own premise that Nikon users tend to buy supports what this data shows?
Separately, having more of an item in inventory isn’t the same thing as having an item rented. The only time this would have an effect is if an item that someone wants to rent is unavailable for rental at that time. Most people renting specialized equipment like this almost certainly don’t go “oh they have 20 Sonys available and 10 Nikons available, so I’ll rent the Sony. Instead, they likely know the items they want to rent for a specific use. So the question would be: how often did it happen that someone wanted to rent Nikon equipment but it was unavailable, compared to other brands? If the answer is that this happened rarely, then inventory doesn’t matter.
So in your example of 20 Sony, 30 Canon, and 10 Nikon; if 11 people rent Sony, 17 people rent Canon, and 7 people rent Nikon, will upping the inventory to 30-30-30 make a difference? No. Because rentals will actually be 11-17-7, keeping market share of rentals the exact same. Will normalizing by inventory (multiplying Sony by 150% and Nikon by 300%) be a more accurate representation of what people are renting? Nope.
Customers don’t compare inventory levels–they just look at if what they want is available and how much it would cost to rent.
Regarding the dissing, that’s a subjective take and it may or may not have had an effect. But it is true that Nikons overall unit share (in terms of people buying equipment, not renting) has been declining, even according to Nikon themselves. It is also true that Nikon’s mirrorless share has been
relatively small; and this rental data sounds consistent with that. And regarding their overall share, this is largely because Nikon’s market share has been dependent specifically on entry-level products moreso than the market has–these would be the same type of products that you’ve been pushing Nikon to focus on, and the same types of products that have been declining in the market–for many years. This implies that most Nikon users for quite some time have not been buying high-end equipment and likely, not renting it either, since people tend to rent higher-end equipment, as can clearly be seen here. Nikon has had a higher proportion of entry-level users than Canon or Sony, even according to their own data and financial reports.
Recently, as Nikon has identified that the entry-level market is shrinking and not as lucrative or sustainable, Nikon has been focusing more on higher-end Z products; and this will likely manifest itself as relative growth–and even the rental data above shows Nikon Z rentals grew a bit since last year, with the Z7ii even making it to the top 10.
For 2022, with cameras like the Z9 and Z lenses like the upcoming telephotos, Nikon’s Z system could see a boost. Because people will try the Z9 via rental; and consequently, they will try Z lenses via rental. Others may also see the Z9 as aspirational and proving the system and may be more open to entering the Z system as customers of Z cameras, renting lenses to use for them. But for market share, the question is always relative: will Nikon rentals go up at the same rate as Canon R or Sony E rentals go up? And also related, will Nikon F users get into Nikon Z, so that all those D850 renters from years ago now rent the Z9? (And related, partially by combining these: will users from other systems or new users get into Nikon Z?) We’ll find out next year and the next few years.
Not everything is a conspiracy against Nikon. And I say this as a primarily Nikon Z user, as you already know.
WestEndFoto ·
While nobody is perfect, if you are implying that Thom thinks everything is a conspiracy against Nikon, I don’t buy that. His questions are fair questions and deserve an honest answer, which has not been forthcoming.
RC Jenkins ·
I think that these questions and comments come off as overly defensive and don’t even make sense when one is measuring how much product moves, with the exception of the one case of unavailable that I listed. This is not a chicken or egg problem. This is not a brick and mortar retailer dedicated a stand or entire sections to a brand that stands out from others so people can see how much more space they take up.
How many spare cameras are available for rent (beyond what is needed) is not an input into what people choose to rent. Lists like this might be, but not a list. In other words, people do not go to lensrentals and look to see how many Z7’s they have and then how many R5’s they have and then choose to rent an R5. Especially true if they only list available and not inventory (which I believe is the case). Because in this case, low number available could even mean everyone else is renting them.
And again: this data even lines up with every single reliable data source elsewhere. CIPA. Nikon financials. Techno systems research. Every time these facts come out, Nikon users in particular often get defensive, even though there’s nothing to get defensive about. I even wrote that article over on NikonRumors earlier this year on this topic.
To me it sounds like an excuse and defensiveness rather than accepting facts. People haven’t rented as many Z’s as Sonys or Canons. And it’s not because lensrentals buys fewer to rent. Case in point: there are plenty of Z’s to rent right now.
The primary reasons Z’s haven’t been getting rented as much are 1) Nikon has been much smaller in the prosumer space than they appear on the surface in terms of units because they have had a proportionally stronger entry level than competitors. Verified fact.
2) Because of the above, Nikon lacks incumbency and system lock in today
3) Nikon’s offerings have been concentrated in moderate prosumer that people buy rather than expensive pro that people rent
4) Nikon has had limited video offerings, system compatibilities, and incumbency
5) Nikon users have tended to resist change, most easily seen by Nikon’s F mount approach compared to Canon’s EF
6) Industry perception, sometimes through people’s announcements that demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of numbers
Things change over time. Nikon will grow Z, particularly with the Z9 and some of their new lenses, which are prime candidates for rental. But they are where they are today, and it’s not because lensrentals keeps fewer in stock since the inventory levels appear to be plenty. Refusing to believe this is irrational.
Kenneth_Almquist ·
To control for inventory, you would have to count the people who went to lensrentals looking for a product, discovered it wasn’t available, and rented elsewhere. I suspect that lensrentals doesn’t have a very reliable metric for this–in particular not one that Richard Cicala would consider sufficiently well validated to publish. I would also guess that if they did correct for this, it wouldn’t affect the numbers much, for two reasons. First, lensrentals seems to have most products in stock most of the time. Second, if they determine that they are losing lots of rental opportunities due to not having a particular item available, they acquire more of that item. In other words, their internal metrics will show (rightly or wrongly) that they have sufficient inventory most of the time because they are using those metrics to set inventory levels.
I suspect that recommendations from Lens Rentals have a pretty large effect on what accessories are rented, but not much on cameras and lenses.
Michael - Visual Pursuit ·
Starting with the T90 in 1985, Canon established a long tradition of producing massive amounts of inventory before starting shippings at all. All copies of the T90 were built in only 3 months, and then sold over a 5 year time span. The 5D MkIV hit the market with 2,400,000 preproduced units. This of course doesn’t bring Canon to being sold out from pre-orders as fast as companies with smaller manufacturing capacities. And yet – it happened with the R3.
What one might perceive as massive pre-order frenzy might just as well be the sign of smaller manufacturing capacities.
Rahul ·
I’m genuine fan of lensrental but your answer of “Inventory is always based on supply and demand. “ is very misleading and full of trap.
Again as a fan of lensrental and someone who work in business intelligence as main profession, i’m going to put an argument here.
As of now that is December 2022, For my wish to use the flagship camera and 400 mm 2.8 (at least once in my life) to find out max what i can do in the bird photography, I put together 3 saved carts. ?All 3 carts have 1 day rental, i’m picking same day for rental and i’m picking 1 day after Christmas to nullify time impact. ??
Canon r5 and 400 2.8 is subtotal 380, coverage 58, shipping 30=$468.00?
Sony alpha a9ii, grip (it’s not my fault sony doesn’t make holdable cameras) and 400 2.8 is subtotal 491, coverage 94, shipping 30= $615. ?
Here comes fun part, ?Nikon Z9 is available on some dates so i’ve to work around. 400 2.8 is on pre order so i’ll have to wait but look at the price?
Nikon Z9 with 400 2.8, subtotal is $557, coverage is 105, shipping 30 = $692??
Now, I want to rent Nikon gear, but as you can see above, i simply can’t justify the extra cost i’ve to pay for same range and for the sake of argument, lesser autofocus. ?
I just can’t accept the canon noise and for that matter i can’t justify extra $224 in addition to uncertainty that nikon gear would be available at all. ?Especially when, Sony with the grip (solving holding problem) is (NOW) available at $77 less.
Here is how it connects back to your inventory supply demand. Based on the rental cost for me, i’m most likely to go with sony. (since nikon is not even available as confirmed available, go rent it Rahul)
In your numbers, that’s one count in sony. No order for nikon so you don’t put order and even more customers like me go to sony.
If i like pictures i took and i decide to tweak few things by shooting again, nikon not available or available with much higher cost than sony. I’ve no option for sony.
End of year, All of these numbers adding up in sony, belongs to someone who want to use nikon.
How that impacts you as i’m one of the frustrated (that i can’t rent nikon) people, despite my liking for lensrental, going to look for other rental company because with you, and this calculation of supply and demand is putting nikon is in viscous cycle.
I really really hope and wish to god that you already have the “inventory availability” and “cost of gear rental” as factors in calculating next years inventory projection and rental price or at least apply them to these numbers before you come to customer “sentiments”.
Because if you don’t, then you are going to interpret above numbers as “wishes or interest” of people but as one of those people, and based on my rental wishes, i can say that it is “practical payment” i can afford “against” my liking.
?I could have waited for this year’s (2022) article to come out but i intentionally put this in last years (2021) article. That way, (by my calculation) you can see nikon rental not going (as significantly high as the sales is) despite Z9 hitting shelfs. I know this because i want to rent and i can’t as you can read above.
I’d love to be wrong because then my favorite nikon would be available more and probably at cheaper rates making it comparable at lensrental.
As for free, we can find out how many are there (like me) with this argument explaining my case and your numbers coming in probably week or 2 for 2022 ?
Thom Hogan ·
So Roger, have you controlled for inventory in these tables? If you have 20 Sony X and 30 Canon Y and 10
Nikon Z, quite obviously you can't rent as many Z as X or as many X than Y. There's a chicken-and-egg problem inherent in doing such lists.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Inventory is always based on supply and demand. If something is rented out frequently, and we can't keep that product in stock, we quickly alleviate the problem by ordering more units. Nikon is struggling, and has been for years...this isn't a chicken-and-egg problem, it's an innovation and market share retention problem.
Athanasius Kirchner ·
We’ll see how much they're “struggling” once the Z9 hits the shelves 🤣
Rahul ·
Ohh, they have much more than z9 that i'm being nikon fan is excited about. I wasn't fan of F mount 50 mm because the chromatic aberrations were killing me in post.
I don't find them in Z mount 50 mm. colors still have same "nikon" impression and though i don't find 50 1.8 bokeh that attractive, it is not "bad" or unacceptable (like those chromatic aberration on F mount 50 1.4)
Z9 just got their autofocus problem to "stop complaining" level. Z mount is going to give those guys, a LOT more to keep bringing.
I put canon r5, 50mm 1.2, 85 mm 1.2 and 100 mm macro (rented from lensrental) against my own, z6ii 50 1.8, 85 1.8 and 200 mm f/4 macro in high contrast studio photoshoot. (with 48" para as key light and 32”x48” window from cheetah for separation)
When we looked at pictures and compared them together for which one we should have for studio, forget me being nikon guy, make up artist and model came to agreement that you are not shooting on canon for our next shoot.
Thom Hogan ·
You're missing part of my point. LensRentals has lower Nikon inventory (compared to Canon/Sony) because they assess that the demand is generally not in Nikon. Nikon users tend to buy, not rent. We don't see the same level of pre-order madness with Canon, for instance (witness Z9, which is essentially sold out for half a year just from pre-orders). So the questions become: (a) has LensRentals adjusted their inventory for their perceived demand, and (b) if they did, is the Nikon stuff still languishing, or is it out as much as the Canon/Sony stuff when controlled for inventory?
Another point: Roger and the rest of LensRentals have been quietly dissing Nikon for some time now, partly because they can't get the same access to parts/info/product as they do with other brands. Perhaps not intentionally dissing, but I've caught plenty of overstatements and misstatements in their podcasts. So essentially they're turning away Nikon users by your commentary. So of course the LensRental demand is lower for Nikon. You reap what you sow.
RC Jenkins ·
This is rental market share. If your claim is that Nikon users tend to buy and not rent, then Nikon's rental market share will be lower. If 100% of Nikon users buy and don't rent, their rental market share will be 0%. So what exactly is your issue, when your own premise that Nikon users tend to buy supports what this data shows?
Separately, having more of an item in inventory isn't the same thing as having an item rented. The only time this would have an effect is if an item that someone wants to rent is unavailable for rental at that time. Most people renting specialized equipment like this almost certainly don't go "oh they have 20 Sonys available and 10 Nikons available, so I'll rent the Sony. Instead, they likely know the items they want to rent for a specific use. So the question would be: how often did it happen that someone wanted to rent Nikon equipment but it was unavailable, compared to other brands? If the answer is that this happened rarely, then inventory doesn't matter.
So in your example of 20 Sony, 30 Canon, and 10 Nikon; if 11 people rent Sony, 17 people rent Canon, and 7 people rent Nikon, will upping the inventory to 30-30-30 make a difference? No. Because rentals will actually be 11-17-7, keeping market share of rentals the exact same. Will normalizing by inventory (multiplying Sony by 150% and Nikon by 300%) be a more accurate representation of what people are renting? Nope.
Customers don't compare inventory levels--they just look at if what they want is available and how much it would cost to rent.
Regarding the dissing, that's a subjective take and it may or may not have had an effect. But it is true that Nikons overall unit share (in terms of people buying equipment, not renting) has been declining, even according to Nikon themselves. It is also true that Nikon's mirrorless share has been
relatively small; and this rental data sounds consistent with that. And regarding their overall share, this is largely because Nikon's market share has been dependent specifically on entry-level products moreso than the market has--these would be the same type of products that you've been pushing Nikon to focus on, and the same types of products that have been declining in the market--for many years. This implies that most Nikon users for quite some time have not been buying high-end equipment and likely, not renting it either, since people tend to rent higher-end, specialized equipment, as can clearly be seen here. Nikon has had a higher proportion of entry-level users than Canon or Sony, even according to their own data and financial reports. This is compounded by the fact that so much rental gear is specialized video equipment, where Nikon has also been weak thus far, both in terms of cameras and cine lenses for specialized video cameras.
Recently, as Nikon has identified that the entry-level market is shrinking and not as lucrative or sustainable, Nikon has been focusing more on higher-end Z products; and this will likely manifest itself as relative growth--and even the rental data above shows Nikon Z rentals grew a bit since last year, with the Z7ii even making it to the top 10.
For 2022, with cameras like the Z9 and Z lenses like the upcoming telephotos, Nikon's Z system could see a boost. Because people will try the Z9 via rental; and consequently, they will try Z lenses via rental. Others may also see the Z9 as aspirational and proving the system and may be more open to entering the Z system as customers of Z cameras, renting lenses to use for them. But for market share, the question is always relative: will Nikon rentals go up at the same rate as Canon R or Sony E rentals go up? And also related, will Nikon F users get into Nikon Z, so that all those D850 renters from years ago now rent the Z9? (And related, partially by combining these: will users from other systems or new users get into Nikon Z?) We'll find out next year and the next few years.
Not everything is a conspiracy against Nikon. And I say this as a primarily Nikon Z user, as you already know.
Kenneth_Almquist ·
To control for inventory, you would have to count the people who went to lensrentals looking for a product, discovered it wasn't available, and rented elsewhere. I suspect that lensrentals doesn't have a very reliable metric for this--in particular not one that Richard Cicala would consider sufficiently well validated to publish. I would also guess that if they did correct for this, it wouldn't affect the numbers much, for two reasons. First, lensrentals seems to have most products in stock most of the time. Second, if they determine that they are losing lots of rental opportunities due to not having a particular item available, they acquire more of that item. In other words, their internal metrics will show (rightly or wrongly) that they have sufficient inventory most of the time because they are using those metrics to set inventory levels.
I suspect that recommendations from Lens Rentals have a pretty large effect on what accessories are rented, but not much on cameras and lenses.
Michael - Visual Pursuit ·
Starting with the T90 in 1985, Canon established a long tradition of producing massive amounts of inventory before starting shippings at all. All copies of the T90 were built in only 3 months, and then sold over a 5 year time span. The 5D MkIV hit the market with 2,400,000 preproduced units. This of course doesn't bring Canon to being sold out from pre-orders as fast as companies with smaller manufacturing capacities. And yet - it happened with the R3.
What one might perceive as massive pre-order frenzy might just as well be the sign of smaller manufacturing capacities.
Zeke zeke ·
Clearly, Canon has a huge lead here. However looking at the top rented lenses, it appears obvious that the equipment is being rented for event photography. So this particular dataset is not directly applicable to those doing other kinds of photography. I have no doubt that Canon is still a leader there, but maybe with not as big of a margin.
Michael - Visual Pursuit ·
Those top rented lenses can as well be used in advertising, corporate and industry photography.
What makes it obvious that they are rented for event photography in your opinion?
Michael - Visual Pursuit ·
Those top rented lenses can as well be used in advertising, corporate and industry photography.
What makes it obvious that they are rented for event photography in your opinion?
RC Jenkins ·
I think that these questions and comments come off as overly defensive and don't even make sense when one is measuring how much product moves, with the exception of the one case of unavailable that I listed. This is not a chicken or egg problem. This is not a brick and mortar retailer dedicated a stand or entire sections to a brand that stands out from others so people can see how much more space they take up.
How many spare cameras are available for rent (beyond what is needed) is not an input into what people choose to rent. Lists like this might be, but not a list. In other words, people do not go to lensrentals and look to see how many Z7's they have and then how many R5's they have and then choose to rent an R5. Especially true if they only list available and not inventory (which I believe is the case). Because in this case, low number available could even mean everyone else is renting them.
And again: this data even lines up with every single reliable data source elsewhere. CIPA. Nikon financials. Techno systems research. Every time these facts come out, Nikon users in particular often get defensive, even though there's nothing to get defensive about. I even wrote that article over on NikonRumors earlier this year on this topic.
To me it sounds like an excuse and defensiveness rather than accepting facts. People haven't rented as many Z's as Sonys or Canons. And it's not because lensrentals buys fewer to rent. Case in point: there are plenty of Z's to rent right now.
The primary reasons Z's haven't been getting rented as much are 1) Nikon has been much smaller in the prosumer space than they appear on the surface in terms of units because they have had a proportionally stronger entry level than competitors. Verified fact.
2) Because of the above, Nikon lacks incumbency and system lock in today
3) Nikon's offerings have been concentrated in moderate prosumer that people buy rather than expensive pro that people rent
4) Nikon has had limited video offerings, system compatibilities, and incumbency
5) Nikon users have tended to resist change, most easily seen by Nikon's F mount approach compared to Canon's EF
6) Industry perception, sometimes through people's announcements that demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of numbers
Things change over time. Nikon will grow Z, particularly with the Z9 and some of their new lenses, which are prime candidates for rental. But they are where they are today, and it's not because lensrentals keeps fewer in stock since the inventory levels appear to be plenty. Refusing to believe this is irrational.
RC Jenkins ·
BTW, if you want evidence for sales, here is a little bit:
Let's start with pro vs. entry level (not mirrorless vs DSLR). Here is a visual from Nikon's financial presentation for the year ending in 2020. Slide #23:
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Looks ok right? No, not when you pay attention. The image on the left is the entire industry, including Canon, Sony, Fuji, etc. (and the totals align to CIPA, btw). And notably, the left image is units, and what it shows is that ~30% of industry units at the time were prosumer, while ~70% were entry-level.
The right image shows Nikon only. But notably, it shows revenue, not units. And it shows that at the time, ~60% of Nikon's revenues were entry-level. When you consider the fact that by definition each entry-level unit brings in far less revenue (eg. a D3500 or D5600 cost ~$500, while a Z6 or Z7 or D850 or D6 cost ~4x that), it is clear that closer to ~85% of Nikon's units were entry level at that time. This is significantly higher than industry. We also know from those same financials (slide #14) that Nikon was pushing around 2 Million ILC's annually, meaning that ~300k were prosumer cameras while ~1.7M were entry-level. So there is Nikon's annual prosumer size at the time. And that was a few years ago. Nikon is now at ~900K annually; and presumably they've been able to roughly maintain prosumer size at ~300k units.
What else do we know? Let's talk mirrorless. We know from reliable research from Techno Systems Research that last year, Sony produced 1.15 Million mirrorless ILCs (E), Canon produced 1.05 Million mirrorless ILCs (inc. M's & RF's), and Nikon produced 250k (Z). We also know that Nikon produced 650k DSLRs last year. These numbers also align, btw, to CIPA.
And speaking of CIPA, let's take a quick peek for the same time period--last year. CIPA shows us that that same year, 2.9 Million mirrorless cameras were shipped. Nikon did 250k. This gives Nikon a mirrorless unit market share of less than 9% that year. That's just among mirrorless. Among all ILCs (inc. DSLR), Nikon's Z unit share was less than 5%. And market share (by revenue) will be even less. If you don't trust 2020, look at 2019 or 2021 or any other year. The trends of proportion are consistent.
CIPA also shows us that the average DSLR wholesale value (price from the Japanese manufacturer to the regional distributor, eg. Nikon Japan to Nikon USA) was $356. To find this, divide the total revenue by total units, and then convert Yen to Dollars. Mirrorless? More than double at $736. So the average DSLR selling is entry-level, and the average mirrorless selling is prosumer. Remember, these are wholesale values, before the distributor adds margin and before the retailer adds margin. You can roughly double them for retail value. And this mirrorless-DLSR average value (and unit) disparity has gotten larger. And this means that a very large proportion of the 3 Million mirrorless sales were prosumer; and yet Nikon only put out 250 thousand cameras. So obviously, Sony & Canon are much larger in the prosumer mirrorless space than Nikon. If Sony and Canon were each double Nikon's size in prosumer mirrorless (500K mirrorless each), all three combined would add up to 1.25 Million, still accounting for less than half of the 3 million sales that average as prosumer cameras. So it's plausible that Canon & Sony are even larger than double Nikon in this area.
So what does all this tell us? Clearly, that a huge proportion of Nikon's sales as recently as last year have been entry-level DSLR sales. Which now it begs the question: who is renting a D3500 or D5600? Probably nobody. And yet, these have been the bulk of Nikon's market share; and obviously, that is changing.
So is it plausible that Nikon (or specifically Nikon Z) has a small percentage of rentals from LensRentals? Absolutely. Is it because LensRentals might keep less inventory of Nikon Z? Absolutely not. Nikon's challenge will be to grow Z, and when more people get more interested in Z (as they presumably will be with the Z9 & pricey Z telephotos), demand will increase and we'll likely see a growth in Nikon rentals. But that will be in future blog posts, not this past years'.
Nicolas Woollaston ·
Canon are obviously very dominant, but one wonders whether perhaps the EF to RF transition is a temporary boost encouraging people to rent rather than buy, ie some renting of EF lenses due to reluctance to invest in the mount at this point and some renting of RF lenses might be try-before-you-buy.
M Hector ·
I have been pondering renting some equipment just to try it out (which I am very sure some people do here, in addition to renting for events and such). It seems to me that deciding initial inventory of a particular brand or model could be analyzed using probabilities (statistical formulas) based on past or current factors such as market share, short-term growth or shrinkage in sales figures, audience, etc. At least this provides something to mull over, in addition to knowing your business very well and your customer base. Anyway, it is interesting to see people suspicious of these figures when a cherished brand is not represented as a person may expect. These are rentals, too, not sales. That is an important distinction. What an electronics retailer may see probably doesn’t match rental figures. What I see in a giant lot at Hertz or Dollar does not match what I see in automobile sales figures proportionately. Thank you for sharing this data.
M Hector ·
I have been pondering renting some equipment just to try it out (which I am very sure some people do here, in addition to renting for events and such). It seems to me that deciding initial inventory of a particular brand or model could be analyzed using probabilities (statistical formulas) based on past or current factors such as market share, short-term growth or shrinkage in sales figures, audience, etc. At least this provides something to mull over, in addition to knowing your business very well and your customer base. Anyway, it is interesting to see people suspicious of these figures when a cherished brand is not represented as a person may expect. These are rentals, too, not sales. That is an important distinction. What an electronics retailer may see probably doesn't match rental figures. What I see in a giant lot at Hertz or Dollar does not match what I see in automobile sales figures proportionately. Thank you for sharing this data.
Snaptik ·
That’s really interesting data here, honestly I expected to see Cannon on top
Snaptik ·
That's really interesting data here, honestly I expected to see Cannon on top
EZ Equipment Rental ·
Huge thanks for this post! It was just what I was looking for!
Golisingh ·
The data suggests Canon and Sony are the major players in the camera rental market.
Mirrorless cameras are becoming the preferred choice over DSLRs.
Rental trends indicate a decline for Nikon and other brands unless they adapt.
Snap insta is recommend