Top Photography and Videography Rentals for 2025
Each year, we paw through all the rental data we’ve collected and take a moment to share with you which products are the most exciting and most successful. As the premier rental house in America, this data has significant importance for market trends and where we can expect things to go in the years to come. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ve seen these in previous years, so we don’t need any further introduction. Here are the top rentals in the photography and videography industry for 2025.
Our first table is the most popular rentals for 2025. This list is determined by the number of rentals, not by pricing, to avoid skewing the numbers. In an industry where the phrase ‘Prime is King’ is common, the numbers always seem to suggest otherwise, with the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS taking the top position of the list, with the slightly faster, but slightly shorter ranged RF 28-70mm f/2L close behind. And this makes sense; rentals often serve as a versatile service for our customers, much like the versatility of a midrange zoom. That versatility continues through the list, with the first prime lens not appearing until the 17th position: the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L. But let’s take a deeper look at the camera rentals on this list, and to get a better view, we’ll pull the top 20 camera rentals for 2025.
Certainly, to my surprise, the Canon R6 Mark II tops the list of most rented cameras of the year, beating out the R5 Mark II and the original R5 in 8th and 4th place, respectively. Sony also made quite a showing through 2025, with nine different cameras gracing the top twenty, ranging from premium video systems like the Sony FX6 to smaller point-and-shoot options like the Cybershot RX100 VII. To the likely surprise of many, there is a lack of Fujifilm in the top twenty, and only Nikon is taking one spot with the Nikon Z8. We’ll put a pin in this topic and discuss market share later in this article, but first, let’s take a closer look at the lenses rented for 2025.
When looking at the most popular lens rentals for 2025, you’re seeing largely two players – Canon and Sony. Only Sigma broke into the top 20, and only just barely, with its own 24-70mm f/2.8 DN Art. But when you look through the lens lineup, you’re not seeing many quirky options; instead, you’re opting for practicality. Nearly all the lenses are zoom lenses, covering very common focal lengths needed for a wide range of photography and videography. There isn’t much to say about this list that isn’t easily explained by pretty broad shooting styles, so instead, let’s look at everything else – all the accessories we’ve rented for 2025.
Accessories are basically anything else we rent, from cables to hard drives, to tripods, or lighting equipment. And in this list, you’re seeing a lot of the obvious: batteries and memory cards. These two things are obvious: modern cameras require a lot of data, and the bulk of them are mirrorless, which notoriously eat up battery life compared to their DSLR counterparts. Surprisingly, though, no lighting gear or drone equipment reached the top twenty this year (aside from the DJI TB50 battery in the 18th position), leaving the remaining positions to a few light stands and tripods.
| Brand | 2023 Market Share | 2024 Market Share | 2025 Market Share |
| Canon | 23.96% | 25.69% | 26.51% |
| Sony | 19.13% | 20.45% | 21.66% |
| Nikon | 4.88% | 5.91% | 5.56% |
| DJI | 3.31% | 3.80% | 4.29% |
| Blackmagic | 3.57% | 3.30% | 3.15% |
| Sigma | 3.32% | 3.34% | 3.13% |
| Fuji | 2.24% | 2.59% | 2.79% |
| Aputure | 2.03% | 2.37% | 2.29% |
| Panasonic | 1.94% | 1.98% | 2.01% |
| Leica | 1.64% | 1.47% | 1.52% |
| RED | 2.03% | 1.27% | 1.11% |
| Sachtler | 1.38% | 1.07% | 1.05% |
Let’s now take a look at the brand market share. These numbers are based on revenue, so they’re skewed toward higher-priced brands such as RED or Leica. Still, we see Canon leading the rentals, as they always have, with Sony close behind, and everyone else paling in comparison. Many of the brands have been showing up pretty steadily over the last few years, with no significant changes to their market share. DJI grew slightly in market share, while many other brands shrank slightly, making way for other product brands not measured in this list.
Finally, we want to look at the most popular new gear for 2025 to see where the market might be heading. This list, in particular, comes with a few caveats. First, these are based on rental orders for 2025, so a product announced in February has a significantly greater advantage over one announced a month or two ago. Secondly, this is a list based on new products in our inventory, so while it’s usually a list of products released in 2025, it sometimes highlights new product markets and subsections we entered in 2025.
Leading the front for new products is the updated version of the very popular Manfrotto 190 series – a common video-focused tripod with several years of proven reliability. Finally, the first strong debut on these lists this year from a lighting company: the Amaran COB 200x, their 200W bi-color monolight with the option for both battery power and AC power, making it a very versatile option on set. The rest of the list is a lot of refreshes of popular gear, offering marginal upgrades to already exceptional products in an otherwise transitional year.
Did any of these stats surprise you? Feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments below. And check back next week, as we look specifically at our purchase data, which will show which gear was rented and was so beloved that our customers decided to give them a forever home.
6 Comments
John @ The LensPal ·
In the last table, you have the Sony FE 50-150 in both the 2nd and 8th place slots.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Looking at the data sheet I received, it looks like we had an internal SKU error with that lens, causing it to be listed twice. Once I get clarity as to what is accurate, I'll update the table. Thanks for the note!
John @ The LensPal ·
In the last table, you have the Sony FE 50-150 in both the 2nd and 8th place slots.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Looking at the data sheet I received, it looks like we had an internal SKU error with that lens, causing it to be listed twice. Once I get clarity as to what is accurate, I'll update the table. Thanks for the note!
Ally Aycock Patterson ·
this is all very interesting
Ally Aycock Patterson ·
this is all very interesting