Rent or buy? The arithmetic — the Flexfoto blog

It is one of the questions we get most often, and it deserves a real answer rather than a sales pitch. So here is the arithmetic, with prices taken from our own catalogue today.

Vad 33 990 kronor räcker till: att köpa ett Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM en gång, eller att hyra samma objektiv i nitton hela veckor för 1 773 kronor per vecka. — The same sum, two ways to use it. (Diagram in Swedish.)

The arithmetic

A Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM costs 33,990 SEK to buy new in Sweden today. With us it costs 1,773 SEK for a week — 253 SEK a day. Divide one by the other and you get 19.

So you have to shoot with that lens for 19 whole weeks before owning it would have been cheaper. That is four and a half months with the camera in your hand. The question is not whether that sounds like a lot — it is how many weeks a year you actually use a 70-200.

And that calculation is still kind to buying. It does not count the value the equipment loses sitting in a cupboard, the insurance, or the new version arriving in three years.

Three cases where buying wins

We say it out loud, because it makes the rest more credible:

You use it every week. A standard zoom that lives on the body all year is one to own. That is why we rent professional glass and not kit lenses.
You need it with no notice. The transport takes a couple of days. If you are going out tomorrow morning, no rental company can help you.
You want to live with a specific camera for months. Our price ladder is generous, but at some point buying is right — and our rental ceiling (below) exists precisely so that we do not profit from you choosing wrong.

Two Sony camera bodies, three lenses and a memory card lined up around a black Flexfoto-branded hard case on a wooden table. — A typical package on its way out: two bodies, three lenses, memory cards — and the case they travel in.

Three cases where renting wins, with numbers

One job, one lens. A wedding, a match, a trip. 1,773 SEK for a week against 33,990 SEK forever.
You want to try before you buy. A week with the lens tells you more than every review online, and it is the cheapest research you can do before a thirty-thousand-krona purchase.
You need two of the same thing once. A second body for the wedding, a second lens for the stage. Buying a backup you use once a year is expensive peace of mind.

And the ceiling, which makes long rentals sane

A rental with us never costs more than 50 % of what the equipment costs new. That matters most on things that are cheap to buy: a Sony NP-FZ100 battery costs 1,090 SEK to buy, and a month’s rental costs 545 SEK — no more, however long you keep it.

Without a ceiling, a long rental on a cheap item becomes absurd. With one, it becomes a price.

A pricing table in Swedish titled "Hyr längre – betala mindre per dag" (Rent longer – pay less per day) — The price ladder on every product page: one row per rental length, with the cheapest daily rate marked. (Screenshot in Swedish.)

What is not in the price

Shipping is extra — fixed prices, the same across the whole country, set below what PostNord invoices us, there and back. All-risk cover is included across the Nordics, and it is worth counting: if a 33,990 SEK lens is damaged while you have it and the insurance covers the event, you pay at most 1,500 SEK, never more. Own it yourself and you pay the whole repair.

Why distance costs nothing extra: we ship to Kiruna as happily as to central Stockholm.

No deposit. You sign the rental agreement with BankID instead.

Do the sums yourself

The price ladder is on every product page, so you do not have to take our word for it. Look up whatever you are considering, see what a week and a month cost, and compare with the shop price. Do the sums: rent or buy · All equipment · What should I rent?