Renting digital cameras

Renting digital cameras is a relatively new practice where a set of insured digital cameras is purchased for an allotted period of time generally corresponding to an event such as a wedding, a Quinceañera, a Bar Mitzvah Bat Mitzvah, or a company party. Renting digital cameras is often considered to be an affordable complement to professional photographers and professional videographers. It is a more functional and environmentally friendly substitute for disposable cameras.

Rented digital cameras have yet to gain widespread acceptance due to a fear of theft, damage, or complexity, even though the cameras are traditionally given to friends and family, insured by the rental company, and come with instructions attached.

How Renting Digital Cameras Works
Digital camera rental services combine prepaid mailing aspects of services like Netflix, with the communal and candid photography aspect of disposable cameras and the online photo sharing and video sharing aspects of services like Flickr and YouTube.

The rented digital cameras are delivered in a prepaid mailing case which is later used to return the cameras. The cameras are then distributed to friends and family for use before, during, and after a family, social, or business event. After the event the cameras are mailed back to the rental company which posts all of the photos and videos to a website where the guests view, download, print, and share the photos and videos. Unlike professional photography or professional videography services, digital camera rental services usually do not charge per photo or video and grant at least the purchasing client complete rights to the photos and videos.

Opportunities
The major opportunities offered by renting digital cameras are:
# Solving the major problems with manual photo and video sharing: While online photo sharing sites are becoming more common, it is very rare for guests at a given event to share photos online. If traditional disposable cameras are used at an event, the only way to share the physical prints is to pay for copies of the prints and to physically mail them to guests. And while video sharing sites like YouTube are quickly becoming mainstream, event videos are rarely shared on these types of sites.
# Addressing the inadequate functionality of disposable cameras: Even the best disposable cameras take about twelve times fewer photos than rented digital cameras, cannot record video or audio, do not allow photos or videos to be previewed, and often produce poor quality photos. Disposable digital cameras are often more functional than disposable cameras, but do not offer the sharing benefits of digital camera rental services.
# Providing a high quality alternative to disposable cameras: Especially at high budget events such as weddings, Quinceañeras, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, or company parties, it can be considered tacky to provide low cost cameras made of poor quality disposable plastic and paper.
# Offering an affordable complement to professional photographers and videographers: Professional photographers and videographers generally charge by the hour for their services as well as for their photos and videos, and can easily add thousands of dollars to an event budget.
# Enabling photographs and videos from many perspectives over an extended period of time: Because the cameras are rented in sets and are kept from anywhere from three days to a week, candid and “personal” photographs and videotapes are taken by many different people before, during, and after the given event.

Obstacles
Issues that have arisen regarding renting digital cameras are:
# Fear of theft, damage, and loss: While rented digital cameras are traditionally given to friends, family, and co-workers, and are insured by the rental company, fear of financial responsibility for theft, damage, or loss may discourage widespread adoption.
# Technophobia: Even though rented digital cameras come with instructions attached to them, they may fail to gain traction due to the still common fear of technology.
# The pervasiveness of disposable cameras at events: In some circles, disposable cameras are such a well established tradition at events that rented digital cameras may have a tough time displacing them.
# The number of owned digital cameras: It is estimated that about fifty percent of US households already own a digital camera. With so many owned digital cameras, there may be a question around the need to rent additional digital cameras.
# Cost: While they are much more functional than disposable cameras and often include services such as free online photo and video sharing, rented digital cameras services are approximately twice the cost of buying the same number of disposable cameras and developing and distributing the photos from them.

Renting vs. Buying
Some digital camera rental advocates believe that renting digital cameras will fundamentally change the way people spend money on digital cameras since digital cameras are often only used at special events and since most people do not proactively share their photos online.

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