Lensrentals 2024: Where'd Nikon Go?

The 45-MP Canon EOS R5, the No. 1 most rented camera body for 2024 at LensRentals. It's on sale for $600 off since the mark II version was announced.

The LensRentals blog recently published the company's data for rentals in 2024. They rent more than lenses, and in fact they didn't break out lenses as an exclusive category. You can see it for yourself so I won't go into detail about all the rankings.

However, one thing really stood out. Where's Nikon?!

Granted, on the list of "Brand Market Shares (By Revenue)," Nikon is touted as having grown its share by 21% since 2023, and comes in third behind Canon and Sony. But it's way behind Canon and Sony, and that 21%, which sounds like a lot, actually only represents a change of 4.88% to 5.91% of the rentals by brand.

And the big shocker: on the main list of "Most Popular Photography & Videography Gear of 2024," the top seven places, and eight of the top 10, are all Canon, the other two places going to Sony, which I guess is no surprise. But, all of the top 20 most-rented items are Canon and Sony. Nikon doesn't show up with even a single camera or lens. And, rather humiliatingly for Nikon perhaps, on the "Lenses Rented By Lens Mount" list, the old Canon EF mount for SLRs and DSLRs comes in ahead of Nikon Z. In fact, the No. 1 rented item overall was an EF lens. (Actually, they say the No. 1 most-rented item was a battery, but they don't count those as separate items.) "Lensrentals is the largest online rental provider for photography, videography, and lighting equipment and accessories in the United States" (per their "About Us" page), so they've got a good data sample.

I'm just blue-skying here, but there could be other things going on. Maybe Nikon shooters have gravitated elsewhere for rentals? Maybe more Nikon shooters own the equipment they need and hence they don't need to rent as often (this thought arose from the fact that the most-rented Canon lenses are standard mid-range and tele zooms); maybe Nikon Professional Services (NPS) covers the brand's pro shooters better when they need something short-term. I dunno.

The other conclusion might be a bit sad and scary for friends of the once-dominant Japanese marque, which is that Nikon might be going downhill and losing its mojo in the market. I dunno about that either; however, over the years, many years now, rumors of its decline/demise are routinely exaggerated.

Keep in mind that although all this is of interest, it doesn't really impinge on any single photographer's choice much, if at all. My sense is that Nikon Z is plenty popular with the slice of the photo world I'm familiar with.

Bits and thoughts
Other things I noticed: Zeiss has fallen to below 1% of rentals; Fujifilm places seventh by brand revenue and Leica 11th, with Fujifilm fifth in lenses by revenue; RED, which Nikon bought last March, is down almost 36% since 2023, although, in that case as well, both numbers are still very small; and LensRentals notes that while third-party lens rentals are down, that might be temporary, because those companies are still making the transition to mirrorless lenses in this period. And by the way, if you've never heard of the B4 lensmount, which appears on the "Lenses Rented By Lens Mount" list, it's a lens mount standard for 2/3"-sensor broadcast cameras.

Let us know if you have any more information or thoughts about Nikon's showing in these lists.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

robert e: "That top 20 list to me says 'weddings.' Sure enough, LR offers wedding packages that happen to be built on the most popular lens types. Makes sense—those kits were probably compiled from customer demand and data. Similar packages are offered for most big brands, but I'm willing to bet that Canon is the most popular brand for wedding photography due to color science, and especially skin tones. So if wedding photography is a big chunk of LR's business, Canon's FF gear in the appropriate focal lengths and body styles for weddings is going to dominate. At least for still photography. Videographers, especially old school ones, like Sony for various reasons, whether for weddings or other applications. I'm curious what the strategy is on the shooter side. I can see how it would make sense to have your own equipment but use it as backup, while you rent the same gear to beat on at a gig, especially with those convenient short-term insurance rates. And all in wrapped up in a convenient package to bill to the client."

Steve Brenner: "I recently returned from a photo workshop. Of the seven people, two were Canon shooters and five used Nikon Z."

Albert Smith: "Re '...Maybe more Nikon shooters own the equipment they need and hence they don't need to rent....' That's my thinking. I've never rented anything ever. I do own many, many cameras purchased after research and testimonials from photographers that I'd like to emulate. Nikon had a good year selling cameras, so not being high on a list of rentals doesn't mean anything negative IMO."

albert ericksn: "I was surprised by the numbers too so I looked at the price of two lens normally rented. The Canon lens 24–70mm RF ƒ/2.8 rents for $84/week. The Nikon lens 24–70mm ƒ/2.8 S lens rents for $118/week. The Canon 15–35mm RF ƒ/2.8 rents for $84/week while the Nikon one, 14–24mm ƒ/2.8 S, rents for $124. That is quite a bit different? Maybe Canon is subsidizing the rental to get the lenses into the hands of users thinking they will like them or maybe it simply the Nikon Lens cost more? Not sure, but that may well be the reason for the difference in rentals?"

Jeff: "I've always thought that the main point of mirrorless was a very smart plan to get people to buy all new cameras and lenses to replace their perfectly good equipment. A bonus for the camera companies is that the mirrorless cameras are cheaper to make and then they sell them for higher prices, as a 'new technology.' I'm sure a few people need the new features but I suspect the number is not that high. I think most mirrorless users would still be fine using their 5D IV's and D750's or D850's. But that's just my opinion."

Thom Hogan: "Why not ask Roger directly? My sense is that this is one of those stats that reflect what the company in question (LensRentals) wants to do, not the market in general."

Comments

[John Krumm]

This sounds like Thom's area of expertise. I just like how Nikons work and feel. Unfortunately for the company, they made their first generation of mirrorless good enough that I have not had a reason to upgrade yet, and I was able to buy used. I have bought a few new lenses though. My absolute favorite recent Nikon purchase is a $200 F100 from KEH. So sturdy and competent and easy to hold. I forgot how much I like real viewfinders.
From what I gather, Nikon is doing well within its market share, profitable and building quite popular cameras. But Canon was always the mass appeal leader, and Sony has joined them there. If they were cars, Canon is Toyota, Sony is Honda, and Nikon perhaps is Subaru (less demand, loyal following).

[John]

Zeiss going down isn’t that surprising. They haven’t introduced new still photography lenses for ages and kind of seem to have given up on the market.

[s.wolters]

For what it is worth, this is a Flickr study from 2023 concerning the most used brands. Apple wins, Canon is not very far behind and Nikon is third. Also interesting is the popularity per country.

https://photorumors.com/2023/06/17/flickr-study-reveals-the-most-popular-cameras-around-the-world/

[Rand Adams]

If you go to Enterprise rent a car, they rent way more Chevys and Dodges than they do good vehicles. ;-)

Rand

[Bill Giokas]

Perhaps the iphone is impacting the rental market. Bill

[gary bliss]

Mike --

I first shot Nikon as a student/PJ stringer in 1972. I bought an FM body when money allowed (1979) and have a string of them (including D80, D7000, D600 and D810) until last month.

I went Sony (A7IV) when i finally moved to mirrorless for one major reason: the open standard lens mount, which means a rich ecosystem of ever changing lens options. I care about -- and spend more money on -- the lenses than the bodies anyway.

So even though i love the Nikon CLS flash system, adios Nikon.

I still won't sell my FM3A film body and AIS primes though. It is too much fun to work that mechanical body and lens even without film in the body. It feels like a fine, precision, revolver to trip the shutter. Hah! I can pretend that i am Steve McCurry when i do so with the 105mm f2.5 mounted.

-- gary ray

[William Lewis]

One data point that's worth exactly what you paid for it (IOW nothing ;)

As a hotel clerk where I see more than a few wedding receptions, I see far more wedding phototographers with Nikon than with Canon. Almost all Z now. The few Canon are mostly still DSLR.

All tend to go ooh over whichever camera I have along that night (Leica M 240, Rolleiflex Automat or even my most recent Pentax K-5) as they seem to enjoy seeing something other than the usual cameras for change. The older ones & women love the Leica, the younger ones love the Rollei the best. The Pentax is usually more - oh, they still are out there? Cool!

[Mike Ferron]

Well no secrets here. Nikon was late to the mirrorless party. And with good reason in that their high end DSLR's were better than early mirrorless. For a while anyway but Sony kept on getting better and better, Canon followed suit with Nikon only 6 years into the mix with any kind of serious effort. Nikon Z's are fine cameras but if you are heavily invested in another brand are you going to sell off at a loss and invest in another brand that might not be any better than what you have?

[Dillan]

If it's any consolation to Nikon, I wish I was a Nikon shooter rather than a Canon shooter. Canon has made it impossible for third party lens manufacturers to join their lens mount, and that's bad news for me. I can't afford most of the L lenses that I'm supposed to aspire to, and the non-L R-mount lenses have failed to hold my attention. I keep looking enviously at Nikon and Sony. Sony because everyone is free to play there, and Nikon because they're making lenses I think I'd like. Canon is heading in the wrong direction. If I had the money, I'd be looking seriously at Nikon and Sony.

[John Sparks]

I think I read or maybe heard on their podcast, but LensRentals is much more of a video rental place than an still photography place these days. With that bias, it's no wonder that Canon and Sony are much more often rented than Nikon. Even Blackmagic, Panasonic and RED, all more video oriented, are not all that far behind Nikon. I don't think Nikon being lower on LensRentals means anything except that they are more stills oriented than video.

[Craig Yuill]

I have been a Nikon owner for almost 30 years. I have read a number of times that Nikon users tend to know what gear they want and buy it rather than rent it. I don’t know if that statement is true, but a number of Nikon users seem to believe it.

It isn’t exactly true that Nikon was late bringing out a mirrorless system. They introduced a mirrorless system - the Nikon 1 system - back in 2011. It was based on a 1-inch sensor format, resulting in small, discreet cameras and lenses. Unfortunately, the system was poorly developed and marketed, and was discontinued around the same time that the Z-system was announced. The Z-system has been much much more successful.

Overall, Nikon seems to be hitting it out of the park with its latest offerings. Nikon’s latest camera, the Z50II, seems to be well liked by most who buy it. The same can be said of most of their current line of cameras. Most of their lenses, including the budget-friendly ones, are sharp and well behaved. Overall, Nikon has making the right moves of late. They might be focusing a bit too much on the high end equipment and need to pay a bit more attention to the low end. But for now, Nikon is doing fine.

[Jozef]

The fast Canon RL zoom lenses are so terribly expensive that you do have to rent them, to work like a pro economically.

[Luke]

Do Nikon lenses still screw on BACKWARDS?

[Dogman]

Bottom line for me was how great the Nikon Z bodies are for adapting manual focus lenses. I have a number of Leica M and LTM lenses (mainly Zeiss and Voigtlânder) that I use all the time.

I also have a couple of Z-mount Nikkors, an FTZ and about a million old manual focus Nikkors. They don't get much use because of those adapted M and LTM lenses. But I have them.

It could be other Nikon Z users are well stocked and don't need to rent much gear.

[Alex G.]

Maybe I'm not using their website correctly, but they seem to only stock non-Nikkor Nikon mount lenses.

[Tony T]

"Nikon might be going downhill and losing its mojo in the market"

Of course this is hugely exaggerated. Nikon's market share of unit sales has been around 13-14% but their revenue share is about 25%. They seem to be emulating Apple here. I doubt if Canon and Sony do much, if any, better than that in terms of revenue.

Canon has about 3x unit market share of Nikon, but only about 2x revenue. Sony is about 2x for both. The thing is, both Canon and Sony have always buried their photo equipment revenues so deep in a mix with other more expensive products that nobody can tell with any certainty how they've been doing financially. What do they have to hide there?