Top 7 places for photo equipment hire in London 2024

Are you looking for photo equipment hire in London? Perhaps you’ve already found a location for your shoot, lined up a subject and developed some great ideas. But you need some additional or replacement photo equipment or lighting equipment to pull it all off.

Or perhaps you’ve discovered a last-minute problem with your gear or have realised that you're missing a crucial piece of photo studio equipment ahead of a big shoot (it happens to the best of us!).

Whatever the situation, we’ve got you covered! London is one of the world’s best cities for photography and photography equipment. And in this guide we'll look at the top 7 photo equipment hire places in London:

1. Pro Centre
2. LensLab
3. Lenses for Hire
4. Direct Digital
5. Fat Lama
6. Hireacamera
7. Wex Rental

1. Pro Centre

Pro Centre is a superb photo equipment hire business in Hoxton, east London, specialising in medium format digital systems. Ideal if you are using a photography studio in east London and need to get some equipment delivered.

There is a huge selection of camera and lighting equipment on offer. Their top camera brands are Canon, Nikon/Sony. Fuji, Hasselblad, Phase One & Mamiya, Leica and Zeiss. Lighting equipment is from Broncolor Flash, Profoto Flash and others.

The company has a good ranking on Google reviews, with customers complimenting the friendly staff and reasonable prices.

Occasional renters can open a Pay-As-You-Go-Account. Using that method you pay upfront for the rental fee and leave a deposit for the equipment. If you’re doing more regular business with them you can open a 30-day Credit Account.

Rental orders over £250 are delivered free to inner London postcodes during the week. Otherwise, there’s a charge for delivery. The costs for the rental come down the longer the rental period.

2. LensLab

LensLab specialises in renting out the latest and best specialist photography equipment to London and the South East, perfect for south London photography studio hire.

Based in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, you can either pick stuff up directly from their HQ or ask them to ship it. They regularly get equipment into London on the same day, which is great if you're a street photographer planning an impromptu shoot around the city.

LensLab’s slogan is ‘Love Photography? So do we!’. Their customers seem to love them too with loads of positive reviews from named people.

They’ve got all the latest gear from Sony, Olympus, Nikon, Canon and Fuji. LensLab stock everything you could need for a shoot including camera bodies, lenses, tripods and lighting. They also rent flashes, filters and extenders.

You just need to provide them with two forms of ID for the first hire. One of them must show your billing address.

Alongside rentals, LensLab sells new and used equipment and also buys used gear. They also have a great scheme where you can loan your equipment to others. LensLab looks after the equipment and if they rent it, you get half of the income.

3. Lenses For Hire

Lenses For Hire has helped over 30,000 photographers with photo equipment hire since 2008.

It was set up by Stewart Robertson when he couldn’t find anywhere to hire a 500mm f/4 lens. So, he purchased 30 lenses, created a website and started renting them out from his spare room.

Stewart sold the photo equipment hire business to Richie a couple of years ago but it has continued to go from strength to strength. It ow LFH now stocks over 1500 items from a shop in Maidenhead, just west of London. They offer delivery services but it's also possible to pickup the equipment if you're hiring a nearby photo studio in west London.

They’re a really friendly bunch of people who know their photography equipment and are keen to get you sorted whatever your photo shoot ideas. However, they don’t accept phone calls. You have to place any orders through the website.

LFH has an ‘excellent’ five-star rating on Trustpilot, with over 5,000 reviews.

4. Direct Digital

Whether you need photo equipment for a day or an extended period, Direct Digital provides flexible rental terms (with long-term rental discounts) to meet your project's requirements. Hire the latest camera models from top brands like Canon, Nikon, ARRI, and Sony.

Direct Digital has studios in London and Manchester with the option to collect your equipment or have them delivered to your shoot location. There are also test rooms available at the studios.

The company takes its customer service seriously and provides expert support and advice in-store or over the phone.

Whether you are on location or in a studio, they’ll get the right equipment to you. Handy for commercial photographers who need somewhere reliable.

5. Fat Llama

Fat Llama is a peer-to-peer rental service, which connects you to owners of stuff in your area. One of the areas they specialise in is photo equipment. The company claims that its rentals are over 50 per cent cheaper than traditional rental services.

The process is very simple. You just log on to the Fat Llama website and search for the equipment you need. Then you book the item for the dates you need it and arrange collection, making it ideal when you're hiring a photo studio in London and need additional equipment. At the end of the period, you drop the item back and leave a review on the site.

The choice is nowhere near as vast as you would find in one of the major physical rental shops, but the prices are much cheaper.

However, another consideration is that using Fat Llama is a more sustainable option. By using the service you’re participating in the circular economy and doing your bit for the planet.

6. Hireacamera

Hireacamera is based outside London in East Sussex but can ship equipment to a photo studio in London or anywhere else in the UK. It is one of the leading photo hire companies in Europe and part of the Simplysnap Group.

They even offer a click-and-collect service, allowing you to pick the gear up from Cherryduck Studios in London.

In terms of photo cameras, they cover everything from compacts to mirrorless, DSLRs and Medium Format.

Hireacamera has an ’excellent’ rating on Trustpilot with 96% of the reviews being 5-star.

Popular cameras for hire include the Canon EOS R6, Canon EOS C200 and Panasonic GH5S. The higher-end Medium Format cameras on offer include the Fujifilm GFX100 and GFX100S.

The website is easy to navigate and very friendly. The lighting options are very clear, even for less experienced photographers.

If you are looking for the right lighting equipment for product photography, this place would be ideal.

7. Wex Rental

Wex Rental, part of the rapidly expanding Wex Photo Video company, has ten locations around the UK. There are photo equipment hire locations in London in Kennington (where there’s free parking) which is perfect for hiring a south London photo studio, and Whitechapel if you have a photoshoot in east London.

The company rents cameras to casual photographers as well as to more professional users. They have cameras from Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Canon plus a wide range of lighting and accessories.

Wex offers price matching. If you spot a deal cheaper with another company, let them know and they’ll give you the same deal. They also offer 'Try Before You Buy'. If you rent an item and then want to purchase it, they’ll refund you up to a two-day hire from the original rental costs.

Their Weekend Rate is three days for the price of one. The Weekly Rate is seven days for the price of four. If you want to rent for more than 30 days they will negotiate a deal for you.

Takeaway

London is extremely well-serviced for photo equipment hire. There are options to suit every budget from the cheapest peer-to-peer services through to high-end offerings for top professionals. Although this list is not comprehensive, it provides you with enough resources to hire virtually any type of photo equipment needed while in London.

So be sure to search for the best photo equipment that accommodates your budget and works best for your photoshoot concepts. Additionally, you can reach out to photographers you know to get first-hand suggestions to serve your photography clients better while working at home and abroad.

Who you choose to hire from might come down to how quickly you need to get hold of the equipment. If you are booking in advance we’d recommend LensLab and Lenses For Hire – both slightly outside London. If you need equipment urgently, opt for Pro Centre.