Renting gear from professional camera rental services has served as a vital resource for many photographers borrowing expensive or niche equipment for a shoot. Now, a new challenger has arrived, and the Los Angeles startup aims to create a peer-to-peer alternative to online rental services – enter, ShareGrid.

ShareGrid is a service that allows local photographers and filmmakers to rent to and from each other. It provides a ‘fully verified and always secure’ platform backed by Athos Insurance Services, so both buyers and renters can feel safe. In addition, all members of the site are ID verified, requiring a form of government identification. Renters and owners can review each other.

Those looking to rent can simply browse available gear, set dates to borrow, insure their rentals, and then meet up in person to borrow gear from local professionals. Owners looking to rent their own gear can respond to individual requests and decide who to rent to, and who to skip over. ShareGrid passes the payment along from renter to owner once the rental is complete and everything checks out.

The program, ShareGrid, is currently available within Los Angeles, and will soon be expanding to New York and other cities in the upcoming future.

While ShareGrid has gone to great lengths to minimize the potential risks of these transactions, no doubt loaning out gear to a relative stranger will sound less than appealing to a lot of photographers. Would you try out this service as a renter or an owner? Let us know in the comments.