Renting your camera

[Eugene Lehnert]

I am looking forward to purchasing a Scarlet when it's finally released. It will be a major investment for me. I would like to be able to rent out the camera to recoup some of the cost. What kind of insurance coverage do you get when you rent out your camera? What are some other pitfalls of renting?

 

[Steve Das]

What are some other pitfalls of renting?

Well the first two pitfalls would be
getting people to pay you...and not run off with your equipment.

Plus it seems like there will be so many scarlets out there that
rentals will be difficult to make work..when you factor in insurance costs.

 

[Nelson Alexandre]

Well the first two pitfalls would be
getting people to pay you...and not run off with your equipment.

:biggrin: very pragmatic indeed :biggrin:

 

[Eugene Lehnert]

True

True

Yes I do not think I will be catering to a huge market. I would only be renting to people I know for the most part.

 

[Graham Foulkes]

I would just rent the camera with yourself as operator , unless you plan on being a rental facility . I have seen to many scenarios where a person has spent a lot of money on equipment and is left with a brocken camera and not much else to show for it.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

I'm also seriously considering renting out multiple scarlets. The caveat would be that it's wet hire only.

This way I can keep an eye on the equipment, make more money than I would just renting out a barebones package and give the customer peace of mind when it comes to data wrangling and troubleshooting.

EDIT: I do seriously wonder what the average scarlet kit rental price would be (eg. Manfrotto CF sticks, 2/3 kit, rails, mattebox, redmote pro, 2 64gb cards, red station, laptop, external drives, 2x sennheiser lav mics and a litepanels mini)

 

[Eugene Lehnert]

Good point

Good point

I was thinking the best thing to do is rent the package with me as the operator too. There will be times when I can't do that. I'd hate to lose out on possible income but I'd also hate to get a damaged camera back.

How much does insurance like this run for renting a camera out? The people renting should also have a insurance for their production as well correct? I always need insurance when I rent a camera from a rental house.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

I need to talk with my insurance providers about this but if you're covered for equipment loss/damage and public liability and present with your kit at the shoot at all times you may be covered just fine in most eventualities.

I would still demand insurance proof from whatever shoot you're providing the kit to however. Also remember, never leave the kit overnight in a car. I'm not suggesting that you would but it looks like a mistake that quite a few productions have done.

 

[Jimmy Moss]

Renting out your camera as yourself as an operator, or AC is the best way to do it if your not a rental house. My home rental inland marine insurance actually covers my gear outside my house as long as I'm present. So if something breaks, I'm covered.

You make a lot of contacts that way, and you protect your gear.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

When you rent gear without yourself, you in essence become a small rental house. There are lots of pitfalls to be aware of when going this route. To me, the better option is to sell your services to pay for the camera. Build a great reel as a DP/Cam operator and then sell yourself as a package. With Scarlet sales expected to be rather high and a lot of them flooding the market, it will be less about the gear and more about the people using it. To me, this is where you can make your money.

If you do rent the camera out, do make sure to have proper insurance, and be prepared to do maintenance. With my RED, it always goes out with me, but even then I can't control accidents happening on set, or even general wear and tear from continuous use. There's going to be maintenance needed at some point, and if things are out of warranty, you'll need to have funds to pay for them.

Rental houses are built to handle this type of stuff. They have staff on hand that can fix things, they have backup gear, they can do proper background checks, etc. Even if you are just renting to friends, keep in mind that it's not their equipment. Even with the best of intentions, they won't treat it the same as you would.

I don't want to scare you off from pursuing the Scarlet. There are some amazing benefits to owning one. Make sure to have a good business plan written out, even if it's just for yourself.

Best of luck with this, whichever way you decide to go.