Renting out your gear

J

jackelliott

Member
There is a fella who want to rent my af100, samurai, tripod, and 12-35. I'm of course not a rental company so I am asking here. Not a lot of these floating around New Mexico. I guess my biggest concern is damage. Please let me know what you folks think, what a fair rate might be, and how to protect the equipment. Thanks

Jack
 
As a guide, I normally charged 2% - 3% of the purchase price of the gears for 1 day rental. Let him know he must bear all repair/replacement costs if the equipment is damage/lost and prepare an agreement for him to sign on. Lastly get a photocopy of his identification card and take down his contact details as well. You can try putting some gaffer tape on your equipment to prevent scratches.
 
Complex equipment risks picking up bad behavior when too many people play around with it.

I strongly recommend against renting out ANY equipment that you have paid hard earned money for.

If you have any doubts, talk to a rental car company about the many issues they have to deal with when their cars come back in.

I supervise assistants for about 3 events before I let them "touch" my equipment.

Anyone who rents your equipment and goes away with it has the potential to cause serious damage.

Easy examples: 1) They put the Zoom on Auto and then turn the ring manually 2) they open the SD door at the wrong time. 3) they drop the camera 4) they bend the LCD 5) over tighten the base plate. 6) they "clean" your EVF.

Even tripods are easily stressed.

Any one of these can cause your next shoot to go bad.
 
Yeah send the guy to a real rental place- who will expect a real deposit and real insurance. There's no upside to renting out your gear if you have no experience for renting. Best case scenario is he pays you to shoot and gets your gear for free. Worst case scenario is he 'rents' and either disappears completely with it or damages your gear and then you've got nothing to show for it.

-Noah
 
I think that as a n00b at all this I'll let him use the camera and I'll stick around and learn a thing or two. I think I'm asking for trouble otherwise, and I kind of knew that before posting. Thanks for your replies.
 
Hi

I haven't rented my equipment but have let people I know and trust use equipment occasionally. Over many years all my repair bills have been due to lending equipment. No one has come to me and said I broke or lost x,y or z. I have footed the bills myself. The largest about $400 to replace a cracked camera body many years ago. I don't lend equipment any more. Even having volunteers help me I have problems with mishandling or misplacing equipment. In volunteers case I just eat it unless I am volunteering and would have an agreement with the non-profit to replace/repair equipment. Something I have never yet had. In all cases all damage has been, I believe, from just plain old inexperience on the borrower's part. No evil intent or maybe even awareness.

Renting or lending is a hard decision with many factors. Best of luck.
 
I rent out most of my equipment to a small customer base - all people I've worked with before. I have a contract, which they sign upon pickup of equipment, stating that 1) the equipment is MINE, 2) they are responsible for the equipment from X date to Y date, and 3) they bear the cost of repair/replacement of anything that comes back needing such, unless I waive it.

All of them have worked with my equipment before, however.

Nothing I rent is incredibly expensive, though. I rent out my 7D, my set of 6 Nikon prime lenses, DP4, RRM FF Blue, Shoot35 Cinebox, rig, Sachtler tripod, 4x1000W Fresnel light kit, gels, tools, backrops...But I use discretion - I won't rent a full kit (around $10,000 value) to someone I've only worked with on a one-day shoot.

Also, full payment up front in cash. No exceptions.

You can ask someone who's looking to rent from you to take out a short-term rental equipment insurance policy through someone like Heffernan (link), but a rental house's insurance will be cheaper, most likely.
 
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