I was woundering what people are charging just to shoot nothing else.
I have been charging $200 for 4 hrs
I bring a friend with a second camera.
But that is the price even with out a second camera.

Steve,

Prices vary. They are higher in New York City than in Sioux City Iowa. And in between the two in Dallas.

And they vary with your skills and previous experience, along with your workload. If you have too much work, charge more. If you don't have enough work, perhaps you should charge less (not always though).

I dont agree with those rates or ideas. Think of all your expenses including gear, car, petrol, phone, clothing, consumables plus any other business costs. Dont forget even after covering your costs you still want to be paid for your time, we all gotta eat & pay rent/morgates/kids, etc.

Always start high with costs & negotiate from there. Starting with cheap rates will ensure you'll always be known as the cheap guy & will never get paid higher.

Doing freebies & cheap work will ensure the low end of the video market will be flooded with cheap inexperienced people & ultimately mean no decent long term career in making a living of what you love doing, which is video.

Be confident when giving quotes & prices. This is almost as important as the actual work itself. For basic photographic work for one of my consistant customers I charge AU$160 + fuel for about 30 mins work. My overheads are very low as I haven't invested much in equipment. Your Z1 (I assume your using this) cost on its own US$4900ish plus all the access etc. You have to pay that camera off plus make a living before it becomes worthless on the 2nd hand market.

Add up all your costs & see what you've spent.. you'll be in for a surprise...

Just for comparison from my company:

Single man crew (camera, audio, lights):

$250 for 2 hours (this is a minimum charge)
$450 for 4 hours
$750 for 8 hours

Additional crew is more of course, but a lot of what we do are one man interviews, so this is a normal charge for us.

Bryan,

Thanks this is just the info I was looking for I do Audio/Video part time and wanted this kind of feed back. Now that is just shooting right?
I now will re-think my prices.
I do not want to be undercutting too much, I do good work.

Is there a place/ web site in L.A. we can rent our FX1s/Z1s out to when we're not using them?

Originally posted by Steve Martens
Now that is just shooting right?
Yeah, post is something else entirely.