Renting Out my EX1R, What do I need to know?

[Olakunle Olanrewaju]

Guys around my neighbourhood have been asking me to rent out my Sony ex1r Coupled with some other gears that I got less than four months, but I am a bit sceptical about renting out for fear of damage,theft and the likes.
Is there a foolproof way of going about it,as I am still emplyed somewhere else and I do not use it everytime so renting for extra cash will definately not affect my schedule. I will also like to know rental fees for sony ex1r. if there is no foolproof way I will prefer not to rent it out.

[Craig Seeman]

DON'T!
Between the risk of damage or theft it's not worth it.
Insurance and maintenance are major costs and unless you have the protections a renal house does, this is going to be a disaster at some point. Let them HIRE you so you're in control.

[Gabe Strong]

I agree......I would NOT do it. I've only rented my camera out 1 time, to a video professional that
I knew and the entire time it was gone, I was nervous......and this was only a PD 150. Luckily I
got it back without anything major wrong with it, but I'm not ever doing that again, too many things
can go wrong, and you don't have the protections that a rental house has. No one will take care of it
like you do, ever hear the phrase 'drive it like it's rented?'

[Harry Christensen]

Even if you are hired there can be issues. Make sure your insurance covers your camera (no deductible) and make sure the job has insurance too. Things can and do happen, even if you are there. My camera got dumped off a dolly by professionals that should have known better. Its in getting repaired now. I was lucky as the people I was working with took full responsibility and paid for the repair. I was only out time without my camera, but that is its own loss.

[Matt Davis]

I tried renting out my kit - just to trusted clients, not strangers. Even so, 'Never again'.

Whilst the first few rents went well, I was appalled when the kit was returned with a battery jammed in (so it would not come out) and an out-of-alignment door cassette door.

Because it was a client, I had no deposit. Suddenly, they weren't interested in taking calls about the damage, and robustly claimed that it must have happened in transit and my beef should be with the courier company (their courier company). It was only a PDX-10, but I had it fixed at my expense to keep the client. Which sucks.

It may sound obvious, but renting kit is a business in its own right. It's like renting property (which I do, and I hate): never rent out kit that you love and rely on. By all means loan to friends, maybe with monetary consideration, but if they loose it, they have to pay you back - fully and quickly. And that can hurt friendships and client relationships. And it can cost you time, stress and even money.

IMHO, if you're going to rent out kit, make it a separate business: buy a duplicate of what you like to work with, down to the case and the extras, and rent that out. Work out how many rents it will get vs when it will get trashed, and factor in all costs - your own insurance, the cost of casing it, the inevitable defaults, and cross-renting if you have to rent in to cover your own kit's repair time.

But I guess it can work for some people, with the right attitude and backup.

FWIW, I used to rent an EX1 kit with sticks for about £100 per day, with a four day week. Of course it came with only the bare necessities - a couple of batteries, a couple of 8GB cards. I was quite shocked at how much it would cost to hire my usual working gear - it clocks up very fast.

[Olakunle Olanrewaju]

I THINK I AM ALREADY HAPPY WITH ALL THE REPLY I WILL NEVER RENT IT OUT!!! I think i dont need to be told twice. though i must confess i almost did not because of the money because of friends pressure. thanks for giving me the courage to do the right thing.

[Noel Lising]

and as a post note, if the guy you rented out the camera to runs away with it, he can only be charged with Breach of contract and not theft. The insurance company won't pay for it because you handed it down to him. Different if somebody broke into your house & stole it.

My 2 cents.

[Olakunle Olanrewaju]

thanks but speaking of insurance (something I need to do urgently) is better to do local insurance or international insurance and what of insurance would you recommend.

[Paul R Johnson]

Renting kit shouldn't be based on how much you love your equipment - if you are attached to it, it's not suitable to rent out.

I've been renting kit for years and learnt this very early on. Rental equipment will be damaged. Rarely on purpose, but rental kit, like hire cars isn't treated like something you bought yourself, and look after.

Many people do NOT have insurance, my own inquiries suggested that between 25-35% of each hire would be taken in insurance - so my hire contract firmly puts this responsibility onto the customer. If they damage something, then it will be repaired or replaced at my discretion at their cost. I always tell them verbally too, and get them to initial this clause. Radio microphones get wrecked frequently. The transmitter pack is fine, but the cable to the lav gets trapped in zips, or shut in doors, or pulled or stood on. It's common for the hire charge to be perhaps just £60, but have £200 added to the invoice for replacing a wrecked DPA or MKE2.

A broken flap that involves a trip to Sony and back can be many times the cost of the hire charge.

The other worry is theft. A friend rented some lighting kit to a customer, delivered it to a big theatre. They had a break in and the kit was stolen. The customer had signed to say he had insurance. He lied!

The venue had insurance, but as the police concluded a door had been opened from inside, and nobody had actually 'broken in' - the venue insurance would not pay. My friend lost £40,000 of equipment, and there was nothing he could do. The customer had no assets - no house, no car. He lived with his parents and didn't have any regular income. No point taking him to court.

In this case, there was a happy ending and the theft was solved and in the end he didn't lose out. It's pretty worrying. If you have kit that isn't earning for you, then at some point, hiring it out could be good business sense.

If the kit is your 'baby' do not rent it out. If it's just equipment, there to earn it's keep - then do.

I bought an expensive camera, and figured I'd hire it out when I wasn't using it - but somebody enquired if I would be interested in a one-year long term rent - at a special price. In the end. it seemed a better deal to rent mine out for a 1 year virtually guaranteed income, and hire one in for my own use when I needed it. So far, my own work has gone off on a tangent, and I've not needed to use it myself. On balance, I bought it because I convinced myself I had a need for it, when I really didn't!

One of my mates calls this 'gear lust' - and I think he's probably correct!
P

[Olakunle Olanrewaju]

Like i said the kit is my 'baby'. I am particularly shocked at the way and manner people treat rental equipments from all that has been said and even if the kit is not dear to I wont even considered given it out.

I planned on making a feature film shortly with the kit once i get the right script.

[Kevin Wayne Jones]

If they want to rent your equipment they need to rent you too as an operator.
That's the ONLY way I would ever do it.