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Renting out / Renting in extra gear


julian

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So I was wondering… where do you guys rent your gear from? and do you rent out your personal gear to other people in your area? 
I know that places like LA, London etc. have large rental house as well as most sound recordists have their own kit (myself included).

But if you need something extra, say, extra wireless channels for a specific job or extra IFB’s etc. 
Where do you usually rent from? From a local SR or from a rental house?  

I’ve always preferred to rent in extra bits from a local sound recordist, but always been reluctant to rent out my own gear to people I don’t know. 

feedback and thoughts appreciated… :)

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I do rent out stuff to people I know, though I won't tear my main setup apart. It's just too much hassle to re-configure and re-wire everything. So it's mostly a mic, a boom, the small ENG bag, or my backup recorder.

If I need something that doesn't justify buying, I call my favourite rental house.

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A dozen years ago, I rented out my Betacam deck a few times. What a hassle. One solid and good guy lost the thick component analog cable. What tha? He of course paid for the replacement right away, but if I needed to use the deck right after getting it back, that would have been a bummer. And that was a big item used indoors...not the comparatively fragile easily lost stuff we work with. 

Renting out equipment is a hassle; I'm happy to leave that to the pros.

But if I have a pal that just needs something small to get out of a jam, I'll loan the thing to them. And I've borrowed and rented stuff from people I know. However, they sometimes need what I want and can't let it go (even something small like an extra boom holder).

Flip side: The main rental houses out here in the San Francisco area are camera shops with just a little audio kit. However, being good houses, what they do have is in solid shape, includes expected accessories, and is well packed. Last week I rented an extra Schoeps from Chater Camera; easy transaction, passed the cost to the client, no worries. Other times I've rented stuff from location-audio houses (closest to me are in Los Angeles; but EVERYTHING's available there).

Hope my ramble helps a little

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Thanks for the replies so far... 

Yeah, its a tricky one.. I live in a small city and rent in extras from a few local guys, but again its always tough especially if they suddenly need to use the item themselves. But it usually works out fine with enough notice, and of course if the source is reliable. 

I do also sometimes think it would be good for my gear to also earn a bit of extra money on the side instead of lying around in a drawer when not needed, coz face it.. we don't always have every piece of kit that we own on every job that we do. 

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I have found that renting stuff out is a bad idea. If a friend needs something, I will usually lend it. But as previously noted, nothing requiring taking things apart. 

If I need extra bits, I do ask a few friends if they want to rent to me, but I usually have production rent from LSC in LA. I own everything that would be "normal" to have, so anything extra would require production to pay anyway, so it's often easier to let them handle it. 

Robert

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I do rent out my ENG Kit - which is 442, 416, Senny G3s and a DR60 - to few folks from time to time, provided that I worked with them before and therefore know them personally and the way they treat gear.

However, my main setup, consisting of 633 and Wisycoms, stays with me.

If I need extra stuff - mostly additional ifb receivers or a stereo setup - I get it from the local rental house or let production get it from them - as they like.

 

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