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Equipment Costs to Start in the Business.


Ken Goodwin

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If you are looking at a purchase of a piece of used equipment that still is a large investment for you, it is worth a free phone call to the manufacturer's service department to see if the gear is still supported. Some RF products have been legislated away and can no longer be legally supported, some products will use parts that aren't available anymore and some manufacturers just stop support because it's too much hassle. A call or email is free. If you can't get good info, that tells you something also.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

 

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So it seems the general consensus is:

 

1) - That a beginner should not take out a loan for a full kit, even when we aren’t in a pandemic.

2) - That a beginner should rent full professional recording kits and slowly purchase pieces of your main equipment kit to reduce the rental cost over time (assuming that you can rent pieces in your area).

3) - A budget of $10K is minimum cost but it either is going to get you used gear and/or mid level to cheap gear, but you still will need to rent to complete a full kit. 

4) - That a minimum kit consists of:

—6x channel mixer

—headphones

—2-4x wireless transmitters depending on if you are ENG or

—2x shotgun mics (maybe another 2 indoor supercardioid mics) with wind protection.

—2x boom poles, (9ft & 15ft are the most popular)

—2-3x timecode boxes

—1x timecode slate,

—4x IFB, (i’m guessing, a number wasn’t mentioned)

—1x camera-hop,

—wireless accessories (tape, mounts, straps)

—media cards and backups

—all the adapters & cables

—All the batteries and chargers.

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On 7/23/2020 at 7:57 AM, LarryF said:

If you are looking at a purchase of a piece of used equipment that still is a large investment for you, it is worth a free phone call to the manufacturer's service department to see if the gear is still supported. Some RF products have been legislated away and can no longer be legally supported, some products will use parts that aren't available anymore and some manufacturers just stop support because it's too much hassle. A call or email is free. If you can't get good info, that tells you something also.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

 

Listen carefully to this man, esp re: wireless of any type.

 

I will only add that if you don't have much money it is important to just get gear you will really USE, that the jobs you are doing demand and that you can realistically charge rental for.  In our field there is a definite "if you build it, they will come" attitude about getting equipment you wish you needed, but maybe really don't yet?  There is also the factor of how difficult it is to rent what pieces of gear, so you'd want to first get a hold of pieces that are hard to rent locally.  What will you use on every job of the work you are doing NOW?

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53 minutes ago, Philip Perkins said:

Listen carefully to this man, esp re: wireless of any type.

I sent back a Rx three times. Got the Rx back, exactly same problem. On the fourth attempt they pulled the " this item is no longer supported" " we don't even have parts in stock anymore". The kicker is that I had to pay out of pocket for the first return. I received a refund after the third return and a long drawn out back and forth with dept head. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Ken Goodwin said:

—1x timecode slate,

 

This should be the lowest of low priorities out of everything you mentioned. 

I myself only just purchased a TC slate a couple of weeks ago, and even then I didn't need to. 
You can easily go years and years without needing to buy one. 
Especially if by chance any production does demand one, they absolutely 100% should be paying you the rental fee for one, so they're easy to rent (which in the past is what I've done, the rare time I needed one). 

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On 7/25/2020 at 3:52 PM, IronFilm said:

I myself only just purchased a TC slate a couple of weeks ago, and even then I didn't need to. 

 

 

I also just got one (used form here on the site actually, it was a great deal). Does everyone charge extra for a smart slate though? Or do you include it in a basic kit rental?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Zoom F8 is not a bad piece of kit to start with. It is dead cheap, and has been very reliable so far (I think..).

 

I believe it is adequate for most lower paid jobs, and more..

 

Even if you buy a better one later on, it can stay as a backup or for other uses you do not want/need your brand new shiny Sound Devices/Zaxcom/Sonosax or whatever.

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