- Hey guys, thanks for tuning in for another video.
This one is coming from a comment from somebody
on one of my videos.
One of my videos on my Sony FX Nine,
where the person was asking,
how did I go about figuring out how to invest in a camera?
What were my thoughts when I was investing in this camera?
And this got me thinking, actually started wait one second.
First off, gotta go to my sponsor for this video.
Side Launch Brewery.
Not really my sponsor, but I really loved their beers.
And they're basically across a field from my house.
You know, like a kilometer away, Side Launch.
This is their mountain lager, and just gonna enjoy this
while we shoot this.
Remember to support local, guys.
Support your local restaurants,
support your local breweries,
support your local businesses,
Especially during this time
with these crazy things going on.
Local, try to stay within your community
and support your local, everything you can.
Okay, back to the video.
So the FX nine, look at this.
This has a back on it right now.
It is, I talked about in a video before,
the back is big, but I never showed it.
It is makes the camera ridiculously big,
like obnoxiously big.
I don't understand why it had to be so much bigger
than the one that's in the FX seven, but this is the back.
This is the only way you're going to be able to do
raw output to an external recorder.
I will be using another third party VMO back
when I'm not doing raw output 'cause the raw
isn't out there yet and I won't be doing it all the time.
So anyways, how did I go about investing in this camera?
And this really got me thinking about
something I wanted to do a video on for a while,
and that is investing in cameras or camera gear in general.
And how do you think about that stuff
and what are the best steps and what are the things
that I've learned over the years,
over 15 years of doing my own freelance work,
20 years working, doing video work.
I've owned a lot of cameras.
These are different cameras I've owned behind me.
There's other cameras that I've owned that have sold,
and some were great investments
and some were not good investments.
And some made me money and some cost me money.
So what are those things you need to think about
when you are looking at investing
in a camera or camera gear?
So I'm going to give you guys a bit of advice.
Some things that were taught to me from another DP
that gave me some great advice years ago,
and things in general, just when you're doing work
and especially when you're starting out.
So one of those things, if you're trying to work as a,
as a DOP, as a camera operator,
and you're going out on jobs.
Now if you live in a city, if you're in a big city core
and there's a lot of rental houses,
things might be a little bit easier for you
to get access to cameras through rentals than myself.
I'm about two hours away from the closest city in Toronto.
And that's where the majority of the rental houses are.
For me to go do rentals and stuff,
it's a lot of work for me to go down and pick up a rental
and bring it back if I'm shooting stuff up here.
If I'm shooting stuff in the city,
it's a little bit different, it may be a little bit easier.
But I, myself, the way I work on the way that my business
works is that I go out as an owner operator.
Okay, so an owner operator is typically somebody
that goes out with their own camera gear.
So I go with my own camera package, my own lighting package,
my own audio package, my own grip package.
And for the most part, I would say 90% of my jobs,
that's what I'm using.
That's what I'm getting paid for.
That's my day rate is going towards,
it's going towards my whole package.
I'm coming to that.
I very seldom go out as just a camera operator
using other cameras.
And there's some times where we need to rent
some different gear, but a lot of the jobs I do,
I don't need that.
And if I going to be doing that more and more,
I would invest in that gear.
So I'll tell you what are my thought patterns
of how you're thinking about getting that gear.
So one of the things straight up,
if you are renting a camera more than twice a month,
you likely could be paying for a lease for that camera
monthly for the same price or less.
Okay, so this happened to me years ago,
when I was working with the C 300 C 300 Mark one,
and that was my main camera.
And there was a bunch of different jobs
we were coming out with.
And we were going out with, we needed a B camera
and we were renting the C 100.
And the C 100, I think at the time then was costing us
150 bucks per day for rental.
Now Canon at a time, and Canon still does this in Canada,
I'm not sure about the U S or in other parts of the world,
but Canon offers 0% financing.
And I had bought my C 300 on credit, was paying it off,
but I didn't do the financing
'cause I didn't know about that.
The C 100, I looked at the financing for it
and it was something like $250 a month.
So in two rental days, I more than made up that cost
for the rental and I had it the rest of the month
to be able to use it.
I could use it on any of my jobs as a B cam.
I could use it as an A cam on some different jobs.
And I would at the end of a three year lease
for 0% financing, I would own the camera.
And this was advised to me by another DPO I was saying,
and it really got me thinking about how I purchase gear
and how I thought about purchasing gear.
So the idea is, one, first looking at it that way.
Are you renting camera gear all the time?
Is it worth it?
If you're renting stuff all the time
and it's being paid for,
it'd be a better investment for you to buy that camera
or to lease that camera and have that money,
so it's an asset.
You're gonna own that camera at the end,
instead of letting the rental house own the camera.
So I really recommend and I am really for
leasing my camera gear.
I lease a ton of different things.
I typically have a bunch of different leases going on
at the same time.
Right now I am leasing this Sony FX nine.
I'm doing a lease off of it.
It's actually leased through Sony's own finance,
and they do 0% financing.
So for this camera right here, the FX nine with the back,
with this lens, with this body,
not some of the other accessories,
but the cost for this camera altogether was 25 K.
Okay, that's with HST, with tax here in Canada.
With my financing that I got through Sony for 0% financing,
I'm paying this off in two years.
And my payments per month are $900.
Okay, this camera rents right now,
I think it's renting for 350 or 450 a day
for the body with some lenses and stuff,
without the back, without the lens.
So you can see very quickly typically before
what's going on right now,
if you're watching this time during the COVID crisis,
I don't have very many shoots going on, very few shoots.
And that's the majority of production world.
But before this stuff,
and what I can see happening after that,
I typically have three to five shoots a week on average,
three shoots a week using my own camera.
So this pays itself off very quickly, that way.
0% financing, two years, I will own the camera.
When I bought my FX seven, I leased that.
I didn't do it through Sony finance.
They didn't have the different financing at that time,
but I did financing on it.
I did it over three years,
and it was well worth the investment.
Now one of the other things to think about,
I don't know if these things are true in the US
or other parts of the world,
'cause I know in the US your tax write offs
are a little bit different than they are in Canada,
but in Canada, when we buy camera equipment,
we have to depreciate that camera equipment.
So vice been 25K this year on this camera outright,
I can't write off that 25K this year.
I have to spread that out over years.
And typically a camera used to be over five years.
I think they've changed it to three years,
but sometimes you are flipping that camera before that time.
So for our two year lease for me that,
every month that lease that payment is a full write off.
Okay, this is me leasing back the company.
At the end I will own the camera.
It's a full RAF, it's very simple.
So financially, even if it's not 0% financing,
for me to buy a big ticket item like this,
it is better for me tax-wise in Canada to finance it
than to pay it outright, even if I had the cash.
This is better for my cashflow of my business
to buy it like that.
And one of the ways I really like to think about it
is when you know what your monthly payments are going to be,
this is one of the key things to think about
when you're working as an owner operator,
or if you have a small production company like myself,
you really need to be thinking about,
is this tool that you're buying, is this camera,
you know, these lights, are these grips stuff
that you're buying, is it worth you getting?
Is it going to enhance the work you're doing?
And are people gonna pay for it,
or is it you gotta pay itself off?
Okay, so there's lots of great things to think about
when you're looking at camera gear.
And we all like myself, love camera gear.
I love tech, and I love things.
For myself, for the business work I do,
a red camera as much as I love the image of a red camera.
It is not the right tool for me.
It might be the right tool for you,
and it might be for other people
and the ton of work they're doing,
but for myself, I know it's not,
I know I can't charge extra for that
and people are willing to pay for it extra.
And it's actually, the workflow is a little harder
and there's no auto focus, there's a lot of different things
and the reasons why I would go with a FX nine
over a red for myself.
Now that could be different to other people.
And you gotta think about,
what is the purpose that you're using the camera for,
what are your tools you're using it for.
The right camera for me
might not be the right camera for you.
And same with other camera and lighting and grip equipment.
But what do you really need to think about,
what I'm trying to get to here is that monthly payment.
If you don't think that is gonna pay itself off,
it's not worth you to do yourself to have that.
You're investing with something and you think,
well, maybe if I buy this camera,
maybe if I buy a red people will think I am worth more
and I'll get more work.
That's a bad way to think about it.
You need to think about,
is it something that's going to actually help you
and elevate you?
And are you being asked for that camera?
Are you being asked for that stuff?
That's one way to look at stuff as well
when you're working as a owner operator, as a DOP.
If somebody keeps saying to you all the time,
Brian, I want you to be shooting now on an Alexa mini.
We want all this stuff shown on Alexa mini.
I said, okay, well maybe I go out and I rent Alexa mini
first couple of jobs.
But then if I'm getting a bunch of jobs, you know,
week after week, we need Brian.
We want you to shoot Alexa mini, all these things.
And I am say, okay, well, this is going to cost
an extra thousand dollars a day to pay
for that Alexa mini rental.
At a certain point, if things keep going that way,
you get to look at things and think, you know what?
I'd be better off investing in my own Alexa mini
and buying that myself, and having that as a tool
that I have in my arsenal and be able to use that.
That's one way to think about things
and seeing what you need and what you have,
and what can make you money.
And for myself, why I love owning a camera
over renting a camera, and I think what I would even do
if I lived right by rental houses,
why would own a camera is like,
when I own a camera and I'm paying it off jobs
that are paying me,
and that's how I'm covering the cost of the camera.
The great thing is now I have a camera all the time
or cameras, like I'm shooting this with.
I have a bunch of different cameras that have all the time.
So if I want to go out and do a spec piece for myself
and shoot that, I can do it.
I don't need to go out and rent gear for that.
If somebody wants to come to me and says,
Brian, listen, we have this job.
We don't have the budget for stuff,
but it's a really cool job.
Do you want to do it?
Do you wanna help us out with that?
I can go do that because it's not costing me extra.
I'm not going up to rent all this gear.
I'm not going out to rent all this lighting gear,
all this other grip gear.
I have that, I've invested in it,
and it's already been paid off by other work.
So that's another great way to think about
how you're buying camera gear,
how are you buying lighting gear and everything.
So just to wrap up on investing in camera equipment,
camera gear, cameras themselves,
what I think the kind of the key things to think about is,
how much are you renting cameras to use them?
Should you be buying a camera instead of renting it?
You should be looking at leasing a camera.
See what that monthly would cost you to lease a camera
or leasing other camera equipment.
I've leased lights,
I've leased servers.
I've leased a bunch of different things.
And I thought about that stuff in that way,
is my cash flow enough?
Is this going to help me enough to actually
pay that monthly?
And if it doesn't, I shouldn't be investing in it.
And third, is this actually going to help you
with your business?
Is this going to bring in more business for you?
Is this going to make you money and not just cost you money?
Is it not just some cool piece of kit to have with you
that you want to have, but actually, you know,
financially wise, it doesn't make any sense.
These days, right now, this is more important than ever
to think about with a lot of jobs drying up
or a lot of jobs going away because we're not allowed
to go out and shoot, or we are able to go out
and do shoots in some cases,
but much different than we have before.
And we don't know how long this is going to take.
I believe when things come back,
some production is going to be booming,
but there's going to be different ways around it.
And I think the more you have equipment yourself,
the more you can be flexible and go and do things.
The more you can do stuff at different rates
because you own equipment,
the more valuable you are going to be
in this new coming environment.
So thanks so much guys for watching this video.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Let me know how you guys look about investing
in your camera gear and your camera equipment.
Let me know what you think about the idea of leasing.
Let me know in the States, I think,
can you write off everything in one year or not?
I thought that was the true, but maybe I'm completely wrong.
Thanks so much, guys.
We'll see you on the next video.