Film crew hire/Kit and equipment hire
Film equipment hire in the UK. Wet hire, dry hire, and the kit houses city by city.
Most UK shoots mix the two: cameras dry from a rental house, operated by the crew we book, and lighting, grip and sound wet, arriving with the people who own them. Here’s what each means, who carries the risk, what a house asks of a new client, and where the kit houses are, from Greenford to Glasgow.
Dry hire
The kit, operated by your crew
Wet hire
The kit and its operator
A hire week · Wex
7 days for the price of 4
Kit we book
+ 10% + 2%
On this page
01 Wet hire or dry hire
Two ways to hire kit: on its own, or with its operator
Dry hire is the kit alone: you collect it, your crew runs it, you bring it back. Wet hire is kit and the person who runs it, whether that person owns it or comes from the hire company.
Dry hire
The kit, with nobody to run it
Who operates it
Your crew, or crew we book for you
Who directs them
You, through your crew
Damage and loss
Yours from the moment the kit leaves the house: your hired-in cover, or the house’s damage waiver
Getting it there
Collected the afternoon before and back the morning after, or delivered for a fee
How it’s priced
A day rate per item, plus VAT and any waiver. A week is often charged as three or four days
Best for
A specific camera, cine lenses or anamorphics, film, a big lighting package
Wet hire
The kit, with the person who runs it
Who operates it
Its owner, or a technician sent by the hire company
Who directs them
Still you. ARRI Rental UK’s terms put its staff under the customer’s direction
Damage and loss
The crew’s own kit is usually insured by its owner. A house’s kit stays at your risk on the house’s terms, crewed or not
Getting it there
It arrives with the operator at call time, usually in their van
How it’s priced
A kit fee on its own line, apart from the operator’s day rate
Best for
Lighting and grip on a gaffer’s or grip’s van, sound, drones, cranes, tracking vehicles and generators
Who carries what when the house sends a technician
Staff from the house work for you
ARRI Rental UK’s conditions of business (July 2020) deem its staff on a job “the servants or agents of the Customer” (clause 13.1), working off site “under the direction and supervision of the Customer” (8.4).
So does the liability
The customer answers for third-party claims arising from what those staff do (13.3), their time is charged on ARRI’s labour rates (13.4), and a replacement driver is the customer’s cost (13.2(b)).
The kit is still at your risk
The customer carries the risk from the start of the hire and makes good any damage (6.2 and 6.4), with the kit insured at its full replacement value (7.2).
What it means
A technician who comes with the kit doesn’t move the risk to the rental house. Under terms like ARRI’s you direct them and you answer for what they do, so they go on your call sheet and risk assessment like everyone else, and your broker should know they’re coming.
02 Department by department
What comes wet, and what comes dry
On UK shoots the split runs by department. Cameras usually come dry and the camera crew run them; kit that needs a specialist to rig it, power it or drive it tends to come with one.
Usually dry
Camera
Cinema cameras and lenses are usually dry-hired and prepped at the house by the camera team who’ll run them. For Cohere’s AI for Empowerment, our own production, two of the camera crew prepped an Arricam package at Panavision in Greenford in one working day, on 12 June 2026, and it was shot on the Lizard in Cornwall on the 16th. Some houses sell it wet: Emmyland in Brockley crews its camera kit with its own focus puller, loader and trainee, and VMI in Acton puts crewed location packages together from its network of freelancers.
Usually wet
Lighting
An interview or office day runs on the gaffer’s own van: LEDs, stands, flags, cable and distro, arriving with the gaffer. A big rig comes from a lighting house such as Panalux, which runs its own transport and generator fleet, and a generator comes with its operator, who in ScreenSkills’ checklist reports to the gaffer, sets up and runs the generator and certifies the power cabling to BS7909.
Wet for anything big
Grip
Track, dollies and sliders come with the grip who lays them. Cranes and remote heads come with a technician who rigs them and provides the safety certificates, in ScreenSkills’ checklist for the role. ARRI Rental’s grip department runs from Super TechnoCranes to mini jibs.
Always wet
Tracking vehicles
Bickers’ drivers and operators are long-standing members of its own team, most of them with Class 1 HGV licences, and its tracking page mentions no self-drive option.
Either
Drones
Coptrz hires drones both ways. With an operator, “a licensed pilot turns up with the aircraft, spare batteries, insurance and the permissions.” Dry, the person flying is responsible for CAA compliance. The CAA’s rules are in filming locations and permits in the UK, and the pilots we book are on the drone operator page.
Usually wet
Sound
Most of the sound recordists we book bring their own recorder, radio mics and timecode, on a kit line of their own. When the job needs more, the specialists are Richmond Film Services at Shepperton and Everything Audio at Elstree, both in our London kit guide.
03 Kit from the crew
The crew’s own kit, on its own line
A day rate on a UK rate card is labour only. Kit the crew bring is charged separately, and the trade bodies say to keep it that way.
Bectu’s camera branch
Its rate card (1 January 2025) says “All displayed rates are LABOUR ONLY”, and advises crew to keep labour apart from equipment hire and box money, the fee for their tool kit: when a price has to come down, “maintain the labour rate on the invoice and discount the equipment.”
The GTC
The television camera guild says its rates “refer to labour only. They do not include any element of kit hire.”
The APA terms
The 2026 commercials terms set no kit fees. They pay crew for collecting equipment as working time, base to base, but not for kit hired from the crew member themselves (clause 3.1).
On our quote
The crew’s own kit is a kit fee on its own line, apart from the day rate, and the day rate is paid in full. It carries the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance as everything else we book. In London, our two-camera interview kit starts at £765 a day and a gaffer’s van at £600: the set-ups are in the London kit guide.
04 Paperwork
Your first hire: what a rental house asks for
Every house checks a new customer before anything leaves the building, so open the account before the job, not the afternoon you collect.
| House | What it asks for | Insurance | Paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| VMI, Acton | 12 months’ trading and two trade references, which take one to two days to check. No private hirers since June 2021 | Hired-in cover is compulsory; without it, its damage waiver covers up to £5,000 of kit at 18% of the hire value | First hire in full, up front; minimum charge £50 + VAT |
| Films at 59, Bristol and Cardiff | A five-step application: two independent referees who’ve known you for two years or more, ID, proof of your invoicing address and a purchase order | An insurance certificate | Within 14 days of invoice |
| CineGearPro, London | Photo ID and proof of address; a first-timer collects in person before delivery is offered | Not stated in its FAQs | Not stated in its FAQs |
| Wex Rental | A rental account; it may check ID before releasing some orders | Not stated on its account page | 30-day terms and no up-front deposit, on an account |
| ARRI Rental UK, Uxbridge | Terms of business (July 2020), not a first-hire checklist | The kit at full replacement value, public liability of at least £1m, the policy shown on demand and any incident reported within 24 hours | Within 30 days of invoice |
| Panavision, Greenford | A credit application: what it asked of us for a 35mm package in June 2026 | An insurance certificate for the hired kit | In full before collection |
What moves the price
The hire week
There’s no standard week. VMI has charged a week as three days since February 2021; Wex charges seven days for the price of four and a Friday-to-Monday weekend as one day; CineGearPro charges three to seven days at its three-day rate. A forum thread on Shooting People sums it up: “A 3 or 3.5 or 4 day week is a pretty common way to cost a week’s hire.” Ask before you book.
The hire day
Collect the afternoon before, return the morning after: from 4pm and by 10am at Wex, 3pm to 5pm and 9am to 11am at CineGearPro. At ARRI the hire starts when the kit leaves the building.
Prep and checkout
VMI has three camera test rooms and a lens projection room, free to clients. ARRI provides space to inspect and set up kit, and wants any defect reported within 48 hours of delivery.
Delivery
VMI charges £50 to £130 by distance band in the day, and £1.60 a mile on the return mileage outside London, with a £55 minimum. Under ARRI’s terms the customer pays the carriage.
05 Who to call
Kit houses, city by city
Most of the UK’s cinema rental sits west of London, between Park Royal and Uxbridge, with branches and independents in Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow. Checked on each house’s own site or in the trade press, October 2026. A name here is where to start, not a recommendation.
London and the M25
Kit houses in and around London include Panavision, for cameras and optics on Bristol Road in Greenford, with Panavision Grip & Remote Systems across the road since April 2025; Panalux, for lighting, transport and generators, at Pasadena Close in Hayes; ARRI Rental UK, for camera and grip, on Oxford Road in Uxbridge; VMI, on Victoria Road in Acton; Direct Digital London, for camera and lighting, in Park Royal; Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV, formed in 2022 when Movietech, PKE Lighting and Alpha Grip came together; and Wex Rental, with a full counter in Whitechapel. Our London kit guide has day rates and the east London houses.
Manchester
Kit houses in Manchester include the rental tenants of Space Studios: Panalux, Panavision, ProVision, Location One, Direct Digital, ELP Broadcast Lighting (which hires with crew or dry) and Media Dog Hire. Wex Rental has a rental centre on the Downing Street Industrial Estate (M12 6HH), and No Drama rents Alexa 35, Mini LF and Venice 2 bodies with a deep range of spherical and anamorphic lenses. More in our Manchester kit guide.
Birmingham and the Midlands
Kit houses in Birmingham include Media Dog, Birmingham-based and founded in 2005, and Wex Rental, with click and collect at 100 Hagley Road (B16 8LT) and in Nottingham. Film cameras, the biggest anamorphic sets, remote heads and generators come up from London: our Birmingham kit guide has the detail.
Bristol and the South West
Kit houses in Bristol include Films at 59, in Clifton and at The Bottle Yard Studios (BS14 0BH), with cameras, lenses, lighting, grip, sound, drones and Shotover and GSS aerial systems; and Grip Services at The Bottle Yard, for grip kit and camera tracking vehicles. Wex has click and collect on Montpelier Central (BS6 5EE). In Somerset, Maniac Films in Dulverton wet-hires its own kit with its crew. For the Lizard in June 2026, our own 35mm package came down from Greenford.
Cardiff and Wales
Kit houses in Cardiff include Films at 59, at Cardiff Bay Business Centre (CF24 5BS), and a Panalux branch.
Glasgow and Edinburgh
Kit houses in Glasgow include No Drama, open there since February 2020, and a Panalux branch. In Edinburgh, Lights Camera Scotland on Parkgrove Crescent (EH4 7RW) rents camera, lighting and grip with 24-hour collection. Wex has click and collect on Bath Street in Glasgow and Haddington Place in Edinburgh.
Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast
No Drama has branches in Liverpool and Newcastle as well as Manchester and Glasgow, and Panalux lists a branch in Belfast. In Leeds we found no major cinema rental house we could verify: Wex has click and collect at Moor Allerton (LS17 5NY), and Procam Take 2’s Leeds hub closed with the company.
Out of date
Older UK kit lists still send people to houses that have closed or changed hands. Shift 4 entered administration on 25 April 2024. Procam Take 2 called in administrators in July 2023 and said it would cease trading. Pixipixel, which bought Pro Motion Hire in 2023, closed in November 2024. Movietech is part of Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV, and Cinewest at The Bottle Yard merged into Origin Film & Television in 2023. KitPlus is a broadcast news and reviews site that runs trade shows, not a rental house.
06 Insurance and imports
Hired kit: insurance and imports
A rental house wants hired-in cover for the full value of its kit, or its own damage waiver, and the kit is at your risk from the moment it leaves the building. On a crew hire, the 2% on our quote insures the kit we hire in for you, and a large rental may need extra cover as its own line: insurance for a UK shoot has who asks for what.
Bringing kit from abroad
An ATA Carnet can cover “professional equipment necessary for the… profession of a person visiting the UK”, on GOV.UK’s conditions. Importing film equipment into the UK covers the carnet, the border and freight. Or send the list and we’ll price the same kit from a UK house, so nothing has to fly.
07 Our part
How we book kit with the crew
Kit is its own line on every quote we send, whoever owns it, priced before anything is booked.
Kit we hire in
We open the account, sort the paperwork and pay the house. It goes on the quote at the house’s price, with the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance as the crew.
The crew’s own kit
A kit fee on its own line, apart from the day rate, with the same 10% and 2%.
Both ways
Send the kit list and we’ll price it dry from a house and wet with the crew’s own, side by side, before anything is booked.
As a production
If we’re the producer of record, kit is one line in a production budget, with our 15% production fee and 5% insurance and contingency on the whole: UK production service company.
Crew hire · Portsmouth, London and Oxford · November and December 2023
Swanson Studios
An Oregon studio flew in with its own two REDs, lenses and drives as carry-on. We supplied the rest: a gaffer with lighting, grip and stills kit from two London hire houses, seven Aputure LS 600Ds among it, and a sound recordist with timecode, for three cities on three days.
Crew hire · Manchester, London and Bolton · October and November 2024
Davies Group
Two-person camera crews in each city, with kit matched to the post house’s spec: in London, a DOP and second camera on two Blackmagic 6Ks, chosen to match Manchester and Bolton for the edit.
Crew hire · Woolwich, London · January 2025
Valentine Global
The agency brought its own director, DOP and camera kit. We crewed the lighting, the focus and the sound around it, and the van did the kit collection and drop-off.
Battersea, London · March 2026
For AlTi Tiedemann Global’s fireside chat at Many Rooms in Battersea in March 2026, the cameras came dry from a London kit house, the lighting came on the gaffer’s van, and the sound recordist brought their own kit.
Send us your kit list.
Paste it into the form with your dates and the location. We’ll price it both ways: dry hire from a rental house, and with the crew’s own kit. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
08 Questions
Film equipment hire in the UK: questions
What’s the difference between wet hire and dry hire?
Dry hire is the kit on its own: you collect it from the house, your crew runs it and you bring it back. Wet hire is the kit with the person who runs it, usually its owner, sometimes a technician from the hire company. Most UK shoots use both: cameras dry from a rental house, lighting on the gaffer’s van, and the sound recordist’s own kit.
Is wet hire cheaper than dry hire?
It can be. Maniac Films in Somerset says “sometimes it’s cheaper to hire us with equipment.” The crew’s own kit arrives prepped and insured by its owner, with no collection run and no damage waiver on it. Dry hire wins when the job needs a specific camera, cine lenses or a big lighting package. Send the list and we’ll price both.
If a rental house sends a technician, who is responsible for them?
Usually you. ARRI Rental UK’s conditions of business (July 2020) deem its staff on a job the customer’s servants or agents, working under the customer’s direction, and make the customer liable for third-party claims arising from what they do. Put the technician on your call sheet and risk assessment.
What does a rental house ask for on a first hire?
It varies. VMI wants 12 months’ trading, two trade references and payment in full up front, and has taken no private hirers since June 2021. Films at 59 asks for two referees, ID, proof of address, a purchase order and an insurance certificate. Allow a day or two for references (checked October 2026).
Do I need insurance to hire film equipment in the UK?
A house wants hired-in cover for its kit’s full value, or charges its own damage waiver: VMI’s covers up to £5,000 of kit at 18% of the hire value. Book the kit through us on a crew hire and the 2% on the quote insures the kit we hire in for you; a large rental may need extra cover, as its own line. More in insurance for a UK shoot.
Where are the kit houses outside London?
Kit houses in Manchester include the Space Studios tenants (Panalux, Panavision, ProVision, Location One, Direct Digital, ELP and Media Dog), Wex and No Drama; in Bristol, Films at 59 and Grip Services at The Bottle Yard; in Cardiff, Films at 59 and Panalux; in Glasgow, No Drama and Panalux; in Edinburgh, Lights Camera Scotland; in Birmingham, Media Dog and a Wex collection point.
Can the crew bring their own kit?
Yes, and most sound recordists and gaffers do. It’s a kit fee on its own line of the quote, apart from the day rate, as Bectu’s camera branch advises: labour and equipment kept separate. It carries our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance, like everything we book.
Can you hire the kit for us with the crew?
Yes. Send the kit list with the dates and the location. We open the account, sort the paperwork, pay the house and put it on the quote at the house’s price, with the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance as the crew. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours.
Around the crew
More for UK shoots
01
Crew rates
Day rates for every role, the APA/Bectu card, overtime and turnaround, and what goes on the quote.
02
Insurance
Employers’ and public liability, kit cover, who asks for what, and how a shoot ends up uninsured.
04
Locations and permits
Film offices and councils, landowners, railways, drones and roads, nation by nation.
05
Travel, hotels and vans
Travel days and mileage, vans and licences, clean air zones, trains and hotels.
