Film crew hire/Bristol/Kit rental
Film equipment hire in Bristol. Kit houses, day rates, and the crew’s own kit.
Bristol’s cinema kit hire is centred on The Bottle Yard Studios in Whitchurch, where Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services all have bases, with Films at 59 again at Barley House in Clifton. In the centre, Floating Harbour Studios hires from a Dutch barge on Welsh Back and puts its day rates online. VMI closed its Bristol branch in September 2025. Here’s who’s where, what they publish, what a first hire asks of you, and when we book the kit with the crew instead.
Sony FX6 · per day, Welsh Back
£125
A week at Floating Harbour
Charged as 4 days
Lighting van with a gaffer · per day
£825
Clean Air Zone · older car or van
£9 a day
On this page
01 Wet hire or dry hire
Two ways to get kit: from a kit house, or with the crew
Dry hire means you rent the kit and run it yourself. Wet hire means it comes with the person who operates it. Most shoots we crew use a mix of the two.
Dry hire
From a kit house
Who owns it
The kit house: Films at 59 at The Bottle Yard and in Clifton, VI Rental at The Bottle Yard, Floating Harbour Studios on Welsh Back, Wex Rental (collected in Montpelier)
How it’s priced
A day rate per item, plus VAT. Floating Harbour charges a week as four days. Films at 59 and Floating Harbour want your own insurance for the kit’s full value
Getting it there
Collected the afternoon before (from 4pm on Welsh Back) and back the morning after the shoot
Who knows it best
Whoever operates it, if they’ve used that model before
Best for
A specific camera, cine primes or anamorphics, a Chapman dolly, a tracking vehicle
Wet hire
With the crew’s kit
Who owns it
The DOP, camera operator, sound recordist or gaffer you’re booking
How it’s priced
A kit fee on its own line of the quote, apart from the day rate. Our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance go on it, as on everything we book
Getting it there
It arrives with the operator at call time, prepped and charged, whether they live in Bristol or travel in from Cardiff, the South West or London
Who knows it best
The person who owns it, maintains it and uses it every week
Best for
Interview and event days in offices in the centre, venues on the Harbourside or a university building in Clifton: FX6s, radio mics, LED panels, a gaffer’s van
How we book it
For GMR Marketing’s 34 days at Team USA House in Paris, our two crewed Sony FX6s and their backups travelled with the crew, by van. For Swanson Studios, the cameras were the client’s own two REDs and everything else came with the crew we booked. On an interview day, wet hire is often the better deal: the kit is already paid for, prepped and insured by the person who owns it, and nobody drives out to Whitchurch the afternoon before to collect it. When a sound recordist or gaffer travels in from Cardiff or London for a Bristol shoot, their kit travels with them, with the mileage on the quote. Dry hire wins when the job calls for something specific, and then the crew run what we hire. Either way, kit sits on its own line of the quote.
02 Day rates
Camera and kit hire prices in Bristol
Published dry-hire rates from the Bristol houses that put prices online, per day, before VAT. Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services quote on request. Checked October 2026.
| Item | Per day | Listed by |
|---|---|---|
| Sony A7S III | £75 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Sony FX3 | £95 | Floating Harbour Studios, from a partner house |
| Sony FX6 | £125, or £500 a week | Floating Harbour Studios, with three batteries, two cards, a monitor and the top handle |
| Sony FX9 | £145, or £580 a week | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Blackmagic PYXIS 6K | £125 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF | £395 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| NiSi Athena cine primes, five lenses (PL) | £140 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Aputure 600x | £80 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Astera AX1 pixel tube | £25 | Re-Production |
| IVL Photon | from £350 | Re-Production |
| Sennheiser G3 radio mic kit | £30 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Sound Devices 644 mixer | £55 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Hillrigs Kliktrak, 6.4 m of track | £100 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Polecam, 12-inch wide head, with its operator | £650 | Floating Harbour Studios |
| Lighting van: LEDs, tungsten, grip, a 1500Wh power station and a gear tech or gaffer | £825 | Bristol Production Van, delivered within 20 miles of the centre |
What moves the number
The week
Floating Harbour charges a week as four days: an FX6 is £125 a day or £500 a week, and three weeks or more are priced on request. Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services quote on request, so ask for the week when you ask for the day.
The weekend
Wex’s Bristol store hands over booked rental kit Monday to Saturday and is closed on Sundays, and Wex offers weekend rates. For a Saturday shoot, collect on the Friday afternoon and agree the return when you book.
The insurance
Films at 59’s terms want all-risks cover for the kit’s full replacement value, plus its hire charges for up to 13 weeks if something is lost or damaged, third-party liability, and Films at 59 named on the policy. Floating Harbour wants production insurance, or on smaller hires may take a cash deposit instead; either way, the hirer is liable for the kit’s full value.
The hire day
Floating Harbour has kit ready from 4pm the day before and wants it back the morning after the last day, with any fault reported within two hours of collection. At Films at 59 the hire starts the day the kit leaves the building.
Delivery
Bristol Production Van’s day rate includes delivery and collection within 20 miles of the city centre, between 7am and 10pm, on the first and last day; further out, delivery is extra.
03 Who to call
Bristol’s kit houses, from Whitchurch to Welsh Back
The biggest lists are on the city’s southern edge at The Bottle Yard, the council’s studio, with Films at 59 again in Clifton, and smaller houses in the centre, in Montpelier and in BS16. Every house below was checked on its own site in October 2026.
At The Bottle Yard Studios
The Bottle Yard Studios, BS14 0BH · and Barley House, Clifton, BS8 2BN
Films at 59 Rental
Cameras from the ARRI Alexa 35, Mini LF and Amira, Sony Venice 2 and Burano, RED V-Raptor and Phantom high-speed bodies down to FX6s and GoPros; Cooke, Zeiss Supreme, ARRI Signature Prime, Leitz and anamorphic lens sets; a Chapman Super-PeeWee III+, gimbals, drones, monitors and wireless video, lighting, sound and power; and Shotover and GSS aerial systems. At The Bottle Yard it also handles ingest and media management.
The Bottle Yard Studios · Whitchurch Lane, BS14 0BH
VI Rental
Its Bristol base is in Workshops 3 and 4 at The Bottle Yard: drama kits, TV shooting packages, fixed-rig systems, portable galleries and live-streaming packages, with grip and lighting from Nanlux and Aputure, up to the 5,000W Nanlux Evoke. It calls the Sony FX6 one of its most popular cameras, hires a Phantom Flex, and its technical team trains the crew during prep.
Workshop 2, The Bottle Yard Studios · BS14 0BH
Grip Services
Grip kit and grips for TV and film, and camera tracking vehicles: an articulated low loader that carries anything up to an ambulance, a 4×4 Mule for off-road tracking, a motorcycle low loader and a Yamaha quad. By its own account it has supplied the BBC’s Casualty for several years.
Around the city
Welsh Back · BS1 4SP
Floating Harbour Studios
A production company with a kit hire house on board MB Tempora, a 1905 Dutch barge: Sony FX and Alpha bodies, Blackmagic up to the URSA Cine 12K LF, E-mount and PL glass, Aputure and Falcon Eyes LEDs, radio mics and Sound Devices mixers, Kliktrak track, a Polecam, drones and prompting, all with day and week rates online. Items marked third party come from its partner houses.
Montpelier Central, Station Road · BS6 5EE
Wex Rental
Wex Photo Video’s Bristol store: book with Wex’s rental team, then collect from the store or have it delivered, with weekend and weekly rates on the rental side.
Simmonds Buildings · BS16 1RY
Re-Production
An events and production company with a dry-hire list of film lighting, including battery-powered and waterproof fixtures: Astera AX1 pixel tubes at £25 a day and the IVL Photon from £350.
Delivered across Bristol
Bristol Production Van
A long-wheelbase, high-roof van with a lighting package in the back (Knowled, Aputure and Nanlite LEDs, an ARRI 2K and a Source Four, frames, flags, stands and a 1500Wh power station) and a gear technician or a gaffer or spark with it. £825 a day before VAT.
Out of date
Older Bristol kit lists, our own included, still send people to VMI. VMI closed its Bristol branch in September 2025 and now supplies from London. This guide replaces our old one.
04 By department
What’s in stock in Bristol, by department
What the Bristol houses list today, what comes down from London, and what we’d usually reach for on a brand or corporate shoot.
Cameras
ARRI Alexa 35, Mini LF, Mini and Amira, Sony Venice 2, Venice and Burano, RED V-Raptor, Monstro and Komodo-X, and Phantom Flex4K and Veo4K at Films at 59; a Phantom Flex and FX6s at VI Rental; Blackmagic up to the URSA Cine 12K LF at Floating Harbour. Neither Films at 59’s list nor Floating Harbour’s has a film camera, so 35mm comes from London.
Lenses
Cooke S4/i, Mini S4/i, Panchro/i Classic and Anamorphic/i sets, Zeiss Supreme, Supreme Radiance and uncoated Super Speeds, ARRI Signature and Master Primes, Leitz Hugo, Atlas, Kowa and Angénieux anamorphics, and Fujinon Premista zooms, all on Films at 59’s list. Floating Harbour hires a NiSi Athena five-lens PL set at £140 a day.
Lighting
Nanlux, up to the 5,000W Evoke, and Aputure at VI Rental; Aputure, Amaran and Falcon Eyes LEDs at Floating Harbour; Astera tubes and IVL Photons at Re-Production; a full LED and tungsten van, with a gaffer or gear tech, from Bristol Production Van.
Grip
A Chapman Super-PeeWee III+, a Dana Dolly, Matthews and Ronford Baker dollies, sliders and Easyrigs at Films at 59; Kliktrak track and a Polecam at Floating Harbour; low loaders, a Mule and a quad at Grip Services. Figure Nine, another Bottle Yard tenant, rigs cable dolly systems and filming platforms.
Sound
Sennheiser MKH 416s and G4 radio mics and a Sound Devices 633 at Films at 59; Sennheiser G3 kits, Sanken CS-3E shotguns, a Sound Devices 644 and MixPre-6 recorders at Floating Harbour.
Playback and data
SmallHD, TVLogic, Flanders Scientific and Sony monitors and Teradek and Vaxis wireless video at Films at 59, which also handles ingest and media management at The Bottle Yard. Floating Harbour hires recorders, monitors, live-streaming kit and prompting.
05 Kit lists
Kit for the set-ups we run most
Our crew set-ups are on the Bristol crew page. Here’s the kit that usually goes with them. It’s its own line on every quote, the crew’s own or hired in, with our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance on it.
Two-camera interview
Two Sony FX6s, cine primes or fast zooms, two or three LEDs, radio mics, a shotgun and tripods: the kit behind our low-footprint and premium interview set-ups. GMR Marketing’s athlete films at Team USA House in Paris ran on the same core: two crewed FX6s, an FX3 and a Blackmagic Pocket 6K as backups, and a lav and a boom on timecode. The GMR Marketing case study.
The gaffer’s van
LEDs, stands, flags, cable and distro, in a van that comes to set with the gaffer. For Swanson Studios’ three days in Portsmouth, London and Oxford, the gaffer brought lighting, grip and stills kit from two London hire houses, with a crew van and a kit van. When a gaffer travels in for a Bristol shoot, the van comes too, and we check it against the Clean Air Zone before it’s booked. The Swanson Studios case study.
Grip · swing
Grip package or tracking vehicle
Dolly and track, sliders, stands, flags and frames for moving shots in an office or a hall, or a tracking vehicle for a car on the road. Films at 59 lists a Chapman Super-PeeWee III+ and a Dana Dolly; Grip Services at The Bottle Yard runs low loaders and a 4×4 Mule, insured for the public highway once the police have given permission.
A 35mm package
Film is prepped at a London house by the camera crew who’ll run it. We shot Cohere’s AI for Empowerment on 35mm on an Arricam LT in four countries in 2026, the Lizard in Cornwall among them, with the behind-the-scenes on Sony FX6s and an FX3. On that clifftop no generators were allowed, so the unit ran on portable power stations. What shooting on 35mm taught us.
06 Paperwork
Your first hire: what a Bristol house asks for
Kit houses check new customers before anything leaves the building. Here’s what the Bristol houses publish.
- Films at 59: a five-step account application before the job, with two independent referees who’ve known your business for at least two years, a purchase order on letterhead, proof of your invoicing address, photo ID for whoever collects, an insurance certificate for the hired kit and signed terms. Without an approved credit account, the hire is paid before the kit goes out.
- Floating Harbour Studios: a passport or driving licence and proof of address before collection, more than one of each if it doesn’t know you, and production insurance for the kit, or a cash deposit on smaller hires. Its invoices are due on receipt.
- Wex Rental: a rental account brings 30-day terms and no up-front deposit; Wex may check your identity before releasing some orders.
- VI Rental: a credit account application on its site, before the first hire.
Book kit through us and the house deals with us: we open the account, sort the paperwork and pay the hire. On a crew hire, the 2% insurance on the quote covers the kit we hire in for you, along with employers’ liability for the crew we book. A large rental may need extra cover, as its own line on the quote. National detail is in our guide to film equipment hire in the UK.
07 Delivery
Getting kit to your location
Five ways kit reaches a Bristol set.
01
Collected
A crew member collects the afternoon before, inside the house’s hire times: from 4pm on Welsh Back, an easy walk from Temple Meads. The Bottle Yard puts itself 20 minutes from the city centre and from Temple Meads by road, so a Whitchurch collection is a van run (checked October 2026).
02
Driven in
Bristol’s Clean Air Zone is Class D, so it charges cars as well as vans: £9 a day for a car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol, £100 for an HGV or coach, around the clock. Bath’s zone is Class C and doesn’t charge private cars (checked October 2026). Bristol’s charge runs midnight to midnight, so a kit run either side of midnight pays twice. Pay up to six days before or six days after; miss it and the penalty is £120 plus the charge, or £60 plus the charge within 14 days. We check every van against the zone before it’s booked. More in our Bristol logistics guide.
03
Delivered
Bristol Production Van delivers and collects within 20 miles of the centre, 7am to 10pm, on the first and last day. Films at 59 runs its own delivery and collection team, Floating Harbour can courier some items given notice, and Wex delivers rental orders. At the location, a parking suspension needs three working days’ notice: one day in a pay and display bay is £22 + VAT per vehicle (checked October 2026).
04
On the street
Kit on the highway goes through Bristol Film Office. Its code of practice wants cables flown 2.6 metres over footways and 5.2 metres over carriageways, or matted, generators baffled or built into vehicles, engines off on arrival and hi-vis on the highway. Tracking a car on a public road needs police permission. Checked October 2026. Locations and permits in Bristol.
05
From London or abroad
Film cameras and the biggest rigs come from London’s houses, by van: our UK equipment hire guide lists them city by city. Kit flying in comes on an ATA Carnet: here’s how bringing film equipment into the UK works.
Weekends
Wex’s Montpelier store hands over booked rental kit on Saturdays but is closed on Sundays, so a Sunday shoot collects on the Saturday. Ask the other houses about weekend collections when you book.
At The Bottle Yard
Shooting on a Bottle Yard stage? Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services are tenants on the same site, so a spare battery or a forgotten cable is a short walk away, and Films at 59 can ingest the cards there too.
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 Bristol house, and with the crew’s own kit. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
08 Questions
Hiring film equipment in Bristol: questions
How much does it cost to hire a camera in Bristol?
On Floating Harbour Studios’ published list in October 2026, a Sony FX6 is £125 a day or £500 a week, an FX9 £145 a day, an A7S III £75 and a Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF £395, all before VAT. Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services quote on request. Add your own insurance for the kit. Book the camera with the operator who owns it and the kit fee is its own line on the crew quote.
What’s the difference between wet hire and dry hire?
Dry hire is the kit on its own: you collect it from the house, run it and bring it back. Wet hire comes with the person who operates it, usually its owner. Most crews we book use both: cameras from a kit house, lighting on the gaffer’s van, and the sound recordist’s own kit.
Where are Bristol’s kit houses?
The biggest lists are at The Bottle Yard Studios in Whitchurch, where Films at 59, VI Rental and Grip Services are tenants. Films at 59 also hires from Barley House in Clifton, Floating Harbour Studios hires from a barge on Welsh Back, Wex Rental hands over booked kit at its Montpelier store, and Re-Production hires film lighting from BS16. Bristol Production Van delivers a lighting van with a gaffer or gear tech.
Is VMI still in Bristol?
No. VMI closed its Bristol branch in September 2025 and now supplies its stock from London. For cinema cameras in the city, Films at 59 and VI Rental both hire from The Bottle Yard.
Do I need insurance to hire kit in Bristol?
Yes. Films at 59’s terms ask for all-risks cover for the kit’s full replacement value, its hire charges for up to 13 weeks if something is lost or damaged, third-party liability, and Films at 59 named on the policy. Floating Harbour wants production insurance, or a cash deposit on smaller hires. Book the kit through us on a crew hire and it’s covered by the 2% insurance on the quote; a large rental may need extra cover, as its own line.
Does a kit van pay Bristol’s Clean Air Zone charge?
Only if it isn’t compliant. Bristol’s zone is Class D, so it charges cars as well as vans: £9 a day for a diesel below Euro 6 or a petrol below Euro 4, and £100 for an HGV, around the clock, midnight to midnight. Bath’s Class C zone doesn’t charge private cars. Checked October 2026.
Can I hire a camera tracking vehicle in Bristol?
Yes. Grip Services at The Bottle Yard runs low loaders, a 4×4 Mule and a quad for tracking shots, insured for the public highway, and the police have to give permission before tracking on a public road. A road closure of up to two days goes to Bristol Film Office with two weeks’ notice and costs £721 + VAT (checked October 2026).
Can specialist kit come from London?
Yes. Neither Films at 59’s published list nor Floating Harbour’s includes a film camera, so 35mm comes from London, prepped at the house by the crew who’ll run it, then driven down. For digital, Films at 59’s list runs from the Alexa 35 and Venice 2 to anamorphic sets and a Chapman dolly, so most digital jobs are covered in the city.
Around the crew
More for Bristol shoots
02
Locations and permits
Bristol Film Office, Bath Film Office, the harbour, Clifton Suspension Bridge and the drone rules.
03
Studios and set builds
The Bottle Yard’s 11 stages, green screen and infinity coves across the city, and set builds.
