How camera and kit hire works in London: registering, the day-rate sliding scale, weekends, 4pm pickup the day before, cover for the kit and collection in N16.
If you've never hired kit from a London rental house before, the paperwork and pricing can feel like a secret handshake. Why does a three-day hire cost less than three days? What's a "courtesy" collection? Do you pay for Saturday and Sunday? This guide explains how camera, lens, lighting and grip hire works at Yellow Cactus in Stoke Newington, N16, so you can plan your shoot and your budget with no surprises.
Before your first hire, register a production account. It takes a few minutes, and we need it before any kit can leave the building. Paying for an order on its own doesn't confirm it; the account is how we know who's responsible for the kit while it's out. You only do this once, and every hire after that is quicker.
Everything we hire is on our full kit list with its live day rate, from cameras and lenses to lights, grip, monitoring, wireless video and sound. Click through to any product to see exactly what's in the case, then add it to your order. If you're not sure where to start, our hire guides are a good shortcut:
Send the order through the site and we'll confirm availability. If something's already out, we'll tell you and suggest an alternative.
This is the part people ask about most. We charge by the hire day, but longer hires get cheaper per day on a sliding scale. For weekdays (Monday to Friday, not counting bank holidays):
Longer hires keep getting cheaper: after the first seven calendar days, each extra full week is charged as three days.
Saturdays, Sundays and UK bank holidays aren't charged day by day. Each run of them counts as a single hire day. A Saturday and Sunday together is one day, and so is a Sunday followed by a bank holiday Monday.
Collect after 4pm the day before your shoot and return by 11am the day after, and those bookend days aren't charged as hire days. Shooting on Wednesday? Collect on Tuesday afternoon, bring everything back on Thursday morning, and you're charged for one day. It gives you time to check the kit, charge batteries and pack the van without paying for it.
Say you're shooting a music video on Saturday and Sunday. Collect on Friday after 4pm and return on Monday by 11am. Friday afternoon and Monday morning are courtesy time, and Saturday and Sunday count as one hire day. You pay for one day.
Your basket always shows the exact total for your dates before you send the order, so you don't need to work it out by hand.
Kit on hire needs to be covered against loss and damage. Many productions have their own equipment insurance. If you don't, look at our Damage Waiver, available for eligible film equipment hires up to £30,000. It isn't insurance: it's our promise, under our Terms and Conditions of Hire, not to charge you for accidental loss or damage above the excess, as long as the waiver's conditions are met. You enter your booking details, pay online and get your confirmation. Read the terms before you rely on it, and ask us if anything's unclear.
Kit is collected from and returned to our counter at Unit H1, 2 Leswin Place, London N16 7NJ, between Stoke Newington, Dalston and Hackney. We're open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. Give yourself time at the counter to check the order. A quick checklist:
Bring the kit back to the same counter by the agreed time. Pack it the way it came, with cables and accessories back in their cases, and tell us about anything that went wrong on the shoot, however small. It's much easier to sort a fault when we know about it straight away, and it stops the next crew getting a surprise.
Opt in to Spikes, our rewards scheme, in your Kit Locker, and full-price hires earn 50% of the confirmed hire total back as Spikes, where 1 Spike is £1 off a future hire before VAT. The details are in clause 14.8 of our terms.
We'd rather you leave with the right kit than the most expensive kit. If you're torn between two cameras, our guides to the Sony FX6 vs FX3 and the RED V-Raptor X vs V-Raptor are a good start. Otherwise, call 020 7898 3322 or email rentals@weareyellowcactus.com with your shot list or brief, and we'll help you put a package together.
Not day by day. Saturdays, Sundays and UK bank holidays are grouped, and each run of them counts as a single hire day. Collect on Friday after 4pm and return on Monday by 11am for a weekend shoot, and you pay for one day.
Yes. Weekdays are charged on a sliding scale: 1 day, 2 days, 2.5 days for three, 3 days for four and 3.5 days for Monday to Friday. Your basket shows the exact total before you send the order.
Yes. Collect after 4pm the day before and return by 11am the day after, and those bookend days aren't charged as hire days.
Yes. Please register a production account before your first hire. We need it before any kit can go out, and paying alone doesn't confirm an order.
Kit on hire needs cover against loss and damage. Use your production's equipment insurance, or look at our Damage Waiver, available for eligible hires up to £30,000 under our Terms and Conditions of Hire.
From our counter at Unit H1, 2 Leswin Place, Stoke Newington, London N16 7NJ, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.