Weekend camera hire in London: collect Friday after 4pm, return Monday by 11am and pay for one day. Worked examples, bank holidays and a weekend checklist.
A lot of London shoots happen at the weekend: music videos, short films, passion projects, self-shot docs and the odd commercial that can only get the location on a Sunday. The good news is that weekend camera hire at Yellow Cactus is cheap by design. A Saturday and Sunday together count as one hire day, and if you collect on Friday afternoon and bring the kit back on Monday morning, those bookend days aren't charged either.
Here's exactly how weekend hire works at our counter in Stoke Newington, N16, with worked examples, so you can plan the shoot and the budget before you send the order.
Saturdays, Sundays and UK bank holidays aren't charged day by day: each unbroken run of them counts as a single hire day. A Saturday and Sunday is one day. A Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday Monday is still one day.
Collect after 4pm the day before your shoot and return by 11am the day after, and those two part-days aren't charged as hire days. For a weekend that means:
Our counter is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and Saturdays are by appointment only. In practice, weekend kit is collected on Friday and returned on Monday, and the booking system plans it that way: if you pick a Saturday or Sunday as your collection date, the physical pickup moves to the last weekday before it, after 4pm.
These come from the same pricing rules our basket uses. "Day rate" means the live day rate of everything on your order.
The last two rows are the ones to watch. Collect before 4pm or return after 11am, and that weekday becomes a hire day. If you need the kit on Friday morning for a prep day, that's fine; just know it's charged.
Weekdays follow our sliding scale: three weekdays are charged as 2.5 days, four as 3 days and Monday to Friday as 3.5 days, with weekend blocks added on top as one day each. Your basket shows the exact total for your dates and times before you send the order, so you don't need to work it out by hand. Our guide to how camera hire works covers the full set of rules.
Because a standard weekend counts as one day, a weekend hire costs the same as a single weekday. That holds for everything on the order, from a Sony FX3 kit to a RED V-Raptor X package with lenses and lights. Each product page shows its live day rate, and the full kit list lets you build the whole package and see the total.
That makes the weekend the cheapest time to step up a level. If a weekday budget only stretches to one camera, a weekend shoot might let you add the lens set, wireless video or lighting package you actually wanted.
Not sure which camera to build around? Our guides to the Sony FX6 vs FX3 and the RED Komodo vs V-Raptor X will help.
Weekend shoots often mean long days, late finishes and kit moving between locations. In our experience at Yellow Cactus, the biggest risk right now is on-street theft: kit snatched while you're shooting or moving it in public. Keep cases within reach, keep someone on the kit while you load or unload, and never leave anything on the pavement. Vehicles are a risk too. Never leave equipment in an unattended car, van, taxi or rideshare (theft from an unattended vehicle isn't covered by the Damage Waiver), and keep it locked in a secure building overnight.
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.
Planning a weekend shoot? Send your list through the site, or call 020 7898 3322 or email rentals@weareyellowcactus.com, and we'll check availability for Friday collection.
A standard weekend counts as one hire day, so a weekend costs the same as a single weekday. Collect on Friday after 4pm and return on Monday by 11am, and you pay for one day.
Not day by day. Saturdays, Sundays and UK bank holidays are grouped, and each unbroken run of them counts as one hire day. A Saturday to bank holiday Monday shoot, collected Friday after 4pm and returned Tuesday by 11am, is charged as one day.
Our counter is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and Saturdays are by appointment only. Weekend kit is normally collected on Friday after 4pm.
Then Friday becomes a hire day. Collect after 4pm and return by 11am on Monday to be charged for the weekend only.
The cover has to run from collection to return. Friday 4pm to Monday 11am is about 67 hours, so you need three days of cover, even though the hire is charged as one day.
Unit H1, 2 Leswin Place, Stoke Newington, London N16 7NJ.