Shelf life of a rig

[Josh Pickering]

Robert,

 

After reading your post, my initial thoughts of renting the gear to better my skills now carries more weight. I'm definitely no expert yet at operating and you're right, at $400/ day, why not? I'm pretty sure it is available most of the time anyway after talking to the owner, who I've known for years. I've been looking at the market place since I've joined so I'm on there constantly.

 

Thanks again for the great info!

[Victor Lazaro]

I was in your position last year. I had been renting a rig from a local red owner who bought a zephyr and wasn't using it. Acts 6 months, I bought it back from him. I like the rig, it's small and has definite limitations, but I am happy to use it. I had some gimbal and other parts issues as well but have been able to fix them myself, also the Marshall monitor is now down, SDI board is fried, works in sd for now.

I am planning to outgrow the rig in a year or two, then ill we if I can keep it as backup or if I sell it back.

If you can rent the rig do it until you get a big gig, that's hat I did. Also remember that there will be other accessories to get. Batteries, wireless video and follow focus, stand, then maybe redo a few wires (I night an Ito do make my own cables, except for the lemos, too complicated).

Let me know if I can b of any help in answering your questions on the Zephyr HD.

Fly safe,

V.

[Josh Pickering]

Thanks for the input Victor. I'm sure I'll have questions on this.

[Steve Rausch]

Use the rental opportunity you are tired of running to pick it up for every job you need it for. At that point you will have revenue to justify the purchase and repeated success at flying it. And both play off each other.

 

My location has me "geographically challenged" where shipping takes a big bite into renting gear into the market. But, I do it because it's worth having the chance to examine the gear and make decisions based on first hand knowledge. Having that shop down the street for easy rentals will help you grow your business by not needing to lay out so much capitol expense while getting your business off the ground.

 

There are many time I've said, I wish I had a Fletcher next door." Take advantage of it.

[Dave Bittner]

Another option is to purchase the smaller rig for your "daily driver", and rent a larger rig when the job calls for it. If the Zephyr will handle 80% of the jobs you expect to get, it may not be worth it to invest in owning a big rig, at least not when you're starting out. And sometimes you might just have to say no to jobs that are outside of your capabilities. Find a local operator with a big rig and offer to refer those jobs to him/her in exchange for tagging along and being their assistant for the day. You'll learn a lot, for sure.