Financing a camera

ajedproduction

ajedproduction

Has anyone paid for their camera via finance before?

I'm trying to kickstart a career as a freelance videographer/corporate video and have a few paid gigs lined up for this year. I wanna upgrade from my 6D, most likely to the A7S so I'm looking into finance.

I wanna pay as little as possible on a monthly basis. The cheapest I found is £37 for 60 months, I could definitely afford that, but 60 months....that is a long time and I'm sure my A7s will become out of date well before I've paid it off...

Anyways, would you recommend it? Are there any other details I need to be aware of with finance, like rising costs?

Also, do you think the A7s is a good choice for ENG work, corporate video, events, wedding video, adverts, real estate video and stuff like that? Is there a better choice? I'd love an FS7, but it's crazy expensive. Also like the C100 Mk2, but for how expensive it is, it doesn't even do 4k(which I don't really need, but is a very good marketing tool to clients!).
 
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A 5 year loan is a really long time on a camera.

But if you're sure you can make more than that money with the investment you can always pay off the loan in full a year into it.
 
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So if after say 5 months I've saved up a decent amount of money, I can decide to just pay off what's left? That's not a bad idea actually...only thing is NAB and some other camera expo's are so close, I might regret rushing into the A7s when something better might get announced. You never know these days...
 
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If you can wait months after something is announced and then it's finally ready, then you didn't need a new camera to get work after all. Unless you are just passing up all these paying gigs in the mean time.

If you can do all this work with your current camera and it's satisfactory then resist the urge to spend.
 
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Like I said I wanna kickstart my freelance career, so I'm just starting out.

I can get by fine with my 6D, but I just hate dealing with the limitations of the camera, such as no 1080p slow-mo, soft footage and moire & aliasing. Hence me looking for an upgrade. I could afford to pay more per month, but I would prefer not to. And if I can just pay off the remaining amount once I have enough saved up(could only be a few months) that sounds like a better option to me anyways, rather than paying over £100 per month.

It may not be a 'necessity' at the moment, more of a 'want' but I don't mind.

I'll most likely wait till february before I decide what to do, but the A7s imported from Hong kong is significantly cheaper, so it might be better to just save for a few months and outright buy it.
 
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Careful with gray market stuff, which that imported hong kong version almost certainly is. Also, financing a camera in general seems hard to justify. By the time you've paid it off, it'll be obsolete and the resale value will be crap. I own a 6D as well and I find that yes, the footage is quite soft; I don't blame you for wanting to get rid of it, I was pretty disappointed with the image quality with my 6D.

If anything, I'd finance a nice lens. Good glass retains its value and can generally work with any camera body with an adapter.
 
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Thoughts.

Drop your camera and you'll find yourself banging your head on the wall every month there after.

Buy the kind of camera you can afford to replace if you drop it in mid-shoot.

There is ALWAYS something new coming out. You can't win that game. You need a camera that is reliable so you can quickly get work done for clients. Helping camera makers work the bugs out of a newly released came is best left to those rolling in dough.

Good luck.
 
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ajedproduction said:
..............only thing is NAB and some other camera expo's are so close, I might regret rushing into the A7s when something better might get announced. You never know these days...
Click to expand...

There will always be a new NAB, IBC, whatever coming where new stuff will be announced.
But you can't make anything with an announced camera.
You can with one you actually have.
 
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Have you thought about hiring the A7s (and perhaps a Metabones EF to NEX adapter) when you need one rather than making payments for 5 years?

If you were in the States, I would recommend BorrowLenses - in the UK, all I can do is a random internet search, but here's what I came up with:

http://www.gearfactory.co.uk/gf/equipment/cameras/dslr/sony-a7s-camera-hire-rent-london-4k-dslr

http://www.hireacamera.com/cameras/detail.asp?model=1035

http://www.cameraworks.co.uk/product/sony-a7s/

http://www.newdaypictures.com/SONY_A7s_Camera_Hire.html

http://www.movi-hire.com/product/sony-a7s-hire/

http://www.lenslocker.co.uk/camera-hire/sony-digital-slr/sony-a7s-digital-slr-camera-hire.html

Hope this is helpful and good luck!
 
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Dreadylocks said:
I second renting. Even if you are dead set on buying, it's still best to try it out before taking the plunge.
Click to expand...

So true!

I rented an EX1 when it was brand new. I like it, but not completely. A year later the EX1R got released with most of my wishes met. At that time I needed a new camera and I got it. Only because I knew what to expect.

Actually, when the job needs it I rent a C300, or an A7s when we're using a MoVI.
 
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"There is ALWAYS something new coming out. You can't win that game."
Best statement in the thread.
Even the mighty RED cameras are starting to get some grey hairs after just a few years.
Rent for big gigs, shop for something inexpensive that ticks most of your boxes to use as backup.
Soon your talent will cause great revenue and you'll wonder why you were worrying "way back then".
 
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No experience with Sony cameras, but in addition to what others said about a long-term payment, the interest will be a pain, especially for a camera which is only around a grand anyway. Thought of part-exchange or the London Camera Exchange?
 
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Full disclosure: I'm nothing like a pro. And I've become debt-phobic over the years; debt just sucks. That said, my advice would tend to be: avoid such debt. Another full disclosure: when I was something like your age (I'm guessing), I financed a 35 inch TV...because it was important to me. But today, I see that as foolish. And I couldn't even create something new with that TV. (Though, it did bring me much movie watching pleasure.)

On the other hand, if you're a semi-pro, cost might not matter, if you will make that money up with the income it brings you. And, I don't know how it is in the UK, but over here people often speak of "writing things off as a business expense." Not that I have ever really figured out what that even means! I'm not so bright. =(

Is the 6D video really so bad? Maybe I haven't looked at any. (Or very little when it came out, perhaps.) I don't feel like looking it up now. But I'm skeptical that it's so poor. For the kind of jobs you list, will your clients even know any difference?

If moire is enough of a concern for you, you might be better off buying a Mosaic Engineering filter. That way, you get rid of the moire, and, if you can buy it outright, you don't get yourself into so much debt. Well, if you have a great income, then maybe such debt is no problem for you. But you make it sound like you're not rolling in money.

I'm surprised to hear you think so little of shooting with a 6D. I never have shot with one. But the only similar (I would guess) real world experience I have had with that is shooting my niece's wedding with my 5DII. Yes, the video has its shortcomings. But it's also pretty nice. It's no A7s, shooting in the moonlight...without noise, I take it? But I got the shots I needed even in the dark at the reception. Disappointingly noisy, yes. But just the fact that I could get those shots is nice. My experience is limited to that, true, but I loved shooting video with the 5DII. It was a nice experience...for me, at least. Maybe it's not the same, but I would have thought that shooting with the 6D would be almost identical, or at least very similar?

Better yet, my sister and brother-in-law love the footage. I mention to them what its flaws are, but they don't really care; they just think it's pretty great.

Having said that, I'm with you on wanting an FS700. Hell, I would love an FS100. Or one of the Canon C-- cameras. Or an A7s. I'd need to get a lens adapter, though. And I'm guessing new batteries and battery chargers etc.

If that's what you really want, then I think the advice others have given you is very wise (compared to going into serious debt for a camera): rent, if you can.

Especially given, as you yourself have mentioned, cameras become outdated (or go out of style) so quickly these days. Do you really want to be still making payments on a camera when folks here on I.T. (and elsewhere) are saying how ancient and what crap it is, the A7s?

And they will. That's almost certainly how it will be. It is the future, with little doubt.
 
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There is some tax advantages in quickly depreciating equipment. If you have a biz plan that makes sense, you could probably get a small biz loan rather easily. You do have a biz plan dont you?

:)

Failure to plan is planning to fail.
 
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