The Prime Directive is the guiding principle of Affiliated Equipment’s Camera Department that demands AE personnel keep sought-after prime lenses on hand and available at reasonable rates to Television Commercial Production Companies.
We have all noticed that increasingly there has been a demand for the fancy lenses; those $250,000 to $350,000 sets of Master Primes and Leica Summilux lenses that production people are confident that they must have. Everyone is happy when they get the AE set of Master Primes priced into the package at $1200/day; however not so much when we have to sub-rent at $1680/day. Should they come from a supplier who has them on consignment or doesn’t discount at $2400/day, it gets plain nasty.
So, we have bitten the bullet and have another set of Master Primes and a set of Leicas available for use as of the New Year. This means with three sets of premium lenses we can offer camera packages that include these lenses. The plan is to give you an Alexa Mini with all the accessories and the lenses for $2975/day (if you commit to paying within 30 days).
You may ask when others are charging $2400/day just for the lenses, how can AE afford to give such a rate when the after discount price camera body is $1000/day and the accessories are worth over $1000/day? As it has always been the case we keep our overhead low and we keep the stuff moving, surviving on volume of days, not price per day.
As a reminder to make this work we still need some cooperation from your people:
- Avoid disappointment book (not hold) early because once these set are committed we will still secure you lenses at the best price possible, but AE cannot eat the difference.
- Pick-ups are after noon, returns are before noon, we need to get gear back ASAP and sometimes the order isn’t going to be ready for an early prep.
- There will be times when the lenses will have to be rolled overnight from one job to another.
- The discount on all lenses is for use in AE Camera Packages, if you are supplying the camera body or accessories, lenses will be charged at book less 30%.