What a Time to Lose a Camera!

by wakitu

For BareFoot MusicNews, the NAMM show is a rich feast of images: taking a look at new products for review, making personal contact with the manufacturers whose hard work will be covering in the year ahead, getting to meet face-to-face with legendary musicians and artists on the rise. Facing it without a camera or three? Unthinkable!

Click through for the story and a review

Sadly, last year, my beloved Canon Powershot was stolen, and with it a rich collection of photos that had been captured for a special-effects piece on Daisy Rock guitars and several other manufacturers’ lines. I still have not been able to replace it.

This year I was going to be smart and responsible and took in our workhorse to be cleaned and have its battery clip repaired. I would (famous last words) be  prepared!

With one day to go before NAMM, I got the news. Our camera had been “junked.” Pick out another. Insert melodramatic 50s movie hair-pulling, blood-curdling scream here.

You have to know this camera. It could not be replaced that simply! There was no choice. I had to rent a Canon HV-20 camcorder. It had proven to be ideal for BFMN on the move: record in HD or SD, grab audio directly from the sound board, external microphone input, firewire…aside from that battery clip, it had been a flawless and reliable tool for us. Besides, we already had several extra batteries and a couple boxes of fresh tapes purchased just for this.

I’d found ATS Rentals awhile back when I’d been bidding a bigger project for which we were lacking a few pieces of equipment, and this was my first opportunity to use their service. I must say, overall, I was very pleased with both the service and the rates.

Some rental places seem to want a DNA scan before they will let you give them money to borrow their equipment. With ATS Rentals I was able to fill out an order form and have it shipped overnight to the hotel at the Convention Center!  It arrived with a clear listing of everything that was in the box - which included every cable I might need, the user manual, two batteries, and all I needed to send it back. The only item it did not contain that I would have liked to have seen was a remote control. (Luckily, I’d brought my own.)

One thing I’d recommend if you ever have to rent equipment – and I did include this in my notes to ATS when we returned the HV-20 – user settings should be reset to default before you start. You never know what special conditions the last user may have working under and their weird settings could have very negative effects on your project! Which brings up another point: ATS seems genuinely interested in hearing what is right and wrong with their service; it’s refreshing.

On packing it up, I found they had not only included the prepaid UPS label, they toss in a roll of box tape just to make it ultimately convenient and easy, and thus wisely ensure they’re not going to get cartons covered with ductlectrimaskiscotch gooeymess tape. Smart. If I need to rent another piece of equipment – and it’s likely I will – I’ll be calling on ATS Rentals, the folks who saved my bacon with a smile and made it easy to get my job done.