Rentals, Repairs & Rock'n'Roll - Visiting Koerner Camera Systems

Rentals and repairs

Koerner Camera Systems not only rents out some serious gear like the ARRI ALEXA 35, but also offers consultation to clients regarding their lens and camera choices, and they handle repairs as well.

There’s a lot of communication that happens between the producers, directors, cinematographers, and camera assistants to make sure that everything is perfectly dialed in. Even on a commercial, it might only be 10 or 15 cases of equipment, but if one filter isn’t there that they asked for, that might only cost $8 or $10 to rent, the shoot is blown in my mind, and it wasn’t done correctly.

Michael Koerner, Koerner Camera Systems

The company also hosts the Pacific Northwest Lens Summit focusing on the latest in cinema optic technology and accessories. More than 30 exhibitors show their latest gear and give classes on their latest optics. Check out more info about this conference here.

A selection of lenses at Koerner Camera Systems – Image credit: CineD

Cases are very critical. Cases aren’t cheap. You’ve got to spend money on it, but if you have a lens set in there that costs $150,000 to $200,000, who cares about another $1,000 for a good case?

Michael Koerner, Koerner Camera Systems

Talking to the technicians

I interviewed lens technician Kari Fouts on her routine for checking equipment in as it comes back from a shoot. We saw how she measures optics in the lens projector room, and, at the end of the video, we got her number one tip when dealing with lenses on set.

They’re all paintbrushes. They’re all different palettes that really just depend on the job and the creative look somebody’s going for. They’re all an adventure. Each lens is its own experience to see what I’m going to find.

Senior Lens Technician Kari Fouts on lenses

We also look over the shoulder of camera technician Brian Yazzie as he cleans the sensor of a camera he just got back from a client. There is a lot of nice gear to see in this video!

In the Pacific Northwest it rains a lot but it’s not a very humid environment so we don’t really have to worry that much about fungus and mildew. We have silica packs that we put in lenses sometimes in their cases, but we don’t really have any specific storage issues like that. Like in Los Angeles, their main storage issue is earthquake prone areas. They’ll have the lenses in a vault or they’ll have the shelves screwed to the wall so there’s no chance that shelves will fall over with lenses on them .

Michael Koerner, Koerner Camera Systems

Camera technician Brian Yazzie at a camera station – Image credit: CineD

Which piece of equipment seen in the video would you like to own most? Have you rented from Koerner Cameras? Would you like to see more mini-docs like this? Let us know in the comments below!