"Gear included" on a studio listing is one of those phrases that sounds like good news. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's adding £150 to your day rate for a set of lights you wouldn't have touched.

I've made both mistakes. Paid for a kit-included studio and used none of the kit, rented a bare studio and scrambled to get lights delivered on shoot day. Here's how I decide now.

What "equipment included" actually means in 2026

The phrase covers a spectrum. On one end, "equipment included" means a single beaten-up Godox AD200 and a clamp light. On the other, it means three Profoto D2s, a full softbox range, C-stands, flags, scrims, apple boxes, V-flats and sandbags. Same phrase, 10x cost difference in what's actually on offer.

Always ask for the specific kit list before booking. If the studio can't send you a list in half an hour, the kit is probably patchy or the owner doesn't know what they've got. Both are red flags.

A proper kit list from a professional studio reads like a rental house inventory. Specific model numbers, counts, modifier sizes, max output. If you're getting "a full lighting kit" with no detail, that's vague for a reason.

When the package saves money

Small flash-based shoots. Portrait, headshot, small product, fashion editorial. You need two or three lights, a few modifiers, a handful of C-stands. The studio package usually covers all of this and bundling it in saves you £100-200 a day in separate rental.

Daytime shoots with a tight schedule. The rental house run eats two hours. If your shoot is 8 to 5 and the studio has the kit on site, you're saving those two hours for actual work.

First-time bookings and test shoots. You don't know what you'll actually use. Having kit available to grab and try is more valuable than having the perfect kit you specified but realise is wrong when you see the light.

Weekend shoots. Rental houses are closed or on skeleton staff Saturdays and shut Sundays. Studio-included kit works any day.

Budget-capped jobs. A £500 day-rate studio with kit included often comes out cheaper than a £350 bare studio plus £250 of rental gear. Do the maths per-shoot, not per-hour.

When the package costs more than it saves

Continuous lighting for video. Most studio packages are flash-heavy. If you're shooting video and need continuous lights, the studio's three Profoto flash heads are useless to you, and you're paying for them anyway. Rent the Aputure LS 600d Pros separately — that's a 600W nominal fixture with a max draw up to 720W, comparable to a 1,200W HMI according to the manufacturer, and it's the actual workhorse for mid-budget video work. The studio's flash kit won't replace that.

Specialist shoots. Car photography, architectural interiors, food styling, fine art product. These need specific modifiers, specific gobos, specific mounting solutions. A generic studio package won't have them, and you'll end up renting anyway — while still paying for kit you don't use.

Big productions. If you're crewing up with a DoP, a gaffer and an electrician, they're going to bring their own preferred gear. Paying the studio for kit your crew brings is throwing money away. Ask for a "bare studio" rate.

Long bookings. Multi-day shoots at kit-included rates add up. A bare studio plus a weekly kit rental from a rental house is usually cheaper on anything over three days.

The hidden cost of old kit

Studio-provided lighting skews old. Flash tubes age, colour shifts, power drops over years of use. I've been on studio-kit shoots where two heads rated at the same output were visibly different in colour temp by the time we matched them in post. That's hours of retouching time.

Modifiers age worse. A ten-year-old softbox has lost its baffle whiteness, the diffusion is yellowed, and the shape has warped. The light quality from old kit isn't the same as the same kit new.

Studios that take gear seriously replace and service regularly. Studios that don't are running 2015 kit and charging current rates for it. Ask when the kit was last serviced or replaced. A good studio will tell you. A bad one will dodge.

What to rent separately, always

Lenses. Every time. No studio includes lenses and the ones that claim to are offering a battered 24-70 zoom you wouldn't shoot with. Bring your own glass or rent specifically for the job.

Camera bodies. Same. Bring your own.

Specialist grip. Tilt heads, gimbals, sliders, motion control. Studios don't have this. Rental house only.

Continuous lights if you're shooting video. Studios might have one or two LED panels. You probably need more or different.

Sound gear. No studio includes proper boom poles, radio mics or a mixer. Rental or bring your own.

What to accept from the studio, usually

Seamless paper rolls — common colours, usually included or £20 extra.

C-stands, grip heads, apple boxes, sandbags — the boring grip stuff. Bundling this is always worth it because rental house minimums on grip are annoying.

One or two standard modifiers — a 1m octa, a medium softbox. Fine for portrait work.

Basic flash kit — two or three heads — if you're doing flash-based ecom or portrait. Serviceable.

The maths, done properly

Here's the spreadsheet I run mentally for every shoot.

Kit-included studio: £600/day. Bare version of same studio: £450/day. Gap is £150/day.

If I'm renting the following to replace: two Profoto heads £120/day, three C-stands £60/day, a 1m octa £40/day, set of flags £30/day — that's £250 I'd spend at the rental house for gear the studio already has. The kit-included rate saves me £100 a day.

But if I'm renting instead: one Aputure LS 600d Pro £150/day, a 7-foot V-flat £40/day, a dolly track £180/day — total £370, none of which the studio has. Now the kit-included rate is a waste. Book bare, rent what I need.

The rule of thumb: if more than 70% of what you'd rent matches what the studio has, take the package. If less than 50% matches, book bare.

Power supply — the thing nobody mentions

A studio that has "full lighting kit included" and only single-phase 13A sockets is lying by omission. Running three Profoto D2s and a set of LED panels pulls real current. A 600W LED like an Aputure alone can draw up to 720W in full output. Add in flash chargers, grip lighting, laptops, monitors — a modern shoot draws 30-50 amps at peaks.

Older studios with basic domestic wiring will trip breakers when you run everything. Studios designed for production work have 32A commando sockets, sometimes 3-phase 63A for bigger setups. Ask.

If the studio can't tell you their electrical supply spec, they haven't thought about it, which means you'll find out the hard way when you blow the breaker at 11am and lose 45 minutes waiting for someone to reset it.

Modifier depth is where package studios cheap out

A good flash kit has three modifier sizes — small, medium, large — in at least two shapes — soft box, octa. Plus a beauty dish. Plus a couple of strip lights or barn doors. Plus grids.

A cheap flash kit is two heads and a generic 80cm softbox. You'll be lighting everything with the same modifier all day and your photos will look it.

Before booking, ask how many modifiers and which sizes. "We have lighting kit" isn't enough.

The "free gear" red flag

A studio advertising as "all gear included in the hourly rate" at the same price as a bare studio is lying somewhere. Either the gear is ancient and broken, or the studio rate is inflated to compensate. There's no free lunch on rental kit. Someone's paying for it. If it's not you in the day rate, it's someone who had a miserable shoot because the kit was rubbish.

My simple booking rule

Get the kit list in writing before booking. If the list matches 70%+ of what I'd rent anyway, I pay for the package. If it doesn't, I book bare and rent properly. If the studio can't give me a kit list, I book a different studio.

Saves me hundreds of pounds a year. Saves me an hour of shoot day scrambling for kit I assumed was there.

Looking for studios with proper kit lists rather than vague "full kit included" listings? Creative Studio Hire has a bunch of UK studios with detailed equipment breakdowns on their listings, plus owners you can message direct — no platform fees on top of the rental. Worth a look before the next shoot.