Your business property policy covers the gear at your address. Your gear is never at your address.Founded by an Emmy-nominated television editor.
Insurance for camera equipment wherever it actually is — in the car, on location, on a plane, in a rental house’s hands or under a drone — written as inland marine rather than the property policy that stops at your front door.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Fifteen years in television before a single day in insurance.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
IATSE Local 700 member
Boring’s founder, Kevin Kelsey, spent them editing — Emmy-nominated for The Muppets Mayhem, with Shark Tank, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars and Wheel of Fortune on the credit list — and handling compliance and risk for some of Hollywood’s largest production companies. Your production is read by someone who has been on the crew list and dealt with the permit offices and the network and streamer requirements from the production side, not by someone working from a rate manual. We insure productions from Los Angeles to Atlanta, New York and Toronto, with worldwide and foreign production coverage.
The work is placed with the markets that actually write film, television and live entertainment — Zurich through ISC Entertainment (formerly Abacus), Philadelphia Insurance Companies, Take1 and Alive Risk — rather than with a general small-business carrier asked to try.
What camera equipment businesses actually need.
Equipment on location (inland marine)
Cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, monitors, drives and the laptop, anywhere you take them and in transit between.
Without it — A business property policy covers contents at the listed address, which is the one place the gear is not.
Rented and borrowed gear
Equipment hired from a rental house or borrowed from another shooter, which their agreement makes your responsibility from the moment you sign for it.
Without it — A rental contract transfers the full replacement value to you on signature, and the rental house’s own insurance does not apply to you.
Drone hull and payload
Physical damage to the aircraft, the gimbal and the camera under it — a fly-away, a hard landing, a bird.
Without it — A drone is an aircraft to an insurer, and most equipment forms exclude aircraft unless it is scheduled and the liability is placed alongside.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — A light stand goes over, a cable trips a guest, a rig scratches a floor — the injury or damage is yours, and the venue wanted a certificate before you set up.
Professional liability
Covers the advice, the drawing, the diagnosis — the work itself, rather than someone getting hurt on your premises.
Without it — A card that fails is a small property loss; the client’s footage that was on it is a claim for the whole job and what it was worth.
Commercial property
Buildings and contents, valued at what it costs to rebuild today rather than what you paid.
Without it — The edit suite, the storage shelves and the gear while it is home — at the address, and nowhere else.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
Gear stolen from a parked car
Covered by Equipment on location (inland marine), subject to the theft conditions
Auto insurance covers the car and not what was in it, homeowners policies cap business property at a few thousand dollars or exclude it, and the equipment form itself may require the vehicle to be locked and the gear out of sight.
Most common
A camera or lens dropped or knocked over on a shoot
Covered by Equipment on location (inland marine)
A property policy written for a premises does not follow the gear out the door; an equipment floater does, and it usually covers accidental damage rather than only theft and fire.
Common
Rented gear damaged or lost while it is in your hands
Covered by Rented and borrowed equipment, scheduled or on a blanket limit
People assume the rental house insures its own kit. It does — for itself. The agreement you signed makes you liable for replacement, and a policy that only lists what you own answers none of it.
Less common, severe
A case that does not arrive, or arrives empty, after a flight
Covered by Equipment in transit, on a worldwide territory
An airline’s liability for checked baggage is capped by treaty at a figure that does not buy one lens, and a domestic-only policy stops at the border.
Less common, severe
A drone fly-away with the camera under it
Covered by Drone hull and payload, with unmanned aircraft liability placed beside it
Most equipment forms exclude aircraft, and the exposure is larger than the airframe — what it hits on the way down is a liability claim general liability also excludes.
What our camera equipment clients ask us.
How do I insure camera equipment?
With an equipment policy — the form is called inland marine, a name that dates from when it insured cargo moving inland from ships and that now means property that travels. It covers the gear wherever it is: in the car, on location, in transit, in a rental house’s hands. You list the expensive items with their serial numbers and values, put the rest under a blanket amount, and choose the territory. It sits beside general liability rather than replacing it, and for most people who shoot for a living it is the first policy that actually pays for something.
What does camera equipment insurance cost?
A range rather than a number, and the range is driven by four things: the total value scheduled, the deductible you choose, the territory (domestic is cheaper than worldwide) and the claims history on the gear. As a shape, cover on a working kit is priced as a small percentage of the equipment value per year, and the percentage falls as the schedule grows. The cheapest version is usually a blanket limit with a modest deductible; the version that pays reliably is the one where the expensive bodies and lenses are listed by serial number, because an unscheduled item is the one an adjuster asks about.
Is my gear covered if it is stolen from my car?
Usually, and the conditions are where claims fail rather than the principle. Many forms require the vehicle to be locked and the equipment out of sight; some exclude theft from an unattended vehicle overnight; a few require a locked boot or a hard case. Read the theft wording specifically before you buy, because theft from a vehicle is by far the most common way working shooters lose equipment and it is the one place an equipment policy is fussy. A policy that is silent on it is better than one that is specific against you.
Am I covered when I travel abroad with my gear?
Only if the territory says so. Equipment policies are written with a territory, and the default on many small-business forms is the United States and Canada — which means a case that goes missing between Lisbon and Los Angeles is not covered, and neither is a lens broken on a shoot in Mexico City. Worldwide territory is available and is not expensive relative to a domestic policy; ask for it if you fly with the kit even once a year. The airline is not a substitute: its liability for checked baggage is capped by international treaty at a figure that will not replace one body.
Does it cover rented or borrowed equipment?
Only if it is written to. A rental house’s agreement makes you responsible for the full replacement value of what you take out from the moment you sign, and their own insurance covers them, not you. Ask for rented and borrowed equipment to be added — either a scheduled limit for a specific job or a standing blanket amount sized to the biggest kit you would ever pull. Bring the rental agreement when you ask; the number in it is the number the policy needs to carry.
Is a drone covered as camera equipment?
The camera under it might be; the aircraft usually is not, and the part that matters most is neither. A drone is an aircraft to an insurer, so most equipment forms exclude it unless it is specifically scheduled, and general liability excludes aircraft outright — which means the shot that hits a car, a window or a person is uninsured under both policies you already have. We write unmanned aircraft liability and physical damage together, and it is a much larger exposure than most people who fly for work realize, because the claim is rarely the drone itself.
Do I need to list every lens, or is there a blanket limit?
Both, and the split is a judgment about what you would be arguing about after a loss. Schedule the items whose value would surprise an adjuster — bodies, cinema lenses, gimbals, drones, anything over a threshold you and your agent agree — with serial numbers, so there is no conversation about whether you owned it or what it was worth. Put filters, cables, cards, stands and the accumulation of small things under a blanket amount sized honestly. A schedule that was accurate two years ago and has not moved since is the most common gap we find on renewal.
Does homeowners or renters insurance cover professional camera gear?
Not usefully. Most homeowners and renters policies cap business property at a low figure, often a few thousand dollars, and some exclude it once it is used to earn money. The gear is also typically only covered at the home, so the theft from the car and the drop on location fall outside it twice over. It is worth checking the number in your own policy paperwork, because it is nearly always smaller than a single camera body, and an equipment policy is cheap enough that the comparison is rarely close.
Do I need insurance for a specific camera — a Sony, a Canon, a GoPro?
The policy does not care about the brand; it cares about the value and where the thing goes. A cinema body and a GoPro are insured the same way — scheduled by serial number if the value warrants it, under the blanket if not — and what changes the price is the total on the schedule, not the logo on the front. The manufacturer’s own protection plan is a different product: it is a repair-or-replace service for accidental damage to that one item, usually with a fee per claim, and it does not cover theft in most cases, does not follow rented gear, and never covers what the camera did to someone else. It is worth having on a body you would otherwise send in for repair; it is not insurance for the business.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.