Palma Equipment Rental: Our Story Since 2011

Palma Equipment Rental was founded in 2011 by Gareth Hall and Birgit Van Mierlo, but our connection with the photographic rental industry in Mallorca goes back further.

Gareth first came to Mallorca in 2005, working within the photographic rental industry and gaining first-hand experience of the particular demands of international photographers and production companies shooting on the island.

Before Palma Equipment Rental, Gareth and Birgit were involved with Direct Paris, a professional photographic rental company in Paris. After selling Direct Paris to Panalux, they turned their attention to Mallorca and founded Palma Equipment Rental in 2011.

The idea was relatively simple: create an independent professional rental company in Palma built around what photographers and productions working in Mallorca actually needed.

Building a Rental Company Around Mallorca

Mallorca is a very particular rental market.

Productions arrive from all over the world, often for only a few days, and expect to work to the same professional standards they would in London, Paris, Berlin or New York. At the same time, shooting on an island creates its own practical challenges.

Locations can range from a studio or hotel in Palma to a remote beach, mountain road, finca or rocky cove. Access, power, transport, wind and strong Mediterranean sunlight can all have as much influence on the equipment list as the camera being used.

From the beginning, Palma Equipment Rental developed its inventory around those realities.

Rather than trying to reproduce the catalogue of a huge mainland rental house, we invested in the equipment our clients were actually asking for and the equipment we knew would work well here.

That philosophy still shapes the company today.

Photography at the Heart of the Business

Professional photography has always been at the centre of Palma Equipment Rental.

Over the years we’ve worked with photographers, assistants and production companies coming to Mallorca for fashion, advertising, editorial and commercial shoots.

Some productions need little more than a camera body and a couple of lenses. Others require vans of lighting, grip, frames, textiles, power, digital equipment and accessories.

Rental is a niche within a niche.

It sits somewhere between technical knowledge, logistics and problem-solving. You need to understand what the photographer is trying to achieve, but you also need to know whether everything will work together, whether it can be powered at the location, whether it will fit in the van and whether the crew can realistically get it to where they’re shooting.

That practical side of the business has always been important to us.

An Industry That Has Changed Enormously

The equipment we rent today looks very different from the equipment leaving rental houses when Gareth first began working in Mallorca in 2005.

Digital photography has matured, DSLRs have increasingly given way to mirrorless systems, medium format has become faster and more versatile, and the boundary between still photography and moving image has become increasingly blurred.

Lighting has arguably changed even more.

High-output LED fixtures can now perform jobs that once required considerably larger HMI or tungsten setups. Battery-powered flash has made location photography more mobile, while modern portable power systems have changed what can be achieved away from mains electricity.

Our inventory has evolved alongside those changes.

But while the technology changes constantly, the fundamentals of rental haven’t changed very much.

The equipment needs to be prepared properly. Batteries need to be charged. Everything needs to be checked. The small accessories need to be there. And when something unexpected happens, somebody needs to find a solution.

From Photography to Stills and Moving Image

Productions themselves have changed too.

A campaign that once required a photographer to produce a set of still images may now require photography, moving image, social content and behind-the-scenes material during the same shoot.

As a result, Palma Equipment Rental has expanded beyond its traditional photographic roots.

Today our inventory includes professional cameras and lenses, flash and continuous lighting, grip, frames and textiles, location power, digital capture equipment, underwater camera equipment, audio, smoke and haze, stylist equipment and a wide range of production accessories.

The distinction between a “photo shoot” and a “video shoot” has become increasingly less important.

Our job is to understand what the production is trying to achieve and provide the equipment needed to do it.

Independent Since 2011

Remaining independent allows us to make decisions about our inventory based on what our clients actually need.

Sometimes the obvious investment is the latest camera, lens or high-output LED fixture.

Sometimes another C-stand, battery, cable, frame, clamp or equipment cart will make a bigger difference to the people actually working on set.

Over the years we’ve continually reinvested in our rental inventory, responding both to changes in technology and to the particular requirements of productions working in Mallorca.

That means we don’t need to stock everything.

We need to stock the right things.

More Than Equipment

A rental list is rarely just a collection of individual products.

Everything has to work together.

The camera needs the correct lenses and accessories. The lighting needs appropriate stands and modifiers. The location needs sufficient power. The equipment needs to fit into the transport available. And the whole package needs to make sense for the size of the crew actually using it.

After years of working with productions in Mallorca, you also learn that the solution on paper isn’t always the solution that works best on location.

A technically perfect lighting package isn’t much use if it can’t be carried down the path to the beach.

That’s where local experience matters.

Palma Equipment Rental Today

In 2026, Palma Equipment Rental celebrates 15 years in business, while Gareth and Birgit’s experience working with photographic productions in Mallorca now spans more than two decades.

From our rental facility in Palma de Mallorca, we supply professional camera, lighting, grip, power, digital, audio, smoke and haze, stylist and production equipment for shoots throughout the island.

Mallorca remains our primary market, with equipment also available for productions in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Equipment for mainland Spain can be arranged on request.

Our clients range from individual photographers and assistants to international production companies and large advertising productions.

Some arrive with a complete equipment list down to the last clamp.

Others know the result they need to achieve and ask us to help work out the most practical way of getting there.

Both are welcome.

Still Learning

Perhaps the biggest lesson from more than two decades around equipment rental is that the industry never stands still.

New cameras arrive. Lighting technology changes. Workflows evolve. Equipment that seemed indispensable ten years ago disappears from rental lists, while something nobody had heard of becomes essential almost overnight.

That’s part of what keeps the business interesting.

Palma Equipment Rental has grown by responding to those changes, listening to the people using the equipment and reinvesting in the things that make productions work better.

Fifteen years after Gareth Hall and Birgit Van Mierlo founded Palma Equipment Rental, the equipment has changed enormously.

The principle behind the company hasn’t.

Listen to what productions need, invest in equipment that makes sense for Mallorca, prepare it properly, and find practical solutions when things don’t go according to plan.