borrowing sound eqipment

[movieman1005]

On this website people have posted about borrowing equipment for free from some broadcasting thing or something. There werent many details, but I want to know more. They did, however, sugest I post something on craigslist. I posted something under green bay, wisconsin under gigs and the crew section. I think there is only my post there the last time i checked. You can read it here. http://greenbay.craigslist.org/cwg/973641064.html
I got one response from a company, but it charges, and i know that I would rather get one, as I would use it quite often. Is there any broadcating something or someone else that can loan the equipment for free? More info if possible, maybe in green bay area? Thanks!
p.s. The company said they used a sennheiser me66. Is this a good one to buy? I looked it up online ands found out you bought the powering thing, then the capsule seperatly. These 2 combined seem about 500, right? I know about ables and accesories, im just talking bout those things for working the mic. And if I want to connect it to my camcorder, Ive heard much reccomendation on a beachtek adaptor. You can get away with cables, right? How important is it that I get the adaptor instead of cable? Big difference? If i get the adaptor, do i need to still buy cables, or will thet be included? Thank.

[Zensteve]

Renting equipment is a fairly common practice; especially for gear that you'd only use a few times each year. (Or for gear that is very expensive)

Since you mention you'd be using it "quite often", you may as well make the plunge and buy it.

To borrow for free, try these:

1) Have a friend who owns one, and mooch as often as possible. This is great 'til they start to see all the wear & tear being put on it, and they suddenly wise up when they have to buy replacemnt pieces.

2) Check with your local cable company. Arrangements vary wildly from region to region, so this may or may not be available to you. My old cable company (Time Warner, upstate NY) offered year-round classes in video editing, use & care of equipment, access to hard-wired video feed taps (for local events coverage), all kinds of great stuff - all for free - after having completed their free training courses. Ideally, whatever you produced (using their facilities & gear) was to be shown on local cable access programming. So you'd end up with free exposure, as well! You should definitely check with your local cable co.

That's all I got.