A bespoke web build for a London cinema camera rental house, featuring an interactive package configurator, a headless Sanity CMS, and a brand-led design that turns a complex hire process into something genuinely enjoyable to use.
The Project
Cinepups is a premium camera rental house serving film, TV, and commercial productions across London. Founded and run by working Directors of Photography, the business needed a website that did more than list equipment - it needed to sell a genuinely novel rental model: pre-built, configurable camera packages rather than the usual à la carte line-item hire.
Acidtest was brought in to design and build the entire platform from the ground up: a fast, SEO-friendly Next.js front end backed by a fully custom Sanity content model, with an interactive "Dogs Bollox" package builder at its heart.
The Brief
The core challenge was making a technically complex offering feel effortless. A camera package can involve a body, multiple lenses, filtration, grip, monitoring, transmission, and power - each with its own options, dependencies, and pricing. The site had to guide a Director of Photography through building their perfect kit in a few clear steps, while staying playful and on-brand throughout.
We also needed the whole catalogue - cameras, lenses, accessories, pricing, and editorial content - to be fully managed by the client without developer involvement, and the site had to rank well for high-intent rental searches across London.
What We Built
A Headless Architecture: Next.js + Sanity
The site is a Next.js application paired with a fully custom Sanity CMS. This headless setup keeps the front end fast and search-engine friendly while giving Cinepups complete control over their content.
Every camera body, lens, and accessory is modelled as a structured Sanity document, with categories, specifications, imagery, and pricing all editable in real time. Because the catalogue drives both the equipment listings and the package builder, a single update in the CMS flows through the entire site, no duplicated data, no manual sync.
The "Dogs Bollox" Package Configurator
The centrepiece of the build is an interactive package builder that walks the user through four clear steps:
Step 1 - Choose Your Camera
Users select one or more camera bodies from brands including ARRI, Sony, and Freefly. Every package starts with the body that fits the production.
Step 2 - Choose Your Lenses
A library of cinema prime and zoom lenses is included with each package, with the option to upgrade further at transparent prices.
Step 3 - Add Accessories
Filtration, grip, transmission, monitoring, power, and more can be layered on, with the configurator handling the conditional logic so users only ever see compatible options.
Step 4 - Submit the Order
Once the kit is finalised, the order is submitted for delivery or collection, with everything prepped, tested, and ready for the shoot dates.
The result is a guided flow that turns a normally fiddly, quote-by-email process into a self-serve experience that's quick, clear, and priced up front.
Single-Item Rentals
Alongside the package builder, the site supports straightforward single-item hire of cameras and lenses, pulling from the same Sanity catalogue so inventory and pricing stay consistent across the whole platform.
Design & Brand
A Playful Identity With Serious Kit
Cinepups leans into a strong, irreverent brand - built, fittingly, around the founders' miniature dachshunds. The design balances that personality against the credibility a professional rental house needs, pairing bold typography and motion with clean, production-grade equipment presentation.
Built for Performance and SEO
As a Next.js build, the site benefits from fast server-rendered pages, optimised imagery, and clean semantic structure. Metadata, Open Graph tags, canonical URLs, and a logical page hierarchy were all configured to help Cinepups rank for high-intent searches such as cinema camera and lens rental in London.
The Outcome
Cinepups launched with a platform that matches the quality of their kit. The package builder gives the business a distinctive, ownable feature no competitor offers, the Sanity CMS lets the team manage a growing inventory entirely on their own, and the Next.js foundation keeps everything fast and discoverable.
Early feedback from the production community - Directors of Photography and camera assistants across London - has been consistently strong, with repeat customers citing the speed of the ordering process and the clarity of the package pricing.
