Run the camera on film, television, live sport and news. Heavy gear, long days, union rates.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $76,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $40,000 at the lower end to about $114,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 6 years after high school, on the usual route.
$500 to $40,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$76,000
Lower end
$40,000
Upper end
$114,000
Job Bank's national median is $36.35 an hour, about $76,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower and upper ends are Job Bank's low and high wages for everyone in the group, $19 and $55 an hour.
As an assistant
Camera trainee, second assistant camera, or a local news videographer
On film sets you start as a trainee or a second assistant camera, pulling cable and loading media, not operating. That is normal and it is how you learn.
$37.51 an hour
The median in British Columbia, the highest of the three provinces Job Bank reports
Quebec ($37.39) is almost the same, and Ontario is at $35.78. Overtime after 10 or 12 hours, and equipment rental if you own your own gear, add to what you earn.
Roughly, all in
$500 to $40,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is starting as a trainee or assistant with no school at all, paying only a union permit and the first dues. Nobody needs to own a camera to work on union sets, because the production rents the gear. The high end is a private film school such as Vancouver Film School at about $36,950 for twelve months, plus a modest starter kit for freelance and corporate work. A public college film diploma sits in between at roughly $8,000 to $16,000 for two years.
You do not need to own a camera to work on union sets. The production rents the gear. Owning a kit matters only for corporate and freelance work.
Overtime
Film days run long and hours past the standard day are paid at a premium.
Specialty gear
Operators certified on a stabilizing rig, a crane or a drone can take specialty bookings.
Equipment rental
Freelancers renting their own camera to a client bill for the gear as well as the labour.
Live sport
Steady seasonal contracts, and the broadcast trucks always need hands.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Nobody hires a camera operator on a diploma. They hire on credits and on whether you are easy to have on set.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Media arts, physics and any shop course. Shoot constantly and learn to edit what you shoot.
Training (optional)
1 to 2 years
A 2-year college film or broadcasting diploma, or a one-year private film school. Or start as a paid production assistant instead.
Get on set
1 to 2 years
Trainee or second assistant camera on shorts, commercials and low-budget productions. Say yes to everything.
Join the union
2 to 4 years in
Work permit days on union productions, then apply for membership in a film technicians local such as IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 873 in Toronto.
Operate
Year 4 and beyond
Move from first assistant camera to operator, and later to director of photography if you want to light as well as shoot.
Media arts
Framing, exposure and editing.
Physics
Optics and light are the whole craft.
Technology or shop
You are rigging heavy equipment safely all day.
Physical education
A shoulder-mounted camera rig is genuinely heavy.
There is no certification for camera work. The real gate is the union. Most film and television productions in Canada are union shoots, and crews come from locals of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) and from Unifor in Ontario. You usually start by working permit days as a non-member and then apply once you have enough hours and someone to vouch for you.
In Quebec the school route is a 3 year CEGEP (public college) program with no tuition, and film and TV (television) set work runs under AQTIS 514 IATSE (the Quebec union of image and sound technicians).
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
No set courses are required for the college program.
Techniques cinématographiques et télévisuelles DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
Program 589.C0: camera work, lighting, sound and editing on 4K gear, plus live TV. At Cégep de Jonquière, with year one possible in Montreal, and at Collège Bart.
Work placement
Final term
The Jonquière program ends with a 5 week placement in the industry.
Start on union sets as a permit holder
Any time
No diploma is needed. Create a profile with AQTIS 514 IATSE and take its required orientation course, then you can work as a permissionnaire (permit holder).
Earn credits, then join
Varies
Each work day on a union set earns 1 credit, under 5 hours earns half. With enough credits and the required training, you can become a full member.
From AQTIS 514 IATSE (the Quebec image and sound technicians' union). Full members pay no permit fee. Work days take 6 to 8 weeks to show up in your credit count.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Stabilizer and gimbal work
Operating a body-mounted stabilizing rig is a separate speciality.
Drone flying
Needs a Transport Canada pilot certificate for remotely piloted aircraft.
Live multi-camera
Sport and studio shows. Different discipline, very steady work.
Underwater or aerial
Small groups of specialists, extra safety training.
A driver's licence
Gear moves in trucks and locations are rarely on a bus route.
Set safety training
Productions increasingly require it before you step on the floor.
Colour and lighting knowledge
The route from operator to director of photography.
A calm temperament
You are the person everyone is watching when something breaks.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Call time is early and the camera truck is unloaded before anyone else arrives. Build the camera, check the lenses, mark the first setup with the director and the director of photography. Then hours of shoot, move, rebuild, shoot again, carrying a rig that weighs 15 to 25 kilograms. Lunch six hours in, by contract. Wrap after 12 hours, pack the truck, and drive to a different location tomorrow.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Canadian Media Producers Association counts 181,360 jobs tied to film and television production in Canada in 2024 to 2025 (April 2024 to March 2025), 115,630 of them direct jobs on productions.
Of the 181,360 jobs in Canadian screen production in 2024 to 2025, 97,920, or 54%, came from foreign location and service productions, the Canadian Media Producers Association reports.
IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 873 in Toronto runs a phone line productions call to staff a crew. Being on that list is how steady work actually starts.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Film, TV and music first, then the rest of the field. See every career in creative.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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