[Sluggo]

I'm probably one of the few here who bought my DSLR (an *istDL) at a little main-street camera shop. At the time I knew I was spending more than if I'd mailordered, but once I decided to buy, I kinda wanted it in my hands immediately.

Months later, I'm very pleased. I've been taking advantage of the '10 free prints per month for a year' offer they threw in after the fact (nice surprise there) and had several convsersations with some pretty knowledgeable staff. Plus yesterday when I asked about sensor cleaning supplies, they just took care of it for me. They're not obligated to do sensor cleanings, but it was a few specks of dust that came off easily with a blower. No fuss. I'm definitely feeling taken care of.

This place also sells NikoCanoOlympo, but their window display is heavily Pentax weighted; they have sold out of the DLs and have K100D/K110D on hand, and told me yesterday they expect to do well with the K10D when they get it. I don't really plan to buy one, but I wish them all kinds of success. If my experience is typical, they must be getting good word-of-mouth advertising.

Maybe not many of you have a good local Pentax source, but I just wanted to post this to pimp the concept. If you do have a local dealer, you might want to consider spending a little extra to deal with somebody face to face. It can save trouble, uncertainty and aggravation, and be a better experience in intangible ways too.

[Arjay Bee]

Like you Sluggo, I bought my DL2 from a real store and they gave me a 10% of money spent on anything available in the store. Was able to get the remote cableswitch and a stack of lens cleaning cloths, print paper and so on with the cashback. Like you I like the idea of buying from people I can talk to. This is in Brisbane Australia.

[Photo Tramp]

I'm probably one of the few here who bought my DSLR (an *istDL) at a little main-street camera shop. At the time I knew I was spending more than if I'd mailordered, but once I decided to buy, I kinda wanted it in my hands immediately.

Months later, I'm very pleased. I've been taking advantage of the '10 free prints per month for a year' offer they threw in after the fact (nice surprise there) and had several convsersations with some pretty knowledgeable staff. Plus yesterday when I asked about sensor cleaning supplies, they just took care of it for me. They're not obligated to do sensor cleanings, but it was a few specks of dust that came off easily with a blower. No fuss. I'm definitely feeling taken care of.

This place also sells NikoCanoOlympo, but their window display is heavily Pentax weighted; they have sold out of the DLs and have K100D/K110D on hand, and told me yesterday they expect to do well with the K10D when they get it. I don't really plan to buy one, but I wish them all kinds of success. If my experience is typical, they must be getting good word-of-mouth advertising.

Maybe not many of you have a good local Pentax source, but I just wanted to post this to pimp the concept. If you do have a local dealer, you might want to consider spending a little extra to deal with somebody face to face. It can save trouble, uncertainty and aggravation, and be a better experience in intangible ways too.

Hi Sluggo;
Just want to say I agree with you 100%. I also bought my DL from a local shop and I get great service form them. When I walk into the shop they all know me by name and it is a great place to talk and learn from the pro's.
They have already Preordered my K10D and even if I wouldn't have the money for it when it comes in or if I wouldn't want it at all (like this will happen) it's ok they Know Im good for it and will hold for me for as long as it takes. they also will do a payment plan for me (like so much per week untill it's paid for ). Local shops are a great place to start anhobby such as ours.

Good Shooting.
Cheers: David

[xfraser]

Unfortunately most of the local camera stores around here closed quite awhile ago. We still have a Van's, but it has mostly Nikon cameras. We have bought our tripods, filters, etc. from them to support them as much as we can. There is another camera shop about 45 miles away, but I can never seem to make it there before they close.

[nate]

I'm probably one of the few here who bought my DSLR (an *istDL) at a little main-street camera shop. At the time I knew I was spending more than if I'd mailordered, but once I decided to buy, I kinda wanted it in my hands immediately.

Months later, I'm very pleased. I've been taking advantage of the '10 free prints per month for a year' offer they threw in after the fact (nice surprise there) and had several convsersations with some pretty knowledgeable staff. Plus yesterday when I asked about sensor cleaning supplies, they just took care of it for me. They're not obligated to do sensor cleanings, but it was a few specks of dust that came off easily with a blower. No fuss. I'm definitely feeling taken care of.

This place also sells NikoCanoOlympo, but their window display is heavily Pentax weighted; they have sold out of the DLs and have K100D/K110D on hand, and told me yesterday they expect to do well with the K10D when they get it. I don't really plan to buy one, but I wish them all kinds of success. If my experience is typical, they must be getting good word-of-mouth advertising.

Maybe not many of you have a good local Pentax source, but I just wanted to post this to pimp the concept. If you do have a local dealer, you might want to consider spending a little extra to deal with somebody face to face. It can save trouble, uncertainty and aggravation, and be a better experience in intangible ways too.

Just wondering how close your shop is to me.

[gadgetnu]

I love to support the "little guy" whenever possible. I doesn't always work out that way though. Like when I bought my K100D. The only camera shop I could find that carried it wanted $699 for it (plus tax). I got it on-line from Beach Camera for $587 with free shipping. I couldn't afford to pass up $154 in savings. And Beach Camera even exchanged the camera for another new one when I discovered a problem.

If we aren't talking about a big difference I would much rather do business locally. And I'd rather deal with a smaller independant store than a mega-store. I recently went out shopping for camera bags for my K100D. I wanted to actually see them and try them out for "fit" before buying one. I stopped in to a Ritz Camera store in a mall not far from here. They let me put my camera in several bags, and they even got out a longer telephoto lens for me to put on my camera so I'd know if the bag would work later on. After I decided on the bag I wanted, I could have easily gone home an ordered it on-line and saved about $10. But after they went through the trouble, I wanted to give them the sale. I bought the bag right there.

[JCSullivan]

Good on you to share these positive experiences.

[foxglove]

I've been thinking for a while to get a Lowepro Slingshot 200, and shopped them online. But today I went to one of the two real camera stores in town and there it was, so I bought it. About the same as on line, and I had the pleasure of fiddling with it and chatting cameras with the staff. Of course I went to the other camera store about 15 minutes later and found the same bag for $20 less... Oh well, that'll teach me to be impulsive. I may go back and point this out to the first store, maybe they'll give me a break on a rocket blower, should they ever get the smaller ones in. In both stores I had interesting conversations about photography with informed, enthusiastic people. I try to support them when I can!

Julie