Where to buy photographic equipment and consumables

doggy · 07-11-2006 11:59pm

AJ purdy (www.ajpurdy.co.uk)

Just bought a Nikon off them, extremely quick, efficient and informative with speedy responses to queries

Also, don't be fooled by Camerabox.co.uk availability - said they'd have it in on 23rd October, then "end of next week" and no sign so i cancelled the order and went to AJ Purdy's.

And if you're looking for memory cards, support our own and buy from GoBeyond (www.memoryc.com , www.shop4memory.com). I have bought numerous items from them and delivery has always been verry prompt. Prices are excellent too.

Biker.ie · 08-11-2006 6:45pm

doggy wrote:

AJ purdy (www.ajpurdy.co.uk)

Just bought a Nikon off them, extremely quick, efficient and informative with speedy responses to queries

Ditto, top blokes in AJPurdys and great prices! (wish I could say the same about parkcameras)

Wey Cameras are expensive but tend to have rare and highly sought after stuff in stock;
http://www.weycameras.co.uk/

Huggy Bear · 22-11-2006 10:45am

I odered cokin filters and P-sries holder from http://www.warehouseexpress.com: Good experience, fast delivery and very user friendly (email & phone)

I odered:
P-Series holder
Adapter ring + 2 ND filters

warehouseexpress £50 (includes £10 delivery ... )
Jessops wanted to charge me €210!!!! for the same stuff ...

I currently have a lens on order from warehouseexpress, best price I've found & I'm looking forward to it

spareman · 01-12-2006 2:13am

Complete amature here, going to buy a camera tomorrow, Was looking at a fuji finepix S9500, €500 new in curry's, just wondering am I getting good value or should I be looking at a 2nd hand digital slr? thanking you in advance.

Fajitas! · 01-12-2006 10:34am

To be honest, save up another 200 quid and get the 400D.

It has plenty more features, and you can get lenses to suit what you want.

Valentia · 01-12-2006 10:37am

Spareman, start a thread and you will get answers. This sticky doesn't get many views now.

Edit: Ohh except for Faj whose lurking everywhere:D

Fajitas! · 01-12-2006 11:26am

It's called College. Art college in fact

paddylonglegs · 12-12-2006 5:36pm

weird,checking out olympus mju 750.Camera centre has them at 420,while camera exchange have them at 369.Most sensible people shop around, how could the camera centre get away with that?

Fajitas! · 12-12-2006 8:22pm

People might find the Camera Centre first... That's business for ye!

You should try Gunn's

doggy · 11-01-2007 9:49pm

Just had a very positive buying experience (Nikon MB-D80 battery grip) from:

http://stores.ebay.ie/Hong-Kong-Supplies

Harry Lime · 12-01-2007 11:31am

I read about cam-ireland.com on this thread and bought a Nikon D50 off of them last week.

The website looks a bit crummy, but the transaction went so smoothly that I thought they deserved another mention here.

It took 5 working days for my camera to arrive from Germany.

18-01-2007 11:34am

I found lately that http://www.technikdirekt.de have the best prices on memory cards ,for a standard european website.
Also they stock a good range of cokin filters.

Funkstard · 18-01-2007 6:56pm

Anyone know of any stores around the Dún Laoghaire area that would sell Canon battery chargers?

Received an Ixus 800 today, however the eBay store 'forgot' to tell me that the camera was refurbished, and they sent me a charger with a plug adaptor I've never seen before. The story is emilyandlily, very annoyed after all this. Camera seems to work fine, but still they should tell you if it's going to be refurbished.

shepthedog · 26-01-2007 4:42pm

Just a word of warning for anyone thinking of buying from eXpansys..
I ordered two sets of Sony Batteries for my Sony H2 on November 20th, and over two months later I just received them this wk after numerous calls.. Amazingly enough when I rang to finally cancel the order altogther they just happened to be getting in the stock two days later...
To top it all off I asked what they were offering as a gesture of goodwill for keeping me waiting two months.. what did I get?? 3 Euros off postage.. what a joke.. Will never buy from them again..

Rudekid · 02-02-2007 9:24pm

If you make the wise decision to buy you equipment in a actual camera shop. Whatever you do don't walk in and mention the web prices. It will only drive the saleperson mad and get his back up.

I pay 175,000 euro rent per year in my store on South Anne St. If you expect me to be able to pay a person to give you advice, show you the camera and then match a garden shed merchant on the web's price you are not in the real world. Asking me or any other retailer to do so is insulting and very irritating.

I think the web is great and I buy many items on it such as Book's and DVD's and I enjoy the savings. But I would never buy and item that comes with a warranty. If it needs one then things might go wrong. If they go wrong I need somewhere to go. The web is littered with the horror stories regarding this problem.

My advice is shop around for the best price and service on the street. If you can't get a cash discount off the product you want then talk about getting some discount on some extras. You will always need extras. If you don't have the cash now agree a future price and come back when you can afford it.

Pixels are one of the biggest retailers of digital cameras in Ireland. We are rarely out of line with pricing. In fact we are usually cheaper. Believe me as an Irish company we have to buy in large quantities to beat the UK store prices. The Irish market is effectively the same size as Manchester. We now stock all the major SLR models including Nikon D200's D70s's D80's D40'S, Canon 5D's 30D's 400d"s, Olympus E400's etc.

I hope these tips help you when choosing where to buy your equipment. As I've said in previous posts, if you mention you are a board member in PIXELS South Anne St. You will be well looked after with extra discount.

Best of Luck:)

Sangeetha · 15-02-2007 1:44pm

Hi Friends,

Thank u very much for ur details.It is very useful for all...

magicbastarder · 15-02-2007 2:02pm

despite the fact that i've never shopped in pixels (most of my gear is film), i'd heartily echo what rudekid said.
i bought my DSLR in a camera shop in town - being a regular customer, they gave me a discount. it still wasn't as low as i'd have paid on the web, but paying an extra €100 for the benefits of dealing with a shop assistant where there's mutual trust, where you know there won't be any issues with credit cards or delivery, where you know any issues with the camera will be dealt with promptly and won't involve having to pack your camera off in the post, etc., is well worth it.

Valentia · 15-02-2007 7:32pm

magicbastarder wrote:

but paying an extra €100 for the benefits of dealing with a shop assistant where there's mutual trust, where you know there won't be any issues with credit cards or delivery, where you know any issues with the camera will be dealt with promptly and won't involve having to pack your camera off in the post, etc., is well worth it.

Ah but there is the rub. If the difference was only €100 wouldn't we all buy everything here. I can give an example of a difference of precisely €431 on a lens that I can buy for €508 elsewhere. I'd want to be stark raving mad to pay that much extra. I'd be very interested to know what that "garden shed" merchant is paying in rent for their prime full block location in Manhattan.

magicbastarder · 15-02-2007 8:13pm

i've bought a flatbed scanner online (from komplett.ie) due to canon's pricing policy creating a 55% difference in price - €175 online, €270 in the shops - but at least there, i know komplett have a trading address in ireland.

deRanged · 18-02-2007 1:15pm

Valentia wrote:

. If the difference was only €100 wouldn't we all buy everything here.

I was haggling to buy my 400D in a shop in Cork just after Christmas and basically said to the shop guy that if he could get to within a 100 euro or so of the web price that I'd buy in his shop. He couldn't drop the camera but threw in a memory card and a bag, which brought the price down effectively to about 100 over web prices, so I walked out of the shop with the camera.

Peace of mind and free advice is well worth it to me.

Ideo · 18-02-2007 1:32pm

I was looking for the Lowepro Orion Trekker II and found it online for around 60 euro including shipping and figured that it was probably the best price I was going to get anywhere. Went into Jessops and it cost €83 or there abouts and the camera shop at the top of Dawson Street had the first edition for €70, so I figured that I will but Irish and go to Gunnes and see what the prices there are. It was €55! And it wasn't mispriced!

I'll have to pick up a few filters in the coming weeks and I know I am going to go there as opposed to online, the customer service is worth the extra few euro. i have to say that without a doubt, John Gunne is one of the friendliest salespeople I've ever met!

Roen · 15-03-2007 2:14pm

Gotta recommend http://www.picstop.co.uk/ Good for memory and gadgets.

Biro · 20-03-2007 1:01pm

Valentia wrote:

Ah but there is the rub. If the difference was only €100 wouldn't we all buy everything here. I can give an example of a difference of precisely €431 on a lens that I can buy for €508 elsewhere. I'd want to be stark raving mad to pay that much extra. I'd be very interested to know what that "garden shed" merchant is paying in rent for their prime full block location in Manhattan.

I think I know which retailer you're referring to, but the problem there is good old Irish/European VAT! Thats something that no EU retail outlet can contend with really.
Look at everything States side, all is cheaper. Cars for example. Now I know there's the VRT issue here, but look at UK prices (which we consider cheap) compared to US prices. On that basis, the UK people are getting ripped off!!

TJM · 26-03-2007 7:19pm

A few ebay photographic sellers I've used and I'd recommend:

Landloop (US)

Gadgetinfinity (HK)

Fotoextras (US) (with special mention for going out of their way to get a lens to me despite the best efforts of the US Postal Service)

localchap · 02-04-2007 12:13am

very good ebay seller, UK based, bought from them 24-70 f/2.8, 580ex, great prices very close to US pricing, those lads are very flexible on discounts if you contact them and buy directly, by the way Nikon D2Xs is as same as US price!!!!
they operate from both, ebay and amazon.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Digital-4-U

http://www.amazon.co.uk/shops/digital-4-u

Roen · 09-04-2007 5:30pm

Good site here for comparing UK based dealers prices. Still don't beat our oriental cousins though.
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/index.html

Spyral · 13-04-2007 1:22am

Pixels are one of the biggest retailers of digital cameras in Ireland. We are rarely out of line with pricing. In fact we are usually cheaper. Believe me as an Irish company we have to buy in large quantities to beat the UK store prices. The Irish market is effectively the same size as Manchester. We now stock all the major SLR models including Nikon D200's D70s's D80's D40'S, Canon 5D's 30D's 400d"s, Olympus E400's etc.

I hope these tips help you when choosing where to buy your equipment. As I've said in previous posts, if you mention you are a board member in PIXELS South Anne St. You will be well looked after with extra discount.

whats the best you can do on a Nikon D40x and gig memory card

?

But I do agree that shops are the best for stuff like that. you do need a PHYSICAL LOCATION to be able to take it back to when/if something goes wrong. You also need people in a shop to harrass/bounce questions off (it only counts as harassment after the 99th question :P) and ask for advice.

Also considering the scale of the investment you would be *insane* not to get it in a shop.

It just guts me that you can get a DSLR + 2 lens' for the same prioce as the SLR on its own here..

sternn · 16-04-2007 7:59pm

Amazingly cheap site for printing, and for cameras/cards...my friend told me about this and haven't stopped using it since

www.printdigital4u.ie

Darby OGill · 17-04-2007 2:56pm

Just a thumbs-up for Gunn's on Wexford St. This shop is not modern, spacious or stocking 20 versions of everything. What you do get is incredible personal attention, a sense of genuine enthusiasm for photography and (in my case) very keen prices compared to the majors. Only Jessops was cheaper, and they matched it.

Do yourself a favour and at least check it out before you part with your cash.

magicbastarder · 17-04-2007 3:10pm

i went in to buy slide sheets in jessops a year or two ago. they charged €7 for jessops branded ones; gunns charged €5 for jessops branded ones.
i told the manager this, and he told me the price was staying the same.

i haven't been back since.

Where to buy photographic equipment and consumables

Comments