Any store that has employees interested in the stuff in the back room will be pretty good. The hard part is finding them. Too many "sales" clerks today couldn't find their ass with both hands.
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Any store that has employees interested in the stuff in the back room will be pretty good. The hard part is finding them. Too many "sales" clerks today couldn't find their ass with both hands.
I stopped by Central Camera last month when I was visiting Chicago. I must say that I felt really saddened when I saw the store. Years ago it was thriving. Now it seems to be holding on by a thread. I don't think that the store has purchased any large format equipment for inventory in a long time. I bought some roll film and left. The people who work in Central Camera seem very nice; but, like it or not, they are witnessing the end of their kind of business.
I always stop in there when I am in Chicago. I can usually find something odd that I need and buy it. Over the years that has been everything from VCs to tripod heads. i hope they hang on. I think, because of their proximity to SAIC and Columbia, that they do allot of student business and students are big on film these days.
So it was their reliability that caused them to advertise their prices when there were 20 other places advertising the same thing in the same issue for much less? My question wasn't why they advertised, it was why they advertised their prices under these circumstances.
You know, I've walked past it a couple times, but only when closed. Next time I'm down in the loop I'll make a point to stop by.
I bought my very first view camera from Central Camera in the mid-1970s from, then owner, H.R. Flesh, whose father, I believe started the business in 1899. H.R. studied to become a doctor, and upon graduation, had to choose between medicine and the family camera store. Mr. Flesh's advise to me was to buy a low-end view camera (he sold me an Omega F) and to sink my money into good lenses (2 Schnieders). I still have & use both the camera and the lenses (although in the last couple days the bellows are getting their second round of taping up the pinholes). His advice has served me well.
Rick Tapio
I work around the corner from Central Camera, so I go by to window shop at least once a week. To me, the low point was about 6 months ago, when they had little in the way of new digital cameras and the same used equipment they had been displaying for quite a while. Since then, they still do not have as much in the way of digital as they had a year ago, but they have a lot more used film equipment on display. Prices are higher than other sources, but at least they have film and chemicals for sale (and recently have gotten some more chemicals in stock). I think the move away from digital is good, as there is no way they can compete with Best Buy, etc., on the PS digitals or with Internet sales on the high-end digital cameras. By serving basic digital needs and establishing themselves as a source for film and related equipment, they might just be able to survive.
Bob