Buying a camera without testing etc ?

[dee]

The impulse buy new Fuji X Pro 1 has worked out OK for me - great IQ with ideal 27mm and the price of an advanced point and shoot .
I also knew that I could recoup my outlay if required .
However , it appears that opportunities to try out a camera are more and more limited as decent camera shops die out .
I may have be offered a new camera and lens and would go for Fuji as the X Pro suits me , but I would not be able to look at alternatives .
Has anyone faced this dilemma , especially with expensive cameras and lenses ?

dee

 

[Ronald M]

Real camera stores are dying or have died. I see why the small guys gave up, but Calumet in Chicago (the real Calumet )? They had inventory, competitive pricing and a PARKING LOT. Helix the same.

All retail seems under pressure from mail order. Perhaps from time constraints because many of my family members have working moms with good jobs and do not have time to shop. Computers are easier. One orders nearly everything from Amazon. Drug store items and lots of food staples.

But photogs cut their own throats by using locals to shop and then buy in New York.
I can fight to get to Tamarkin as he located where it is difficult on purpose. No parking and no public transportation and I refuse to deal with Chicago traffic, red light, and speed cameras and police force and the gang warfare with random shootings.

Basically we brought this all on ourselves. My B&M handles Canon and Nikon and are well stocked. They will not carry "off brands" and third party lenses. They will order or dealer trade Leica stuff. Guess where I shop and BUY.

Big box has cameras, but just low end ones. I can but from Nikon USA direct.

 

[dee]

UK has chain stores , effectively white goods with a small camera dept , ( Currys ) where I chanced upon the X Pro body .
Even camera stores seem to have both limited ranges and limited knowledge It really seems to becoming desperately difficult to find the RIGHT camera .
If I were in a position to buy another camera , I would not know where to start - upgrade Sony A range ?
dee

 

[Dogman]

I live in a medium sized US city. There are zero photo stores here today. When I first moved here, there were two local competing photo shops with large stores and satellite shops in different parts of town. They carried a wide selection of all types of photographic gear. Both are long out-of-business. Today, unless you want a Canon or Nikon or P&S being carried by Walmart, Sam's Club or Best Buy (all tethered to an alarm system), you're out of luck in doing a test run of a camera. 'Course it's the same with other products. Everything is sold through a chain or franchise, from refrigerators to hamburgers.

Today, the best you can do is buy online from a dealer like B&H or Amazon that allow you to return the product within a specified period as long as it is in new condition with all included parts and packages. Apparently a lot of people do this. The last new camera I bought from B&H was apparently a return based on the repackaging and non-default menu setup. It made no difference to me since the camera was immaculate and it was exactly what I wanted. Amazon has the same liberal return policy.

 

[p.giannakis]

I live in a small town in UK which had a fantastic shop on the high street selling second hand film cameras (mostly). The council's decision to increase the rent for those buildings meant that 3 years later it closed down. He has moved online he told - much cheaper to rent a room for the gear and sell it online - haven't been able to figure out his e*ay id though.

 

[Godfrey]

I've been buying cameras and lenses since the late 1960s.

As much as there were camera shops easily available in the past, you never really could test a camera or lens thoroughly enough at the store to really know whether it suited you best anyway. Yes, you could get a basic feel for a "does it feel good in my hands?" kind of first impression ... But I never know whether I really like a camera or lens, whether it fit me and suits my photography, until I've had it for a month or three and made a thousand or more photographs with it. The best that having a dealer nearby who had one in stock could tell me was whether the one I was looking at was broken or simply, utterly incompatible with my fingers. This capability is what the "satisfaction return" policy is for nowadays. When the return period is over, you do what you always had to do in the past: you either suck it up and learn how to deal with whatever deficiencies there are, or you sell off the gear that doesn't work for you and buy something else, hopefully a little bit wiser.

I do business today with three or four dealers—one local, the others remote. I've known them all, personally, and done my business with them for up to thirty years. So for me, not a lot has changed; there are simply fewer shops locally. It hasn't really made much difference.

There is so much more information available nowadays via these social forums, on-line reviewers whose opinions you've come to find credible, and manufacturer sites, that choosing the right gear ahead of time is far far far easier.

G

 

[Ko.Fe.]

In my town big box store doesn't have many cameras anymore, only online. But where are several camera stores nearby or not so far.
To be honest I'm finding it to be not so critical. Every camera, every lens has been reviewed on-line multiple times and it helps me a lot more instead of going to the store. I get used to it with cameras which are not in camera stores anymore 🙂

 

[Bill Clark]

The local camera store here in Minneapolis, National Camera, is where I have bought all of my Leica used equipment.

But for consumables, like film, chemicals, new stuff and paper it's B & H. Some folks mourn the dominance of internet places like B & H; however, they built it from scratch. Others, well they found excuses to operate the same way as has been done for decades. I suppose they thought this internet thing was a fad or just plain didn't make the effort to adapt. Now they are wondering why and how they got left behind.

Same for Amazon as it was built by the vision and leadership of Jeff Bezos. I received a Barrons magazine in the mail today and an article mentions that it's Amazon who has the largest share of the cloud market.