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-   -   Camera Lenses - San Francisco (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/camera-lenses-san-francisco-734841/)

dmjapril Sep 7th, 2007 11:57 AM

Camera Lenses - San Francisco
 
Can anybody recommend any places to buy Olympus SLR camera lenses from in San Francisco, especially those where you can get a good deal?

dmjapril Sep 8th, 2007 09:59 AM

Anyone?

Bill_H Sep 8th, 2007 10:19 AM

The two you hear the most about are K&S in Palo Alto and San Jose Camera in San Jose ... both towns are south of SF though. Here's a photo link where this topic is discussed in more detail:

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HUVn

Bill

dmjapril Sep 10th, 2007 04:10 AM

Thanks for the link Bill. As I live in the UK, anything will be cheaper than here. Where will I find B&H in San Francisco? Is it near Union Square?

Bill_H Sep 10th, 2007 05:32 AM

<b>Where will I find B&amp;H in San Francisco?</b>

The B&amp;H that people are referring to in the photo.net posting is a mail order store in New York City. People in the post are saying they prefer buying via mail from B&amp;H in NY instead of shopping at the San Franciso area stores. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ ... B&amp;H will ship to England but then you get all those pesky import and VAT taxes added back in, which I assume you are trying to avoid.

I don't think they will ship to a hotel address because of fraud concerns (ie, if you wanted them to ship something to you in SF) but there are other reputable mail order companies that will do this, I think Hunt's Camera in Boston will ship to a hotel address ... http://www.huntsphotoandvideo.com/

You can also try http://www.resellerratings.com/ and enter the name of the product you wish to purchase and the site shows the stores with prices that carry it, plus &quot;user reviews&quot;. You may find a northern California company on the list ... unfortunately there are many (far too many) companies that post low prices and then won't actually deliver unless you buy extras, so read the user reviews carefully. That's why a company like B&amp;H is held in high esteem, because they have low prices, good service, and no games.

So if you decide to buy from someone off the resellerratings site make sure they have a high customer satisfaction rating with several hundred replies (some of the sleezeball companies &quot;rate&quot; themselves highly, so you want many entries to be sure the rating is legit).

Bill


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