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View Full Version : Local shops...a rant and a pleasant surprise!



Moparmike
April 8th, 2010, 18:43
So I took a little shopping trip today and one of the things on the list was a sensor cleaning kit for my DL.
Haven't cleaned it up in a couple years and it's getting pretty fuzzy inside!

Stopped at the local Ritz...
No swab kits. How about a new rocket blower? NOPE!
But they did offer that they could do a cleaning for around $75. It would take about a week though.
I politely declined since this store is 90 miles away and I only go that direction once every couple months.


I knew the Monarch store in this town had closed up a couple years ago, but I found out today that a local pro shooter (who used to run the in-house lab for this Monarch location) had teamed up with a regional printing lab to reopen the place shortly after Monarch jumped ship.
I got a cleaning kit, a new Hurricane blower, and replacement lens caps for a couple of my old beater lenses...right off the rack!
Spent a bit of time chatting with the shooter (who also works the in-house lab when he's not out shooting) and checking out some used glass. Just like the old Monarch store, he tried to turn me from the dark side of Pentax by dangling a new Canon T2i under my nose. I didn't bite though! :d
No excuses about not having something on the shelf, no waffling around, and a friendly face behind the counter instead of just another bored college kid...it almost felt like I had walked into the old camera store that I used to frequent back when I was in school! I thought that stuff died out years ago!

Panther_99FS
April 8th, 2010, 19:39
Local shops are great! I love Camera Exchange in San Antonio :jump:

Tracon
April 8th, 2010, 20:44
Nice story! I'm happy that you had karma on your side. The T2i is a beautiful camera btw.

JorisVandenBerghe
April 9th, 2010, 10:32
Real Pentaxians stick to the dark side, eh Mike ;) ?

I love shops like the one you said. My local dealer is about the same - the only thing I don't like there is that the high-end lenses (like Sony's G-series) are generally spoken relatively expensive. Fortunately I could get my 70-400 within 4 days and for a very reasonable price (€ 1469, recommended price is € 1640 I reckon) at his shop.