Camera store in San Francisco

cwaersten

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Hi, i'm from Norway, and i'm planning a road trip in the US this summer. I am flying in to San Francisco and there the plan is to buy myself a new camera (Nikon D90). My question is if anyone has any tips on good stores with reasonable prices in SF?

Thanks in advance (if anyone has any good tips on things to do in SF i'll be happy for them aswell, i have a few days to fill before the rest of the group gets there)
 
DON'T buy in SF proper. There isn't a camera store in the whole city where they don't price gouge you to the point of utter insanity. They make a positive game there out of fleecing tourists in search of new camera gear!

Take the BART out to Berkeley. There's a really good store there called Looking Glass Photo and they'll do you a lot better than any store in the city proper will. It's on Telegraph Ave. They're pretty much an institution. Most of the local students and pros shop there. They have a good knowledgeable staff and decent prices though you might have to dicker them down a bit. Do it, they don't mind. They expect it there. People do it all the time.

In particular stay FAR away from any camera shop in Chinatown, in the Financial District or the Fisherman's Warf area. The salespeople in those stores are extremely shady. They will literally stand there and hawk equipment like lenses towards anyone they see with a decent camera.

Once they lure you into the store they'll try to bait and switch you up to a "better" camera and half of them will offer to "trade in" take your old camera off your hands and give you a nicer price while they do it, but the price is usually anything but reasonable and you can always do far better elsewhere.

They always jack up prices on everything actually from lenses to film cards.

LG is about the only honest store I ever ran into out there, seriously.
 
Thanks, thats excellent advice, and i'll definitely check out the store you mentioned.
 
You're welcome. LG will take good care of you if you let them. Oh, and their books section unless they changed it is well worth a look too. I used to go into there just to read sometimes!
 
I live in south of market. Definitely not a good idea to buy serious gear anywhere in the city. I would take extra care to avoid the places right around Union Square. I'm pretty sure some of those places are selling fake stuff.
 

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