London Camera Exchange

Great store and staff, very knowledgeable and friendly, large range of cameras and equipment

Located virtually next door to the Savoy Hotel, is the London Camera Exchange in the Strand;
this shop branch is just part of a nation-​wide franchise, under the LCE Group and they have other branches up and down the UK, trading under the same name.
The only thing, I like from this shop is the Think Tank camera bags.
But I have strongly dislike the customer service from these people.
You’d be better off shopping at Richard Caplan (Pall Mall), Classic Camera (Bloomsbury) Aperture Photographic (Fitzrovia), Calumet (Euston & Soho) and/​or Fixation (Vauxhall)

Went here while on vacation, and I was very pleased. Robin gave an excellent consultation and I left happy with a new piece of equipment. Yes, it cost more than ordering online or purchasing in the US, but I would have missed all those extra shots without my new 18 – 270 Tamron. :) Well worth it.
Go check them out! Look at their used filters/​lenses/​etc because they have lots of stuff to choose from.

LCE was recommended by a professional photographer friend who kindly arranged to meet me at the shop, as I know very little about photography. I’d previously done some internet research and identified a couple of DSLR cameras that might fill the bill for a beginner, yet also had facilities included to experiment with as I became a bit more confident so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted and price to pay.
It’s not a big shop but was very busy and appears to have a very good stock of both new and second-​hand stock. Despite being busy, the very pleasant lady assistant was extremely helpful, obviously knowleadgeable and even gave me some useful freebies (SD card, lens filter and camera bag!). You can buy cheaper on the web but you may then risk all the possible difficulties and dangers that that can involve. However, LCE’s price was competitive with other known outlets/​department stores, etc and you’ll have the benefits of great service and expertise.
When professional photographers use the shop, you know you’re in the right place. I have no hesitation in highly recommending LCE.

I just had to write this review of the London camera exchange. The staff well were brilliant so helpful. I wanted to purchase a camera for my online business I sell high end greeting cards! They even set the camera up for me in the shop and did all the settings. It is so nice to see this type of service as afraid to say it has almost gone now most shops just want your money and have no real knowledge. Really do recommend this company if you want good old fashioned service.
Michael

This is an amazing little shop. They sell a few new lenses, cameras, tripods, bags and a lot accessories, but it specialises in second hand kit, from all of the major brands and all of the lesser ones. If you want to come in and pick up an old Canon, Pentax, Leica, Contax or ‘blad, this is your place. They have the usual range of lenses you would expect and a number of the esoteric and exotic. They also have box upon box of old kit which I’m interested in but would never buy. In truth, e-​bay is cheaper for about everything, but there again, you don’t get to pick up and play before you buy with e-​bay. The staff are all helpful and there seem to be a lot of ‘characters’ here either working or browsing. Check out their website if you’d like to know what they’ve got in before you pay them a visit.

This is a great shop whether you are a camera novice or pro. All of the staff are knowledgeable about their products, and very generous with their time in explaining things to you.
They stock a vast range of new and used cameras and lenses, as well as accessories such as bags, cases, tripods, batteries, memory cards and film. Their products are reasonably priced — you may be able to get some things cheaper online, but you won’t get the expert knowledge. Also, if you have any camera kit to flog, they buy or trade second hand cameras and lenses.
They also provide a service for development of film.

I went in here to buy a DSLR. It is not a very big shop but the staff were very helpful, explained lots of things (such as to why the amount of megapixels doesn’t really matter past a certain amount) and eventually came away with a Pentax K10D. They reduced the price by 6 quid as there was no manual, comes with a guarantee for a year. Really helpful service and I really recommend, especially if you are like me and don’t really know what you are doing!