Le Camera & Video

This place is actually really good. A lot of really good finds, a diamond in the rough. Staff very friendly and helpful, products and materials are very well taken care of. Everything is reasonably priced and the repairs are very good. Thank you for all the support and help.
From a local photographer.
Sony a7r
35 mm 2.8
55 mm 1.8
Qx10
And a couple of other cameras.

It’s a disorganized store full of new, used and possibly just wall ornament gear. I’ve sold items there and have always felt I got a good price and I’ve bought used items that have been on — par price wise with similar items in the same condition online. This is a place to go and take your time. It’s not B&H and it’s not Best Buy; it’s a mom and pop store that will help you as soon as they can. While you’re waiting, look around for some gems. And it’s great to have a local camera shop (which seems to have vanished from most of the Northeast). Support them; it will soon be impossible to find pro and consumer gear outside of a big box store if you don’t.

Just walked out of there. Went inside a few minutes ago and there were two guys behind the counter. Granted, one was helping a customer; however, no one acknowledged me to wait since I was the second customer. However, when another customer they knew entered, the second guy attended her.
VERY poor customer service! Don’t expect my money. Oh by the way, I am a former retail salesperson; so I know about customer service.

I purchased a lens here on 6÷13÷14… I had done my research online first and read the reviews about this shop. That being said, I felt good about buying here. I found the lens that I wanted at a fair price and I didn’t have to pay shipping, yay. This place is disorganized and dusty. They will kind of help you find what you need. This is not your warm fuzzy shopping experience. Also, I wish they had reminded me to buy a UV filter for my new lens… I called back and the guy was kinda snotty about answering my questions about their stock. Apparently, they only carry «BMW or Rolls Royce» priced filters. Not helpful. I don’t know what brands those are exactly. Do your price checking/​shopping online and only buy here if you really need instant gratification and the price is right.
Giving two stars because they had the lens I needed in stock.
If you still develop your own prints, they have chemicals and paper sitting around… in piles. They also have backdrops, tripods, camera bags and metric tons of used equipment. If you know your stuff, then it’s safe to shop here.

Every time that I have needed rush photos printed with custom sizes, they have always been done right away. I always good advice in regards if the requested size will print well.

I’m an avid photographer who owns about $ 8k work of equipment and have purchased a fair amount from them (almopst all of it in one shot). I mostly buy my equipment from B&H (the best in my opinion), but I try to support local retailers when I can as it is incredibly difficult for them to compete with the like of amazon etc. I find them to be ok to talk to, but I feel that you have to go in already educated, because of their hard selling tactics. They also have terrible equipment buy back prices, and their used equipment is mostly overpriced. Also, the quoted prices vary from salesman to salesman. I have since purchased accessory items such as bags or cleaning equipment from them and their prices are competetive, but I will not make any larger equipment purchases from them mostly because of the premium prices they charge. I have never used their printing services, so I cannot comment on that.

I have to preface this by saying I never bought anything from them and I’m glad. I called asking about a lens and was told there were 8 customers on the floor with the lone salesman and the guy I was talking to was in the lab. I went in to see if they had what I wanted and the place was empty… went from packed to nothing inside within 10 minutes. The kid I was talking to seemed more set for a skateboard competition than camera sales. He was talking to me about about people and places I’ve never heard of when he could’t find the lens I wanted and I had to stop him to see what he was talking about. He told me to get a card and call him (Todd) the next day to see if the lens came in from the other store (no clue what store he was talking about). I called the next day and was told the salesman (Todd) was tied up on the phone so the same guy I talked with the night before took my name and number and assured me the salesman would call me back immediately. I wound up calling back 45 minutes later and spoke to the same guy once again who said nobody named «Todd» worked there. I told him I just spoke with him and he was confused before saying something like «Oh, yeah». I asked for the salesman and he told me was on the phone and couldn’t get him. The guy asked me what I was looking for and I told him and he tried to steer me to buy another lens because he didn’t have what I wanted… phone shopping with these guys sucked. I will steer clear of L Camera.

pros– find really good deals on used equipment every so often.
cons– overpriced, they say they will price match BHPhoto or adorama but they do not.
First off, I used to run a smart storefront where the internet would litterally kill my business at times unless i did price match went lower etc, so I do believe in supporting your local shops especially in photography, automotive parts etc. But seriously I will never buy anything from them again. I started goign to their store in the beginning of my photography career and ive noticed a few things on how they do business. The owner Le isnt terrible, you can haggle with him on some things but is very stubborn in his ways.
For one the attempted upsale on parts/​pricing is insane. He litterally tried to sell my friend while i was there with him a Canon 7D for 1500 after trade in of my friends 50D when the 7D first came out (mind you 18 – 55 kit on the 7D and the 50D wasnt even a year old yet). He pushes cheap parts onto people too another time he attempted to sell me a transverse CF card for my camera 8gb camera for nearly double of what BHphoto or adorama sells it for and tells me its better than sandisk, while i specifically said when i went in because i was desperate for a card that i wanted a sandisk 8gb CF card.
If you want to support a local camera store George’s Camera is alot more helpful and they will describe what you purchase otherwise dont waste your time in le camera. Aside from testing glass out on your camera body or getting a hands on feel for a P&S, spend the money at BH or adorama and get cheap to free shipping and it coming to your house the next day.

Let me start off this review with that I am not a professional photographer, I’m just your average person who wants a more than halfway decent camera but not something that is going to cost a fortune. Maybe Le Camera is a wonderland for people who have collections of cameras and spend thousands on the hobby, I don’t have insight into that. I was just a customer looking to get a good camera and support a local store.
I bought a Canon S90 secondhand here at the end of Aug 2010. I wanted the S95 but I was running up against a vacation and it didn’t look like the S95 would be released in time so I bought the S90 for $ 300. It stopped working a week and a half later while I was on vacation. I brought it back and was told since I’d just bought it they’d split the difference with me on the repair. They charged me $ 75 to clean the camera, I was told the camera was full of sand. Thing is, I didn’t go anywhere sandy on my vacation so they sold me the camera full of sand.
I thought that maybe that’s just what I got for buying a camera secondhand but you’d think a store who buys sensitive equipment like cameras would check them out and clean them up before buying or selling them.
Today I went in to see about selling them back the S90 and getting the S95. I was told that due to the poor condition my camera was in (pretty much the exact same condition which it was in when I bought it 3 ½ months ago) they’d only give me $ 100. Now maybe they don’t want tons of secondhand cameras since there’s likely a small market for them, and I didn’t expect to get the full amount back but I was expecting to get more than a ¹⁄₃ of what I paid just a few months back.
I then got the high pressure to buy a «better» camera than the S95 I’d come in for, the Canon SX30 IS. First I was told the price was $ 499, only $ 100 more than the S95. Not 10 minutes later I was told it was on sale for $ 399, the same cost as the S95. I didn’t appreciate the hard sell nor the suggestion that I just buy both cameras and I just do it now, after all what was there to think about?
I’m glad I walked out not buying anything, that Canon SX30 IS that was on sale for $ 399 can be had online for about $ 50 cheaper and their original price of $ 499 is $ 60 more than Canon USA gives as its retail price.
This place is a rip off for the average Joe. I can appreciate that small stores need to charge a bit more, they can’t compete with the buying power of a Best Buy or an online only retailer. And I can appreciate that as a small specialty store they likely get lots of people coming in to pump them for information and then make their purchases elsewhere which is likely frustrating and maddening. However, I don’t see how this place can stay in business when they just want to screw the customers they do get. I DO want a new camera but I sure as heck won’t be buying it, or anything else, here.