Your favorite vendors?

We all know the big retail names like B&H, but who are some of the other photo equipment/photo accessory vendors you've had good luck with? Please feel free to post them!

Kirk products.
And yes, I paid full amount for the items I bought.

I second Kirk products, and also Really Right Stuff. For the rest I do business with dutch vendors mostly.

- jacco

Wildlife Watching Supplies

Purveyors of really good camera accessories for the Nature Photographer. Unique in their field (at least in the UK)

NPN gift shop for Wimberley, of course. Occasionally Kirk Enterprises and/or RRS.

Cabelas. www.cabelas.com


Kent in SD

KEH is my all-time favorite gear supplier. Their customer service is second to none, and they stand behind what they sell. I've also had good experiences with Kirk and B&H.

Thanks for the feedback - keep it coming!

Allens in Pa,,,,

Really Right Stuff - with new ownership in place they are super nice and helpful. Unfortunately, still expensive!

Copper Hill - for the Sensor Sweep/Pec Pads/Eclipse

Singh Ray - for filters

Atlex - Great service and the cheapest prices I've found for Epson printers and ink.

Inkjet Art - I think they have either been bought out by Inkjet Goodies, or either maybe they bought Inkjet Goodies. Somehow there's a connection but I don't know what it is (Obviously ) Good supplier for Moab paper (and other brands as well)

Hyperdrive - I was real nervous about ordering off this website because it looks kinda like a jackleg operation, but they turned out to be very quick and responsive. I've heard these same comments from others as well. Been very pleased with the unit.

Clear bags - Great supplier of clear bags and other supplies for packaging prints, etc.

I second John Mike's recommendation of KEH in Atlanta. Super nice people.

Oh yeah, for non-camera stuff - L.L. Bean. Absolutely the best customer service in the world, bar none!

I have had good luck both with sales and trade ins and purchases with Charlotte Camera www.charlottecamera.com

Also, I haven't done anything with them in a while, but I alsways thought Hunt's Photo in Mass. was fair and good to deal with.

Good list so far. These are worthwhile additions:

When it's time to talk to the vendor and figure out how to do something, Calumet is tops. Those folks actually shoot and know what they're up to.

We use Quill for most of the supplies needed to support the business side of photography.

For those all too frequent PC upgrades, drives, etc - www.newegg.com

- - - MaxMax for digital IR convertions - they are expensive, but the best.
- - - B&H photo in NY - I have never had a problem with them in more than 15 years.
- - - I like ClubMac in calif. for most of my Mac hardware items.
- - - and of course NIKON for all of my camera goodies.

Jim,
I have now bought a few items from an ebay vendor called Cameta Camera from New York. I have tested everything that I have bought and it is perfect. These guys are better than good, they are great. The prices are very good and the shipping is real quick. I'm impressed. I know there are lots of great dealers out there and I have bought from many, but I figured each person who reads this could use some equipment at a good price. Check out Cameta Camera.
--- Michael Wade

Well mine are Australian but here goes

www.mainlinephoto.com.au Great guys going out of their way to help me at the moment

www.createdforlife.com Australia's best print and frame shop. Expensive though but you get what you pay for

www.cameraexchange.com.au The place in Australia to buy Gitzo Tripods and other pro gear.

Thanks again to all! If you can think of any others, please let me know.

For three years, since going wholeheartedly into digital, I have only ever bought from canogacamera.com. They meet or beat the big ones for prices almost always, and I have had great service from these folks. I recommend them any time someone asks where to shop online for cameras, lenses, accessories, printers, etc. If I can't get it there, then I shop around.

B&H has been easy to work with for many years. Really Right Stuff makes really great stuff and has bean good to work with. If you are in the Atlanta area Photo Barn, Bill, Debbie, Kenith and crew are super nice people. Cabellas for camo, boots, and cold weather clothing. I just ordered a Nikon VR lens from B&H. I called them 4 PM on Wed, UPS pulled into ranch at 10:15 AM on Thur! (16 hours) New York to small farm North of Atlanta! (Bill at Photo Barn was out) and Nikon was 300 units back ordered. For camera and lens repair CRJ Duluth ga. Phone 770-849-0555 Look and you will see that they are on your Nikon, Sigma, Sony etc etc list. Super nice people and great service.

I've had good luck with buydig.com. Competitive prices, and I've always gotten what I wanted in a reasonable amount of time. Not a hardcore photo retailer, but they have a fair amount of photgraphy stuff, and a ton of computer hardware and CF cards.

Onecall.com has the best service and very well stocked for cameras and supplies.

Badger got a plug - I suppose I should do the honorable thing and give Midwest camera a plug as well (especially since I live about 5 miles from there):

www.mpex.com

Their website is, shall we say, not real impressive, but calling or e-mail will give a vastly different experience.

For those not familar with these two companies, they are probably THE large format shops in the country. Jeff at Badger, Jim at Midwest are the LF guys.

I will add PictureLine for print sleeves. They are heavy, acid free, archival sleeves that really help support unmounted prints for shipping and direct, hands-on sales (i.e. fairs, etc). They have an excellent Reseller Ratings report.

I have also had good customer service and pricing from Hunt's Photo and Video up in New England. Gary Farber is a really good guy. The also have a good Reseller Ratings report.

It occurs to me that there's a missing "category" in the vendors listed so far, yet one which gets lots of requests here at NPN: Photo labs, especially for prints larger than we normally print for ourselves. Lots of past threads on this topic. It would be helpful to learn a little about the companies and their services along with a simple link.

Here's our favorite: H & H Color Labs

They're strictly wholesale as far as I can tell, and using them requires that you set up an account and be assigned a specific contact person within H&H. It's worth the effort however, both for the quality of service and results.

Hank, thanks for that tip. I use our local Ely photo store for inkjet prints up to 20x96. He has a very sophisticated AGFA (actually Epson, made for AGFA) inkjet, and I've had fantastic luck with him, and he's local, so I just walk down there with a CD and a small print for him to color match. He's just spent over $100,000 to upgrade all his equipment to accomodate digital shooters. Pretty remarkable investment in a town of 3,700, but that's Ely. Come a time when I need a larger print, I'll look up H&H. I've bookmarked their site.

Wimberley! Their products are specialized and expensive, but the service is so good and so personalized that it easily seems worth it.

I have good service from Wimberley, Really Right Stuff, Moose Photo, Art Morris and now NPN. I would encourage others to use NPN more often and the service you give at your end is very good.