BH and Adorama have probably converted to "internet
only" through the years. Which is why you may not have
seen so many lenses/gadgets on the showroom floor. If
you really wanted something you could probably get it
but would have to wait a few extra minutes or a couple
of days.
Thanks for the interesting report. I have never been
to these places either.
>
> On Aug 22, 2007, at 7:36 PM, Dean Hansen wrote:
>
> > My wife and I recently spent a few days with
> friends on Long
> > Island,
> > NY, and I took a day to visit Manhattan, in part
> to see a couple
> > well-known camera stores.
> > First stop was B&H. A doorman greeted me and
> let me in, then
> > there
> > were two more gentlemen (could one almost say
> bouncers?) to pass
> > before
> > entering the sales area. Once in, I stopped and
> did some mental
> > arithmetic: 6 men behind that counter, 8 behind
> that one, 5 behind
> > another, 8 in front of another, and on and on.
> Except for a few
> > cashiers, all were males. There seemed to be
> close to 100 people
> > WORKING there. I mentioned that to a salesman,
> and he simply said
> > that they add a couple dozen more on Sunday, when
> it's wall to wall
> > people in there. Wow.
> > Digital cameras were out on counters (cabled,
> of course) to
> > hold and
> > examine. The variety was impressive. Lenses and
> bodies behind
> > glass at
> > the sales counters, however, seemed pretty scarce.
> I walked
> > upstairs to
> > the single room with used equipment, and here
> again I was surprised at
> > the lack of rows and rows of lenses, bodies,
> flashes, bellows,
> > whatever,
> > on display. If one wanted a T-20 OM flash, it may
> well have been
> > there
> > somewhere in inventory; it wasn't out on display,
> however.
> > I bought a couple books on photographing, of
> all things, insects.
> > Otherwise I escaped with my credit card quite
> intact. Actually buying
> > something was a new experience: I gave a used
> book I wanted to buy
> > to a
> > salesman, he scanned it and gave me a receipt, and
> then the book went
> > into a plastic crate on a conveyor to a pick-up
> area on the first
> > floor. I couldn't simply carry it down to pay for
> it. Back on the
> > first floor, I paid the cashier from the receipt,
> and then I had
> > to go
> > to the pick-up area and wait a few minutes for the
> book to
> > roller-coaster its way down from the second floor.
> > Adorama was only a moderate walk away. I
> bought my first OM4T
> > from
> > them 20-some years ago. Size was nothing like
> B&H, and, really, there
> > was less out on display to buy than at West Photo
> or National Camera
> > Exchange here in Minneapolis.
> > The next day I visited Cameta Camera in
> Amityville, Long Island.
> > Despite the Manhattan skyline 20 miles away, it's
> a small-town store.
> > This is where I bought my new E-1 (BIN'd at
> Cameta's ebay auctions)
> > and
> > used Nikon FE-2, Nikon FTN, plus a Vivitar lens,
> all from their
> > website. There were about 6 salesmen behind a
> single counter, and
> > again, there weren't loads and loads of lenses
> under glass. Are they
> > all locked up, and just brought up front when one
> asks for a
> > particular
> > lens?
> > I can see more lenses on display at the Twin
> Cities F-stop Swaps
> > than I saw in total at these three camera stores.
> > Prices, however, are much better buying from
> the websites of B&H,
> > Adorama, and Cameta than buying locally. A brick
> of E100VS from
> > B&H is
> > about half what I'd have to pay here. I saved at
> least a couple
> > hundred
> > dollars buying the E-1 from Cameta.
> > Dean
> >
> >
> >
> >
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