store in San Francisco

Wineman

Hi all,

I will be travelling to Sacramento, Napa and around, I want to get a nikon 35mm lens, can some one point me in the right direction? I am not familiar with stores in that area.

thank you all

Z

photobug

Wineman wrote:

I will be traveling to Sacramento, Napa and around, I want to get a nikon 35mm lens, can some one point me in the right direction? I am not familiar with stores in that area.

I'm a little confused by your question about a San Francisco store, when you're talking about being in Sacramento and Napa. Sacramento is about a 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive from SF and Napa is an hour or more away from SF. Unless you already plan to be in San Francisco for some other reason, it certainly wouldn't be worth a drive into the city (and deal with traffic & parking costs) just to buy a lens.

Do you have time to buy a lens before you leave home? Why not just order it from Amazon, B&H, Adorama, etc before you go? It would certainly be easier, cheaper, and faster than driving into a big city to get one.

If you must buy from a store out in this area and you won't otherwise be spending time in SF proper, between Napa and Sacramento, your best bet would be buying it Sacramento. I'm sure there's a good store or two there.



All that said, if you'll be on the SF Peninsula, approx 20 miles south of SF, the premiere store around here is Keeble & Shuchat Photography in Palo Alto. Huge store (actually two of them, across the street from each other), very knowledgable sales staff, good support for what they sell, etc. If you're looking for great service & support, that's a prime store to consider. If you're looking for heavy discounts in lieu of personal service/support, you'll want to order from a web retailer.

borrowlenses.com

You could always rent equipment too. We have local pick ups in SF

LiquidAir

Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto and Calumet in San Francisco probably have the largest stocks of lenses in the area. Calumet will be easier to get to from Sacramento because it is straight shot across the Bay Bridge to the store which is in the upper mission.

http://www.bing.com/maps/Default.aspx?encType=1&v=2&ss=ypid.YN114x1651081&style=r&mkt=en-us&FORM=LLDP

photobug

LiquidAir wrote:

Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto and Calumet in San Francisco probably have the largest stocks of lenses in the area. Calumet will be easier to get to from Sacramento because it is straight shot across the Bay Bridge to the store which is in the upper mission.

Nonetheless (in my humble opinion), if you don't otherwise need to go to San Francisco, I would not spend 2-3 hours round trip driving there plus the gasoline plus the high parking costs just to go to a camera store there. If you're otherwise in Napa and Sacramento, then go to a large camera store in Sacramento. The prices are probably just as good and you'd save a lot of time, effort, and transportation expense. If you also want to go somewhere else in San Fran and/or want do some sightseeing there while you're in town, then go ahead and hit Calumet in SF.

Or if you're looking for the best deal, you won't find that in a brick-and-mortar store. But I suspect you value the service of an in-person store or would just ordered online and not posted your question in the first place :-).

Pamani

going to borrow lenses is a great idea.