You need to touch and try it in a real camera store before you surrender your credit card. Your hands may be too large for a mirrorless body, or too small for a gripped body. There is nothing that compares to how a camera feels in your hand. It takes more effort to understand a camera these days than simply looking at a picture of it online, especially with manufacturers stuffing more and more features into them. I was stumped on a product feature recently (how to fire it off) and a staffer figured it out with me. You can't test out how a camera feels in your hand before you purchase it online, or get a walkthrough of the menuing systems, or a sense of the weight of the camera with a lens attached, or its speed or…just about anything. They sold us the right cord and sent us on our way to the shoot. On a recent shoot, I was using a mega mast to get an aerial shot without a drone and had NO IDEA what pins connected to what between Sony and the mast's cords. #1 You Can Get Real Advice Directly from an Expert Thinking more about what traditional camera stores offer over shopping online, I came up with five reasons to step inside a photo specialty location for your next purchase rather than shopping online. When it comes to finding quality photo gear I need in hurry for a particular assignment, I haven’t stumped Glazer's yet. I picked up a mint Nikon FM2 there and Leica M lens from 1956 for when I’m in an analog mood, decompressing from a camera launch. There’s a well-stocked used department if you fancy vintage cameras and lenses. If you’re into Leica, they’ve got a boutique inside with special editions, like the Safari M. Recently, at the glass display case with a staffer asking me what I needed help with, I realized there are still many very good reasons to shop at a store like Glazer's Camera. Before their old building was destroyed to make way for the new one, nearby was a long-since closed photo lab that ran 24 hours a day and a grip house for production crews. I arrived in Seattle long after the store was first established at a Pioneer Square location in 1935 and the smell of film chemicals permeated the walls. Glazer's former landmark location with the red wall was recently replaced by a mixed-used, ground-floor level apartment building also with a red wall. Glazer's Camera is surrounded by housing for Amazon's workers on pretty much all sides with some biotech mixed in. That’s even with Amazon Prime delivering much of what Seattleites need within a few hours or a day. That's why places such as the legendary Glazer's Camera store in Seattle, near where I live, are doing just fine, thank you very much. Well, for those very reasons, many photographers still choose to shop at traditional brick-and-mortar photo specialty retail stores. Next question: were you satisfied with the online process for buying your gear? Sure, it was fast, and the price was right but were all your questions about the expensive lens you wanted to buy answered? Was there anyone online to talk to you at all? Did you have to return your gear? Was it a hassle? Quick question: where did you buy your last piece of photo gear? If you're like more and more photographers these days, you probably bought your new telephoto lens, photo bag, or mirrorless camera body from one of the many online retailers out there such as Amazon, B&H, or Adorama.
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