where to buy a 35mm camera?

[chuckwagon]

i want to buy a camera for the wife for x mas. where do i go to look at them ... best buy type of place or like ritz camera ... are there going to be big price differences on the same camera at different places? any help would be great! know little about it.

[DonBo]

National Camera, no contest!

[Steve Foss]

chuckwagon, since it's getting too late in the day to make sure an online retailer can get it to you for Christmas without a lot of expedited shipping charges, I also recommend National Camera or West Photo, both big outfits in the Cities. And, maybe as importantly as getting something you can walk out of the store with, the people there are extremely knowledgeable about all the products, which often is not the case at other stores that sell cameras.

Good luck, and you're giving a great Christmas present!

[Steve Foss]

oops, double post

[Dbl]

I second Steve's advice, both West and National are good places. It sure is nice to put each camera in your hand and see the layout as well as have someone who knows what ISO means. Good luck on the purchase, hope to see some photos here from the new toy.

[brassman]

I totally respect your right to get a 35mm camera but I have to ask. Have you considered Digital? I am assuming you want to get her an SLR camera, I would understand saving money by getting a film one considering they are about half as much as a digital but I feel that digitals have versatility that film cameras cannot provide, like for me, I can take a bunch of worthless pictures (I do it quite often) and I can erase them right on the spot, along with that, you get instant gratification of seeing your pictures on your computer no driving to the developers. Granted you have to put the pictures on some type of media to get them printed, today a writable cd is cheap and reusable. If there are other factors to getting a 35mm then by all means go with it, but for now digital cameras are replacing 35mm at a fast pace. Plus I feel they are great learning tools considering you can take a lot of photos and its not going to cost you much if anything at all besides batteries.

[IFallsRon]

Do a search for Butterfly Photo. I found a great deal with them.