Looking Glass Photo & Camera

Recommends

Riffmonster

Joined 5 years ago

Looking Glass is a Berkeley Icon. Looking Glass is funky - perhaps the last stand of non-corporate, personal service stores- the sort of service that died in most other stores years ago. They carry all the requisite digital stuff from cheap cameras for your kids to the nearly $8000 Canon 1Ds Mark III and the whole line of Nikon DSLRs and lenses. Excellent supply of inkjet paper, photo paper, bags, film and used film cameras. Decent selection of printers, scanner etc. Reasonable rental department with most of the poplar Nikon and Canon digital SLRs and lenses. The prices are slightly higher than online retailers, but the folks behind the counter are knowledgeable and friendly, so I think it's worth a few extra bucks.

It is a little cramped, and you may have to wait for 5 or 10 minutes on Saturdays, but there's a reason there's a line at Looking Glass - it's the only real camera store in the East Bay, and better vibes than any store in the City, though I suppose Calumet has a better selection of expensive high end gear.