Dominion Camera by Ace Photo

Highly recommend them professional and honest.

Service and advice was great

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See above- did not go well!

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They have a high-end setup where you upload the photo file(s) yourself and choose your own options. The printer is in the back so you can't see whether it's anything special, but the prints I received seem perfect. Officially the print prices are quite a bit higher if the staff sets them up for you, but the staff member in the store helped me through it and charged the self-service price. Overall I like this store -- it's the only independent photo store anywhere nearby and the people in the store know their business. Unfortunately, reality is that prices for larger items are higher than online, so I go there mostly for accessories and occasional printing for special photos I want to frame. In general, if you want good advice and the personal touch and don't mind paying a bit more for it, consider Dominion Camera.

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The salesman took the camera out of the box and said he wasn't allowed to put a battery in. I was astonished --- I'd called in advance to make sure they carried the item I wanted to see, and now they weren't going to demonstrate it for me ! The manager reluctantly agreed to power it up, provided I didn't release the shutter. Then neither the salesman nor the manager knew anything about the camera (and quot;it's a new item for usand quot;) and so couldn't demonstrate it or answer questions. Finally, they were charging full list price for the camera. They were rude rather than apologetic, a poor experience and complete waste of my driving time. This was one of my worst service experiences I've had in Virginia (I moved here a year ago). It's topped only by the time I ordered a sundae in a NOVA restaurant and was charged EXTRA for the ice cream.

Very well. They processed our videos quicky and provided a quality DVD in the end.

On 4/26 I tried to return the fisheye lens to Dominion Camera and they refused to take it back, stating that it was purchased on 4/13 and that their return policy requires that items be retuened within 10 days. I explained my conversation with their employee on 4/13 and that he agreed that I can return it as soon as I had an appropriate replacement from Amazon. They would not hear of it and forced me to take a gift certificate. I would prefer to have a refund, as I intend to have nothing more to do with a store that does not have the best interest of its customers in mind. And it gets even stranger. I was dealing with two lower level employees, one of whom admitted that he did not understand why I was sold the fisheye lens for theater work and the other who admitted that he was not authorized to make an exception to hteir return policy. The owner of the store was in the shop and heard most of the discussion, and came over to comment that the lens was custom ordered for me and was therefore not returnable. I responded that 4/13 was the first time I was in the shop and that the lens came from his shelf, I ordered nothing. One of the other employees agreed with me that the lens came from the store shelf. He walked away and did not get involved in the discussion ( I was polite, but made it clear that I was not happy) It was obviousr that the problem was not resolved, but he occupied himself with busywork and when another customer came in, rather than passing that customer over to one of his two employee sso he could deal with the issue that only he could resolve, he chose to ignore it. So I took the gift certificate and left in disgust. By the way, both of the lenses from Amazon cost about $150 each and are very highly rated for the type of work I intend to do. Amazon has a 30 day return policy, so I will need to return the 1st lens soon. Just for grins, I looked up the price of the fisheye lens sold to me by Dominion Camera and found that the Amazon price was $32 for the identical item, about 40% of the $80 I paid at Dominion. In principle, I do not mind paying more - I understand that independent retailers do not have the volume and the buying power of retailers like Amazon, but this markup of more than double seemed excessive. When I mentioned this just before leaving, I was told that the fisheye lens on Amazon was probably a grey market product. I doubt it, the item had the identical markings and it is not a camera or a fancy mechanical lens - we are talking about a hunk of glass a metal ring and some threads. If you are an amateur, do not go to this bunch for advice. They may try to sell you what they can even though it clearly is not what you need. Who needs a headache like this? If you are not an amateur I would advise that you do a lot of homework before visiting so that you know what you want and how much it supposed to cost. You don't need these headaches either.

Why did I bother to give them my phone numbers! They never called me then made delivery promises that never happened. Needless to say, I will never use them again.

They were right up front with us in saying that it probably wasn't going to be fixable, but if we wanted to invest the money and if it wasn't fixable we could put that money toward another camera and they would give us a store credit. They were pretty honest. It was unfortunate that it was one of the repairs that they thought the part was going to be way too expensive to make it worthwhile to repair. I didn't consider anybody else. The experience went well. It is like a mom and pop camera shop. You can pretty much guarantee that they know what they are talking about from personal experience.

What we did not know was that there was a battery in the camera that was dead and the gentleman who handled the camera appeared to know what he was talking about. He handled the camera well and said that they needed to send it to Florida to have the shutter repaired. So in the end we spent money just to have a battery replaced.

I dropped off the negatives/pictures on a Monday and I picked them up on Thursday (they were officially ready on Wednesday). These were meant for a special gift and all three reproductions turned out great!

I felt that the price was reasonable. The salesperson appeared very knowledgeable, and their service was pretty fast. I would definitely recommend them to others.

Very well. They spent time with us discussing the cost of repair vs. the cost of a new, more modern camera. They didn't push us to buy a camera then and there and they did a good job of saving the tape that was trapped and damaged inside the camera.

Dominion Camera and Photo Lab was the only camera shop that was willing to do this service. They made it possible for my son to take my camera to Europe with him. We were very happy with their work. The price was very good, as well.