This list is short as we only recommend stores that we have dealt with personally.

Photo & Video International, Christchurch

This is my personal favourite, despite a sneaking suspicion that Greg, the owner, may still think that I am a blithering amateur even after 10 years of buying from him.

Classy store, great staff, excellent gear selection, in-store lab, 2nd hand gear and a good website all in the South Island. P&V also set the benchmark nationally for low pricing. Unless you are in need of an ego-downgrade from Greg, ask for Matt, he's no Scott Pijnenberg but he's still a great guy who knows his stuff :)

 

Ken's Cameras, Christchurch

Again an excellent store with great staff and a great website to boot.  Less selection in-store than P&V above but they will generally be able to find it in NZ very quickly.  Their printing is outstanding and the Ken's LED filedump is an industry standard for cost effective high quality large format printing. Rockwellites will be delighted with the instore E-6 processing.

 

The Photo Warehouse, Dunedin

Back in the day, this was Jonathons Photo & Video and it was an excellent semi-pro local store with a surprisingly good selection of gear.  The store has since become part of the national chain 'The Photo Warehouse'.  Again nice staff and the lack of camera-exotica in the cabinets these days can be quickly remedied via a phone call around the chain. We have purchased via the national website and the service was very good.

 

WPS, Wellington

Wellington has a seemingly disproportionate number of really good camera stores for a city of it's size.  I assume that these stores are supported by the swarms of time & money rich government consultants who are hard at work burning through my tax money.  Whatever the reason, it is a good place to look for new gear.  I have never purchased from WPS but I have spent a few hours 'kicking tyres' in there vivian st store while Sarah shopped for lampshades and I would not hesitate to buy from them. 

There is/was(?) another big store down near Te Papa that even had a phase 1 back in-store last time I visited (it was en-route to some boffin at the department of labour - I kid you not).  I can't remember the name of the store, but it may have been Big Al's......?

B&H Photo

We always try to buy locally first. However, if something is not available in NZ or if the price discrepancy is obscene (not the case recently) we will buy online from B&H. 

I would not buy internationally from anyone else. B&H are the 800 kg gorilla/T-Rex hybrid of camera stores - and for good reason.  They have pretty much everything you can imagine in-stock or at their beck and call. They price sharply. They deliver blazingly fast (if you hit it right, packages will land in Auckland within 36 hours) and at the best shipping price I have found anywhere in the USA. 

The only drawbacks are their weird religious based hours of operation and their decidedly NY approach to customer service if you have to call them - you'll get the service, but they'll be damned if you'll enjoy the process!

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