Colonial Photo & Hobby

Orlando, United States

3.8

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 407-841-1485
Website:
www.colonialphotohobby.com
Address:
634 N Mills Ave, Orlando, FL, 32803
Lake Eola Heights, Mills50
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.9 miCourthouse Station
0.9 miJefferson & Magnolia
1 miJ
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Bussiness info

Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Accepts Apple Pay
No
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes

Today

Today 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Orlando) 02:30 Saturday, 28 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Thursday 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

Our store is a unique blend of products for the amateur to the professional. Low end or high end, we carry a broad selection to fill your every need.

Our retail departments are Photography, Hobbies, Trains, Photo Processing, Picture Framing and Digital Print Services. Our goal is to provide knowledgeable sales associates, a tremendous selection when you shop, and great service after the sale.

Stop by today and let us prove to you that hobbies are our specialty, not a sideline.

History

Established in 1954.

Colonial Photo & Hobby is a camera and hobby shop which has been in business for over 50 years. Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Leica, Fujifilm, Tamron, Sigma, Manfrotto, and Gitzo are a few amongst many camera and camera accessory companies we stock in our store, representing gear from the most casual to professional levels. We are able to service many of these brands and can send any item out for repair which we can not service in store. We also have custom framing department and a photo processing lab which handles both film developing and digital imaging and can do large format printing and retouching. Our modle train department is the largest in Central Florida and carries Lionel, Bachman, MTH, Atla, and Kato (amongst other brands) in all available scales. We also offer repairs on all modle trains. The hobby department carries radio control cars, helicopters, planes, boats and more from companies like Traxxis, HPI, and Great Planes as well as scale modles from Revell, Tamiya, and Italiari.

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20 reviews of Colonial Photo & Hobby

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Orlando, FL
Been around for ever came here with my dad in the 80’s when i was little. Staff is very nice and easy going. I love this store. :)
Place rating: 2
Largo, FL
Overall nice place. Manager doesn’t seem to care about customer service. Associate named Sharon printed photos that were a cancelled order due to resolution issues per another associate calling me stating to resubmit the order and he would cancel the existing order. Once I arrived to pick up the new order and saw she printed the old order she quickly had an attitude and at the end of much attitude such as sliding my photos to the side when other customers arrived, she told me do not order pictures again if I don’t plan on paying for them as if It were my fault she didn’t follow orders on not printing photos that said DO NOT PRINT according to the other associate! I own a photography company … Needless to say I won’t be purchasing anything else from this place. Harmon Photo was recommended and that is where I’ll be going from now on!
Place rating: 5
St. Augustine, FL
Great place for all of your photo equipment needs. Christian took the time to go over everything I needed and made great recommendations. I would definitely shop there again.
Place rating: 5
Orlando, FL
Helpful staff… mostly. Some of the guys behind the camera counter are a bit pretentious. I get all of my film developed here and I’ve never had a problem. Parking is nice, especially for the location. Their dedicated parking lot is a big plus. You can find everything from model trains, to high end camera equipment, to used film cameras here.
Place rating: 5
Winter Garden, FL
They have the gear others don’t. I needed a tri-​pod attachment for a mini-​ipad. I went to three stores but found everything I needed at Colonial Photo and Hobby. They waited on me when I walked in, walked me right over to the merchandise gave some helpful info, I was in and out in 10 minutes. Trying doing that at best buy!
Place rating: 3
Boca Raton, FL
They lacked Photoshop Plugins I wanted to buy. Plus I wanted to buy Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended and they did not have it. I ended up going online and got it all for $ 151.00 here.
Place rating: 5
Windermere, FL
The best place to get things framed! Been going to their framer for years and he never lets me down.
Place rating: 4
Bellevue, WA
My father in law is an avid model train collector, so while on vacation in Orlando we wanted to look for a local train store. We almost didn’t come to Colonial Photo & Hobby because all the Unilocal reviews really focus on the photo side, as do the Unilocal pictures of the store. Well, fear not train lovers– this store is great for you too! They have aisle after aisle of train goodies, from high end to Thomas (my 2 year old left the store happy too). I’m not going to claim to be a train aficionado so I can’t speak to the types of trains they have– but they have a ton of engines, trains, tracks, and extras to decorate your landscape. The salespeople are friendly and happy to help find what we didn’t know we wanted.
My only gripe is I wish they had a train table set up for little ones. Their focus is certainly on the adult hobbyist and not on kids toys, but given that they have a few aisles dedicated to Thomas trains and other kids toys, it would’ve been a very welcome touch. Plus a happy kid means a parent free to shop!
Place rating: 4
Orlando, FL
Hooray for Colonial Photo! I lost my camera charger while on vacation. When I returned home I needed to find a replacement right away and didn’t have time to order online. I called Colonial Photo and they had the charger I needed in stock. Even better it was the Nikon charger for only a few dollars more than a generic brand charger would have cost me ordering online.
It did take a couple minutes for a salesperson to free up to help me, but once I got his attention he found the charger for me right away and the whole purchase was very fast. I was really happy with this visit. I’ll be sure to return to Colonial Photo in the future.
Place rating: 5
Orlando, FL
I grew up here and can’t remember Orlando without this wonderful store. Recently I had a couple of old family photos copied, and the staff couldn’t have been any more friendly and competent. The one-​day turnaround was great too. When I accidentally broke the glass in a frame trying to replace one of the photos I had borrowed from someone else, Roy in the custom framing department was tremendously accommodating in helping me replace it quickly with a better looking result than I expected. People don’t forget this kind of service and I wouldn’t go anywhere else now. Thanks again, Colonial Photo & Hobby.
Place rating: 5
Orlando, FL
This place has great prices, they are as good as online prices at national photo stores.
Place rating: 3
Knoxville, TN
This place has some really cool stuff, however they are not cheap! They have a wide range of things from model sets, RC cars, Train & town sets, photography stuff, educational toys, and pictures and framing.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Great customer service! I recently bought a DSLR camera, and I needed some accessories and product advice. Being relatively new to photography, I found the employees very helpful and patient with the many questions I had. Ken was especially helpful, took his time with me, and even offered some tips and tricks for shooting. This store also has classrooms upstairs and offers many workshops, including camera specific classes, for Nikon, Cannon, etc., and classes on how to use editing software like photoshop. It’s also a cool hobby store with trains and stuff, so it’s fun to walk around and check things out.
Place rating: 1
Orlando, FL
I really wanted to like this place been that they’re local and there aren’t that many stores like these around.
They have a lot of cool stuff and wide selection of items/​products. And there place is easily accessible with a parking lot in the back in what’s somewhat a hard area to find parking. However, with every business is not just the selection of products you carry but the customer service behind it that makes or break a place. And this place completely lacks on customer service.
I wish I would have read the reviews before coming into this place, but I’m accustomed to come in with a fresh mind so I don’t come in with bad/​good expectations.
Like most negatives comments on here, the older men working here are Rude & Condescending. Not helpful at all, expecting you to be an expert in the subject. Not only do they act like you don’t know what you’re talking about, but make sure to browse the store for brands of cameras they carry because if for god’s sake you bring up another camera brand you will be sorry you did (even though most accessories are universal).
Place rating: 5
Orlando, FL
I have been coming here for years, this is the best camera shop in town. They can repair your camera, frame something for you or you can find parts for your own project. There Is a ton of stuff inside the store so it might take time to find what you need, also the store always has a good amount of people inside so the store workers are normally preoccupied. Today I was looking for a stand or tripod. I found several.
Place rating: 1
Longwood, FL
Rude and condescending. Those two words sum up the service here. Went in to buy a telescope, and the gentleman was less than helpful, just wanted me to hurry up and purchase. When I asked questions he gave me a flier and said «just read this». I purchased the telescope only to get home and find the same one $ 150 less on
. The gentleman who handled the return was even more cold than the guy who sold it to me. Makes me never want to purchase from them again. I will go in and use their services to see what is good and not, and the. I will buy on Amazon. At least Amazon doesn’t give you a hassle when you want to return something.
Place rating: 4
Davenport, FL
Love coming here and wandering around! It seems like whoever you are with will find SOMETHING to look at.
I purchased my DSLR camera from here a couple of years ago and when I went in I was out the door fast (I knew exactly what I wanted going in) but it seemed like the sales guy knew what he was talking about (I worked in a photo lab/​camera store years ago.)
The prices always seem quite comparable to online stores.
While I’m sure it could use some renovating, the look and feel and smell (mmm…photo chemicals!) make this place!
Place rating: 4
Apopka, FL
We stopped by here for a little education while researching DSLR cameras. I’m brand new to this caliber of camera and felt overwhelmed by all the lingo. One of the employees spent about 45 minutes talking with my husband and I one Saturday. He brought out various camera bodies and lenses for us to try. We never felt rushed and didn’t wait long at all before being helped. They even have a Thomas the Train table to keep the kids busy while the grown ups shop.
Their prices are higher than other places I’ve seen, however. But with these specialty stores that kind of goes with the territory. I was hoping to support the little guy but Colonial Photo & Hobby offered no incentives to do so. We ended up buying our kit for less somewhere else. Maybe if CP&H offered, say, a free beginner camera class or thrown in some free accessories we would have bought from them on the spot. But I did end up coming back for a few accessories and took their Intro to DSLR class for $ 35 one Friday evening. The 2 hour class was held upstairs in their store room. It was a semi-​formal presentation with a power point, videos and «homework». I found it informative and the teacher pretty decent. It really makes me want to take more advanced classes to unlock my new cameras full potential!
The store is set up where the left is all photo stuff and the right is model stuff. The back has RC cars, trucks and model rockets. Fun stuff for kids of all ages!
Place rating: 4
Orlando, FL
Went in to purchase a gift for a friend’s birthday in their Rail Road dept.. By gosh they actually had this unicorn of an idea too! They seem to have a pretty good representation of most RR scales, so there is a good chance you too will find what you need.
I’ve been a fan of this place for over 30 years when I purchased my first Futaba remote control aircraft transmitter from them in the late 70’s. Man did that hobby had quite a run in my life! Only 32 years, and I’ve been in CP&H many times during that period. Always nice guys behind the counter in my experiences and rarely went away w/​o a bag of goodies.
Real good selection of plastic static modeling subjects too. Not sure how much % of the rent is paid by the two differing sides of this store (photo vs. hobbies) but its been good to know they seem to always be there.
Place rating: 1
Manteca, CA
I lived in the Orlando area for 11 years, and I’d bought photographic equipment in this store, beginning in 2004, and I suspect they’re worse than they were then.
I called about specific equipment way back when and when I went into the store, Denver told me «Oh, we don’t know anything about those.» He wasn’t nasty, but he did absolutely no research. You get more help in Best Buy and they know nothing. Colonial Photo & Hobby have brand snobs, except for Frank, I believe his name is. He was always very reasonable. Who needs brand fanatics? Weak brands need them.
Of course, I successfully spent $ 3000 that first day there because they didn’t mind taking my money, no matter what I was buying, as long as they didn’t have to know it.
The only other purchase I’d made there since then was a Crumpler bag and I’d gone there today for the same reason. They don’t have those any longer. I took a look at the tripods, and some sales person was giving me dirty looks. They really should put a sign on the door «We don’t want your business!»