Camera Zone and Art Gallery

Whoever the Asian guy that tried «to help» us buy a camera battery charger was rude and tried to take advantage of us. We inquired on the phone about a battery for a canon dslr camera and he said it was $ 49.
When we got to the store we asked about a charger and he was angry because «you inquired about a battery not a charger.» Okay… so how much is the charger? He said $ 59 with a tone like he didn’t want our business. All it took was an Amazon scan to see it is $ 14.95 and quickly walk out the place.

I have a bad habit of leaving reviews only when I get really good service or really bad service. This time I’m happy to report I’m leaving a REALLY GOOD SERVICE review.
These guys treat every customer like their only customer. Little did they know I was about to buy $ 5000 of equipment from them.
The guys down the street whom I spoke Spanish with (trying to get better service) must have thought I was just looking and really gave me the cold shoulder.
So, for the help and great knowledge about the product they get an A+, for having the expensive equipment in stock they get an A++, and for great customer service they get my business!

Solid guys. They were cool in helping us get a new lens for my brother, and having us walk out the store with some new polarized filters. Highly recommend coming here for any of your photography needs.

Very Affordable price and easy to talk to staff. Knowledgeable staff can show and teach non photographers how to operate new devices.
*Gopro Silver 4 Brand new for 300 flat. Unbeatable in most cases.
*Cool layout of the store and a large variety of cameras from old school ones to modern ones.
Great experience!

Bought lens cleaner and another accessory for my D750. Only honest guy near the Argonaut Hotel.

Very friendly and knowledgeable staff. Got a huge discount on the camera I bought. :)

I have purchased several items from this store and have always had a very good experience. Ask for Dar as he is very helpful and they have excellent prices compared to other stores. Highly recommend buying from this store!

The positive reviews here are misleading. There may be good deals to be had if you know what you are doing, or you’re getting a high profile item where people are likely to know a reasonable price when they see one, but if they smell a mark, they will go in for the kill. My retired parents were sightseeing in the area and stopped in to get a wide angle conversion lens, having been reassured by the positive reviews and the convincingly slick salesman. They walked out having paid $ 250 for an item that *retails* at $ 59 and is commonly available online for $ 30. That’s not just normal brick-​and-​mortar markup, that’s not just «I got a bad deal», that is exploitive and borderline fraudulent. Any reputable shop charging fair prices will also let you return or exchange an item, but they don’t. Stay away.

Bought a camera from Camera Zone a couple months ago and am absolutely in love with it! I also got an amazing deal too! Better than online or at any discount stores.
Store is located close to fisherman’s warf, nice corner location and is very easy to find!
Dar my salesperson was very friendly and did not try to sell a thing to me. He was very informative on every model I was considering! Gave me very honest opinions and awesome deals, which made it so hard to choose which camera to buy!
Definitely recommend to check this place out if you are on the market for a great camera at a very affordable price!
Thanks so much Dar! I love my camera and will definitely be coming back when I am due for a new one!

High pressure urged us to buy a $ 400 tele-​extender that wouldn’t focus. Went back. No real help, go elsewhere to a more cooperative store and buy your camera stuff without the pressure and grief.
They gave us a partial refund and we kept the nearly worthless lens. I don’t mind giving them nearly $ 600 for the lens I bought but the worthless extender now cost $ 175. Still to much for s hopeless! Lens,

Really nice guy and helpful, I was a little bit scared by the outside and didn’t want to get ripped off and that was not the case, I’m glad I stopped by

Stop looking anywhere else for your camera gear. Not New York, not LA and not overseas. Our very own San Francisco has a fantastic camera store and an owner that cares about the photography community. It does not matter if your a pro or just staring out, Dar will find you the right camera and meet or beat any price you find.
I have brought a number of my friends to him and they have all be surprise at the great service and price. Shop local and keep the tax dollars in the Bay Area.

We were taking a 2 week trip through the Northern Coast of California and my backpack I was using as camera backpack was beginning to self destruct. I called three different stores looking for a specific camera backpack when we got back to San Francisco and the Camera Zone came through. Not only did they have the backpack at a great price but the staff there was great! If you are looking for quality camera gear and knowledgeable staff this is the place to go.

Walked in whilst touring around for the day to see if there were any deals on camera backpacks. My 4 year old $ 29 Amazon bag had finally bit the dust and I needed a higher quality replacement ASAP.
Although not a resident of SF, I frequently visit and know there are a plethora of gimmicky and tourist trap camera shops. This, in my experience, is not one of them. The salesman was quick to suggest a lower priced Case Logic vs. the more reputable Lowepro pack and was pleasant and knew his gear well.
The initial price was a bit high, but without hesitation he said he’d sell the bag for a good bit less. The final price came out to be the MSRP for the same bag on Amazon (which has rave reviews), and I’m totally fine with paying a little extra to support the local shop, especially when I’m on a trip and in a bind.
4 stars for great service and respectable final sale price, but leaving one off since the pack should have just been set at MSRP from the get-​go.

This place has amazing prices even compared to online deals. I just purchased 3 Zeiss lenses from Dar at camera zone and I still can’t believe how good of a price I got them for.
I’m saying this as a near professional photographer who has spent nearly 20K on photography equipment, owned more than 30 lenses and more than 10 bodies, and is constantly hunting for deals on photography equipment online. I scour craigslist, slickdeals, fatwallet, camera deal blogs, and more. You name an online source of hot camera deals, and I’m on it. In fact I even know someone who works at Sony and who gets employee discounts on Sony lenses.
Despite all of that, Dar’s price was STILL better than any other option that I could find after 2 weeks of dedicated deal hunting! Before today, I had never purchased a lens or camera at a brick & mortar store, ever. But I have to say Dar has convinced me that the internet isn’t the only place to get a hot deal.
So if you want a great deal on camera equipment, do your research online, and then visit Dar and he’ll make you a deal you can’t turn down.
Oh I should also add that Dar let me spend 30 minutes in the store testing out the lenses before purchasing and didn’t hassle me at all. He just left me alone and I probably could have spent an hour if I wanted to. He didn’t even try to upsell me on accessories, which is where I assume he’d make a profit! Incredible! This whole experience makes me believe in the concept of an electronics brick & mortar store.
Thanks Dar!

The owner here advertises on craigslist, at first I thought it was a private person then after emailing found out it’s an actual retail store by fisherman’s wharf.
He tends to have good prices on certain items such as Sony cameras and lenses.
However, when I went into buy an item he wanted to charge me a 12% fee just to use a credit card. There’s something fishy going on because merchant credit card fees are typically about 3% so his fee seems like usuary.

Got a great deal on a Sony rx100; better than any price I can find online even with coupon codes. Easy to work with, straight forward, and patient.

Photography has been a very expensive hobby for me.
I came back here a few times after my initial visit (my last review) and still dealing with people to help me with all my camera needs. Picked up the rx1 and the sony EVF for it at a great price. I’m really glad I found this place. Make sure you give this place a call before placing an order for a high price item at big retailer.
Ask for Dar, he’s great to deal with. This guy gave me his personal cellphone to help me contact him even on his days off. It’s like having a personal camera guy who is there to help me get all the stuff I need.

This place is great. My sister, wife and I were in San Fran (Wharf) and were looking at lenses. The shops along the boardwalk had some nice deals, but we wanted to go to dinner and think on it (to buy this lens that they had for $ 500, then $ 350…). So, we walked to my sister’s favorite camera shop (The Zone!) and the guy said, right off the bat, «Oh, those lenses are $ 250 plus tax.» (!) So, my sister was right — this place rocks, they’re great, they treated us very nicely, and we were happy to give our business to a place that doesn’t mark up just because we’re tourists in a tourist area. Well done, gentlemen!

I was shopping around for an RX100 and they had the best prices. I ended up getting an RX100 II for a great price.