Panorama Camera Center

I brought in 2 cameras that used to belong to my grandfather for diagnostics back at the end of 2012. I was charged around $ 75 for each camera. When I went to pick up my cameras, I was yelled at when I asked questions about the issues that had been found. Literally, yelled at. It was so bizarre. I recently bought a Hasselblad 500 CM and would like to take it in somewhere for diagnostics. This place came up in my search and I realized I had never written a review for my experience. I will NOT be returning to this shop EVER.

It definitely feels a little sketchy, but I trusted them and they fixed my Leica D-​Lux 4. (cigarette smoke throughout the tiny space didn’t help) My back display stopped working and went black. If you know this camera — without a back display you can’t really use the camera. They ordered a display from Leica and it took almost 5 months. I called them 3 times (they never updated me over the 5 mos — they finally called when it was ready) but hey, they fixed it, it works, I guess it was reasonable at about $ 230 total. But the camera has sentimental value so I was ok with it overall.

*Note*
The only 5star ratings by «Avi D.» and «Viki G.» are FAKE reviews by the owners of the shop. They have no profile pics and only have one single review which is for this store.

I needed a camera fixed and since this place was close, I decided to give it a try. It’s a bit tough to find, as it’s on the third floor of a nondescript office building. I ended up taking the stairs and all the way at the end of a hall. Once inside, they told me it would be a $ 25 charge to look at each camera, which could be applied against the final repair price. The camera was repaired so I am happy.

I would give this place 0 star if I could. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I had a Soviet Horizon camera that needs some fixing, and they are the only place I could find in the city that would do it. But having a «monopoly» position doesn’t mean you should treat your customers with arrogance and haughtiness.
TL, DR: My camera had a minor flaw that presented some blemish in the resulting pictures. I paid Panorama $ 150 to fix it, but instead of fixing it, they made it completely unusable. They agreed to fix it under warranty, but was very flaky when communicating when it’d be ready. And when I asked them to reimburse me for the films wasted, they blamed me because it was apparently my fault for trusting their job and not testing the camera on test rolls before actually shooting.
Details:
Last year I got a Horizon camera but noticed that the pictures all had a bright band on one end of the photo. Horizon — for those who don’t know the camera — is a swing lens camera, so a bright band usually means the lens-​swinging mechanism is slowing down at a particular spot, probably just needs some cleaning to get it move at even speed again. So I called Panorama and they said they can fix Horizon cameras, and this is what happened:
In December 2012 I took camera to Panorama, they «fixed» the camera and charged me ~$ 150. After that I went to South America and used Horizon for 2 rolls of films. I came back and got the pictures developed, and too my dismay, all the Horizon pictures came out blank! Eventually I realized that the shutter trigger mechanism was broken. This means that when I pressed the shutter release button, the shutter never opened to let the light through the aperture. The shutter trigger was definitely working before I sent my camera to Panorama to fix. So I went back a second time — the first time fix came with a three-​month warranty, told them the problem, and they agreed to fix it. At this point, while extremely disappointed that I lost some precious pictures and memories from South America (which was like a once in a life time trip for me), I was still willing to work with Panorama since everyone makes mistakes. But this is where the problems started:
When I took the camera in the second time, they told me to call the next day to find out when it’d be ready. When I called, a man answered the phone and told me the camera would be ready the following Monday. I went to pick up the camera the next Wednesday, thinking surely it would be ready now. It wasn’t. The old woman in the shop essentially shooed me out, telling me that the camera wouldn’t be ready until the next day, and that she didn’t call me to come in. She insisted that she’d have called me if the camera was ready, and wouldn’t even listen to my explanation that someone from the shop did indeed tell me to get the camera on Monday. Fine. A wasted trip. I waited for another couple of days, still no call from Panorama. I got impatient and called Panorama back. This time that same woman answered the phone and told me the camera was ready. Whatever happened to she’d call me when it’s ready?
Anyway, I went back and picked up the camera. I asked the old woman if she could reimburse me for the money wasted because of their mistake — I spent upwards of $ 20 on buying and developing the two rolls of film, and this is when her attitude got really nasty. She flat out refused to reimburse me for the films, even when I pointed out that the camera was working before the Panorama «fix» the first time and it couldn’t take any pictures after the «fix». (By working, I meant the camera was at least taking the pictures as it should; 90% of the picture was ok, as the bright band only appeared on the very edge.) She said (I’m quoting her as accurately as I can remember), «No, if it was working, why did you bring it to me? Let me tell you why this is not our responsibility. Horizon is a Russian camera, it’s not made as well as Japanese cameras. So when you get the camera, you were supposed to put in a test roll to make sure it’s working first.»
What?! So I paid them $ 150 to ask them to fix a minor problem of my camera, but not only did they render the camera unusable, they are now telling me it’s my fault for trusting that they had indeed done what they were paid to do? That it’s my fault for getting a Russian camera? That it’s my fault for not realizing that they broke my camera? I was truly astonished at what she was telling me, because never have I – in any service industry — met such arrogance and effrontery to tell the customer essentially that «yes we took your money but we don’t guarantee we’ll do our job and it’s your fault for trusting us».
I tried out the supposedly «perfect» Horizon. It still has the bright band (maybe it’s my wishful thinking that it’s somewhat less noticeable than before). In any case, if this is the only shop in NYC that can fix it, I’d much rather give up using my camera than ever have to deal with their egregious attitude again.

Panorama is one of the last remaining places in NYC that does its OWN service, and is able to work on REAL (read: film) cameras, too! They are, as other reviewers have said, very honest, and generally do very good work.
I did have an issue with one repair that didn’t hold up when I was bouncing around Australia. Panorama told me it was probably because of me banging the camera around doing some rough travel, but even so, they were kind enough to do a similar repair/​restoration for me, complimentary, the next time I needed it. That’s remarkably good customer service, and I can’t thank them for it enough!
The only drawback with Panorama, is that sometimes they can be VERY busy with the volume of repairs they have that come in, and things can take longer than planned depending on the availability of parts (which isn’t their fault, really). That said, they’re usually good about rushing things if it’s urgent.

Tucked away upstairs in a non-​descript building in midtown I didn’t have high hopes the first time I visited Panorama but the service and knowledge was great and the work on the camera was solid. If you’re a film photographer its worth perusing the vast display cabinets of used lens and equipment.

this place was VERY HONEST. i had called up a few other stores about my issue with a camera and almost all of them charged me an arm and a leg without even LOOKING to see what the damage was. It was strange they were able to give me an estimate on the spot. I was going to give up and let them charge but. i figure i’ll call up another place to just get an idea that I was not being ripped off.
When I called up this repair person from Panorama, he asked me to look at a few things in the camera, sort of like conduct a quick diagnosis. Turned out my problem wasn’t even anything major. He told me to save $ and there is no need to get it fixed because it was something as simple as changing something that i can do on my own. He gave me some quick tips. That is SHEER integrity and extreme excellent customer service to the fullest. When a business has that attribute, that is when I appreciate and RESPECT the business the most… even if it’s something as simple as spending just 2 minutes on the phone with me to save me a few hundred dollars.
Because those 2 minutes will go a loooong way — especially from now on, I will go back to this place if I ever need and will recommend to everyone. I also emailed a college professor who teaches photography — to also recommend his students and colleagues to utilize this place as well.

Incompetent service for rangefinders.
I went to this shop because it was recommended on a website for repairs on the Minolta CLE camera. I had the repairman adjust the rangefinder and replace the light seals. After he was done, the rangefinder was off vertically by a hair and horizontally by two inches when focused at one meter. He and his wife treated me like I’m crazy for wanting the adjustment to be more precise. He said that no repair person can adjust a camera to be within an inch or two of focus accuracy. I had to send it to Sherry Krauter at Golden Touch who said that Leica specialists are trained to adjust rangefinders within a fraction of a millimeter of accuracy.
The Panorama repairman couldn’t even detect the vertical alignment problem. He uses the Empire State Building outside his window to adjust the infinity focus; the building is about four blocks away from his office. When I told him that he should have double checked the alignment at one meter, he responded by saying he doesn’t know if he has a tape measure in the shop. He focused at a spot on his counter, and the lens read «7 ft» on the distance scale; he eyeballed the distance between the counter and himself and said, «looks like seven feet to me,» and then handed the camera back to me. That was how he double checked focus.
If you have a rangefinder and want a precise adjustment, looks like you have to go with a rangefinder specialist: Don Goldberg, Sherry Krauter, Youxin Ye, etc. For other cameras, be warned that this guy seems like he uses a lot of shortcuts and has low standards; I’ve never gotten that sense at other NYC shops like Nippon Camera or Metro Camera. This guy wasn’t even cheap; I paid a lot of money and then was treated like I’m a crazy man. I can get that for free at home.

Fast turn around! I needed my Canon powershot camera fixed before a Janet concert today. The lens kept getting stuck and a E18 error. I took it in at noon and had it back by 4pm! Janet here I come :) Buildings a lil creepy but its typical old nyc style building like the others in the area. They have alot of old models in there so I will assume they handle a lot of them. Good Luck!

I have gotten two cameras repaired here, both LOMO LC-​As. The service was quick and the owners are nice too. I had a problem with one of the cameras after repair and they took it back, no questions asked.
I would definitely recommend this place for repairing old cameras. Don’t know how they do with digital or electronic devices.
Also: don’t be alarmed if you get there and can’t find the place! They are on the 2^nd or 3^rd floor of the building.

great service, fast and reliable at a great price. dealing with for years.

I brought my pocket camera to Panorama because it was running through its battery life within a few shots. They diagnosed the issue quickly, gave me a reasonable estimate, held to that estimate, and fixed the issue when they said they would. I definitely recommend Panorama for camera repairs.

as far as i know, this place is the only repair shop in the city that will work on pretty much any old camera. i took them a lubitel with a slippy cocking mechanism, and they had it back to me in a few days, no problem. i don’t think there is any other shop that would have even had the necessary part for this camera, and that to me is worth some money. also, as the first reviewer said, it’s a hardworking couple in there who deserve your support. yeah Panorama!

This summer, I bought an old Leica camera that was basically in good shape, but probably hadn’t been used in 40 years.
These cameras are virtually indestructible so I was optimistic that all it needed was a good cleaning and shutter adjustment.
There are Leica repair guys located in far-​flung, exotic places like New Jersey, Massachusetts and Colorado, but I wanted to find a shop in NYC to avoid the time and worry of sending the camera through the mail.
After some online searching and a few phone calls, I found Panorama Camera Center.
It’s located in one of the last patches of Manhattan that hasn’t been spiffed up and filled with boutique hotels and stainless steel frozen yoghurt stores. It’s prime Julius Knipl-​territory*, in fact: Old office buildings with shabby hallways and windows with transoms, defunct furriers with the fur industry seal of quality still affixed to the shop window, etc.
Panorama Camera, itself, though is a very tidy place, with neat rows of all sorts of old cameras and lenses, in glass display cases.
It’s run by a husband and wife team and the guy will take on any job, repairing cameras as old as mine, and new digital cameras, too. Now, of course, there are any number of places that repair newer cameras; this business is good to know about if you have a 30, 50 or 75 year old camera. Can’t promise that he can repair anything you might have, but he’s worth consulting.
My camera’s mechanism was returned to the silky-​smoothness it had when it was new and a lens that looked beyond salvaging was brought back to life again. The cost was comparable to what you’d pay his competitors, so, although not a bargain, it was fair. Work was delivered on time and I’m planning to bring in more cameras and lenses in the future.
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