Willoughby’s Camera

I don’t agree with all the other bad reviews. My experience was in general good, I just regret that they sold me a very expensive memory card which is not required for my camera (6D) and the way I use it.
The vendor was friendly and let us try any equipment we were interested in?

I work for a small business that sold to Willoughbys, and they will not pay their invoices. Shame on them for stealing.

We purchased a GoPro camera and accessories from Willoughby’s via Amazon and had exceptional customer service from Michael. This was purchased as a gift and my son wanted to make an exchange, which was handled quickly and professionally. It is so refreshing to deal with a company that does what they say they will do the first time out! Thank you Willoughby’s… will come to you for our future camera needs.

I had the same experience as Howard L. I went to get a wide angle adapter for my micro ⁴⁄₃ camera (on the Panasonic 12−35mm lens). The rep showed me one that costs $ 350. That seemed high. He quickly pulled up this page from Amazon on his computer:
(Screenshot:
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The amazon page showed the same product for $ 699. The seller of that lens had just one other product: another lens adapter that featured 4K support for $ 999! I don’t get why one lens adapter – a piece of glass that screws onto a lens – would or would not support 4K recording.
Anyway, the Amazon page is very dubious: the only way I could find it is by using the search term the salesperson used: HD-​3DH8-​XFC.
It is not a surprise that the rep didn’t blink to discount $ 50 off their $ 350 converter, now seeing that there is a 58 MM 0.43x Altura converter, which seems to retail for $ 30 on Amazon.

As a professional photographer for many decades here in New York City, I had dealt with the original Willoughby’s when they were on 32^nd Street and advertised themselves as «The worlds largest camera store.»
Well, that place closed a long time ago and it seems this outfit somehow acquired the name. But not much else. They had placed an ad on eBay for a rather expensive strobe at a really inexpensive price: about 40% less that the Big Store On 34^th Street. When I called, the salesman assured me that it was in fact the unit I had seen and the price was correct. He also told me that they were an authorized dealer and the strobe had a full warranty. «Come on down and pick it up. We have one left: I will hold it for you!»
WRONG! The price seemed just a bit «too good» and fortunately I decided to check before I bought it. I called the importer. Turns out that these folks are NOT an authorized distributor and the unit did not have any sort of warranty. Be warned.

BUYER BEWARE. This place definitely tends to be much more expensive than other places. Hopefully, no one ever has to deal with my same issues after reading this.
I went to purchase a battery charger and the salesperson offered to look and my camera. He told me that I should look into a wide angle macro lens if I were to take food photos. I was interested to learn, so he showed me the lens, told me the features, and pulled up the «retail» price on Amazon to show me other competitor prices. The «retail» price showed $ 699 and he was going to sell it for me at $ 350 plus throw the charger in for free. The charger btw was $ 60. I went ahead and purchased the lens taking the salesperson’s word. As soon as I got home, I looked up the lens to see what the reviews/​similar prices were. Wow… similar lenses cost $ 40 – 50, and there wasn’t even much information on the brand. The best part was when I checked the actual Amazon listing of what he showed me. One of the sellers was WILLOUGHBYS. Oh, and the competitor prices of the battery? $ 15…
I needed to get a refund, so I went in and they only do in-​store credit. That said, I carefully explained my reasoning and they were generous enough to refund the lens and provided me the refund receipt.

I only dealt with them once on E-​Bay with make me an offer. I did they accepted, but in the interim I was given the item as a gift. So upon receiving their e-​mail I said no thanks I just got one as a gift. Now we are not talking about something expensive $ 25.00. But they did not respond to multiple e-​mails from me, but instead they opened an unpaid item case. How much profit were they going to get? Is this the kind of response we could have expected if I purchased the item?

When packing and checking my gear on a Saturday morning before a shoot, I realized that my battery had walked off on me. Called Willoughby’s as soon as they opened and Andy picked up right away. He said I could come by anytime and pick up the product and he would put it on hold for me. I planned to stop in on my way to the shoot so I asked if he could possibly charge the battery for me so it was good to go. He happily agreed and it worked out perfect. Full charge when I arrived, price was comparable, friendly service. Really saved me on a Saturday when B&H and Adorama are closed. Will absolutely visit their shop again.

Another reason not to purchase from this store. 8÷5÷15 Sony releases the new A7Rii camera. Willoughby’s takes advantage of supply and demand by raising prices. See Posted Pic. Bhphotovideo, Adorama, and Amazon would never do this. Just another ebay Opportunist, Price Gouging seller.

Friendly enough, but tried to charge me $ 10 for 1 roll of Kodak film which retails elsewhere for ~$ 3… Nope.

Way over priced. Buyer beware. I had no idea places like this still existed. Don’t get ripped off.

While Willoughby’s has a wonderful selection of cameras and camera supplies buyer beware if you expect honest help in an area you are not knowledgeable.
I recently stopped in at this store and was «upsold» a digital wide converter for my Fujifilm Fujinon camera. Being a beginner photographer, I relied on the sales person for their «knowledgeable» advise. How wrong I was. This addon exists nowhere else on the internet except for Amazon and the listing is Willhoughby’s (of course this is the listing they showed me to exhibit what an awesome discount they were giving me). I used this lens addon on my recent trip abroad and it’s a POS. I even took it into another camera shop to see if I just wasn’t using the settings right and they told me that it was a terrible quality addon and essentially was a magnifying lens for my expensive Fujinon lens.
Although Willoughby’s has a great assortment of supplies, I will never shop at this store again due to the salespeople taking advantage of me. It’s a real shame because I often travel to NYC and would have been a regular customer had the salesperson been honest. In the end, he may have made a $ 300 sale off of me but the store has lost out on any future business I would have given them which is a lot more than $ 300.
I absolutely would not recommend going here unless you are experienced and know exactly what you want. If you are not knowledgeable and seeking guidance they take this as an opening to take advantage of you — who wants that?
Two thumbs down.

This place was awesome. I was looking for a camera all over town. They were the only place that had it in. They gave it to me at the same price as everyone else was advertising.
Andy helped me out. He spent time with me and answered all my questions.
Very impressed.

bad prices, bad offers: no refund!
True story: 9÷10÷14: read it if you want to :
went there as tourist, they tried to sell my girlfriend a super telephoto lense for her camera, the first price he gave us was 350 $, he also claimed thar the normal price somewhere else for this would be around 500 $ or something…
We said no thanks, because even with his special discount price it was far too expensive for a gadget. So we went home with the stuff we wanted to buy, (omg) my gf even felt a bit guilty. «poor guy he so hardly tried to make the deal with us and I said no… now he has trouble with his boss… First I looked up the images I was allowed to shoot with that lense. A complete disaster, a crazy blurry fishey effect with super blurry edges and tremendous chromatic aberration… Good we didn’t made the deal!) but then: the other stuff: what kind of Compact flash card did we bought 249 $ for a nonname 64gb card without any proper labeling, description about speed and a product Webpage that doesn’t even exists? I brought that back next morning, but oh… Surprise … No refund… Was on back of invoice… Fail…
Okay so the only choice was exchange: here the story continues:
I was asking for a flash instead of the card in exchange, so he gave me a canon speedlite 270ex ii said,» I can give you that for 249…” Oh, interesting” I said, «same price as the speedlite 320 on your website, but the 270 is much smaller, it must be cheaper and I’ve seen that on amazon for 169 ?»
He looked at me, and said, «we’ll I’m not amazon » … Then he said «I can give you that for …199»
Meanwhile my girlfriend was searching something in her bag, the shop guy saw her canon and boom: All of a sudden he put again his super telephoto lense. gadget on the selling desk … «by the way I have something great for your girlfriends camera, great for shooting on Empire State and…
oMG … The guy was programmed. … So, Before it went totally ridiculous. I tooked the flash for 199′ an a gorilla pod (59.90 $) /​a small tripod)) The 10 $ difference he gave us and made the exchange even… After that we went to b+h photo, I bought a wonderful Sandisk 32 gb card, for a very good price…
At b&h I also found the 59 $ gorilla pod for 33 $ … All in all we went out of this only slightly bruised because:
today I also found the sensational Super telephoto lens the guy in store wanted to sell me twice: on eBay, new from Factory, the exact product, 48 euro, comparable product, only 49 $ … Remember, the First offer was 350 $ (!!!)
So, never ever again I will buy something expensive outside the EU when I am jet lagged, sick and unprepared… I will look up every store in future like I look up every restaurant. Unilocal may help, but even here stay to the golden rule: always keep your eyes open, read between the lines and compare
… Hope this May help People to Avocado such Shopping experience. For me I learned a lot from this!

Very helpful staff, come in with a problem with my camera and sales person opened sealed package to try it out before selling item to me. No pressure and interested in solving my issue. FYI, I also bought and item on ebay from Willoughby’s and great experience too.

While it may have been open since 1898, Willoughby’s sure is tiny and boring these days (TNWSS). Given the fact that they post gaudy ads in the journal and it’s been universally panned on here, I’m not sure why photo people even bother when B&H isn’t a terribly long walk away.

Very helpful staff and a nice selection of products. Not a large store like B&H, so no need to feel rushed; you can take your time to evaluate whatever you wish. I bought a rapid-​access camera sling there and the salesperson helped me get it all set for use with my camera. Without me even asking, discounted the price. I was stunned when the total checkout amount was less than the regular price.

By far one of the most prestigious camera/​photographic store I have ever been too. The staff is very knowledgeable in their area of expertise. I came into the store with little knowledge on how to buy a camera and they all took the time to walk me through the process while also showing me various models all at different price ranges.
I also enjoy the variety of equipment and accessories that they have.
My overall experience at this store was great!

Gotta chime in with all the negative reviews. I didn’t experience the unfriendliness that other reviewers have experienced, but they’re all correct: Willoughby’s are ridiculously expensive and for no good reason. I went there for a sensor cleanup, and was told that it’ll cost $ 150.
$ 150. Elsewhere it’s $ 50.
Their Leica rentals are very expensive too. Online you can rent the same Leice for double the days for the same amount.
Overall, I don’t see a reason to patronize them, given the countless other superior options that are available in the area.

Just bought a GoPro HERO3+ Silver from these guys… simple straightforward purchase at same price as GoPro website!

Listen, most of these reviews are accurate, although probably a bit harsh at one star… The positive aspect of Willoughby’s is they’re generally able to get product, especially harder to find items such as Leica M cameras and lenses. Overall, I’ve also found the staff friendly and helpful by brusque NYC standards…
The «con» for Willoughby’s — and the reason for two stars and a suggestion to shop elsewhere if you’re willing to wait for that harder-​to-​find item — is that they’re not the least bit averse to gouging, charging well above retail, or requiring you to buy multiple items to secure said hard to find items… just a fact…
Adorama, Camera Land, B&H, et al seem to stick to MSRP based on my experience… Willoughby’s is more than happy to charge above retail… just factual information based on personal transactions…
So, if you’re cool paying above retail, you’ll disagree with this review; if you believe MSRPs provide ample profit for these retail establishments, then you’ll side with me…

The «one star» is because Unilocal won’t let me go lower.
I came in October 2011 because I was in a pinch; I needed a microphone for my NIkon DSLR so I could shoot a video at an event. The mic I had purchased on Amazon got held up in shipping and I wasn’t about to use the onboard microphone. This place had an Audio-​Technica ATR 6250 in stock. I hadn’t been able to test this microphone itself, nor was I able to get a price comparison since I was actually on my way to the event I was supposed to cover. It pained me, but I dropped at least $ 150 for the mic.
I used the microphone at the event and noted how terrible it sounded. I’m not a stranger to either microphones or cameras, and this did NOT sound like a mic that should cost that much money. I haven’t used it since because it sounds terrible – my iPhone makes a better microphone. When I was browsing at microphones later, I came across an actual list price for this microphone: approximately $ 50. Today, the mic goes at B&H and Amazon for approximately $ 35.
I’m not stupid. I buy a lot of equipment and know what something should be priced. Even at the time I figured this was too expensive, but I didn’t have the time or options to find anything else. The guy who helped me also said they had no other microphones in stock, it was a Saturday so B&H was closed, etc. Not a good situation, but that doesn’t mean that they should be selling an absolute piece-​of-​crap microphone for that much of a markup. It’s a rip-​off, pure and simple.
Willoughby’s might be a great tourist trap for sad people who know nothing about photography and still bought a new 7D to wander into and pay a ton of money for crappy products, so I guess if you’re one of those, great, five stars. Sure, the people helping you act exuberant and nice… meanwhile, they’re gouging you and selling sub-​par merchandise. Of course they’re going to act nice. How else are they going to get you to buy something that a four-​year-​old with a cardboard tube and a few wires could’ve made?
So, final thought: if you get off on dropping a ton of cash on crappy products, you’ll love Willoughby’s! If you’re a professional who would rather pay for equipment that actually functions and is priced the same (or even lower) at a better store, go to that store. Run. Don’t look back.

Wowza, I’m in shock at how horrible the reviews are for Willoughby’s.
Although when you first walk in the atmosphere is a bit cold and very midtown shop feel (you know what I mean if you’ve lived in New York for a bit), the staff was beyond nice to me. I was on the hunt for a Fujifilm x100 and had just walked out of another store that did not have an associate knowledgable in the camera. When I got to Willoughby’s there was no crowds/​lines/​etc and someone explained the details of the camera to me, including basic usage. He was even so honest to say that stores such as theirs don’t give enough money for trade-​ins, and to attempt to sell equipment elsewhere first and return later to purchase the camera. He was a true gentlemen and I would recommend a trip to Willoughby’s for anyone who is looking for a personal experience with an associate rather than getting a number and being rushed along in a line of a billion tourists at nearby competitors.