Camerabase and Cameratiks

Look cameratiks is a great place to get camera ‘stuff’, and I really admire the guy behind the counters knowledge BUT he’s a grumpy sod, who does not suffer anyone gladly. I have been in here countless times and I have seen him half smile once.
Its always worth asking if he has a certain part as most of the time he spends 30 seconds rummaging in a box and finds exactly what you need at a very reasonable price.
I must add, the shop is not heavy geared towards digital and only offers a selection of items for your memory card using machine. T
Just up the stairs is camerabase, which I have used several times to service and fix various cameras (5×4, medium format and digital) and have always found them to be great value and quick at doing the job.
Bonus points: They sometimes have a dog in the shop. Which makes the whole experience much nicer, and you can pet him.

I retired my film camera a few years ago in favour of a digital SLR with which I’ve had no problems, so I’ve only been here for passport pictures. Admittedly it’s easy enough to go to a photo booth for adult photos but when getting Baby Unilocal’s passport documents together, we came here for his picture.
The process was quick and easy, and little dude charmed everyone by belching loudly on completion of his photo shoot.
It was expensive but convenient so ultimately worth it.

With more and more of us having digital cameras it’s sometimes quite difficult to find somewhere to go to if something goes wrong with them outside of the warranty period. Cameratiks is your Edinburgh answer. These guys are so helpful in finding out what’s wrong and fixing it, usually in-​house rather than sending it away, so your turnaround times are quicker.
There is a retail store which is very much for the specialist photographer with a good sized collection of old lenses and cameras. Not so great for buying new gear but you can’t really expect a small independent shop like this to invest so much into expensive stock.

Since Jessops have disappeared it’s hard to find a dedicated camera shop and Cameratiks is the only other one I know of. I have to walk here all the way from Princes Street. I figured that being a privately-​owned and run shop they would be keen and eager to help me with the various questions I had.
When I entered the shop it was deadly silent. I mean silent like your grandmother’s tea room, only without a ticking clock for comfort. I brought out my stuff and asked away.
The staff, two old guys, COULD NOT BE ANY LESS INTERESTED. They barely made eye contact with me and just shrugged or huffed away anything that I asked them. I said many, many sentences but I was lucky if they even said ten syllables back to me.
I accidentally left something on the counter and returned for it about fifteen minutes later. I entered the shop and apologized for leaving it behind (it had not moved at all). Both of the old men completely ignored me.
So I went home, with no answers about my camera (I was looking for an appropriate flash, lens, and filter) and a bad experience to spoil my day.
I won’t be going back to Cameratiks. They’d make a funeral wake look like Wrestlemania. What a horrible attitude they had.

It was an evening deep in the middle of winter. My new Canon camera and I had just become acquainted, and it was instantly a splendid marriage of snap-​happiness and good times.
However, one night I took a risk. I let my guard down and thought going to a nightclub in Glasgow, without one of those things you attach to your camera so you can loop it round your wrist (camera-​loop-​string-​whatever) would be fine. It wasn’t. Predictably it fell to the ground in some sort of slow-​mo horror moment, and the lense halted mid-​zoom while it made a few pathetic sounds and tried to restart itself.
To cut a long story short I found Cameratiks shortly before I was meant to go to Barcelona, and they fixed my camera to as good as new condition, and did it in super speedy time so I would have it for my trip (at an inexpensive price, around £45). It was totally and absolutely worth the money to have my Canon companion back at my side (now with wrist string attached).

Having broken my camera just before holidays this summer I spent days frantically running around all the so-​called camera shops (like Jessops) in Edinburgh trying to fix it, but in vain. For something as trivial as the lens cover being a bit wonky they wanted £80 and for it to be sent off for a few weeks to the factory. They problem is that none of the people who work in these stores have any skill, or barely even any knowledge when it comes to cameras, they just work in a shop that happens to sell cameras. Rant over
This is not the case with Camerabase; you can tell they pride themselves on their knowledge. Just looking in the window you see lenses and stands of old manual cameras that aren’t even made anymore, like Olympus OM1s and OM2s, but are well known to true camera aficionados. The guys here are so helpful and you can tell they love cameras, treating each one with care, even my broken little point and shoot. And the final cost to fix my camera: a snappy 24 quid.

A real optical gem.
PRICE: Products here tend to be high-​end, but many products are either second-​hand or cheap anyway, with good value across these price ranges.
SERVICE: Knowledgeable and friendly.
QUALITY: Kit ranges from a number of beautiful mechanical SLRs to old slide projectors and accessories.
CHOICE: A wide range of old kit and accessories, all well laid out and easy to find.
I chanced upon this shop once when walking the dog and decided that it was well worth a look in. Being a man with a love of cameras I found this shop a delight. Its walls are stacked high with all kinds of finery: monoculars, binoculars, tripods, slide and film projectors, all manner of lenses, a museum-​like array of old cameras (some dating back to the middle of the last century and before), digital cameras of various ages and types, old film, new film, camera bags, cleaning solutions and so on.
I spent a long time enjoying looking around, and when it came to asking a couple of questions concerning a rather obscure piece of kit, they had good answers, and displayed that they really did know their stuff.
They do repairs too, and though I am fortunate enough to have not needed their help, I would infer from the look of the workshop at the back that they would know what they are doing.
I would recommend that if you are a mechanical photographer, this should be your stockist, and if you are someone who wants any ancillary kit for either digital or film photography then this place is where you need to be.
As one final note: if you are lucky enough to glance up the stairs at the back, you may have the pleasant surprise of seeing the fluffy and friendly resident border collie lying lazily on the landing…

Though slightly out of my way, there is nowhere else I’d go if I had camera-​questions. No-​one else I’d trust with my precious photographic equipment. I only ever walked in here by mistake. Not because I knew there was a very good camera-​shop somewhere in Morningside, but because there was the typical display in the window of beautiful cameras and lenses I could never ever afford.
The people who work there have always been helpful. Answering my incessant questions when I was thinking of splashing out and getting myself an 85 mm, 1.8. Film photography might be suffering in the digital age, but Camerabase and Cameratiks are very adamantly in denial. And this is a good thing. By denial, I mean they haven’t given up.
And they’re also not trying to make money off you at your expense. I took an old digital SLR of mine there for repair because I was foolish enough to let a drunk friend of mine handle it and they pretty much assured me it wasn’t worth fixing, that I could probably get a new one for cheaper. And I did.
If you need anything in the realm of cameras, go there. Oh! Before I forget: they also sell expired film (which is a bit like food that’s gone out of date: a lie) for cheaper. Film’s hella expensive these days so it’s good to know there’re some places you can get it cheaper. Even if it is at your own risk.

I recently discovered how much I love film photography and thanks to my amazing mum got my hands on an old Nikon in excellent condition. Having hardly any knowledge about film cameras (I was so used to the snap-​and-​see mentality little digital ones give) I was told that this place is the point of reference for anyhting to do with film cameras in the city.
And it sure is. Located in Morningside, this shop has a passion for photography and it’s one of the oldest in the City. They showed me how to load my film and use some of the manual features, as well as some tip bits about my photography. They are certainly my first stop should anything happen to my new (old)baby.
The other occasion I came here was with my friend who is also into photography, but in a more professional way (he has the big lenses and the works for his digital ones). He had this idea of how to best test out optic lenses so it would be easier to compare one another. He went to several photography shops with the unusual request to try out their lenses. The people at Camerabase were great about it. The manager was extremely helpful and cooperative, and my friend left pleased with their customer service.
One last point, the shop is sort of divided to Camerabase that deals with the Sales side (new or second hand cameras, all sorts of equipment for both film and digital) and Cameratiks which deals with repairs.