Cameras... yes. Cheap... no. (Jessops)

Member Name: JJJJ

Product:	Jessops
Date:	05/09/09 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good selection of accessories

Disadvantages: Can be pricey

Buying a new camera these days can be a bit of an ordeal due to the vast amount of models on the market to choose from - and once you've chosen your shooter, where is the best place to buy it from?... Jessops?... maybe not.

Jessops is currently the largest photographic retail outlet in the UK with over two hundred stores nationwide. The shop sells a decent selection of photography related items, ranging from digital cameras and memory cards, to camcorders, lenses and cases. The store also offers a photographic printing service, and the staff will happily accept your film, camera memory card, or CD to print images from.

History
- - - - -
The first Jessops store was opened seventy-three years ago by Frank Jessop in Leicester. Since that time, the Jessops franchise has slowly but surely spread across the country with it's 200th store opening in July 2001. Nowadays, it's actually quite difficult to visit the generic British clone-high street without seeing the traditional blue store frontage of Jessops.

As well as selling items manufactured by the leading brands, Jessops usually do their own version of camera accessories, and in the past I have often found myself purchasing own-brand lens caps, batteries and filters for fairly low-prices. Nowadays however, you can actually get official accessories cheaper online than Jessops sell their own-make stuff for. It's sad really, because buying online will probably be the end of shops like Jessops - but I can't really justify not saving the pounds, especially when part of my job involves photography. I recently went to buy a spare battery from Jessops for my SLR camera, and found that their own-brand version cost £38, which was £10 more than I could purchase the 'official' Nikon version for on eBay.

Inside the shop, the camera displays are usually well organised, and the store in general feels uncluttered and clean.

Overall, Jessops is a decent shop stocking a wide range of photographic equipment. In my past experiences, the staff have been friendly and helpful and seem to know what they are talking about - it's just a shame that the in-store prices mean that Jessops may not be a chain of shops with a rosy future.

Summary: Camera shop with a history