Ritz Camera and Image

I called this store yesterday (6÷24÷16) to inquire about paying for one-​on-​one instruction.
Today (06÷25÷16) as instructed, I have been calling this store for one hour. Their phone has been constantly busy. Is Ritz really trying to give good service?

[This review is for repair of a DSLR]
I stopped in here because there really aren’t any DSLR repair places in Mo Co. On a weekday afternoon, this place was relatively steady, but I was helped within 5 – 10 min.
I dropped my Nikon D7100 and the autofocus/​auto-​anything stopped working (yes, I’m that clumsy moron. Trust me, I’m hurting over it way more than you rolling your eyes reading this).
I called ahead day of and spoke to Steve to see if they could even help and he was super friendly and helpful.
Reggie assisted me with trouble-​shooting my camera. He was friendly, calm, and very helpful. We tested both my lens and body (testing my lens on a Ritz-​owned Ninon D7100 and testing my body on a Ritz-​owned lens). He even got Mike to help me remove an old UV filter that would just not come off.
Minus 1-​Star because they told me it would take 2 – 3 weeks to fix. However, when I called to follow up a week and a half later, they told me it was really 4 – 6 weeks. I kept following up (you should too so that it doesn’t get backlogged) and was able to get my camera back in 4 weeks. I understand shipping it out to a 3^rd party makes it not really their fault, I just wish they would have told me the 4 – 6 week time so I would have not been so upset because I did tell them I needed the camera back bad and practically begged them to see what they could do to get it processed asap.

Fast service but everything is overpriced. I was charged $ 75 for sensor cleaning even though they couldn’t solve the problem and i was told that it would be $ 59 on the phone to clean the sensor. I will never go back!

I took them two slides and they had them scanned at high resolution an on a CD in three hours. The staff were friendly and helpful and I did not have to wait long to be helped. The price was reasonable. I would go again.

Amazing customer service, they all make magic happen. Michael made very special memories for my family. I drive 75 mins to get there, it’s sooo worth it.
Cindy L

Ritz has gone through some restructuring, many stores closed. Now, the good service is back, due to better management by Michael at the Bethesda store, and a friendly helpful and knowledgeable staff. I am glad that the Ritz I remember from years ago is back, and not the one that had deteriorated in recent times. Much, much better now.

This store get 2 stars for its great equipment.
However it only gets 2 because it’s customer service was nonexistent and there are not price tags on most of the merch.
As you might understand, if want to know price, and no one will help you, you’re not going to ever know the price.

I’m trying to call this location, but their automation setup is flawed. Every time you press 3 or 4 to talk to a representative. it disconnects. When you remain on the line for it to connect, it says ‘i’m sorry, we didn’t receive a valid response, try again’. You’re then forced to choose an answer, which ultimately, disconnects you.
If you’re going to run a business, one that of which seems to be slowly dying, at least make sure you’re call options are operational. It seems to me, you’d LIKE to be out of business. I will NOT be doing business with this location.

I have had nothing but excellent service and experiences at this Ritz. The staff is knowledgeable and very friendly. Fair prices.

Ritz has really nice and easy to use self-​service kiosks for cropping, enlarging/​reducing, and printing your photos. However, this is where the nice customer experience ends. God forbid you need assistance with the machines or have questions. The few employees behind the counter basically pretend you’re invisible and act as if they’re doing you some huge favor when you actually do get their attention.
My first experience here was just before Christmas when I wanted to print some photos to give as gifts. The experience was subpar, but I chalked it up to it being the busy holiday season. Fast forward to the summer, I went here on a Sunday, again to enlarge and print some photos to be framed. This time, the store was mostly empty, but I had the exact same experience. And because I had an issue with one of my files that I need to print, it took close to 45 minutes to get the job done, even though there were at most 3 customers in the store.
Perhaps the experience with other services is better, but for simply getting prints, their customer service is really ridiculous. Not sure what their target customer base is, but I did spend $ 50 on the two prints, so I would expect at least a bit more help.
They get two stars for the handy kiosks and that’s it. However, I’ll probably end up going again, because when it was all said and done, my product was good.

I love this store and I love the people who work here (especially Rosemarie, Mike and Steve). Those three people are three of the nicest store employees I have ever known. I travel about 30 minutes each way to come here. I have been coming here about once every two weeks for the past few years. Rosemarie and Mike do an amazing job on my photos. I have never met anybody who knows as much about photography as the store manager Mike. Steve is one of the most patient and nicest people I have ever known and he is a tremendous asset to this store. When a customer doesn’t know what they are doing, he spends as much time as they need helping them. I have rarely seen an employee as hardworking as Rosemarie and Mike. It really upsets me when customers who have a sense of entitlement come into this store and abuse the employees. It happens every now and then. No matter how great a job you do and no matter how great you treat customers, there are always going to be people whom you can’t please. I travel all over the country and I don’t see that nearly as much in small town America. I am here at Ritz a lot and the overwhelming majority of customers love this store and greatly appreciate the awesome work that Steve, Mike and Rosemarie do. There are very few stores of this kind left in America and the people who complain the most will be the first to complain if this store is no longer around. I give Ritz Camera of Bethesda an A plus and I don’t give A plusses very often. I give them an A plus for the great work that they do the fantastic service they provide, the great music they play and the long hours they stay open. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Rosemarie, Mike and Steve continue to work here for a long time. It just wouldn’t be the same without them. If I have one complaint it would be that the parking situation could be a little better. But they validate parking and parking is free if you are here for under an hour. There are actually ways to park here for free for up to two hours. Parking is convenient and is only 3 dollars on Saturdays and is free on Sundays. It is also only 3 dollars after 4 PM on weekdays so parking isn’t really a problem. I am not complaining about the parking, I am just saying that parking is the one thing that could be a little better.

Near my job so I came in to get new passport photos taken. Process was easy peasy, lined up against the wall, they capture my mug and I chatted with the photog/​cashier while they were cut to size. They also came in a pretty handy holder so they wouldn’t get crushed in my purse.
The small talk did get a little a little weird/​awkward but nothing terribly offensive, I’d come back. At less than $ 12 for 2 pictures, pricing was pretty on par with other camera/​copy shops.

At first I was so happy that Ritz opened in a new location in Bethesda. Finally, a local place to develop my 35 mm film!
Well, to keep this concise, I requested 5 rolls, a cd (scanned at hi res), and contact sheets. Went to go pick it up and they forgot to give me the developed film strips, and the scanned images were pretty low res. So now I have to scan in the images by hand, which takes hours.
All of that I can swallow for the benefit of having a local spot for film development, but the kicker was that the developed film had SO many static spots. SO MANY. I’ve had better developed film from CVS 2 years ago. So yeah, I have some great images that are basically throw aways.
The people there were friendly though, but as a professional solution for 35 mm development, be wary.
I’ll be sure to try again in a half a year. Hopefully they’ll have the kinks ironed out.

I rarely write reviews, I take my experiences, good or bad, as they come and keep on moving on with my life. However this isn’t one of those times.
This was my very first trip to a Ritz Camera and was letdown by the lack of service and how rude and impolite the associates were. I was in the store for at least 10 minutes and was never greeted or asked if I needed any assistance. I kindly asked to see the d7100, a camera I am soon upgrading too and was rudely walked to the case, the associate was very short with me and didn’t even seem like she wanted to help. I kindly asked if they price matched, I was given a response, however her tone was nasty. It made me feel uncomfortable.
The biggest let down is this is the only Ritz Camera in the area, and as someone who is just starting out in cinematography/​photography, it sucks to know that I don’t have a place to go where I can be helped by professionals who know there way around the equipment.
I will try again and I hope my experience next time is much better. Until then, I won’t be going back into that particular store for awhile.

Susan and Troy are super helpful! Great service! If you are looking for a place to get passport photos this is the place.

This is literally the only camera shop in Montgomery County. Unless I want to drive into DC or VA this is as good as it gets, which is mind blowing to me.
Anyway the majority of the space is dedicated to processing behind the counter with actual retail space as more of an afterthought. They have a minimal variety of cameras, lenses, stands, accessories and bags, but no studio lights or serious gear. If you’re looking for something specific you might want to call ahead. It’s like the ⁷⁄₁₁ of camera stores.

I have never written an online review before.
Three weeks ago, I dropped off six rolls of film to be developed and scanned — four rolls of color, two rolls of black and white, shot on three different cameras, and two different formats (120 & 35).
The color rolls came out great. I understand they process the film in-​house, great color, awesome scans, good price — no complaints.
The black and white they send to a lab. The lab ended up processing my film wrong and completely destroying the negatives. My roll of 120 triX, and roll of 35 id 400 came back with a purple hue, and completely washed out contrast, and zero detail. All 48 pictures had the same issue, nothing was salvageable. For me, losing two rolls of film like that was a devastating thing to happen in and of itself. Photography is my passion and my profession, and really it just feels like crap when something like this happens.
So I call the store and tell them what happened. They are completely apologetic, tell me to bring the rolls in and I will get a full refund. Sounds good to me, although the main reason I want to go back is that we can take a look at the negatives and try and figure out if they are salvageable, and what happened. I tell them that since the holiday is a few days away and I live a half hour away from the store, I most likely wont be able to come back till after the holiday. No problem.
Today I brought the film back to the store, re-​explained what happened to the woman behind the counter (didn’t catch her name) and was immediately met with skepticism, hostility, and treated like an idiot. She said I had not taken the pictures properly, which I explained to her, while that may be the case for a few of the shots in there, I find it highly unlikely that I missed all 48 shots, especially when the 35 was shot on a point and shoot yashica t4. «Well you are going to have to come back tomorrow and talk to the manager of the store then.» I told her that I live half an hour away, it’s not an easy drive through DC traffic especially during rush hour, which is when I would have to go. She said FINE let me call the manager. I hear her on the phone telling the manager how «he thinks the lab messed up the film,» «SOME of the shots are washed out (BLATANT LIE)» etc.
She comes back to the counter, says that they can only give me half a refund. Seriously? Yes. She looks at me pissed off that I am even standing here in the store and says, «you come into the store three weeks later, don’t remember who you talked to, and don’t even have a receipt.» (I had the envelop btw which had the bar code, my name, info, date, and negative #s). I guess I should have been prepared to be put on trial. I tell her to forget it, leave the negatives on the counter, and walk out of the store.
I never gave a sh** about the money anyway. It’s about losing my work, and finding some sort of accountability there. Instead I found hostility and someone who was just super mean. I am sure there are great people that work there, and that I probably just got the wrong person at the wrong time, but I have never walked out of a store so demoralized and upset, and that is unacceptable.

I had what I thought was a broken Nikon camera that I had taken to Pro Photo repair and sales in DC and was overwhelmed with the outrageous price they gave me after taking just one look at the camera. $ 200! to repair supposedly. So in efforts to not end up in the first spot I asked a quote for I came to this Ritz camera. BEST DECISION EVER. the employees immediately tried an alternative to replacing the whole lens before concluding that that was the issue and instead carefully popped the rim into place which was what the problem was. It was preventing the lens from retracting out. IT WAS THAT EASY. I don’t know cameras! I would have been played in the other place because I was about to be broke trying to fix it in dc for a problem that could be improvised. The ritz camera employees were professional, knowledgeable and money conscious. They had patience to try and fix something to the benefit of the client and it worked and I am forever grateful they saved me that money. I will definitely recommend this Ritz camera and I will definitely come back for any repairs I need done.

Purchased an Olympus OM-​D E-​M10 Micro ⁴⁄₃ here. They had a good selection of Olympus mirrorless, which is what I wanted, and they helped convince me that the E-​M10 is exactly what I was looking for. Then, they gave me $ 50 off the kit and a free 16 GB SD card.
Helpful and friendly staff, good selection of cameras, and a price that matched the online prices. What’s not to like?

This is the last REAL camera store in the DC area. This is not the same Ritz you may remember from a few years ago. They’ve acquired much of the stock, staff and expertise from Calumet when they went belly up last year.
If you are, like me, a «serious amateur» who does the occasional professional job, this is the only place to go. The people who work here really understand the technology. So much of what you get online is jargon and marketing spin, it’s great to talk to another photographer.
Calumet is gone. Penn is gone. Prophoto on K is gone. That camera store in Tenley whose name I have long since forgotten is gone. Do us all a favor — next time you have a choice between buying the same camera from adorama or b&h online — go to this Ritz instead.

Finding a camera shop is hard these days — it seems like just about everything in the DC metro has closed. Finding a friendly, well-​stocked camera shop with knowledgeable staff who can explain things without seeming patronizing or pedantic? Well, I assumed it was impossible. Until I found this place.
If you need anything photography related, especially if you’re looking for advice or equipment beyond what you’ll find in a Best Buy, I can’t recommend this place enough. Great service, plus everything photography-​related you can think of (including rentals), all within walking distance of the metro, even if it’s a bit of a walk. Definitely a great spot.