The Camera Doctor

Seems knowledgeable enough but maybe a little too … forthright in his approach to customer service. He didn’t readily accept my declining a particular repair service on an earlier visit, as if I was dissing his expertise.
Still, if you have a film camera, he might be your best friend. Parts and know-​how for the old cameras are getting hard to find.

Dudes: The guy is a dick. Bet he didn’t know I had Unilocal before he was so rude to me on the phone.

He knows cameras and can fix them. Might take a little while — but guarantees his work. May be worth the visit for old camera junkies just to go and browse.
Some folks won’t get his sense of humor, but I go there to get repairs and equipment, not entertainment (well, some entertainment.)

The older gentlemen who works (maybe owns?) this place is responsible for one of the worst customer experiences I have ever had. The first thing he said to me was asking about what happened to my friend’s head. He was referring to her green hair. As the conversation continued he kept making comments about how she was on the phone the entire time while I was speaking to him. Trying to brush off his insults about my friend, I continued to ask him about the camera I brought in. I walked in under the impression that this store offered free consultations on cameras. I just wanted to ask if my camera could work for a class this semester. Before I knew it he had stuck film in the camera and batteries to check for me, while insisting that I needed to purchase (what I know is an overpriced, unnecessary item). Next thing I know he charges me $ 25. After telling him I was unaware that I would be paying for anything, he acted rudely and shouted at me that he told me each step of the way the cost of each item. While in his head he apparently believed he had done the job of any decent salesman, in reality there was no notification of costs and as I told him I wasn’t paying for it he through a tantrum like a child and made rude comments. I will never be going back here and again and am intent on warning other photographers about this horrible business.

A cool old school camera store, with many interesting items. I paid $ 15.99 for a battery but the film was on sale. It’s worth it to support local merchants.

Dropped off 3 rolls of Neg for develop & prints. That part is brilliant. 5 stars.
What’s not so great is customer service. You won’t get much help here with anything beyond developing & prints.
Was asked if I could use something other than AmEx. I’d rather they not advertise that they accept AmEx if they’re not going to take it. But it’s fine I paid another way to help out.
Then PhotoCD did not work. No images on it. I emailed on Sunday to their web site email and called when they opened again on Tue. Steve was not the most helpful even though this all cost upwards of $ 70. He simply had me call the person that does his scans.
I asked if I could email to him a photo taken from prints so they could hunt down the files and burn another CD. He said he didn’t have email, «I’m just a camera guy, let me get you the number for the guy who does the Photo CDs from my smart phone…»
He has a smart phone but no email address? Even though one is published on the web site?
Their site does seem out of date — the hours of operation are 3 hours off from what their phone message says — and I don’t think either matches their front door sign.
Managed to get it all resolved through the guy who does their scans. Apparently you need to use a PC on newest Windows OS to get your pics off the CD, not a Mac on Mavericks or Yosemite (first time I’ve run into that but I solved it).
Think of this place as owned by a «camera guy» and not someone who focuses on the «small business» part of it. Just be prepared to navigate all that.
Great negs & prints though.
Cool old cameras & Holgas too.
That’s the most important part.

The owner, hmmm not bad and to be honest he does come accross as rude at first but the more you frequent the store the more you will be familiar uncanny sense of humor.
Pros: He knows cameras for that he deserves a 4 star (****), he gives good advice on the right print service to go with and has whatever used or new goods you may need. I shoot a Sony so it’s never easy for me but i like the sony experience better than any other and besides amazon and all online stores, he’s guaranteed to have what i’m look for 80% of the time. He’s very lenient on lay always and can negotiate prices if you know your stuff.
Cons: If you do not know your cameras, your lenses and how much on average they cost, he will rip you off and charge you an arm and a leg (trust me). So please do your research on prices before you walk in there so you can negotiate your price with him.
He will always try to up sell and cross sell you, so only get what you need and don’t give into the pressure.
The store is a good experience, yes i will definitely return for more purchases as long as i still shoot

Steve the owner would not refund my money after the courthouse rejected the passport photo he took. The lady showed me how it was improperly sized. Steve told me his was rejected by the post office but he sent in anyways and it worked. This was after he cursed a lot. Bad customer service considering the lady wrote him a nice letter explaining the size problems with a diagram.

Camera Doctor is at the far end of the shopping center near Emory. You know, the one with Saigon Café, Suno, Chocolatte, and that hipster record store.
The store looks cool inside. You see all these ancient cameras that’s probably older than me. Near the entrance, they have a lot of restored 35 mm film cameras that you can buy. They also have a ton of Toy cameras, like the Holga, available as well.
I came in to buy some film. He has a decent selection and keeps them in the fridge. The only problem? They’re freaking expensive. I paid $ 20 for 2 rolls of 120 film. At Amazon I can get them for about $ 6 per roll.
Jack, the Camera Doctor, seem like a nice guy. He offers classes on darkroom development. He also develops film as well. He said it takes him 5 minutes. I might try out his service if I need to develop some film. Hopefully, it won’t be more expensive than my mail order film development.

Absolutely rude and horrible customer service!!! I called to see if he had a few lenses in stock and he said he has lots of lenses sarcastically. Turns out the first lens he didn’t have. I started to ask him about another and he said he didn’t have time to talk with me and hung up on me while I was asking about the lenses. I would never give him any business. I have also been in his shop times before and his prices are too high for the quality of equipment he supplies. Wings camera is still the best vintage camera store in Atlanta… also FYI any camera store in Atlanta is better than this camera store.

I’ve been coming into Camera Doctor for about 4 years and It’s actually one of my favorite hang outs, besides buying film there of course. Steve is one of the most funny, genuine, bad good guys you’ll ever meet. He told me to say the «bad good guy» comment. Although I do agree. We’ve established a healthy customer local business owner relationship. I’ve learned not just about cameras, but how to tell people off in an appropriate way. There’s a lot of entitled people out there, and Steve doesn’t put up with any of that foolery. One guy came in the other day and said very passive aggressively, «You should take down that sign, because it took longer than an hour to develop my slides.» and Steve responds, «I’m going to put up more signs, one hour developing is a state of mind.» Steve said, «I’m also the only processing lab in Atlanta that’s still open.» The guy went on to say «well you should read all the bad reviews on the internet.» and Steve says, «I don’t care about the 4 or 5 bad reviews when I’ve got thousands of satisfied customers.» I couldn’t agree more. Some other patrons and I who come there just to hang out and shoot the breeze with Steve started chuckling and the dude storms out in a huff.
One time before I took a trip to New York Steve convinced me to buy a Jack White limited edition Holga. «You’ll look really cool no one will have one like it.» So I took the bait and bought it. When I get home I realize it wasn’t in the box and my flight was leaving early that morning. I was slightly disappointed but I still managed with my regular black trusty Holga. When I returned to camera doctor to return the empty box I was playfully confronting Steve, «so you sold me an empty box!» And he responds, «It’s not my fault you didn’t check the box first, you were in such a rush to get out of here.» I had to laugh. It’s still one of my favorite stories to tell.
Yes I’ve had some good times at the Camera Doctor, one of my favorite local businesses. I hope it stays around a lot longer than the other labs who are all going out of business. I appreciate the fact that Steve doesn’t sugar coat or try to pacify rude customers. His keep it real attitude is definitely part the reason I keep coming.
And the quality of my negatives are always top notch. Just looking around at the hundreds of vintage cameras is also a plus. Come visit Camera Doctor for a nice change from instagram.

If you love cameras, you’ll love this store. This is pretty much so a one man operation, which explains the negative comments from those who were in a rush. I spend lots of Saturday mornings at this store. Steve, the owner, is very thorough when helping customers. This means that you may have to wait to recieve excellent customer service. I, personally, do not mind waiting as there are hundreds of beautiful old film cameras to check out. I have never taken one of the classes, but have heard positive things from those taking them. I have purchased and had cameras restored by The Camera Doctor, and I couldn’t be happier with them!

The good: they have great prices on pinhole and specialty cameras.
The bad: customer service is slow and the employees tend to chatter and ignore waiting customers.
The ugly: film to CD conversion. It was terrible and expensive. I actually have better luck at CVS and I get my pictures instantly!

Just had my first visit to The Camera Doctor. After reading a bad review, I’ll have to admit I was nervous. Wow, what a great experience. So much so, that had to write a review immediately.
I was waited on by the owner, Steve Schwab. He was friendly, very, very knowledgable and could not have been more professional. Just visiting that shop, you have the feeling of what a «real» camera store should be. I really fear the day that my only source of photography equipment is Best Buy or
.
Please support small businesses like The Camera Doctor and don’t be influenced by someone’s negative review. Find out for yourself.

Steve is the man! The Camera Doctor has probably forgotten more about cameras & photography than you and I will ever know. Walking through the store is something of a trip through history. And Steve can tell you all about it.
I kinda want to be able to spend more time here. The Camera Doctor does classes and there’s a wealth of knowledge to be gained about good old-​fashioned darkroom procedure. If your camera shoots film, you’ll find a home here. And Steve even has obscure films for specialized and larger format cameras. If he doesn’t have it, he can certainly get it.
But don’t let that stop you from going here for advice on digital photography and printing, too. Steve works with all of it, and he’s very, very good. I’ll candidly tell you he’s something of the absent minded professor, but he knows his stuff. (And yes, that’s an understatement.)
So if you need something developed, printed, or just have questions, go say HI, and tell them I sent you. And if you need something repaired (yes, even DSLRs), don’t hesitate to take it to The Camera Doctor. Steve will get the job done, and he’ll make sure you’re equipped for future photographic needs, too.

Jack is a cool person, no where as mean as they say. But he did take forever to give me back my camera once I denied the repair price that was given. I recommend sending a Canon back to Canon if you need any kind of repairs. It will be free or cheaper than him. But this shop is convenient for buying equipment because I use to shop online for everything now I can just go to him. So check it out if you dare

I also wish there was a number less than one star. I truly do not believe this is a camera store. His marketing plan is to sell classes and he WILL NOT SELL you a camera unless you are one of his students. Beware.

Oh man, if I could give the Camera Doctor zero stars, I would. My three experiences with this business have not been pleasant, and Jack magnificently failed to deliver the service he promised this third time: I needed a photo duplicated on a Friday, and Jack promised me a rush service so that I could pick it up before Monday afternoon, when I was to leave town, duplicated photo in hand to give as a framed graduation present. On Monday morning, I eagerly visit the store to pick up my photo and… learn that the store is closed on Monday’s. ARGH! Why did Jack tell me that it would be ready by Monday!!!
He called me on Wednesday to ask why I hadn’t picked up my photo. Thankfully he left a voice mail, as my response might have had more ^&%*$^%&%*$‘s in it than rational explanation that I was out of town, graduation present photoless.
When I stopped in today to finally pick it up, he was serving a customer ahead of me when I walked in. He didn’t acknowledge my presence and continued to yammer with the current customer about non-​camera related subjects (such as the customer’s vacation home, the presence of coyotes (?!) in the area…). And then when he finally did get to me, he gave me a lecture for requesting rush service and then not picking it up promptly. I was tempted to respond not nicely, but I’m not that kind of person, so I just made clear the miscommunication and expressed my disappointment at not being able to give the photo to my brother during our family celebration.
Sigh… never again, Camera Doctor, never again. But it’s not like I really *could* stop in anyway, since they are only open from noon to 6 pm Tuesday through Friday.

I can only speak to a single experience, but it was fine. The guy seems very knowledgeable and the store is loaded with the neatest old cameras and all kinds of film. Made me want to get back into developing my own film.
I had 2 VHS tapes converted to DVDs. It was fairly expensive (around $ 20/​DVD), but I want to make sure these things are preserved for years to come. It took a few days and the quality of the DVDs are good. He also gave me some care instructions that were new to me and should be helpful.