Some Photo Retailers in Switzerland

Photo Articles

This list is not complete and will never be! It's just a list of shops I remember to have visited in places where I've lived. I will give some remarks that might be of interrest for you and give some remarks on impressions I had or still have. If you don't agree on some of them, you are very welcome to contact me.
Note, these comments are my very personal subjective experiences and I can certainly be wrong in some aspects mentioned. Again, they are personal and not intended to insult anybody. I do also not have any personal or commercial affiliation with any of these shops.

Lucerne:

Photo Byland (Alpenstrasse 7): Very competent. The place where I bought my first Canon camera. Probably gives discounts if you ask for it.

Fotopro Ecker (Pilatusstrasse 5, Hertensteinstr. 17): Multiple shops in Lucerne. Competent advice. Does not give discounts but offers products slightly below list-prices. Has second hand gear at average to high prices. (Webpage)

Basel:

Photo Wolf (Freie Strasse): Basically the photoshop that used to dominate the market in Basel (Marlin probably took over some of it meanwhile). Sells stuff at standard prizes, but you should ask for a slight reduction. Some of the staff is quite competent and willing to help for non-standard questions. They also have second hand products to usually rather high prices (but probably offer a guarantie for some weeks/months).

Eschenmoser: Discount store for Photo, Hifi, Computer and other products. Prizes approximately 5% to 10% below list-prizes. In January (often the 2nd or 3rd week) they usually give an additional discount of 10% on their prizes. A place to go for the prizes but not for advice or service (maybe that's not fully correct though)!

Citylab: Filmprocessing (1 hour service), digital services, point and shot cameras and other special processing services on demand.

Drogerie Rühle (Weil am Rhein (D)): A drug store and not directly in Basel, but just accross the border in Germany (cross border closest to the Rhine, 100m to the first crossroad, go to the right, then 200-300m later on the right side). They sell films, let them develop and make prints for prices about 50% to 80% (!) lower than in Switzerland. Get your Sensias and Elite Chromes bought and processed there! For Provia, Velvia and other pro-material you will have to go to a real photo-shop in Basel. Prints made at Rühle used to be a bit too soft: Very cheap, but not at a very high quality. Film-processing is on standard levels.

Communicated by visitors - no personal experience:

Foto Video Digital Marlin (Aeschenvorstadt 21): Photoshop with a second hand corner.

creativ photo by Mimmo Muscio (Weisse Gasse 11): Photolab with good quality and service.

Lausanne:

Photo GM (Rue de Bourg 21): A camerastore that caused me to spend a lot of money... But I could have payed between 15% and 20% more for the same gear in other stores. Don't be afraid to ask for prize reductions. Their advice and knowledge is competent. Small entrance, then on the first floor. My recommendation for Lausanne.

Photo Grancy (Boulevard de Grancy 58): This camera shop has reasonable prices and offers a large selection of second hand equipment exposed in the window. They also seem to be quite competent and able to answer more detailed and complicated questions. Located just below the mainstation.

PhotoVision (Rue Centrale 7): Rather unfriendly and expensive. They do not give any reduction on list prizes. For second-hand articles they give a one month guarantee and these articles are usually of good quality. But the one EF 50/1.8 MkI I once considered, had a fungus inside and my notification about it to them, it just went back into their window. (Webpage)
Photovision has multiple other shops in Biel, Bern, Neuchâtel, Thun, Fribourg and La Chaux-de-fonds. I have no experiences with these.

Zürich:

And what about Zürich? - I get asked often, since I am living there for some time now.

But in fact Zürichs situation concerning photo shops makes me rather write something about the last 10 years' development of quality-knowledge in photo-shops than giving recommendations to you on where you can find a good shop. It's a sad story and in contrast to the shops I found mainly in Lausanne, I had a hard time to find quality shops in this biggest town of Switzerland, with respect to either good advice or interesting prices.

Ok, what's there? In Foto Bären (www), close to the mainstation in the Löwenstrasse, I got reasonable advice. They seem to have a couple of well-experienced people and they offer a faily good selection of used equipment. Prices are on the level of standard list-prices.
The other big shops seem to specialize in having expensive high-end equipment in their windows and the knowledge of selling films to tourists inside the shop. Price reductions on list prices are also not given in Foto Ganz, Foto Hobby (they closed down meanwhile) and co. - so why should one then buy in these shops and not just order online? There does at least not seem to be a real difference in anything like an advisory service (Which is the thing these shops often name as the justification for their prices, right?!). Ganz is the dominant shop in Zürich with multiple locations. In the main-shop at Rennweg gave a very disappointing feedback on some questions with respect to digicams, basically only trying to sell what they have in the window. Also, they refused to order some special equipment from Germany (Heliopan filters). I personally avoid Foto Ganz. Friends told to me, that they got competent advice on digicams in the main-station shop.
For the ones knowing what they want and not seeking consultancy, Keiser Shop in the Sumatrastrasse offers very interesting prices.
From friends I got very positive recommendations on the "Camerastore" whith shops in Zürich and Dübendorf. Have not tried them myself.
I must admit, that there are certainly many little stores in Zürich that I do not know. If you know one, I would be very greatfull if you would send an email to me and let me know.
Eschenmoser: Discount store that also exists in Zürich. See Basel above for comments. These comments should more or less similarly apply for Zürich. Great selection of equipment, printer supplies, bags, lab equipment, films etc.

For professional processing and photoservices I use and recommend Gwerder and Fotostudio13.

Online, mail order:

More and more little online distributors pop up and get into the business. I have up to now only gotten experiences with two of them. Ok, the first one is not really Swiss and not small at all, but nevertheless...

• B & H Photo Video, New York I ordered a digital camera from them and had it by UPS in front of my door exactly 7 days later. All intact, all correct, good service. For expensive equipment (and some little filters and things to come with it in the box) it seems to be worth it. Take into account the 7.6 % tax (for Switzerland) and the shipping costs (see their website).
• Architronic.ch : They have very interesting prices. I have not ordered from them, yet. Remember with such online discounters: No advice, no service ist given. No delivery dates are guaranteed!
• You can also order online at Keisershop (see above).
• multimediaversand.ch: I never ordered something and I wont! Got a too bad impression about them and their behaviour in Web-spaming the fotonet.ch forum. Basically they used the discussion forum for advertisement and not even correctly reacted to criticism by others and myself.
  One example: They praised the Sony DCS-828 (certainly a revolutionary camera) in a single sentence and after I asked for more detail on their experience with this camera, they pasted an article from the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" under their name, but left the articles' paragraph with the negative points out (note: every camera has its weak points, there is nothing bad with that). This was a clear infringement and misuse of intellectual property and the webmaster correctly deleted this entry. Actually, there would have been categories on fotonet.ch where they could have correctly placed their publicity, but well...
  So, my personal opinion about multimediaversand is negative. And I claim the right to say this publicly, based on my personal experience and facts! I cannot say anything on the quality of their real-world service - no experience, but very disappointing, mainly after their trying to scare me with legal actions.