Oceanside Photo & Telescope

To Oceanside photo & telescope: At this time I would like to say thank you to Larry who restored my Cave telescope, which was made in the early sixties. It’s nice to have my old friend back. Not only did Larry restore the Cave he brought it into the 21^st century by allowing larger lenses to be placed in the Cave Astrola. I have shopped at OPT for 9 years. OPT has made it affordable for me to purchase items I would not have been able to purchase else where.
Thank you,
Don Thornsburg

I have just started getting back into photography and I purchased the Sony A6000. I came in today for advice on multiple lenses and information on how to shoot a specific style of low light action shot. The advice was incredibly helpful and I left with the perfect lense for what I need. TJ spent almost two hours helping me. This is the best camera shop I have been to in San Diego. They will always have my business.

Great service, extremely knowledgeable and willing to answer all of my questions. I am a beginner and both TJ and Mano were great! Unfortunately I dropped my Nikon D3100 that was 7 years old. I was helped by TJ and we sent the camera off for repair. Within a week I received a call with a quote. Because I wanted an upgrade in technology, I decided to purchase the Nikon 5300 and a new lens. They were willing to buy my old lenses and I got a really fair price. This place is awesome!!! And it’s the worlds largest seller of telescopes. All in the great city of Oceanside. I will refer friends here!!!

They do not accept my foreign credit card and for reason: I am a new consumer ??? it is incredible because I use this card for more than 10 years on every online sale purchase, first time to have this message.
And more important ! they give me this answer near one week after my order, not the same day or the next day following my purchase.
The worst ever online purchase experience for a CELESTRON ASTROMASTER 130 EQ MD, go amazon or go
(which I will visit) but not to

The most professional, knowledgeable and helpful team! Incredible variety of scopes and accessories — something for everyone. Thank you Rod for the great service — we are very appreciative!

I’m giving OPT 3.5 stars because they do have some pretty cool stuff if you’re in to that kind of stuff. The issue I have is the pricing which is pretty high and I understand the quality is good but damn it can’t be that good. I love binoculars and they have a nice section but they don’t have any in camo.
I’ve been around town looking for binoculars and OPT has the most to choose from. At the same time they don’t have any under $ 50 bucks and yes this is not Walmart so be prepared to spend at least $ 100. I spoke with Manu and he was very helpful and took his time with me. Jonathan is also very helpful and very knowledgeable about binoculars. I do want to upgrade my binoculars so when I do I will most likely come here.

I wanted a new viewfinder screen for my camera because it got scratched so I brought it in here. I’m not sure what these people know about cameras. I debated with 3 of them about where the camera sensor is. For some reason they believed the viewfinder screen to be the sensor. Then they squirted it with canned air. I immediately left and will never be back.

I’m a long time customer and fan of Oceanside Photo & Telescope. My first visit to their store was years ago at their last location in a desperate quest to find batteries for my then aging camera while we were headed to a birthday party.
The same is true today as it was then, OPT puts the customer first which is a refreshing quality in our fast food consumer economy. Over the years, I have continued to go to them whenever I have questions, because they know their stuff and are always willing to help.
Thankfully, I no longer have my aging camera as OPT helped into a new Canon. They have also helped me out with a host of lens, accessories, and bags.
Thanks OPT for being such a great local resource.

I brought my Canon 75 – 400 telephoto lens in on Aug 4, 2015, as the image stabilizer was not working. I advised the sales person that I was going on an Alaskan trip on Sept 6^th. I was told «No problem — we’ll send it out for repair and it will probably be back by 8÷15÷15». I stopped by on 8÷18÷15 and it had not been returned yet by their repair guy. Again, I explained that my trip was ⁹⁄₆ and I was getting concerned. They said it should not be a problem.
I stopped by the following week and it still was not return by their repair guy. Apparently, their repair guy was waiting for parts.
OPT finally called me the week of my trip (four weeks after bringing in the lens) and told me that the repair guy still hadn’t gotten the parts to repair the lens. When I told them how upsetting this was that I was going on a trip of a lifetime without my zoom, they offered to rent me a lens for several hundred dollars.
When a business chooses to make money by acting as a middle man, they are responsible for any issues that arise. Good businesses take responsibility for issues. From the arrogant staff members at OPT, there was no apology nor offer to make things right, just an offer for me to spend more money on a rental lens. Terrible customer service.

I have purchased from them online. Statistically you have 50 – 50 chance of being sold used equipment as new. If you buy from them — avoid doing it online at any cost.

Stopped into the store for the first time recently to pick up a few accessories. I was after some specific accessories as well a solution for changing the mount on my small refractor. I’m also pretty picky about my equipment and the staff accommodated my inspections and questions beautifully. Prices were competitive with the other major astronomy suppliers but the customer service was really quite good. I’ll be back.

Worst Place Ever! Never coming here again! The older employees are very rude and their prices are too high for the conditions that their cameras are in, I recommend Encinitas Photo Center better, I got more for my money there than I would of at OPT where they rip you off!

My girlfriend purchased a telescope for me at this store. A store employee named Rod offered to come to my house and set it up as part of their customer service. He spent a little over an hour and I gave him $ 20 for gas. He accepted the money then demanded another $ 100 cash. I gave into his hostile demand since I had my brother and three children visiting from New Hampshire. I have asked the owner of the store for a $ 120 reimbursement.

Truly some of the must knowledgeable group of people you’ll ever meet under one roof, and if your interested in telescopes and cameras as I am please go meet my friends of 11 years at OPT.

These guys are always so helpful. Plus they will be setting up at the Sunset Market this and next week. in February any way. Go check it out… Jupiter, Venus and Mars will be on hand along with some shots of Oregon’s nebula and a new moon. If you’re lucky you can catch the iSS flying by between 6:17 — 6:18 friday evening!

We’re novices, wanting to buy a telescope for ocean/​land viewing and night time star gazing. Larry put together a telescope, stand and optics package for us that met our budget and quality needs. He was incredibly helpful and patiently explained the basics to us. Great service; we could not be happier with our purchase!
Thanks Larry and OPT!

I went here for the first time today and must say this is a very nice store. The large display of telescopes is very impressive.

The ppl here are very helpful. I had some gear stolen from me while I was in Oceanside visiting some friends and they helped me stay prepared from my Joshua tree and Yosemite trips! I highly recommend this place

I bought my first camera from OPT back when they were in their smaller pad across the street. This was a good 20+ years ago. The service was amazing back then. Informative, helpful, very knowledgeable, outgoing, etc.
The last time I shopped here I purchased a 1000 mm telescope and tripod with celestial tracking mount. Before this I bought a camera and lenses. Each time the service got worse. They don’t even like what they do. Customers are a nuisance. Some of the younger sales people don’t know very much about cameras… though they really know their telescopes answering questions from newbie astronomers seems to just make them frustrated. Like I shouldn’t have any questions and know exactly what I’m looking for ahead of time. If I did, I would shop online.
Reputation is everything. The owner (Craig I believe) used to care. I think he should sell the business. He is a great guy and was very helpful back in the day but his employees are just not helpful and I agree to say they are quite rude. Won’t spend money here again.

This place is great! They have all the telescopes you would want to see. Seems like they had every telescope I have been interested in or have seen in magazines, even more. They also have a section for used scopes.
I have been interested in getting an 11″ telescope, but after seeing one in person, it is much bigger than I expected and would only get one if I had a stationary place for it, which I do not.
I was interested in the Coronado PST solar scope and was given all the information I needed by the employees. Everyone there was polite and more than happy to assist me with any questions without harassing me.
I highly recommend this place for beginners or professionals interested in Astronomy! Glad I made it out here!