Jacobs

Jacobs seems to have taken over from Jessops in terms of knocking out excellent cameras, equipment and knowledge. This is the White Ladies Rd branch and stays in line with what it promises to deliver.
The window display is a good place to bump into other aspiring photographers — stood gawping like Wayne quietly uttering «she will be mine… oh yes.» They cover the full price range here from little point and shoot numbers for £50 right up to the bad boy DSLRs for a couple of grand («…oh yes, she will be mine»). Inside the shop are more cameras and electronic goodies such as USB photo frames and video cameras.
Hardware aside they sell a lot of really good quality bags and accessories like tripods. It is still possible to pick up spare film (what we used to use!) and get them developed but that’s obviously a dying breed. Cameras aside the information and advice is, as you’d assume, second to none.

As far as camera shops go this place is ok. Where it loses ground on so many of the other stores in Bristol is it’s variety of lenses. With places such as the camera exchange offering a vast amount of new and pre-​owned lenses from Sigma’s to Sony’s, from fish eyes to massive zoom lenses.
Thats not to say there is anything wrong with jacobs, it’s just that the stock on offer isn’t as wide as some people would hope. There’s not just camera’s in here, you can find mini-​dv and digital camcorders as well as a variety of camera excesories and films, very helpful if you want to resist the digital revolution as much as possible and keep faith with the good old fashioned cameras.

Back in the day when I had time to take interest in the stars, I bought a really good pair of binoculars with the help of the friendly staff at Jacobs on Whiteladies Road. I’ve been in a few branches of this shop, but I’ve yet to find one where the staff are both friendly, helpful and accommodating. Obviously, they’ve got the usual range of Jacobs equipment, from cameras through to torches, but the staff really do make this branch stand out above the rest. They’ll take the time to let you try out each model they’ve got in stock so that you know you’ve got the one that’s right for you.
There seems to be a particular focus on tripods in here too, as a large part of the floor space is taken up with tripods — you know where to go if you’re in need of one of them.