Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Penn Camera Declares Bankruptcy

Sad day, local photogs: Penn Camera has declared bankruptcy after 59 years in business.

The good:  Our location on E Street plans to remain open (5 of the 8 stores are being closed immediately).
The bad:  DCist spoke with a Penn Camera employee who says that after the inventory sells out there, it will most likely close as well.
The silver lining:  Penn Camera promises a "special clearance sale" at its Penn Quarter location.

Penn Camera is known for attentive employees and customer service.  You'd be wise to head down soon if you need anything.  If you hear of the final closing date, feel free to post in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. The news about Penn Camera is sad indeed for all photographers in the DC area. They had some of the best service I've ever experienced.

    I wanted to let readers know about George Mason University's School of Art Print Studio, which has been in business for about two years. Because the studio is an on-campus non-profit operation, not too many people know about it yet. We offer many of the high quality services that Penn Camera did.

    Because we are a non-profit, we work hard to keep our prices affordable for students and artists in the community. The lab was founded by photographers, and is staffed exclusively by artist technicians such as myself.

    Some services we offer:

    -archival-quality fine art inkjet printing
    -high quality laser proofs
    -digital chromogenic prints (digital c-prints)
    -medium and large format color film processing
    -film drum scanning
    -high resolution flatbed scanning
    -color-calibrated previewing stations
    -monitor profiling and calibration services

    We want to spread the word to other artists, photographers, and community members that some the services they were able to receive at Penn Camera will still be conveniently available right in Fairfax, Virginia.

    Our website: http://soaprint.gmu.edu.

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  2. It's sad that Penn is closing, they have been a good store for a long time. Luckily for the DC metro area, Ace Photo is still growing after 20 years in the business. With an inventory rivaling the New York camera stores, Ace has is the largest ( both in size and the sheer amount of products) camera store in the Mid-Atlantic. If you've never been to Ace, you should come out. Every single day, new customers come in for the first time and say "WOW! I never knew there was such a gigantic camera store in the area". We carry EVERYTHING, and we have New York prices. The entire sales staff is comprised of professional photographers who moonlight at the store when they don't have shoots. We offer every photo product you ever heard of, world class processing, and awesome classes

    you should check it out. Ask for Frank!

    www.acephoto.net

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