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Ultimate guide to Budapest’s best camera shops and photo services
The unique beauty of Budapest entices both amateur and professional photographers to capture the mood of this multifaceted city that holds something new for visual explorers on every corner. Whether you are a first-time shutterbug, an expert, or you wish to bring your photos to life and create unique souvenirs and memories of the Magyar metropolis, you’ll find Zorkis, Zenits, Rolleis, Olympuses, Nikons, Canons, and all accessories coexisting peacefully on the shelves of many of the shops found in our guide, in order to meet the needs of analog diehards and digital devotees alike.
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Café Analóg
The Budapest embassy of lomography, Café Analóg is a tiny coffee shop on chaotic Kazincy Street, with a clean interior enhanced with a huge and colorful lomo wall. The whitewashed shelves of the small shop are crammed with photo-related relics, such as cameras, films, canvas bags, t-shirts, tools, box camera keychains, smart phone photo accessories, and many other exciting items. Visitors can browse the shelves of the shop for real treasures, while sipping on a nice cup of coffee or hot chocolate, having a slice of cake, or reading retro photography magazines. Fans of analog photography will surely find something to their liking here, as besides lomography equipment, they feature instant film for Polaroids, 135 and 120 mm film for analog cameras, and they also take orders for photo developing. This café is more than just a regular shop, as the very helpful and friendly staff often organizes workshops and tours, where photo fans and amateurs alike can try out different cameras they might not have used before, take lomograhphs, and in case they enjoyed the experience, even get a brand-new lomography camera in the shop.
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Soós Fotó
Soós Fotó has been standing strong since the ’80s, enticing everyone into their store with an eye-catching secondhand camera collection in the shop window. The assortment is even more amazing inside, as the shelves are crammed with treasured antiques like working Rolleiflexes, Zorkis, FEDs, and occasionally even deluxe Leicas. Besides cameras, they also offer lenses, cases, functional enlargers, trays, light meters, photographs, postcards, telescopes, and random knickknacks, such as plates, silver trays, toys, and even occasional pieces of furniture. Their main profile is selling secondhand products, so this is a must-do visit for retro lovers in Budapest, whether or not they are into photography. The staff is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, as they gladly show customers the different mechanisms, and they also take orders for photo developing and scanning. Soós is found on Wesselényi Street just steps away from the Dohány Street Synagogue, and it is open from Monday through Saturday.
Address: Budapest 1077, Wesselényi utca 10
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Syrex
Syrex is a small and simple camera shop on Rózsa Street, led by a lovely Hungarian lady who knows film photography like the back of her hand. Analog die-hards can find everything that is needed for film photography here, such as various types of film, flashes, and tripods, but the shop is best for photo fanatics who are interested in home developing, too, as the store holds exactly everything necessary for a darkroom, such as developers, fixers, stop bath, trays, tanks, lights, various types of photo paper, filters, and even special knick-knacks for making the process more pleasant and comfortable. The lady in the shop is very helpful and chatty, and always tries her utmost to help foreigners and locals alike to find what they need, often sharing a few tricks and tips and friendly advice with visitors, too. After leaving this shop, all you will need is a lightproof room.
Address: Budapest 1077, Rózsa utca 38/A
More information on their website.
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OptiCam
This small shop in Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street is not at all obvious at first glance, but stepping in, customers find themselves facing a small but impressive collection of mostly secondhand cameras, but occasionally a few brand-new pieces are mixed in. They have different cameras, lenses, cases, film, and flashes as well, all part of a vast assortment that turns over regularly, as despite the small size of the shop, there are still a great number of customers due to the central location. The staff is helpful, and they also take repair orders to bring broken cameras back to life.
Address: Budapest 1051, Bajcsy-Zsilinkszky út 20
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Digitcam
Digital devotees can always find something special at Digitcam’s friendly shop, as the huge assortment holds cameras ranging from basic easy-to-use types to real professional machines, all of which you can accessorize with different lenses (from fisheye to pinhole), flashes, and cases. The shop’s video-recorder selection is also impressive, offering the coolest gadgets like GoPros, 360-degree action cameras, tiny Polaroid cube cameras that can be secured on shoes, golf bats, helmets, or basically anything, and professional monster camcorders, too. The shop’s team is truly professional, helpful, and knowledgeable – they let customers try before they buy, they gladly provide tips and tricks, and they also welcome photo-fan families with a kid’s corner.
Address: Budapest 1054, Kálmán Imre utca 21
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Digifenykep
The photographers of Buda do not have to wander too far when they need new equipment, lenses, a case, flash, or even a body, as DSLRs and other cameras await everyone at this treasure trove of delights. Digifenykep is originally a webshop, but now they await customers in their store near the Buda Castle with exciting camera equipment, easy-to-use machines for children, drones, cases for underwater use, chargers, batteries, and memory cards. Digital diehards cannot miss out on visiting this shop, as there is a great possibility of coming across something truly valuable and precious for themselves, their little ones, or for friends.
Address: Budapest 1016, Krisztina krt. 65
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Fókuszfotó
Digital full frame, instant, and compact cameras await amateurs and professionals alike at Fókuszfotó on the Buda side, and its well-designed webshop. Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus, Samsung and dazzling digital Leica are all brands found on the shelves here, as well as single-use underwater cameras, lights, flashes, and even complete mini-labs for DIY. Analog developers are not left out of the fun here either, as developers, fixers, and photo papers are also on offer at this many-sided shop. Customized gifts can also be ordered here, such as photos cleverly concealed within a snow globe.
Address: Budapest 1113, Bocskai út 34/B
More information on their website.
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Optiform
A small shop on the Grand Boulevard stores all treasures for photo fans, from cameras to cases and lenses. The interior is simple, as the focus is entirely on the vast assortment of quality products that they have on offer. Nikons and Canons sit peacefully side by side, along with Tokinas, Sigmas, and other camera models, as well as bayonet connectors, flashes, tripods, memory cards, adaptors, and many other enticing pieces of equipment. The vast assortment leaves photo enthusiasts with endless possibilities for customizing their cameras, and considering their vast assortment, it is safe to say that digital devotees rarely leave this shop empty-handed.
Address: Budapest 1094, Ferenc krt. 31
More information on their website.
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220 Volt
Besides offering digital cameras, accessories and tools, the various shops of 220 Volt, found at different locations around Budapest, also offer printing services at a high level. All you need is a memory stick with your photos on it, and they do the rest for you: enlarging the pictures to a suitable size and printing them on the chosen paper, and all you have to do is collect the finished works; they also take online orders, in which case you only have to pop in to get your prepared photos. On the other hand, it is recommended to visit one of the stores of 220 Volt, just so that you can browse through their digital camera collection.
Address: Budapest 1062, Váci út 1-3 (WestEnd City Center)
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Bestfotókönyv
On the ground floor of the sizeable WestEnd City Center mall, Bestfotókönyv entices everyone with friendly and quick service, and high-quality products. Passport photos can be taken here, along with printed pictures, for which they offer various-sized picture frames. Customized mugs, pillows, puzzles, wallets, and fridge magnets can be printed here according to your design, so you can create the best souvenirs to take home, or to keep a piece of Budapest. You can take your photos in on a memory stick, design your unique items, and get them prepared in excellent quality.
Address: Budapest 1062, Váci út 1-3 (WestEnd City Center)
More information on their website.
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Fotó Mráz
The fun photo shop of the Mráz Family is found on Rákóczi Road, near Astoria, awaiting customers with an extensive service of photo printing, besides offering digital cameras and accessories alike. They take digital and analog photos, enlarge them to the desired size, and print them on shiny or matte photo paper, creating a truly high-quality photo that can be a precious memory of Budapest, or a fabulous present for the family. They also produce painting-like prints on canvas in different sizes. Passport photos can be taken here that are always handy, and true devotees can get all the tools needed for camera cleaning. Besides all this great service, they also feature compact cameras and DSLRs, cases, straps, flashes, and secondhand gadgets.
Address: Budapest 1072, Rákóczi út 8/B
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Lab4art
Lab4art’s professional team makes analog prints from the first steps of enlarging through developing and stop wash to fixing, scanning, and printing on quality paper – with all of that available from all formats, as well as digital photos fitted to size and printed with a professional printer. These services are a bit pricier, but they always produce excellent-quality prints, keeping the customers’ wishes in mind at all times. Brave DIY devotees can even rent their labor with or without assistance for a friendly price, but in the course of their “Analog Saturday” workshops, they provide enthusiastic photographers with the know-how, tips, and tricks of developing.
Address: Budapest 1062, Aradi utca 11
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Sooters
At Sooters, customers can get all kinds of personalized gifts for family, friends, or as a special souvenir from Budapest. Photos printed on mugs, T-shirts, keychains, and other creative creations can be ordered, such as a photo book for captured moments and memories in Budapest, with inscriptions and texts added to pages of a Budapest book about adventures in the Magyar metropolis. Wall decorations, posters, canvas prints, collages, calendars, and unique T-shirts can all be ordered online, and then collected at the Sooters store. You can also get a passport photo taken on the spot in the shop.
Address: Budapest 1092, Ferenc krt. 2
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