Good camera stores are getting hard to find, so dont miss this one. I vacation in the Asheville area every few years, and always make it a point to stop in. Ill be there next month and am really excited to find that theyre still in business. They have all the stuff you would expect to find, and a great selection of used bodies, lenses, and accessories thats always very interesting. I always leave with something I didnt expect to purchase. If youre interested in photography, make the time to stop at Ball Photo.

I like to support small camera shops, but the staff here were extremely unhelpful. Came in to buy a strap, a light meter, and some film, but at one point it seemed as if I was being actively encouraged to not spend money at their store. In the age where I could easily buy the same stuff on Amazon, I cant understand why they would act so rude to their customers. In the end I bought nothing and they didnt seem to care at allThey have a decent selection of products, but nothing too remarkable

Great shop and friendly staff. Prices are very reasonable. Not many shops like these left.

Great camera store, I was looking for a travel tripod for traveling and day hikes that would support my D800 and a 300mm f4 lens while trying to keep cost down. The gentleman showed me a Davis and Stanford Traverse carbon Tr654c-36, its lightweight and small enough to carry around for the day. I used it in Yosemite, Zion, and Bryce Canyon with no complaints. Thanks, Ball Photo, for your help. Imagine below is from Yosemite

Very knowledgeable and helpful.. Helped me find a camera that best suited my needs

They restored a priceless paper for me. It seemed expensive but actually to recreate a 130 plus year piece of paper is remarkable actually. I loved it and hopefully it will be passed on down the family tree for generations to come. Thanks

Wide selection ranging from newer equipment and accessories thru vintage and antique. A little messy but great customer service to make up for it.

Couldnt enter w/o a mask and temperature check... Tired of business that overreach. Taking my money to Bestbuy!

Unprofessional, unreliable, dosnt take anything seriously will NEVER go there again

Virtually no pro Canon gear in stock 🤷🏻‍♂️

Lol, lmao

Such a cool store! Lots of vintage and film cameras an equipment to browse. Owner and employees are super helpful and friendly.

Ball photo lmaonice

Great place. They had the camera bag I wanted. I went to 3 other shops and no one had it. They had a great selection of used items too.

I love going to Ball camera store. They have both new and used camera equipment, and they are very helpful and knowledgeable. I always lean something and I love looking at all of the older cameras they have. As far as I know it is the only real camera store in Western Carolina so even though it is a drive for me, I would still go there if I needed help or wanted to buy local. I needed a wide angle lens last year and they were very helpful in assisting me.

Dan and his team at Ball Photo run a great old-time photography store... even do their own B&W d/p!!!

They were very fair in their price for purchasing my late partners camera equipment. They have a great inventory of equipment.

Staff is always super friendly and helpful. Has a great selection of film & lenses for great prices! Would recommend

I love coming in here. Everyone is friendly, helpful, and they know all about film cameras and film. Always a joy to stop in :)

Hard to find camera stores any more... This one was great, and the owner was very helpful.

I’ve been going to Ball Photo for years. They’ve helped me troubleshoot cameras. They taught me the difference in polarizing and neutral density filters. They are incredibly kind and intelligent when it comes to cameras. They also have much better quality products than BestBuy or Amazon, and your money goes towards a local business instead of feeding the pockets of billionaires. I’m moving away from Asheville soon, but I won’t hesitate to make the two hour drive back for camera equipment or help at Ball Photo. You guys have helped me so much and I am so grateful for your business. Thank you.

I have always found what I need here, and have always been helped by super knowledge and friendly staff.

When you visit this store you are greeted by friendly experts who are very knowledgeable and passionate about their products. In my experience, they have always taken the time to teach me about cameras, photography, and equipment when needed. For example, when I first bought my Canon A1, I brought it in there to get film and had embarrassingly forgot how to use an SLR film camera since I hadn’t used one in a while. The staff was very patient, friendly, and helpful with this. The person I spoke to took the time to show me how to load film then showed me how to operate pretty much every aspect of the camera; this was invaluable. A second example: I needed a lens for my Nikon DSLR and the person who helped me had enough real knowledge of the product to recommend a excellent older model lens that saved me money and doubles as a macro lens. You won’t get this level of service at a big box store. Period. Furthermore, you’ll spend some time crawling through forums to get the help you need online. This place is an all-around gem.

So so helpful!! thank you guys

I don’t usually leave bad reviews but hopefully it’ll prevent others from wasting their time and money. The cashier I interacted with was rude. I asked him a simple question (about what film they carried) and he blew me off. He (I guess) didn’t care to take me seriously. Also, the prices are double or triple what you can find online (I order my film for $4 from B&H photo and saw the same exact film at Ball for $9, also saw $30 lenses being sold for $50+) The prices are one thing, but the service is why I won’t go back.

This store is taking mask precautions seriously amid pandemic. The owner is very kind also. Highly recommend.

These folks are great! They took a tiny photo about 1 with crease in it and turned it into a beautiful 8 x 10 photo. The photo was at least 100 years old! Amazing!

This place has been in the same location for over 50 years now, and its shown in the large collection of older cameras they have. I went in looking for an E mount lens for my Sony mirror-less camera as I read they have used lenses, but they unfortunately didnt have any at the time. I also had a few old cameras, lenses, and other junk I was looking to sell and the kind gentleman took the time to go through it all with me. He got the cameras working that were sitting in my closet for years now, and he gave me a good deal on them. Cash in hand to add to my lens fund, I left feeling great and really pleased by the quality service, knowledgeable staff, and friendly atmosphere.

Great place with great people! following rules with masks and its wonderful!

Great service with an everybody knows your name feel.

Thank you for taking the masks seriously, and creating a safe environment for your customers.

This place is amazing. Dont let any of these negative comments turn you away from this place. I picked up a like new k-mount 28-105mm 2.8 for just a mere $60. They have a wide selection of used gear and rare vintage lenses for film cameras. This place is awesome if you actively shoot film, and it still carries some accessories for more modern digital cameras. I thoroughly enjoyed walking along the tables and shelves full of vintage lenses, accessories, and cameras. The customer service was very helpful and quick to help. The older gentleman in the store was especially helpful to me in finding what I was looking for. The best part was being able to pick up any lens from the table and mount it on a camera in-store and look through the viewfinder to see how well it worked. I am 15 years old, and the man in the store seemed to like my interest in analogue photography so much he gave me a $10 off my purchase. Great service combined with great prices is something amazing that you just cant find in any other camera store these days. Thankyou so much Ball Photo!

Always a fun place to visit so much use gear

Not easy to find these small local camera shops any more. Stop by with questions for the knowledgeable staff or just to browse. Nice collection of used equipment at great prices (new too of course).

Most people probably think that all the good camera stores are gone. Well they are wrong. Excellent one on one service! Extremely knowledgeable about cameras. This is why you go to the store and not online. Even though I did not purchase a camera I got my accessories. He has a great selection of old lens.

Nice selection, decent-ish prices, HORRIBLE SERVICE! Have come here on and off for about 15 years (since its the only one in town anymore) and every person who works there Ive interacted with has been rude or ignored me if Im awaiting in line and gone to help someonewho came in after me. Very frustrating. Would rather go pretty much anywhere else after this.

Awesome place. Super friendly and knowledgeable. They have a ton of Pentax and older hard-to-find lenses. We just bought an awesome lens for a great price. Thanks!!!!!

Great guys... Tons of experience!!!!

I love this place. Truly a treasure chest of photographic fossils and modern gems. Glad they are still around.

Pretty sure this is a family owned business... Has a large used equipment section... Owners are helpful and polite... I try to visit here whenever Im in Asheville.

Fast service and friendly staff.

One of very few vitage to modern camera shops around. A verity of lenses to rent.

Is this the store with a Karen customer calling the police on another customer filming her for her kids not wearing masks?

I just started transferring all of my old APS film to digital. The first few times everything was okay; this last time I went in to pick up my film and scans and they werent ready because their machine was down. As I was walking out the door an employee called after me and told me it was going to cost more money than the original employee had told me when I first dropped the film off. I told him that was ridiculous but to go ahead and scan them. Needless to say when I went in 4 days after the second ready date they were still not done because the guy was still confused...it was a simple scan my APS film to a flash drive. After listening to all sorts of excuses I just took my film and will have all of my remaining film cartridges scanned elsewhere. I wont give my business to a place like this with such poor business ethics.

Ball photo

I was really pleased with my experience with Ball photo ...I rented a canon 5d mark ii along with the 50mm f1.4 for the weekend. On Saturday as I started to shoot, the front part of the lens came out. I was freaking out, IT WASNT MINE! (Always take a spare)... later that evening I was able to stop and look at it, and was able to force it back in. However, the auto focus wouldnt work. I immediately called ball photo and left a message, I didnt get a return call but I was there on Monday at noon to return it. I told the man what had happened and he refunded half my money. Of course when I got there the lens was all back together. I wanted to alert them to replace,fix, or just alert them that the next customer may have the same issue. Thanks ball photo for your help!!!!!!

Stopped in for the first time today. Nicest folks you could ever meet. Great selection of vintage lenses. Bought a speedlight.

Family owned and operated, *needs to be put out of business.* Completely unhelpful, staff and owner not interested in being helpful in the slightest, or earning business. Ball photo has been around Asheville for a long time. I had heard that ball photo was a awful place to buy anything, I thought I would give them a chance sadly they are as bad as their reputation proceeds them. They used their own staff member to write a review of the business in 5 star so they would not have 1 star, for shame. NOT A SINGLE POSITIVE REVIEW.

Owner is very patient and kind.

Great local camera store. Good used selection.I bought a used Sigma 150mm macro lens here and I love it. It was at least 100$ less than any I had found on ebay or other online used equipment store. The other big plus for me was that I could go to the store try the lens out on my camera for as long as I wanted in store. I The owners even let me use them as models. I ask them to move around so I could test the speed of the focus and they were nice enough to oblige. They also give you a 14 day window for returns--that is great for used gear. The fact that it is local saved me at least 50$ on shipping costs besides the lower price overall. It has been a year and my lens works like new. I really love it. I think the owners really try to screen their used stuff to make sure it is good quality before they resell to the public. I have bought lenses off craigslist with horrible back focus and other issues--I will never buy used without testing the lens myself first or having a return window. This store has earned my trust and I will shop here again. Just hope they get in some more nikon mount lenses.

Thank you for a job well done

When youve been spoiled by the likes of Houston Camera Exchange you are bound to be a little less enthusiastic with lesser camera shops. Shawn and his dad who own and run the place are nice though. And the next closest shop they tell me is in Charlotte, a couple hours away. :-)

Not a Nikon authorized retailer= no warranty. Furthermore they were charging almost 100 dollars more than MSRP for a lens I was looking at. Dont know how this place is still in business other than people dont know any better.

They have virtually everything here although the energy of the staff is near the koala bear level. They need to be pushed!

Went in to enquire about a sensor cleaning. Extremely rude and unprofessional man took the camera and started blowing on the sensor with canned air-a total no no- without asking me first. When I told him that this was not the proper way to clean a sensor, he wanted to know why I was telling him how to do his job. Then he tried to sell me $70 worth of sensor cleaning equipment-which his colleague wasnt even sure I needed-that can be found on Amazon for the fraction of the price!

Best place to do the passport pictures hands down.

Great service, good people.Had around 8 rolls developed while in the area, great job.

Great, passionate people and great store...like a treasure trove of cameras!

Ive always had courteous service from Ball. I use them often for repairs or just advice on cameras in general. Never had a problem at all.

Visiting from out of town. Nice folks, good prices. Friendly and knowledgable!

The older gentlemen there is not the most friendly or outgoing, but these people definitely know there stuff, both camera equipment and the printing side of things. Reasonable prices for prints also.

Cool geek store for cameras new and old

Nice and knowledgeable guys there. I wont get my film developed anywhere else.

Ball photo

Awful. Dropped of a roll of black & white for prints. I showed up 5 days after they said theyd be done, they werent. When I finally came to pick them up a couple days later the quality of the prints was atrocious. I checked the negs just to be sure it wasnt on my end but no, it was the printing; soft, semi blurred images in a muddy grey and off white. Probably the worst looking prints Ive ever received from a lab in my 20+ years in field. When I asked the guy if he thought they were acceptable, he just shrugged his shoulders and said moderately and that they had a new printer on order. What?! Avoid this place like the plague.

Ive been a professional photographer since the late 90s. The staff at Ball Photo is experienced and helpful. Theyve helped me dial in my timelapse gigs, upgrade my canon lenses and body. Today, I received useful info about tripods, waterproof cases, storage cards, and gopro vs delkin systems. There sd and compact flash card prices are awesome. I just bought 2x 32gig 600 speed SD cards for under $100 bucks.Ball Photo is savvy to film photography and contemporary digital imaging. I highly recommend them to everyone that asks me about photography equipment.I just bounced this spot to get their number to give them a call to tell them thank you, because the tripod and mount I just got is perfect. I cant believe the reviews here, seriously. They dont do them justice in the least. You wont find better service or more knowledge about photography locally.

Very helpful people.

Ball

The nicest people, so knowledgeable and helpful!

Very knowledgeable sales staff.

I was in Asheville for vacations and I brought them 6 rolls of BW film and all of them have a purple tint (not properly fixed) and have scratches (lots of them) and dust particles on it. Oh, and very rude people. Never again.

Great job with repairs and cleaning

Best experience, professional, courteous and most knowledgeable in Asheville.

They are majorly overpriced. Just order off ebay. It is half the price as Ball. Dont go there.

Great camera shop

Decent selection of used equipment

Not a bad place