Adorama 16x20 Easel?

[jovo]

Does anyone have any experience with the Adorama 16x20, 4 bladed easel? I'd really like to buy the Saunders easel, but it's really expensive and even the used ones on ebay ultimately sell for more than the Adorama's list price, so it's now a strong contender for purchase. Thanks in advance for any information you may have to offer.

 

[Konical]

Good Morning, John,

No advice on the Adorama, but I'd be patient with E-Bay listings. I bought a 16 x 20 Saunders in great shape for less than $100. That was last spring. The large ones aren't listed as frequently as the smaller ones, but they still pop up regularly.

Konical

 

[Nick Zentena]

The problem with large easels and ebay is shipping. Those big things add up. I'm also looking for a 16x20 easel and have more or less given up on Ebay. Between shipping and the risk the thing will be less then square I've resigned myself to spending the money on new.

 

[Jon Shiu]

When I was looking at 16x20 easels, I noticed that the adorama and midwest easels look similar. You might want to check mpex.com out. I thought about getting the one from Midwest Camera Exchange, but the image size is limited to around 14.5x18.5in.

 

[jovo]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I tried to see one at Adorama the other day, but it was around 2:00PM and there was a looooong wait for someone to help me. I'm glad Adorama exists and it's terrific for mail order, but the store itself leaves much to be desired. B&H used to be similar until they moved into their absolutely enormous store in mid-town and even that can be a long wait at the busiest times. Thanks again!

 

[Monophoto]

John -

I've been in NYC on business a number of times this year - my client is only a few blocks away from Adorama and it's been convenient for me to drop in before grabbing the subway back to Penn Station. I have found that even though the place is crowded, they work very quickly and the wait was not all that long.

But I agree with you that the reality of the store is quite a contrast from what you would expect from their magazine ads. On the other hand, I also recall going into 47th Street Photo and Olden Camera, and the difference in those instances was even more dramatic.

 

[mikewhi]

I used to work in NYC back in the early 80's so I visited some of these older stores. 47th St. Photo made me sick. Adorama was a hole in the wall place, but had a lot of interesting stuff. I really liked Olden - an old building with several floors and browsing was a lot of fun. Lens & Repro had a lot of stuff crammed into their space - I recall enlargers all over the place. I did visit the new B&H at some point - so it must have been in the 90's I guess. It was a very nice store and really customer-oriented.

As for the easel, I have a used Saunders 16x20. The blades are adjustable so I can alwaays keep the square. The other night I was using it and noticed that one of the blades wasn't square, a simple turn of a screwdriver and a square edge to align it with and all was well. This easel must be 15-20 years old and it still is going strong! I haven't tried the other brands, but I'm a big Saunders fan.

-Mike