As you may have noticed I have never written a post about any camera shops or labs I visited. There are many reasons behind this starting from the fact that most of them are quite uninteresting and ending with my intention to not make advertisements on the blog (apart from the ones WordPress kindly places here and there).

But today, I am here to write about a quite special shop which cannot be farther from uninteresting. As for my other rule. I guess it was just naive and idealistic. I am writing camera and lens reviews and giving out my opinion about film stocks. Why not deal with shops as well? After all we film shooters are all in the same boat, we need services which are more and more scare every day. From now If there is a place I can recommend to the community, I will share it.

Why is John Gunn Camera Shop is special?

This is a small camera shop and lab in the heart of Dublin specialized itself on film photography materials and development services. It is a family business which occupies (as far as I know) three generations of the Gunn family.

“We pride ourselves on providing our customers with top quality products and first hand access to a wealth of Photographic knowledge gathered over the last 40 years.”

I had only 2 weeks in Dublin and since I have not had a chance to travel a long time ago, I was very much inspired by the new environment. I was shooting a roll after another and I was really eager to see my photos as soon as possible. I could not wait until I get home. Normally I need to wait a week for the development and spend about 2-3 nights of scanning. Thankfully I was pointed to the right direction and I have received one of the best service I ever had with my film.

They developed and scanned my negatives within 1 day. No scratches or dust on the films whatsoever, cut to stripes nicely and the scans were wonderful.  I had so much disappointment when I asked scans at various labs, mainly because of the unbelievable levels of file compression. I even wrote about my struggle  some time ago: scanner crisis.  But finally these scans were satisfying.

But quick and precise work would not be enough to make me write this post. What really caught me was the treatment I have received. When I made a complement to Mr John Gunn about his shop, you could really see the pride and gratitude on his and on his daughters faces. This shop really means a lot to them, that is for sure. When I left he said goodbye and added a God Bless you at the end. It was really a lovely experience.

Oh and the shop is alive. There are other film photographers coming continuously, which was really good to see. In Graz, we have nice shops, but the feeling that film is still around and very much alive cannot be witnessed that obviously.

All in all, I have visited John Gunn Camera Shop 3 times and I am glad I did. If you are in Dublin, it is a safe lab to go. I will definitely stop by if I ever have a chance again to visit the city.  Their website can be found here.