Shipping Information for Canadian and US Customers
Shipment Processing
For all shipments within North America please allow 1-2 business days for pre-shipment processing. We will always endeavour to ship in the shortest time possible, however we are subject to courier pick-up schedules, statutory holidays observed by our shipping partners, and other unforeseen circumstances.
Shipping Options
Depending on delivery location there are several shipping options at different levels of cost and speed, however if you would like to request a different courier please reach out to us via email and we can assess your request.
Shipping Insurance
Due to an increase in lost shipments, and taking into account the high average value of our shipments, shipping insurance is mandatory and included in the quoted shipping costs during checkout. Canada Post has a maximum insurable amount on international orders of $1000 Canadian. As such, international orders in excess of this amount will need to be shipped via another method, or the order must be split into multiple shipments for a nominal increase in shipping cost. Domestic orders via Canada Post are not subject to this $1000 limit and can be insured as one shipment.
Shipping to P.O. Boxes
At this time, only regular post (Canada Post and USPS) can deliver to P.O. Boxes.
Shipping Lithium Battery Packs
Due to restrictions on shipping Lithium batteries, we cannot ship batteries separately - they must be packaged with the device they are intended to power. Additionally, Canada Post is not able to export shipments that contain Lithium batteries. Thus, for international customers only couriers such as DHL are able to do so. As you might expect given restrictions on delivery to P.O. Boxes as described on this page, this means that it is not possible (currently) to ship an order containing our rechargeable power pack to an international P.O. Box. Domestic orders via Canada Post on the other hand are still able to be fulfilled, even if a shipment to a P.O. Box contains our lithium power pack.
Import Taxes and Duty Charges
International customers are responsible for any import taxes and/or customs and duty charges rendered by the country into which you are importing, either on delivery or prior to delivery of the shipment according to courier policies, and according to local and federal laws in your region. Every country has it's own customs policy and trade agreements, so please understand the applicable charges on imports in your region before placing an order. International orders are exempt from local Canadian taxes.
Canadian orders are exempt from import taxes or duty (but not local sales taxes), when orders are shipped from within Canada.
For questions or more information on shipping, please email us at info@lasalamandra.camera
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These policies are subject to change without notice. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Why "La Salamandra" anyway?
As with many things that I do, I find it difficult to not work some kind of joke into the mix. The story of La Salamandra starts sometime in the summer (or was it spring?) of 2020. Ugh, I know, right? Anyway, a film-addled camera collector friend of mine started sending me instagram links to all these fancy-AF refinished film cameras. As I came to discover, there's a company in the States called Cerakote that makes a line of resilient ceramic coatings. In addition to a bunch of people stencilling rainbows and unicorns onto their surrogate penises guns, some other intrepid souls had started doing the same to cameras…
I was intrigued! I started researching how they were accomplishing this. I was already quite comfortable inside of most cameras so painting the outside was pretty trivial. But oh-hoh, it wasn't that simple! They needed to be baked, for lack of a better word. And there were acetone baths involved. And abrasive blasting. All kinds of nonsense. So in September of 2020 I decided that I would give it a go, and I bought an oven. It was on sale. And then I did nothing for about another year-ish.
As I write this it's the start of 2022. So there you go.
Oh, wait, I didn't explain the name! Ok, well:
I only use assumed names on social media (they aren't getting anything from me for free!) and one day my film-friendly friend discovered this, coming to the realization that my online identity wasn't totally congruent with my offline identity. I explained why I feel the need to deny the big sosh meeds monopolies my identity. At some point thereafter I noticed that he seemed to follow suit, changing his social media handle - to Elle Salamander! In my head I started referring to him as "El Salamander" which started to morph into "El Salamandor." Pretty cool nickname material, frankly. So I decided to look it up just to be sure I wasn't committing an oopsy goofer and… discovered that in Spanish, salamander is actually a feminine noun. Which means it's La Salamandra.
So when it came time to call this venture something I asked him if I could use the nickname, since he was the one who introduced me to this Cerakote nonsense in the first place. And thus, La Salamandra is named in his honour.
Oh, and one day I texted him a photo of nail polish that I use to colour recessed lettering and he asked "Starting a salon?" and I responded "You know it! A salon… but for cameras!"
And there you have it. La Salamandra Camera Salon.
At your service.
The irony of the placement of these social media links is not lost on me.