Photographic Equipment (FSS-67)

GSA Federal Acquisition Service awarded a Master GSA Schedule contract for Photographic Equipment on March 15, 2001; ordering closed on December 2, 2023. The vehicle is no longer active and ordering is not permitted.

Activity is minimal. GSA issued 10,000 task orders across more than 25 years, with peak ordering in 2019 (829 orders) before sharply declining to 121 orders in 2020, the last year of recorded activity. The portfolio shows $711.8 million in combined potential value, of which $213.1 million (30 percent) has been obligated. Task order activity concentrates heavily at the upper end: typical recent orders range from a few hundred dollars to mid-five figures, with occasional outliers exceeding $25,000 and $38,000.

Scope has drifted significantly from the vehicle's stated purpose. The originating 2019 solicitation advertised scientific equipment and services, but awarded task orders reveal heavy purchasing of photographic cameras and accessories, along with office supplies, networking equipment, furniture, microwave ovens, bath scales, and other items only tangentially related to photographic instrumentation. This scope creep suggests the vehicle became a catch-all procurement tool rather than a focused instrument for the stated categories.

Competitive structure is highly concentrated. Two primes dominate: 17Th ST Photo Supply, Inc. (1,419 orders; $520.2 million combined potential value) and Adorama Inc. (2,408 orders; $56.1 million combined potential value) together represent roughly 37 percent of awards by order count but approximately 80 percent of combined potential value. Three mid-tier firms—Vision Research Inc., Tri-State Camera Exchange Inc., and Colorid LLC—hold most of the remaining potential value. The remaining 34 contractors serve a long tail of small-value orders.

Customer concentration is moderate. Marine Corps (571 orders; $8.7 million potential value), GSA Federal Acquisition Service (429 orders; $717 thousand), Army (403 orders; $3.4 million), Air Force (320 orders; $5.1 million), and Defense Media Activity (236 orders; $30.2 million) account for roughly 20 percent of task orders. Orders span 656 distinct customer agencies, indicating broad fragmentation beyond the top five.

Set-asides are minimal. Roughly 95 percent of orders carry no set-aside designation; small business orders comprise only about 6 percent, with no material presence of 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB activity.

Typical task-order value ranges from under one hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, with a median likely in the hundreds. Duration is not explicitly stated in recent orders but typical completion dates suggest 30 to 60-day delivery cycles.

Test and Measurement Equipment, Unmanned Scientific Vehicles