If you could go to *one* camera shop in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo...

[cptrios]

Basically, what it says on the tin! My wife and I are heading to Japan next week, and while we'll definitely have time to go to plenty of camera shops, I don't really want to make that a focus of the trip. Or a focus of my wallet!

So, does anyone who's been there recently (or lives there) have a favorite camera place in one or all of those three cities? Somewhere I might find something at least slightly less expensive than eBay?

Thanks!

 

[brbo]

I’m on a Japan trip and been to all three cities you mentioned and although I didn’t plan to visit any camera stores with purchasing camera gear in mind I did not bring a lot of film with me as I thought that I would just buy some real Fuji rolls (not Kodak-produced stuff) if I started running out of film.

So… I’ve been to more than a few camera stores (since there is a limit on Fuji film (usually they let you buy only one or two Fuji films per person) and Kodak film is quite expensive) and once there I also browsed the used gear sections. Nice selection (but nothing that you can’t find on eBay) at what I would say eBay prices. One second hand store that my daughter draged me in (she was after some used clothes) also had a few photo items, no film cameras, but they had a Nikkor AF-D 50/1.4 for about 90 EUR and 28/3.5 AI for 70 EUR. That was the only time I thought it could maybe be worth bothering the staff to let me inspect the item… Other than that, since this is a once in a lifetime trip for us, there is no way I’m wasting out time and/or putting myself through the stress of hunting down good deals or buying used gear for no or very little difference in price.

 

[cptrios]

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way, hence the one-shop (soft) limit. I do like buying one little piece of gear when I travel, though - maybe a lens or a junky P&S.

How's the weather, by the way? Kinda dreading it!

 

[Chan Tran]

If you are in Tokyo I would go to Map Camera. It's a small 5 story high store in the Shinjuku area. Very well stock. Very hard to find the entrance as it's only a 3ft or so wide door. It has 5 stories but each is very small. Yodobashi is much larger and is fine but since they sell a lot more stuff than just cameras I don't like them as much. They are like a big box store.

 

[4season]

I've been there a number of times, most recently in 2007. Even in October, I recall nighttime in Kyoto feeling a bit stifling, but it was an ideal time to visit the northern island of Hokkaido!

The big stores like BIC Camera and Yodobashi kinda throw me off balance, and that seems to be by design. Only a fraction of these stores is actually photographic equipment, but not to worry, there's still plenty to see. But AFAIK, they don't sell vintage gear, at least I've never seen any. One "danger" is getting excited over items you can readily get back home, but which may not be presented as enticingly there, so you may simply never have noticed them. For me, it helps to have specific objectives when I shop, otherwise, I just wind up gawking at everything, and deciding on nothing.

Haven't done much shopping for used gear, but even in pre-pandemic times, I recall prices similar to, or higher than USA, but the selection may be better. Have seen a whole lot of Leica M, wouldn't be surprised if there's been a glut of the things dating back to the bubble-economy years. Might be fun to browse the junk bins of shops like Hard Off, but I've never been. I have browsed their USA outpost (Eco Town) and that was pretty cool. Seem to recall seeing a plastic film SLR or two, maybe some cheap 50 mm lenses being sold as junk. Do it enough, and I imagine you could score a deal on good a fixer-upper or an obscure cable.

 

[Vaughn]

If you are in Tokyo I would go to Map Camera. It's a small 5 story high store in the Shinjuku area. Very well stock. Very hard to find the entrance as it's only a 3ft or so wide door. It has 5 stories but each is very small. Yodobashi is much larger and is fine but since they sell a lot more stuff than just cameras I don't like them as much. They are like a big box store.

Thank you! I will be in Tokyo this winter for a month. Looks like Map Camera is within walking distance from my son's apartment where I will be based. The apartment is in Nishihara and I can walk the greenway most of the way. I might check it out for fun -- it looks like they do not carry film, which would be the only thing I would need.

I have been to Yodobashi in both Kyoto in 2019 (I still have two boxes of 8x10 Acros from that trip in the fridge!) and in Tokyo in 2023 (no 8x10 Acros to buy) for film . The Tokyo film dept of Yodobashi is interesting -- has its own entrance hidden away in a separate building on the alley behind the main building. Fortunately my son's Japanese is excellent and we found our way there (I needed 120 film).

I vaguely remember Yodobashi having three different buildings surrounding the Kyoto train station -- my son's Japanese in 2019 was not as good and we had a time trying to find which of the three buildings had the film!

 

[Rayt]

For Tokyo I recommend MapCamera in Shinjuku and Fujiya in Nakano. MapCamera also sells on eBay and It’s very conservative in their ratings. You can browse their websites with google translate. Fujiya will sell you a vintage Leica already CLA’d with description of every defect so nothing will be a surprise. I once asked the sales clerk why the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 RF mount Millenium special edition was sell for such a low price when the lens looked new. He said it was because of haze. I said I don’t see any haze. He replied the haze has been professionally cleaned. Now that‘s disclosure. I bought an absolutely mint condition Leica M2 at Fujiya when I went to Tokyo last month.

デジタルカメラ ビデオカメラ 交換レンズ通販｜新品・中古通販フジヤカメラ

フジヤカメラは販売・下取・買取をWEBサイトでスピード対応。1500点以上の中古検索、最新のデジカメ・ミラーレスカメラの購入、交換レンズや三脚の相談等お気軽にお問い合わせください。

www.fujiya-camera.co.jp

 

[GregY]

I could never just visit one store. Used cameras stores are a big part of the Japan smorgsbord. That said, I don't visit the stores that sell all kinds of other stuff. Big or small there are always surprises.

 

[brbo]

How's the weather, by the way? Kinda dreading it!

Yes, the weather… This will be highly subjective. At home we get temperatures up to like 33-35deg Celsius for a week or so and after every such heatwave we debate whether we should finally install AC in our home. We still haven’t so I thought we can tolerate the heat.

Well, Japan was a shock for us. But it is what it is. You walk slowly and drink a lot of water.

As for the used camera gear, I got the feeling that they know what they have and that they, unsurprisingly, price the stuff accordingly. I had a couple of items in mind that I would consider if I stumbled upon them. I did saw them and they were (luckily) way over what I would consider a great deal that you simply can’t take a pass even if you don’t necessarily need the stuff.

 

[cptrios]

Ok maybe I'll have to hit both Map and Fujiya...Fujiya appears to have a seperate storefront called the "junk hall." How can I pass that up?

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

If I recall, there is a shop pretty much directly across from Map Camera (on the corner), that had some used gear. I found it to be priced better than Map Camera, too.

 

[Rayt]

Ok maybe I'll have to hit both Map and Fujiya...Fujiya appears to have a seperate storefront called the "junk hall." How can I pass that up?

They have accessories for defunct products like hoods for discontinued lens, rear caps for Olympus Pen half frame, various old dslr battery chargers and that sort of stuff. Not expensive.

 

[4season]

BTW, some shops including major department stores, may be closed one day per week. So maybe find out what that day is when making plans, as it may vary.

 

[wiltw]

way back, Yodobashi was the store to visit, in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. Current description from Google search

"Yodobashi Camera Co., Ltd. is a major Japanese retail chain specializing in electronics, PCs, cameras and photographic equipment. Yodobashi Camera's sales rank fourth among consumer electronics mass retailers in Japan, after Yamada Denki, Bic Camera, and K's Holdings. "​

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Yodobashi is still considered to be the largest store that specializes in photography...the other three are more general electronic goods​

 

[reddesert]

I was in Kyoto several years ago and stopped by Camera no Naniwa, downtown. It is an outpost of a modest-size chain and is a relatively small but easy to find storefront. I mean by small it's no Yodobashi, but they have plenty of cameras including used gear and such. It is pretty close to a popular bridge into the Gion neighborhood, so you might be there anyway. I wasn't really there to buy photography stuff, but I got a Konica rangefinder off their "junk" shelf for ~1500 yen (~15 USD) as a souvenir of the trip. They were concerned to make sure I knew it didn't work, although I had checked that the shutter fired - predictably, the only thing wrong is that the light meter had died.