Hi Sandy,
Interesting.
Just out of curiosity: given the, shall we say, relaxed, Chinese attitude to
intellectual property, how confident are you that the things on offer were
genuine?
Cheers,
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com
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On Jan 29, 2010, at 10:32 AM, Sandy Harris wrote:
> Sent this to a Pentax list. It seemed worth posting here too.
>
> I live in China. I just bought a camera in Shanghai and I'd compared prices
> with various things elsewhere, so it seems worth posting some details here
> for others.
>
> An old Flickr post
> http://www.flickr.com/groups/theshanghai/discuss/72157600342357250/
> gives directions to one Shanghai place. I'll add detail on that and
> give directions for another.
>
> The other is 2nd through 5th floor of a building near the Shanghai train
> station. Come out of station into South Square, building is diagonally
> left. Burger King on ground floor, KFC, ... Second floor is mostly
> camera shops. When I was there, 3rd and up were mostly empty and
> many shops undergoing renovation, but a few interesting used stuff
> places on 2nd & 3rd. Looked like it might be quite good when it is
> finished. My guess would be March 2010, after the upcoming Spring
> Festival holiday.
>
> Things I compared to were B&H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/) for new
> US prices, KEH (http://www.keh.com/) for used, prices from the Pentax
> Forum lens index (http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/index.php)
> one Hong Kong shop (http://www.tincheungcamera.com.hk/), and a
> Hong Kong price index site (http://www.ygdragon.net/).
>
> For a black K-X with 18-55, B&H want $550 US, an extra 50 for the
> blue one, no price shown for body only. All the Hong Kong prices
> I've seen were significantly higher. Two dealers in Shanghai quoted
> me 4150 and 4200 Chinese yuan for the black + 18-55. I ended up
> paying 4000 (about $585 US) for the blue body, somewhat above
> US price but not disastrously so. Below what I'd been quoted in HK,
> and for me, having a Chinese warranty is a large plus.
>
> New lenses were generally comparable to US prices. e.g. I was
> quoted 2400 for the DA 16-45 F4 and 4400 for the DA * 55/1.4,
> a tad higher then US in both cases.
>
> The only non-Pentax item I checked a price on was Panasonic
> G1. None of the Panny dealers had those; they were offering
> GF-1, GH-1, Oly EP-1, EP-2, ... Two shops that were mostly
> used cameras, with much Leica stuff, did have G1, apparently
> new. One quoted 3900 (about $570 US).
>
> The Flickr post says Luban Lu and Xietu Lu. In more detail, take
> the subway to Luban Road South, go out exit 1, turn left onto
> Luban Lu, and you are walking North. Xietu Lu is the first cross
> street. The camera center is on the NW corner.
>
> 7 stories. The top one is offices, bottom two mostly new cameras.
> One floor (4th?) is mostly studio equipment -- lights, reflectors
> and so on. Another (5th?) is mostly wedding studios, wedding
> clothes rental, etc. Used equipment anywhere from 2nd to 6th,
> and dominating a couple of floors. One camera repair shop, a
> few accessories shops -- memory, bags, tripods, ...
>
> Just N of that building is a new one, still under construction
> (as of Jan 2010) that looks like it might eventually connect
> to it, perhaps offer more of the same. NW of the main one
> (inside the block, no street frontage) is another new one,
> only 1st & 2nd floors open so far, all either bridal stuff or
> printers.
>
> Back to the main building. Bottom two floors are nearly
> all new camera shops. Much specialisation by brand. At
> least one shop with nothing but Canon, some only Sony,
> one only Nikon & Manfrotto. Olympus & Panasonic fairly
> common, but no shops selling only those. Voigtlander
> visible here and there.
>
> Two shops with mainly Pentax along N wall, ground floor.
> I bought from the more Easterly of those because they
> were willing to sell me body only; other was not. Lots of
> 17-70 and 55/1.4 SDM lenses in stock, 31, 43 and 77
> Limited but not 21 or 70.
>
> They were quite busy. I took my time, asked a lot of
> questions. While I was there, they sold two other K-X,
> one white & one red, both to women, and I think one
> K-7. Not bad for a weekday afternoon.
>
> Somewhat to my surprise, much medium & large format
> equipment on offer. Quite a few panoramic cameras,
> 6x17 or some such. Two stores that were mainly 4x5
> or pano gear, apparently new. Quite a bit of Pentax
> 645, Hassleblad, Mamiya, Fuji, among the used.
>
> Also somewhat to my surprise, many TLRs and folders.
> One shop (3rd floor, new place near train station) had
> three entire display cases full of mainly those cameras.
>
> Quite a variety of used stuff. Much Leica and Contax.
> Some of almost everything else, including entire shelves
> of things I'd never seen before like Alpa cameras, Leicas
> so old they did not have rangefinders, and medium-format
> Contax.
>
> Prices on used Pentax stuff OK, but generally not
> great. XE.com says 1000 yuan is 146.50 US. From
> here on, all prices in yuan.
>
> I bought two used zooms, 1500 for DA 16-45 F4 and
> 850 for A 35-70 F4. For M 45-125, I was quoted 1250
> and M 75-150, 850. No-one had either A 35-105 F4
> or M 20-35/3.5.
>
> Most expensive Pentax item I saw was the boxed set
> LX, 50/1.2. Asking 24000.
>
> Other than that, I saw no used 50/55/58 fast lenses.
> New DA 50/1.4 2400. Screw mount Pentax 55/1.7
> or Russian 58/2, K-mount Ricoh 1.7, even some
> screw mount Zeiss.
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