Buying Hasselblad / Pentax in Hong Kong?

<p>I am from the US but will be visiting Hong Kong in a month or so. I have been considering a medium format camera for a while and was thinking about the options of buying a medium format camera in Hong Kong.<br>

Can anyone advise me on:<br>

* What should I look for in a store for reputation? Any stores to check out or avoid?<br>

* What should I look for in the cameras to ensure that the camera is in good working order?<br>

* What is a realistic price difference that I should expect between US and HK prices? I want to know what is normal so as to be suspicious of larger than normal?<br>

Thanks in advance!<br>

<br />Colin</p>

<p>Never been to Hong Kong and can't speak to the stores there. But now that the bottom has fallen out of the film camera market, you can pick up a used Hasselblad or Pentax at bargain prices here in the U.S. any day of the week. No need to go to Hong Kong or anywhere else. Don't think I would even consider buying a camera on vacation, especially a used camera. If there's a problem with it, you're pretty much stuck. If the camera dies a week after you get home, good luck trying to get in touch with the store back in Hong Kong or trying to get them to do anything about it when you're half a world away. And if you don't already know what to look for to be sure a used camera is in good working order, your chances of being "taken" are already high at home and even higher elsewhere.</p>

<p>You can start here.<br>

First, though, know the prevailing prices for used MF stuff. KEH Camera is a good place to get these.</p>

<p>Hong Kong Camera store:<br /><br /><strong>Breguetcamera</strong><br /><br />Room 704a Lee Wai Commercial Building, <br />No 1-3 Hart Avenue, <br />Tsimshatsui Kowloon, <br />Hong Kong<br />Tel: +852-23660616<br />Fax: +852-23660602</p>

<p>and at<br>

<br />Room 210, Taole commercial Building<br>

No.12, 
2rd Road, Dashatou, 
Yuexiu District<br>

Guangzhou, 510100, 
China
<br>

Tel: +86-20-83852076
<br>

Fax: +86-20-83740834<br />===============================<br /><br /></p>

<p>If you know someone who reads Chinese, DC Fever is by far the best place to buy used in HK. Tons of stuff, very active used market in HK, much of the stuff is lightly used. <br>

You can use a translate function as well.<br>

http://www.dcfever.com/</p>

<p>As others have said, I can't imagine why you'd want to do that when you can buy in the US with a warranty from KEH. I have limited experience in Hong Kong, and would probably never go there intending to buy ANYTHING. The culture of electronics sales there is VERY pushy and may involve extensive negotiation. It was difficult to tell what the real price of anything was without hard-core bargaining. I remember one place refused to let me see an instruction manual for a watch till I purchased it. Granted, there are doubtless better and worse places, but I'll be the better places with better reputations will be more expensive and less apt to bargain. The ONLY reason I'd buy in HK at this point is if it's an item impossible to get in the US or it's an astounding bargain or the exchange rate is really good. But you still have to declare it, right?</p>

<p>If you know what you are doing, HK is the best city in Asia to buy camera gear.<br>

But you have to know what you are doing.</p>

<p>If you're buying second handy by the time you pay the customs and import duty it will probably be cheaper buying in the U.S. from B&H or K.E.H and you get a warranty from them so if the camera goes bust in a couple of weeks you have some comeback.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the advice! I was hoping to get a <em>new</em> MF camera rather than used. Does that change any of the suggestions? <em><br /></em></p>

<p>In that case just <a href="http://www.tincheungcamera.com.hk/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=medium+format&search_in_description=0">go to Tin Cheung</a>. Their in store prices are often better than the prices on the site.</p>

<p>You mentioned Hasselblad or Pentax in the subject. I am assuming you are talking about film rather than digital. If you are thinking about digital then just stop reading now :) Any Hasselblad other than the H series will be used. And even if the V series was available new, there would be no real reason to buy one new when so many excellent examples of them are available on the used market.</p>

<p>I also don't think Pentax has a medium format camera available new anymore.<br>

But really, with these all mechanical film cameras there doesn't seem to be any reason to purchase new even if available. Even a forty year old Hasselblad 500 C/M will probably still be working long after the last Hasselblad H5D has ceased to work. </p>

<p>Oh, in the event that you are thinking digital I would be very reluctant to pay that sort of money over seas. I would want to purchase it somewhere where I could go back if there are issues. And I would also want to make sure it had a U.S. warranty.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If you check out items on the B&H website marked imported you will find that they are slightly less expensive than the items marked USA (B&H got them from the official u.s. distributor) and that the imported versions (not obtained from the U.S. distributor) are warranted by B&H, not by the manufacturer. I suspect that if you buy one of these overseas and bring them back they will not be warranted by anyone. For old all manual no electronic cameras I wouldn't worry about this. For these very expensive digital cameras I would.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If you are buying new in Hong Kong and importing the camera yourself it will be considered a "Grey Import" and not carry a U.S. Warranty and will not be serviced by the official importers under their warranty with many of them even if you are prepared to pay for it because they keep a record on their computers of the serial numbers of all the equipment they import, so what may be a cheap camera on the face of it could prove to be very expensive in the long run.</p>