camera store in hongkong

[david_ratsmantono]

HI guys,

please don't hate me because of my stupid unrelevant questions..

because i have another one now :)

well it sort off an EOS question, because i want to know which

camera store in hongkong that sells EOS lenses which less price and

without any hustle. because last time when i bought my minolta 807si

each camera store had significant price different, until i finnaly

founded the cheapest one. so if anyone could tell me where i can

found EOS lenses in hongkong would be nice,. thank you..

ps: please critisize my photo attached, but please do remember i'm a

begginer.

thank you<div></div>

[yakim_peled1]

>> i want to know which camera store in hongkong that sells EOS lenses which less price and without any hustle.... until i finnaly founded the cheapest one.

 

There must be a problem with my English. It seems to me that you first ask where is the cheapest store and then you said that on your last trip you found it. What am I missing ?

 

Happy shooting ,

Yakim.

[david_ratsmantono]

Sorry yakim, english is my 2nd language too,

okay let me put it in another way,

i got my minolta on my last trip to hongkong, i had to buy it so i choose the cheapest one i can found, due to my only 2 days visit, i felt like i could've had it cheaper. therefore i want to know where exactly i can found a good cheap price for my upcoming visit to get an EOS lense.

Sorry yakim, but thank you for your quick response.

[theoldman]

If i were going to HK, and wanted to buy my camera there, and it was going to be a high-end camera, ... I'd probably stop into the HKPD, ask to see the Department photographer, and ask him (or her, whatever the case might be). But i'd be careful about asking for the "cheapest" store, they might be buying their stock from the kids who hang-out in the doorways. Just a thought. Whatever you do, make sure you keep the receipt for customs.

[yakim_peled1]

Got it now. Never been to HK but I'd suspect that cheapest may have it's shortcomings (warranty?).

 

Happy shooting , Yakim.

[steve_bright1]

Having been photo shopping in HK on several occasions I would say that it is not always a great experience.<br>Read Bob Atkin's article <a href="http://www.photo.net/equipment/caveat_emptor.html">caveat emptor</a>. Many of his comments apply to the shops in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco etc. Watch out for grey imports - ask to see the international warranty card issued by the official HK distributor before you buy. Call the distributor before you shop to ask what you should be looking for.<br>If you go into a few shops asking for price quotes, you'll soon get a feel for the base price for the article. Then, if you get a really good price, you can be fairly sure it's a scam - grey import, incomplete goods (no lens hood, no <i>special</i> battery etc). BTW - the guy in the corner on the phone is probably talking about you to neighbouring shops - asking what you're interested in, how much they quoted you.

<p>The Hong Kong Tourist Board used to run a system of shop accreditation. I don't know how successful or meaningful it really was, but you can check out their <a href="http://www.hkta.org">site here</a>.

<p>It's a minefield - take care.

[alan chan]

David, as a HK resident, i feel obliged to say something.

 

Don't everst trust "cheapest". Go for a decent shop with reputation. The price difference won't be that much (i would say less than 1.5 %)

 

There are two i can recommend (i see lots of tourists & local buyers) so you can't be that wrong :)

 

1) Man Shing (106 Tung Choi St)

2) Wing Shing (55 Sai Yeung Choi St)

 

Both in Mong Kok - walking distance from the underground station.

[tony_wong4]

Alan's choice are spot on, as I would also visit them. If you don't mind looking at second hand then try the stores at Tung Ying Mansion at Tsimsha Tsui on the Ground Floor. They sell honest products are reduce prices.

[bongeiste]

"BTW - the guy in the corner on the phone is probably talking about you to neighbouring shops - asking what you're interested in, how much they quoted you."

 

Ah! So it wasn't just my imagination. I don't speak Cantonese, but my Mandarin is good enough that it sounded like the guy said something like "ÎÒÕýÔÚ¸úËû½²¼Û" (I'm in the middle of bargaining with him". Bargaining my foot! For anyone interested, it was the shop by the escalator with the big Nikon sign out front (Hing Lee, I think). I generally try to avoid buying things in Central and will check out the shops in Mong Kok.

[bongeiste]

When I previewed my post, the characters were there. Honest!

 

Pinyin: Wo zheng zai gen ta jiang jia.

[david_ratsmantono]

Thanks for the great comment guys,

the reason i want to get an EOS lense in Hongkong, because the price in Indonesia is very high due to fewer camera store here.

and Alan, do these stores you mentioned have a web site?

thank you

[alan chan]

David, I am not aware of any Web site for either shop. But you can find more information on camera shops in HK from the following article :

 

http://www.bubbachan.com/photoshopHK/shophk.htm

[joe_choi]

From Wing Shing, if you walk down the street away from the main car road (towards Bodyshop then a little past it) there is a small shop called AV Hollywood. I buy all my camera gear from either one of these two stores...some stuff in Hollywood is cheaper than Wing Shing and vice versa. There might be places where you would find cheaper stuff but as some people already mentioned above, cheapest is not always the safest.

 

There are lots and lots of camera shops in the Mong Kok area and way back in the day when I was a beginner I shopped around a lot there and have gradually narrowed down the 'general gear' store to these two. I don't know about their public reputation but I have had no problems whatsoever in dealing with these two stores ever. If anything, the guys in Hollywood were very cool and remembered me the second time I ever went there whereas the Wing Shing salesmen, the store being a lot bigger (with that much more customers), never seemed to notice me after all these years.

 

Shopping for cameras and camera gear in Hong Kong can be fun and rewarding as long as you use some common sense. But then this applies to whatever you do wherever you go.

[terence_tan2]

Hi, I'm going to Hong Kong for few days. I'm also trying to buy some gear there.

 

This thread is helping a lot. Keep the response coming.

 

Thanks.

[zsolt_gordos]

Hi guys,

I have followed Steve Bright's link to a Bob Atkins article on how

to avoid scams... blah blah.

The "scam artist" shops he was referring to were located in the

US first of all, however he tried to put empasis on

*Malaysian/Korean/Outer Mongolian made version* of the gear

these shops trying to sell for the greedy and stingy

photographers plus raised the grey import issue rather than

stating that scam-shops were based in the US.

Now this information was sort of mixed up with *suspicious*

shop locations (e.g. HK, Singapore, etc.)

Let me tell you my experience before you get the wrong idea.

The official Canon website in Singapore offers you the EF

16-35mm f/2.8L USM for S$3,190 (Singapore dollars). Check it

out here:

http://www.canon.com.sg/index.cfm?fuseaction=digitalcamera&p

rod_type=lenses

In a shop that is approved by Canon Singapore, my Singaporean

photographer friend has bought the same lens (new) for S$2250

two days ago. Warranty, lens hood, everything included. I

checked some of the European prices for the same model: �

1818 in Austria (http://www.knips.com/) in a retail shop website.

(In these EU shops the last thing you can do is bargaining...)

After doing the maths you will find that this sum equals with

3,727.21 Singapore dollars, so the difference is about 1500 Sing

dollars (FX calculated by www.oanda.com engine).

I dont want to enter US prices, many of you are much better in

them than me. But believe me that S$1500 can buy a 300D in

Singapore, or if I wanted another lens, I could go for an EF

70-200mm f/4L USM for this money (listed for 1700 sing dollars

at Canon Singapore, surely I could get it for 1500).

Conclusion? If any, mine would be easy: pricing is not the same

for Canon products worldwide, this is one. The other one is that

Canon uses a huge margin and their resellers also get a big

room to move in terms of pricing. If someone happens to go to

certain parts of Asia, it is wise to get the gear there and look for

good prices, rather than buy the stuff in Europe. Even if you will

be required to pay customs taxes later, you can get out of the

deal better than simply buying something in Europe.

And please dont tell me now that all the lenses I used here as

example were made in Mongolia... And there is no software and

batteries that would be missing from the box.

By the way: Malaysian and Singapore made products are reliable

(same as Japan made, I would say). The reason why

companies run production there is the labour cost gap between

various countries. However Canon L lenses are very unlikely to

be made in anywhere else but Japan.

I think we should not look always for grey areas, for me

everything here is black and white. And clear.