Saturday, June 21, 2008

Where to purchase photographic equipment in Hong Kong

We are often concerned that many visitors buy their equipment from unreputable dealers, giving Hong Kong a bad name. There are many stores on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and I would not recommend any of them.

One needs to be careful as not all of them are authorised dealers and, in fact, one has the option of choosing grey market goods (which are imported from overseas and do not have the Hong Kong manufacturer's warranty) which, depending on the product, may be considerably cheaper.

I don't have much experience buying grey market goods although I have bought a few point and shoot cameras from the Mong Kok Computer Center (8 Nelson St, Mong Kok) and they gave me a great price and good service. Grey market dealers import from overseas (usually Japan) and the warranty is handled by the shop you buy it from. A friend had the opportunity to have something repaired under warranty from a grey market shop, and had no problem, the item being returned in 3 weeks.

For the authorised dealers, there is not a large price difference between them and the prices are normally fixed so no haggling over the price is entertained. For those who want to learn about all of the shops in detail, I suggest you read the excellent thread at http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000GnZ.

For those of you who just want to buy a camera from a very honest dealer at close to the best price, most local photographers just go to Wing Shing in Mong Kok (map below). They have a huge range including all of the common brands (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Ricoh etc) as well as professional gear such as Gitzo, Leica and Hasselblad. They are a few steps from the E2 exit of the Mong Kok MTR station.

Finally, if you would like to know the price of DSLR equipment, Billy Ho has done us a wonderful service of having a frequently updated price list at http://www.ygdragon.net/index.php?page=photo/cameraprice.htm.

Wing Shing Photo Supplies
G/F, 55-57 Sai Yeung Choi St., Mongkok Kowloon, HK
Tel 23966886 / 23966961
info@wingshingphoto.com


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