Purchasing Camera equiment in Hong Kong

[esteah]

1) Does anyone know some names of places in Honk Kong where I can look for camera equipment - especially lenses?
2) When buying equipment from these places, are there any pitfalls? eg. typical tourist traps; danger of buying "grey" products etc.

Please help...

[Val Mansfield]

You might like to have a look at http://www.tincheungcamera.com.hk/about-us.php and http://www.canon.com.hk/en/product/catalog/index.do

http://www.tvxb.com/billd/HK/HK%20shopping-cameras.html has some excellent advice.

You do need to check what sort of Guarantee you are getting and make sure you have a Manual in English.

[Markvetnz]

I spent a week in HK last year and bought a lot of gear, including a 70 to 200 f2.8 lens. In reality it wasn't much cheaper than buying it here in NZ. At the time they were in pretty short supply so I was just happy to get one. With the current value of the Ozzie dollar you should be able to pick up reasonably priced gear in Oz. There are plenty of big reputale shops around. Just take the tube to Mong Kok and go for a walk. You'll find at lease 20 shops in 3 or 4 blocks. Mong Kok was better than Tsim Sha Tsui for camera gear IMO.

[phlai]

The price of branded photographic equipment is not cheaper than other part of the world; sometimes may be more expensive than in US and mainland China.
The different shops of the chain-shop like Fortress, Broadway, Tin Cheung may have different price for the same product. You need to check carefully before you pay.
At the mean time, there is a shortage of the popular camera and lens. You need to pay more to buy them.

[Bill Yeung]

I born in Hong Kong. Now moved to Vancouver.
Just returned to Vancouver after 1 month vacation there.
Tripod, definitely cheaper than Canada. From CAD 50 up.
Camera, lens? don't you concern about warranty?
I bought a Gitzo 2541 tripod there. Few more cleaning items, gray card..... air bump.....
hardware are specialy cheap.
Try www.dcfever.com and see some of their pricing.
after you check the price and still have some question, can email me bill9170@telus.net

[Bobobird]

If your home country has sales tax then it is certainly cheaper buying in HK.
Actually for Canon it used to be a really great deal - everything came with an international warranty.

As of October 2009, there is only the HK, Macau and China warranties so if the warranty is important it may not be worth saving on the sales tax part of the cost.

Someone high up in Canon HK explained to me that this was to placate some close by countries like Singapore which were objecting due to lost sales etc. The couple of shops I am friendly with said the change has actually hurt purchases and fewer non-China tourists buy much anymore. Not that a tourist to HK will be travelling inter-country looking for equipment bargains. So I told the Canon guy - BS! If he said they did it to bring HK into line with other countries, the explanation would have been fine.

A word about Tin Cheung - it has a great selection of name brand stuff particularly accessories and bags. That said, it is also probably the most expensive "good reputation" shops around. I was there a month or so ago and a regular customer came in wanting the 70-300L - she was quoted hkd12840. The very same lens which I got for hkd10900 from Wing Shing in Mong Kok. Later checked with Wing Shing it was the same price as before.

One word of advice to non-HK people - DO NOT walk into any of the small shops in the tourist areas. Stick with the glitzy chain stores or risk being ripped off.

[Bill Yeung]

Wing shing is a good place to go for.
DCfever.com also a good place where close by Wing Shing.
DC fever don't have much display as Wing Shing.
they both a good, reliable and reasonable.
otherwise, like many other China traveller, they went to Broadway, Fortress , Lazer.... chain stores to shop.
no matter where, what, as a customer, you need to do lots of homework before you shop.
Read a lot of reviews, visit different shop web sites and their price. Then you will come up with your own list of items and bottom line price.
otherwise, walking in a shop is just too attractive and very likely make many unnecessary purchase, and higher change to be presuade by sales to buy something which is not what you need.

[kumarlimbu]

I suggest you try the following link:
http://rolandlim.wordpress.com/2007/...-in-hong-kong/

It also lists the current street prices for different lens and cameras. It is really useful if you are looking to buy camera (or related equipments) in Hong Kong.