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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