Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! This is the first of a new series that I call “お店お初回” or “Camera Shop Introduction” where I will show you around the shops that I frequent and recommend. I will be adding more and more shops here so please come to my site to check if I added a new shop in my directory. This is to help people who visit here in Japan (Tokyo) find the shops and see which shop specializes in what. I will only add shops that have agreed to this series so some shops may not be able to be featured here, unfortunately. I hope you’ll enjoy this new series and do tell me if you did so I will at least get some feedback.

Today, I’m going to introduce to you Lucky Camera (ラッキーカメラ). Situated at Shinjuku right near to the Shinjuku Sanchome (新宿三丁目) station along the Marunochi line, it is a bit off the track from the center of Shinjuku but it’s worth the walk if you are a Leica or Bronica fan. The shop has been around for 7 decades and the current owner is the third generation shop owner, the grandson of the first guy who started this business in 1940. I sometimes get “lucky” here and find interesting stuff. I would also like to say that Lucky helped revive my interest in classic camera gear some years ago. Let’s have a closer look!

Here’s the storefront. You can spend minutes looking at what’s being sold here! There are many beautiful lenses and cameras on display here and some time in the past, there was a Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Ai-S here on display and even a Nikkor-N 5cm f/1.1 lens!

here is the map to help you get there. It is a short walk away from the Shinjuku Sanchome station (新宿三丁目). You can also call them at 03-3354-7898 or follow them at Facebook or Twitter. The shop is a frequented by Leica collectors because they sometimes have great stuff at just the right price. I’m into Nikon gear and they sometimes have some nice stuff for me here, too. There are many things here that aren’t on display so you should ask.

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Here’s a closer look at what’s at the display case at the front of the shop. The inventory is kind of all over the place so it can sometimes be difficult to look for what you need.

Step inside the shop and you will be greeted by this scene. The clerks are always there at the back of the counter, ready to answer your question. The clerks may not speak English but the owner does. If you are looking for something, make sure that you show the clerks a picture of what you need and that will make communicating easier. The shelves at the back are full of Mamiyas, Bronicas, Hasselblads and other medium format gear.

Here’s what’s on the other side. I usually spend a couple of minutes just looking at what’s inside the display cases. The left-most display case contains Leicas and Contax cameras.

Here is one of the rare stuff that they have, a Bronica bellows set. They even have a clean Bronica Deluxe for sale! I wanted to buy that but it’s a bit too much for my wallet.

Here’s the gorgeous Bronica Deluxe! I will buy you one day! These are very rare and not a lot of these have been made. These are very good machines and will last you a lifetime!

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The medium format stuff is behind the counter so I cannot take a good picture of them. It is nice that they have some Bronicas on the shelf and they are priced competitively, too!

Something for the snobs, a Leica M5! These aren’t as popular as say the Leica M4 so they are cheaper but they are still pretty good especially if you got one with a working meter.

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Here are some more pictures of their Leicas. Lucky Camera sells every brand but they are popular for Leica people because they have more of them than the other shops.

Here is a collection of rangefinders from Nikon, Contax, Leotax and others. The Nikon or Contax selection isn’t as nice as the Leica ones but they have some nice offerings here.

A Nikon S4! They have gone down in price a bit recently but are still considered rare.

Looking for a Robot rangefinder? These are actually very nice rangefinders.

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Here’s some picture of their Nikkors. This is just a small portion of what they have in the shop. They easily have more than 1000 items at the shop!

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Here’s a closer look at some of the Nikkors for sale. Not the cheapest but you can be lucky at times and get some really cheap stuff here. I got my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-S here.

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Now, here’s a closer look at some of their Canons. I’m not into Canon gear so I cannot tell you anything about what’s being displayed here. All I know is that they look clean so far.

Some rangefinder accessories. I got a finder for my Nikon rangefinder here for a very nice price! It even has the special leather case with it. They also have the very rare and obscure mini-finders for the Nikon S rangefinder! Those are rare and expensive!

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Finally, this is what I come here for. I usually dig into these boxes, trying to look for my next “junkpot”! I sometimes get some nice things here so it’s worth the effort and time.

Lucky Camera accepts credit cards. Please do not come here asking for discounts like the Chinese Mainlanders always do. Not only is that impolite, it’s not something that Japanese buyers do. The privilege of being offered a discount is earned by trust and goodwill. I’m a regular here and also at some other shops so I get offered discounts even if I don’t ask for one. Remember, you are building a personal relationship here with the shop and its staff.

Thank you very much for following my blog. See you guys again next time, Ric.

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Maintaining this blog requires money to operate. If you think that this site has helped you or you want to show your support by helping with the upkeep of this site, you can simple make a small donation to my paypal.com account (richardHaw888@gmail.com). Money is not my prime motivation for this blog and I believe that I have enough to run this but you can help me make this site (and the companion facebook page) grow.

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