Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! Looks like my camera shopping article is popular and today I am going to introduce to you Alps-Do Camera (カメラのアルプス堂). Alps-Do Camera is close to my previous studio and I used to go there almost every day, sometimes even  3 times a day. I had to do this because the inventory turnover is so quick and you can miss something if you are just late by a few minutes! I highly recommend that you visit them in Shinjuku.

They accept cash or credit card and the prices are very competitive. If you ever buy from here please never do what many Mainland Chinese (阿中、大陸仔) do here which is to ask for discounts and haggle. Not only is this rude, you are insulting the business’ goodwill to the camera community at large. They’re doing us all a favor and we should be thankful.

This is the storefront, you can easily miss it even if you read Japanese. The shop is inside this and is about 3m away from the entrance of the building. Make sure that you use this picture as your guide when asking people for directions.

The shop is spacious inside despite having a narrow and hard to find storefront. It’s a bit concealed and sits besides “Gold Rush Burger Grill”. The shop has been around for a very long time and I believe that the current owner is the 3rd generation shop owner.

Their address is 〒160-0022 東京都新宿区新宿3-23-1新宿ターミナルビル1階 and if you can’t read Japanese just copy and paste the address to a maps application to help you get there or just show this to the police and they will give you directions to the place. Anyway, I am going to give you the map just in case. Check it out below!

You can reach them using the map above. They’re situated close to Shinjuku station’s east exit and is just a short walk north. You can reach them with this website or contact them at alpsdo@nifty.com. Calling them at 03-3352-6337 is the safest way to contact them. I am not sure if they ship overseas due to the hassle but last time I checked, they don’t do that so only contact them when you are in Japan if you want something shipped.

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Right when you enter the shop, you will be greeted by this display case. It has many film cameras, accessories and bellows inside it. The most prominent things you will see here are Nikon together with a few things from other makes such as Minolta or Fujifilm.

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Not too far from where the Nikons are, you will some Leica stuff. I rarely take a peak at it because I don’t really buy Leica stuff. They’re only for the members of the “Leica Church”. If you are rich enough then maybe you can join their congregation.

Just a few steps into the shop is where all the good things are. This shop is usually packed with junk hunters just like me. I consider them to be my rivals! Some of them have their own online business wherein they fix the junks they find and then sell it online after the repairs were done. You can make a living doing this if you are patient enough for it.

The center of the shop has an isle consisting of crates filled with junks. I sometimes find very interesting things here and you really have to look carefully or else somebody else will find it for you! Patience and a careful eye will help you hit the “junkpot”!

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Here are some things that you can find here as well as pictures of the other junk box just behind this one. There are many interesting things that can be found here for cheap and I found some really great stuff here just like that set of junk Yashicas.

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Here are some of the better stuff that I have found here. The Nikon F60 is working find, it just needed a good scrubbing and everything worked perfectly. I have also found plenty of lenses here and this is where a big chunk of my collection comes from. I literally spent a few dollars’ worth of money to build-up my collection of Nikkors.

Below the junk box is where some of the “damaged” goods are. They’re ranked from B to J (junk) depending on how terrible the damage is. Some of these are only scratched while some may need servicing or even an overhaul. You can check these out just in case.

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Here are just some things that you can find in this display case. The Leica M2 is working properly but it’s just scratched here and there. It sells for a reasonable price and I would have bought it but I skipped. The rare hood for the Nikkor-UD 20mm f/3.5 Auto is worn, it has some scratches here and there but it’s still a good buy considering how rare this is.

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Here are some trinkets that I found in the junk box section. If you are a Nikon Collector, it is going be crazy just hunting for these online since some of these trinkets were only sold locally or were given-away during company events as gifts to VIPs or business partners.

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I got most of my hoods from the junk box. They’re not mint but I’m fine with them since I am not picky. What’s important to me is that they’re working properly (and cheap!).

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They also have some higher-end items in their shop such as this Fisheye-Nikkor 8mm f/2.8 Ai lens. You can find lots of rare stuff here if you just come at the right time.

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The display case to the right of the shop contains the longer lenses such as these Nikkors. These exotic lenses aren’t cheap but you can find some reasonable stuff here sometimes.

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Here’s another picture of the long lenses corner. If only I have the place and money for these things then I would have bought one for my collection.

This is a microscope camera attachment.

Here’s one of the giant Nikkors on display. Just look at how big this thing is!

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There are times when you can find stuff that were thrown away by the widow of a poor dead photographer such as the glass plates to the left from the early 1900s. I also got this pack of expired film from the junk box and I think I only paid $9.00 for this.

The counter is packed with used strobes. Some of my strobe lights came from this place.

I got this old manual National PE-200S for $9.00 and it has never been used. It was an old stock that was never sold and it was waiting for 4 decades just for me to buy it.

The center of that display case contains some medium and large format gear like Pentax, Bronica, Mamiya, Hasselblad, etc. The Bronica lenses being sold here are cheap!

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Here’s a closer look at what they have over at that portion of the shop. They also have a couple of Contax, Canon and Ricoh cameras there. I rarely check this section to be honest.

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And now for something more to my liking, Nikkors! The prices here are decent and some of the things being sold here have a 6-months shop warranty when it comes to electronic lenses and cameras. These aren’t junks and are classed as rank A by the shop clerks.

Finally, here’s some Sony stuff. I don’t really go out of my way to check this because Sony doesn’t interest me at all even though I have 2 Sony mirrorless cameras at home.

That’s it for this article! Please visit them when you are in Shinjuku! I am sure that you’ll find something interesting here or at least just see what they have and come back later to try your luck again. The inventory turnover is pretty fast so you’ll want to come often! I’ll be praying for your luck and see you again next time! Thanks for the support, 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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