Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! Join me on my trip to the 40th Used Camera Bazaar organized by I.C.S. (Import Camera Society). They have been holding these camera bazaars for a couple of years now and they have been very successful each time. I eagerly go to these bazaars to check for anything interesting to buy and my savings is always left with a big dent! The bazaar is a nice place to see the people that I always come in contact with on my camera and junk raids so I also use it as a means to catch up and say hello to the people and shop keepers that help make my camera adventure fun. Please read along an enjoy!

There are plenty of people this time around. It’s held in Matsuzakaya Ginza so there were many people who attended it because the location is accessible to everybody. The venue is also pretty big when you compare it to their venue in Tokyu Shibuya.

(Click to enlarge)

The set above shows the busy scene at the bazaar’s 1st day last 2018/02/22. People from all over Japan and elsewhere came to the bazaar to shop and see what’s for sale. It was hectic but fun and the atmosphere was very competitive because everybody was trying to beat each other on finding a great deal. I would say that by the 2nd day, all of the good stuff has been bought but you can still try your luck because the shops will re-stock their displays once they get empty.

(Click to enlarge)

Here are some of the more interesting things I saw at the shop. These were taken at the booths of Alps-do Camera and Sankyo Camera. They are beyond my pay grade but I will have the money to afford these in the future!

(Click to enlarge)

Here are some more pictures of some of the things for sale there. I’m only interested in Nikon and Contax gear so I didn’t take any pictures of the stuff from other brands. There are many things there for sale from just about every brand and company.

Ah, the junk box! I almost bought the Nikon F90 but I thought that I already have a lot of film cameras here and this is just going to be clutter on my room. I’m currently working as a freelancer so I have to check my finances very well.

It’s a magical place to if you are a camera nerd just like me. If I can just live to repair all of these cameras then it’s life well-spent, that is if I am filthy rich and I can afford to just sit at home doing nothing. This may be a very good retirement plan.

Film and developing equipment were also sold at the bazaar and I was tempted to buy a tin of ORWO bulk-load film. I shoot Kentmere 100 so I just skipped it despite the tempting price, maybe I will try that film stock one day. Bulk-loading film is also troublesome for me and I don’t have any practical reasons to do so.

Here’s plenty of used camera accessories. I was in the look-out for a Contax film spool. It is available there but it’s being sold by a shop that I’m not very fond of so I skipped it.

More junks! I see a Canon 7 rangefinder camera but I am not interested in Canon. They’re great cameras if you find a good one. They’re not as dependable as Nikons as I was told, it has a shutter that will bork in tough environments but are reasonably reliable when you use it on normal environments. This was according to somebody who used them a long time ago as a professional photographer. The best feature of this camera is the amazing rangefinder which can switch frame lines and is parallax-corrected.

Fancy a Nikon box? I almost bought this but I realized that I don’t have the space for this at home. Japanese homes are smaller in general and bulky items can be a problem. I also don’t have any practical use for this thing.

It’s now closing time on the bazaar’s 4th day. They will still be around for 2 more days so if you are in Tokyo, please visit them while you can! I will tell you a secret, the prices for the items there go down on the last day and I sometimes find really great deals when it’s time to do the final inventory.

Thanks for reading this blog post. I am suffering now from hay fever and a headache. I’m not in the condition to write commentaries so please pardon the short descriptions. I just have to publish this tonight because I know that people will be visiting the blog around this time today to anticipate anything new from me. See you guys next time and I hope I am able to write something longer next time. Thanks again for following my blog, Ric.

Help Support this Blog:

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.

Helping support this site will ensure that this will be kept going as long as I have the time and energy for this. I would appreciate it if you just leave out your name or details like your country and other information so that the donations will totally be anonymous it is at all possible. This is a labor of love and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. Ric.