Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! After a string of stories about camera shops closing due to the pandemic and other reasons such as the owners being too-old for the business and other things I am happy to announce that a new shop has opened. It’s a good sign since it represents the collective will-power of the whole hobby. I’m happy to introduce this new shop to all of you who truly appreciate old camera equipment as we’re the keepers of this subculture and economy.

Introduction:

Suwa Camera (諏訪写真機) is a small used camera shop in Shinjuku, it’s recently opened its doors somewhere around last year. This is the reason why not a lot of people knew about this shop, including me. I used to work near this place so I’m familiar with area so it wasn’t difficult for me to find this shop.

The shop’s inventory is modest since it’s been in business for not a long time but it does have a nice inventory that will have something interesting for anyone. The price is also reasonable and not too-different from what you will find from other shops.

You can find the shop by this address 〒160-0022 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Shinjuku, 1 Chome−2−11 or by the map I have below. The shop is nearby Shinjuku-Gaien’s (a huge garden) northeastern gate.

Click on this link to reach their site, you can check their inventory through that site. Due to the pandemic the operation times vary so it’s best to check their site and twitter account for schedules.

This is a photo from the outside of the shop, it’s basically above an Italian restaurant, you go-up the stairs to the left of building and head to the 2nd floor.

They have a few rolls of film available which are priced reasonably.

The merchandise are organized according to brand and type which I find very convenient. This is the Canon display, it goes without saying that I skipped this part of the shop.

This is the Pentax, Olympus, etcetera side. The price of the stuff shown in this display appear reasonable, I even bought something from this display which you’ll see later.

This is the best part of the shop, the Nikon side. Despite being a tiny shop it has a good selection of Nikon gear. There are things from several decades ago and some recent products in this display.

(Click to enlarge)

Here’s a closer-look at what’s here in the Nikon display. There’s something for every Nikon collector here, there’s a few stuff that I’d like to purchase in the future.

You’ll find some film-era gear in this display, let’s have a look.

Here’s some Nikon-related stuff.

This is a bargain, I think the included lens is the legendary Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/2. It’s likely that the meter doesn’t work, most Contarex will require replacing the selenium cells with fresh ones; that’s fortunate if you could fine any.

Here are the other film-era cameras.

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Of course, it has an area dedicated to junks!

And this is what I bought from the junk corner, a broken AI AF-S Zoom Nikkor ED 28-70mm F2.8D (IF). I’ll sell the small Olympus E-P1 since I am not interested in the M4/3 format.

It’s refreshing to see new shops open, it’s been the norm these days to hear about shops closing so a new one opening is something to be happy with. Let’s support this little shop since it represents a new beginning in the used camera and lenses business. Check their site and see what they have.

Thanks for following my work, if you liked this article please share this with your friends so it will get more views. This site earns around $0.40 a day, we are totally reliant on views. You could also support this site, it helps me offset the cost of maintenance and hosting. You are also helping me purchase, process and scan film. This site promotes the use of film so we are all in this together. See you again in the next article, Ric.

Help Support this Blog:

Maintaining this requires resources and a lot of time. If you think that it has helped you or you want to show your support by helping with the site’s upkeep, you can make a small donation to my paypal.com at richardHaw888@gmail.com. Money isn’t 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’s name or other information so that the donations will totally be anonymous. This is a labor of love and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can. Ric.