Categories
Photography

Reflex market share in Japan

I found this interesting pie chart showing reflex cameras market share in Japan during 2007:

Mercado

Nikon and Canon are more or less the same, and together they have more than 80% of the market. I did not found data for Europe or the USA, but I guess Canon and Sony have much more market share outside of Japan. Dominance of Canon and Nikon is nothing new, what is noticeable here in Japan is that Olympus and Pentax are starting to take off.

Right now I have a reflex Nikon, a compact Canon, and a Fujifilm super-zoom. I love them all, each brand has his way to organize menus, limitations, advantages etc. And that’s good because you learn a lot from one camera’s limitations and the other one advantages and the other way around.

Categories
Photography

Buying cameras in Japan

Japan is a paradise for all of us who enjoy taking pictures. All the major camera brands are Japanese, that’s good because prices for lens and cameras are much lower here than in other places. Furthermore, Japanese people in general like photography a lot, and that’s good for the market. You can find zillions of specialized shops, second hand cameras shops and there are even huge shops filling medium size buildings only with cameras. My advice is, go to Akihabara and compare the prices in different shops, sometimes the difference is pretty big. The cheapest shops are usually in the little streets (not in the main Akihabara avenue). Here are some pictures I took in Yodobashi (A good place to look stuff, they have almost all new models), and also pictures inside Mapcamera, a shop with all kind of old lenses and cameras, even from 50 years ago.

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D60 a gogo

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Canon area

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Compact cameras

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More compact

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Canon EOS

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Sigma

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Pentax

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Sony Alpha

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S5 Pro

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D300 panel

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Canon EOS Digital

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Canon and Nikon

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There are many Hasselblad and Leica in there

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Only Leicas

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More Leicas

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Did you notice the “?” in the price? That means that depending on the day and your skills to negotiate the final price than vary a lot.

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More interrogation marks.

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And more

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The entrance to the forth floor in a building with five floors, all full of photography goodies. Mapcamera.

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I love that you can test lenses and cameras all you want before buying. I took this picture using a 10mm lenses from the shop. I did not buying but I’m thinking to do it.

Categories
JapaneseCulture Photography

Sakura snow

The beautiful Sakura blossom just finished. One of the most beautiful phenomenon about sakura blossom is to see how the petals drop. It’s one of the romantic scenes you will see over and over in many Japanese films, dramas and manga.

Here are some of my sakura petal “snow” pictures:

Sakura

Sakura

Sakura

Sakura
Here you can see the petals falling. But this picture is MUCH better

Sakura

Sakura

Sakura

Sakura
On of the last pictures before the end.