Bargains No More in HKG

Tokyo and Hong Kong were once a great place for hunting vintage Nikkor lenses but over the last few years this status seems to have shifted in terms of expectations towards inventory and pricing.



Considering Hong Kong only as its a frequent location for me. The classic districts for gear hunting would still be Sham Shui Po, Mong Kwok and Tsim Sha Tsui - the latter we can disregard out of hand mostly as that was an an area that was historically known for scams and/or inflated pricing: furthermore one of the more famous stores in that area, the David Chan Co, seems like a musuem rather than a genuine place that you can/should buy vintage items.

Sham Shui Po

Sham Shui Po's market stalls for lenses have mostly disappeared, particularly after covid.



There exists a couple with a stall to the east of the C2 Sham Sui Po exit on Apliu Street (turn left out of C2 exit and the stall is about 10m on the left hand side) that has a small ever changing selection with decent prices but these mostly have some form a minor defect.

The physical stores have disappeared although there is a relatively popular shop on the same street that has a massive junk filled store of random lenses and bodies that they make zero effort to sell instead, with the mainland operators, focusing on selling CCD point and shoots to tourists - absolutely awful store, hence not even mentioning their name. Straight out of C2 and 4 blocks down Kweilin Street onto Lai Chi Kok Road is Sunrise Photo which carries some vintage items but prices are not cheap. And finally Fuk Wah Camera was the other big name in the area that has a stall near the C2 exit but their main store in Un Chau Street seemed to be emptying it's limited inventory when I was there in Jyly 2026.

Mong Kok

This leaves Mong Kok and noticibily the 5 story building of Sim City.



As per general theme outlined already, prices are not bargains and there aren't many interesting vintage lenses although the last time of visit I remember seeing a 15mm f/3.5 and a 18mm f/3.5 and the rest being fairly common/commodity lenses.











As evidenced above, the prices are on par with Ebay pricing with some places offering worse "return" (ie none) policies - the ubiquous 50mm f/1.8 AI-S is over 1,200 HK$, an insane 110 GBP / 150 USD. Whilst this comparison (Ebay vs HKG brick/motar) is relatively unfair its a unique situation: HKG has these stores in an environment with high rentals showcasing/selling vintage lenses whereas many other countries do not have such dedicated stores. Whether that is sufficient for said buyer to pay the HKG asking prices is for the buyer.

As with many things, time changes everything and its no different with the HKG vintage lens market. Its moved on from bargains and prices have gone up, perhaps due to the analog revival over the last 15 years and the adaptability of such lenses to mirrorless systems. Regardless, a few places to browse but these places look like museums rather than genuine places to buy these days.