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Buying Panasonic Lenses in Tokyo

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curtisf

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I am going to be visiting Japan in Nov, so can someone suggest the best and places to buy Panasonic lenses for my new GF1.

What are the current prices for the 20mm pancake and 14-140mm lenses?

Are lenses easy to find and cheaper than buying in the US?

Would there be any compatibility problems with the US GF1?
 
I don't get a chance to go too often, but my experience lately has been, esp with dollar exchange rate, it's not much cheaper, infact many times not cheaper, to buy electronics in Japan. You do get models not exported. As for where, there's such a dizzying array of places I couldn't say. Yodobashi camera is one of the more well known names.
 
Yodobashi Camera is probably a good start, the one in Akihabara has the largest selection.

If you're looking for a cheaper place, there's always http://kakaku.com/ but it'll be hard to navigate even with a translation engine. Here's the category for Panasonic lenses http://kakaku.com/camera/camera-lens/ma_65/

If you're looking for a bargain, you're likely to be disappointed though... Stuff costs as much here as anywhere.

The GF1 kit lenses aren't even out yet (tomorrow, supposedly), I wouldn't expect stores to have stock right away as they'll all go to preorders initially.
 
Hopefully, they will have good stock in November after the initial rush to buy is gone. I'll take a look at Yodabashi. Do they have tax-free shops over there (ie. no consumption tax)?
Phil Knall said:
Yodobashi Camera is probably a good start, the one in Akihabara has the largest selection.

If you're looking for a cheaper place, there's always http://kakaku.com/ but it'll be hard to navigate even with a translation engine. Here's the category for Panasonic lenses http://kakaku.com/camera/camera-lens/ma_65/

If you're looking for a bargain, you're likely to be disappointed though... Stuff costs as much here as anywhere.

The GF1 kit lenses aren't even out yet (tomorrow, supposedly), I wouldn't expect stores to have stock right away as they'll all go to preorders initially.
Click to expand...
 
curtisf said:
Do they have tax-free shops over there (ie. no consumption tax)?
Click to expand...
Yodobashi is tax-free if you show your passport (IIRC). They are far from the cheapest though; imagine Best Buy if they charged retail with the caveat that all your purchases earned 10% points back towards... the purchase of more retail priced products. I don't shop there (or Bic) unless it is for a product that has been pegged at a certain price across the board - or it is for heavy appliances that will be shipped free to outlying islands (saving serious yen in the process). There are a number of smaller shops, several located in each of the big cities, that have good prices. Use kakaku.com as a starting point (they have addresses of the cheaper shops that show up over and over), but even then several fantastic discount stores are never listed (kitamuracamera for example, almost always the cheapest, yet prices never posted outside of "kuchi-komi" user postings there).

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-CW
 
Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at kitamuracamera. Do they have a shop in Tokyo?
Chez Wimpy said:
curtisf said:
Do they have tax-free shops over there (ie. no consumption tax)?
Click to expand...
Yodobashi is tax-free if you show your passport (IIRC). They are far from the cheapest though; imagine Best Buy if they charged retail with the caveat that all your purchases earned 10% points back towards... the purchase of more retail priced products. I don't shop there (or Bic) unless it is for a product that has been pegged at a certain price across the board - or it is for heavy appliances that will be shipped free to outlying islands (saving serious yen in the process). There are a number of smaller shops, several located in each of the big cities, that have good prices. Use kakaku.com as a starting point (they have addresses of the cheaper shops that show up over and over), but even then several fantastic discount stores are never listed (kitamuracamera for example, almost always the cheapest, yet prices never posted outside of "kuchi-komi" user postings there).

--
-CW
Click to expand...
 
curtisf said:
Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at kitamuracamera. Do they have a shop in Tokyo?
Click to expand...
42 by the looks of it,

http://sss.kitamura.jp/search.html?t=13&b=1

Some of those are smaller than the others (the icons tell you what kinds of products they have in stock). Now the real question is, do the brick and mortar prices align with the "net shop" prices? (probably, but I have never been to one)

http://shop.kitamura.jp/top/CSfTop.jsp

You have to login to see most of the "real" prices - the top level numbers are basically the retail listings with exceptions for pre-order items.

--
-CW

よしよし、今日も生きのいい魂が手に入ったな
 
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