Played at Yodobashi Camera today :)

zuikowesty wrote:

3dwag wrote:

Rich K wrote:

I go through Tokyo every couple of years to visit my wife's relatives in Kyushu. While she cruises through the Mitsukoshi department store, I'm delightfully occupied in the camera shops in Shinjuku. Yodobashi and BIC both have wonderful selections of all of the latest gear. It's like Toys R Us for camera geeks. My advice to all is that if you're on a visit to Tokyo for whatever reason, carve out a couple of hours for a little "hands on" time.

Yep, one of my old favorites in Tokyo as well. My wife is from Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu, but schedule the last few trips would not allow for my Yodobashi Camera "fix" 💴 💸. We've also lived in Tokyo and I've had countless short and extended business trips there, so over the years my share of Camera Sakuraya, Yodobashi Camera, and BIc Camera visits in the Kanto and Kansai areas.

Come to think of it, my last time to the Shinjuku West store (my favorite) was probably in December 2004 😢, though I've been through Tokyo several times since.

I assume you mean 2014? 10 years is far too long to stay away...

Do Yodobashi Camera stores still continuously play that catchy, monotonous jingle over their PA system? Every time something like this thread reminds me of it, I can't get it out of my head for the rest of the day! 🎼😳

I didn't notice any music, but will pay attention next time. The visual stimuli were enough to overwhelm my senses for hours!

Here are a couple of versions of that incessant Yodobashi Camera jingle - the Shinjuku West gate store had the jingle running on a loop, blaring from speakers on the ground floor at the street, at least from the late 70's to 90's, I seem to recall it into the 2000s as well, with some updating over the years:

https://youtu.be/B2QmpfzW8Mo

https://youtu.be/Efto0Pg10Qo

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zuikowesty wrote:

The silver E-M10II looked really cheap, with a different finish than the silver E-M5s I've seen. Felt ok though, and the EVF was better than my E-M5 for sure. No sign of the E-M1 m I/II , and I didn't have time to ask. I plan on visiting another store next week in Tokyo so hope to see the mark II then.

The viewfinder on the E-M10 mark II is an OLED viewfinder. It does not suffer from polarization effects when you wear polarized sunglasses, unlike the E-M5/E-M1 (both mark I/II) which have areas of the screen that you can't read when shooting in landscape orientation with polarized sunglasses.

The downside of OLED is you can't refresh it as fast as a TFT LCD screen. You can also see an OLED at a wider angle than a TFT LCD (but that probably doesn't matter for an EVF).

In addition to the E-M10 mark II, the Pen-F and the Panasonic G80/G85 have OLED viewfinders.

IIRC, the colors are more vivid on an OLED, while the TFT LCD tends to be more 'natural'.

Last summer I was in Mishima (one hour away from Tokyo) for three weeks, and I sure sure a fast trip to Tokyo. One of my knees was hurting quite a bit, so I limited myself to Shinjuku area Got  a second hand 12mm f2.0 in perfect condition for half the retail price at Map Camera (super helpful staff with my non-existant japanese and their basic english). Then, I escaped the down-pouring rain visiting all the floors of the Yodobashi store and later the BIC Camera by Shinjuku station. I was impressed: they had every lens and camera! Not to mention the incredible amount of accesories. Only pity, they had the 12-50mm at around 11000Y(100€), but no stock... It was a bargain for an all-round lens with a macro mode.

Michael Meissner wrote:

zuikowesty wrote:

The silver E-M10II looked really cheap, with a different finish than the silver E-M5s I've seen. Felt ok though, and the EVF was better than my E-M5 for sure. No sign of the E-M1 m I/II , and I didn't have time to ask. I plan on visiting another store next week in Tokyo so hope to see the mark II then.

The viewfinder on the E-M10 mark II is an OLED viewfinder. It does not suffer from polarization effects when you wear polarized sunglasses, unlike the E-M5/E-M1 (both mark I/II) which have areas of the screen that you can't read when shooting in landscape orientation with polarized sunglasses.

The downside of OLED is you can't refresh it as fast as a TFT LCD screen. You can also see an OLED at a wider angle than a TFT LCD (but that probably doesn't matter for an EVF).

In addition to the E-M10 mark II, the Pen-F and the Panasonic G80/G85 have OLED viewfinders.

IIRC, the colors are more vivid on an OLED, while the TFT LCD tends to be more 'natural'.

Good to know, thanks. I have found the E-M5II EVF to occasionally show some unnatural blues in the sky compared to my E-M5, but I'm not sure if this is the EVF or the AWB causing this. Overall, the size and resolution is a huge bonus. I haven't tried any legacy glass with it yet, but expect they will be easier to focus also.

wolfychi wrote:

Did you by any chance looked at the menu on both the Panasonic and Sony Cameras? Can the language change easily? Or were they in Japanese only?

I only looked briefly at the GX8 menu, but believe it was in English - can't say for certain though. Didn't bother looking at the Sony menus. I was underwhelmed by the A7 and even the A6500 didn't wow me in terms of AF speed or ergonomics.

I will be back at BIC or another Yodobashi store in Tokyo next week so will take a closer look, especially as the GX8 is on my shortlist now.

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Alexbarr wrote:

Last summer I was in Mishima (one hour away from Tokyo) for three weeks, and I sure sure a fast trip to Tokyo. One of my knees was hurting quite a bit, so I limited myself to Shinjuku area Got a second hand 12mm f2.0 in perfect condition for half the retail price at Map Camera (super helpful staff with my non-existant japanese and their basic english). Then, I escaped the down-pouring rain visiting all the floors of the Yodobashi store and later the BIC Camera by Shinjuku station. I was impressed: they had every lens and camera! Not to mention the incredible amount of accesories. Only pity, they had the 12-50mm at around 11000Y(100€), but no stock... It was a bargain for an all-round lens with a macro mode.

Interesting - I will check out Map Camera, as I used lenses are the most likely thing to purchase for me. My wife would not be impressed if I brought a new camera back, although I think she is half expecting it to happen...

No sign of the 12-50 at all so far - the 14-150 and 12-40 seem to be the kit lenses on the E-M5II here. I sold my 12-50 and can't see getting another one, even at $100, except perhaps to pair up with a body for one of the kids.