Buying a dSLR in Beijing

[adrianlondon]

Some time before the end of January I need to buy a decent camera. My course here finishes then, and I plan on travelling around China for a few weeks before returning to London and replenishing my bank account via a job.

I may well change my mind between now and then, but my current desire is the Pentax K10D (for reasons I can go into if people care enough).

Anyone seen one in Beijing and know its price? I know I can go to Zhongguangcun and enter the crazy world of laowai haggling, but I'd like to get a rough idea of the price (and availability!) first. If anyone knows, of course.

[roddy]

If you do a search on D70s on here, you'll turn up a number of posts people have made before / just after buying a DSLR. Obviously not the same model, but the general idea is the same. Few links for price checking here.

Edit: Rayi aren't listing any Pentax （宾得) stuff, but Taobao have a few K10D sellers in Beijing but from the look of it they're pre-orders rather than in stock.

[adrianlondon]

Thanks for that, Roddy; I'll go through the links.

A quick glance seems to confirm my suspicions that the K10D is still too new to be listed; although that could be because I don't really know how to search for it. Can someone confirm what "Pentax" is in Mandarin ... is it 宾得?

[okokla]

yes "Pentax" is "宾得",i know it will be saled in Zhongguangcun in the late December,price is about 7500RMB. maybe you should go there http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/163/163254.shtml.

But in my opinion Nikon D80 is better.

[roddy]

Might be worth bearing in mind that when it's just come onto the shelves your chances of discounts are even lower than at any other time. Also If you're leaving almost immediately after purchase you probably want to make sure your warranty will be valid back home.

[okokla]

agree with you , roddy

[adrianlondon]

That works out at £500 which, as is to be expected for a new camera, is the same as the cheapest UK price. If I do end up buying a camera here, which is likely as I want a decent one for my trip around China, I'll make sure I check the warantee/guarantee.

The D80 is a nice camera but the weather sealing of the K10D is a slight draw and the in-body anti-shake thing is a big draw for me. Most of my photography is of interior architecture (such as cathedrals, other old buildings etc.) and inside museums where flash and tripods are usually forbidden. I want anti-shake on wide angle (prime, ideally) lenses and neither Nikon or Canon appear to put anti-shake on anything but mid-range zooms. I know this whole anti-shake thing is hotly debated, but I want it ;)

[Shiela]

Hi Adrian,

See you made it to BNU, I ended up at Renda.

Anyway, back to dSLR. I was looking at them just before leaving UK for my RTW trip. I ended up choosing the Minolta Dynax 5D dSLR, mainly because their film lenses can be used on a digital body. However, it does have inbuilt anti-shake which can be turned off if desired. So far, my pics have turned out pretty well - even managed to impress myself!

This would have been around GBP450 in London (May06) but managed to save roughly GBP50 in Hong Kong. So if you're planning a trip to HK may be worth looking there. Might also have the Pentax and will probably have more choice than Beijing.

However, if you're on a single entry F-visa you'll need to get another to enter China again.

[Shiela]

Adrian,

P.S. The anti-shake on the Minolta is on the body - which can be bought separately - not the lens. Also, if price is a factor Tamron and Sigma also do lenses for Minolta.

[adrianlondon]

Thanks for the tips, Sheila. Yeah, I've been kidnapped on the F visa. I know I could apply for a re-entry stamp, but I'm only here for the one semester.

My studies finish on 19th January. My visa (and my return flight validity!) run out on 1st March or something. So that gives me a few weeks to travel around. I had grand plans of going to many many places but the high cost of internal flights, plus the crazy train system here (especially over CNY it's on 18th Feb 2007) mean I might focus on two or three key cities.

I could just use my crappy pocket camera and buy the dSLR when I return to London, but I'd like to have it here, really. I emailed Pentax and asked about the warantee and they said it would be fine so long as I had some proof-of-purchase, ie a receipt.

I don't have any film lenses (I owned a Canon EOS300 quite a few years ago, but sold it along with the lenses) and would prefer digital (i.e. cropped sensor) lenses anyway, for th reduced size/weight. I'd love a full frame sensor, eg the Canon 5D, but that thing is just too big and heavy for me.

[adrianlondon]

A friend of mine (a local) went to Zhongguancun yesterday to enquire about laptops. He was told that most places have a sale over Christmas. Of course, not really having the same pre-Christmas rush that we get in the UK, the sale starts around 20th December.

[bianfuxia]

You might like to price compare at the Beijing Photography City at Wukesong. It probably (certainly) has a better range of equipment than Zhongcunguan and I think you might get a slightly better price too. The place has a large number of shops selling every conceivable photographic item (vintage cameras through to the latest pro dSLRs). They are generally overpriced on 2nd hand equipment though.

The staff at the various stores are pretty relaxed about you handling stuff, so you can physically compare things too. Also, the sales pressure is generally pretty low, unlike ZCG (in my unhappy experience of that place anyway!).

If you don't know where it is or how to get there let me know.

[cdn_in_bj]

I may well change my mind between now and then, but my current desire is the Pentax K10D (for reasons I can go into if people care enough).

Did you end up getting the K10D? If so, where did you go to get it?

I'm looking at the K20D, which Rayi now carries:

http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_7982.htm

It's a bit higher than some of the prices on the Zhongguancun site, but I suspect many of those are for HK imports.

http://detail.zol.com.cn/digital_camera/index136105.shtml

Their price on the DA16-45 is really low, however:

http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_6841.htm

I heard that this lens is about to be discontinued, so maybe that's why.

Has anyone ordered from this place before?

http://www.dvdc100.com/products.asp?id=1030

I remember hearing about "dvdc100.com", but not sure where.

[adrianlondon]

I've heard good things about the K20D. However, due to a massive cashback offer direct from Canon, and being able to buy it duty/tax free at Heathrow airport, I've got the canon 40D kit (with 17-85mm IS lens) and am really happy with it. It was cheaper than the (probably as good, to be fair) lower-end 450D.

Now I'm working out which lenses to buy.

I think most dSLRs are good nowadays; you need to pick them up and work out which feels the most comfortable in your hands as, assuming you use it regularly, that's where it'll spend most of its time! Most people (I assume) take loads of photos and simply upload them to web sites or print them out quite small, so overall picture quality isn't important. Having a camera which works the way you want, so that you don't miss a photo - that's the important bit.

Can't remember who said it, but I saw a soundbite quote along the lines of "the camera which takes the best photos, period, is the one you have with you at the time that's ready to shoot".

[cdn_in_bj]

I've heard good things about the K20D. However, due to a massive cashback offer direct from Canon, and being able to buy it duty/tax free at Heathrow airport, I've got the canon 40D kit (with 17-85mm IS lens) and am really happy with it. It was cheaper than the (probably as good, to be fair) lower-end 450D.

Sounds like quite the deal you got. I few months back I purchased a 450D with the 18-55IS lens for my father. It's quite an upgrade from the 300D he was using (which was handed-down from me).

Now I'm working out which lenses to buy.

Choosing lenses is the hard part, and also where you can go broke really quickly.

I think most dSLRs are good nowadays; you need to pick them up and work out which feels the most comfortable in your hands as, assuming you use it regularly, that's where it'll spend most of its time! Most people (I assume) take loads of photos and simply upload them to web sites or print them out quite small, so overall picture quality isn't important. Having a camera which works the way you want, so that you don't miss a photo - that's the important bit.

Yes, agreed.

In terms of image quality, you won't find any major flaws amongst the different brands. There will be differences in colour rendition, contrast, sharpening, noise, and so on, but if you're shooting RAW then this is mostly moot (with the exception of noise) as most of them can be corrected in post-processing, unless you are shooting in extreme conditions. There are some technical considerations, such as in-lens vs in-body IS, weather-proofing, in-camera processing (RAW->JPEG), live-view, shooting speed (ie-3FPS vs 6FPS), and AF performance (low-light and tracking). The last two are a weakness of Pentax, so if you're shooting fast action you'd be better served by Nikon.

Other subjective, but also important, aspects include handling (controls, how well the camera fits to your hand), like you mentioned, as well as the viewfinder. A lot of people make the mistake of overlooking these when making their decision, and instead obsess over the technical specifications.

Also, don't forget to check that there's a suitable range of lenses available for your chosen brand for the type of photography you'll be doing.

[adrianlondon]

I love my 40D and despite people saying the lens isn't the best, the 17-85 lens works well for me. It focusses very fast, is virtually silent, and the IS is great. DPP (the Canon software which converts the RAW files to JPG) does a good job of correcting the distortion at 17mm.

I do think in-body IS is the way to go though, however I doubt Canon or Nikon will ever do this as they can't upsell lenses that way. If it weren't for the fact the Canon just feels so good to use, I would have gotten the Pentax.

Limitations in picture quality are always down to me; I'm just not that great a photographer (yet!).