Where to buy Camera and Video Gear in Beijing

[The World of Chinese]

Hi folks,

I recently went through the trouble of tracking all this stuff down myself for a video project I'm working on. With the caveat that it's better to buy video and photo equipment outside China, if you are stuck in Beijing and need to find this stuff, here are my recommendations! Of course, you can find most consumer cameras in the many electronics malls, like zhongguancun or bainaohui, but if you need something more professional or if you want somewhere more reliable...

Cameras (point-and-shoot, DSLR)

Ray! Cameras (http://rayi.com.cn/) has two locations in Beijing, one in 五棵松 and one right outside the 大望路 subway station on Line 1 in Chaoyang. They also have an extensive online store on their website. I found their staff helpful and friendly, and they even offer free photo classes every week for customers (but I don't think they publicize this, so ask). They also accept foreign credit cards, although their bank charges a fee that can get pretty high depending on the price of what you're buying (we bought a 11,000 RMB DSLR this way and the fee was about 500 RMB)

Video Cameras

We were looking for a "prosumer" broadcast-quality HD camera, something you won't find in regular electronics markets. There are shops that sell these in the 五棵松摄影器材城, but we wanted somewhere more reliable, so we went back to Ray! Cameras and asked them if they could special order it for us. They don't stock professional video cameras, but they were happy to order one for us and we were able to pick it up in a couple of days. But if you need something professional right away, the 五棵松摄影器材城 is the place to go.

Tripods, Lights, Bags, Cases, Vests, Etc.

Any photo and video accessories you could possibly need, you will find at the 五棵松摄影器材城 (Take line 1 to Wukesong station, get off at the northeast exit, walk straight north on that street and the market will be on your right after 5-10 minutes). They have everything from flashes to studio lights, bags and cases of all kinds, tripods for photo and video (plenty of pro fluid head tripods if you need that) and more. The only thing they DON'T have much of is audio gear, although there is one shop in there (凤凰 something) that does stock a few decent wireless mic setups and such.

When you go there, be sure to shop around a bit. Everyone's stock and prices are a little different. We visited 6 different shops looking for a tripod, and I was beginning to fear that we would need to compromise and buy something giant and expensive or small and crappy, when in shop #6 we found a smaller one with a great build quality and very fluid panning motion. Plan to spend a full afternoon there, do your homework, and be ready for some mild bargaining (but don't expect big discounts). You'll come home with something as good as, or in our case even better than, what you expected.

Audio Gear

Supposedly, you can find a lot of this in Zhongguancun, but we were looking for something very specific, so we contacted Mr. Yang (杨）, a dealer in pro audio equipment for video. I got his number from a guy who does pro video sound in Beijing, and although we've only worked with him once, he quoted us a fair price, and even delivered the product we wanted directly to our home on a weekend. Not bad! If you want to go that route, his cell is 13466309580. Otherwise, try Zhongguancun or Taobao.

I bought a LOT of gear over the past month, and can confirm that if possible, you're better off buying this stuff outside China and carrying it back in with you the next time you go home. But if you can't wait, these places served us very well and I recommend them.