A while ago I posted on shops for new camera kit in Tokyo. Here’s the companion to that, a short list of my favorite used camera shops in Tokyo. But before I get started, a caveat:

Please bear in mind that this is a very subjective list; these are just places I’ve been recommended or stumbled across. I have bought and sold at some, but not all, and apologies if I have missed somewhere important.

5 shops, in no particular order . . .

1) Fujiya Camera, Nakano

Nakano was Tokyo geek central before Akihabara, and it has some of the best hobby shops in Tokyo, including cameras. There are several Fujiya shops in a small area. The biggest one has used cameras on the second floor. Check out Mandarake while you are in Nakano. No cameras, but everything else you could imagine!

2) Sanpo Camera, Meguro

Sanpo is the most inconviently situated of this list, but I suspect that is the point. They are VERY cheap. I’m not so sure about their used cameras, but they kitted me out with a new DLSR kit not so long ago for much less than anywhere else I could find. A favourite of pros.

3) Map Camera, Shinjuku

Right round the corner from Yodobashi camera Shinjuku West exit. There are about 5 or 6 used camera shops within a stone’s through of this one but Map is the biggest and best. I just sold them a lens the other day and they were super-efficient. I’ve always had good advice from the staff too.

4) Sakuraya, Akihabara, Shinjuku etc

There are Sakura camera shops dotted all around Tokyo and Japan, actually a chain of used camera shops, and how that is economically feasible, I have no idea. In any case, they have lots of extremely cheap classic cameras. I bought a Yashica Samurai for 1000 yen in one the other day.  It came with a free battery worth 800 yen!

5) Lemonsha, Ginza

By no means the cheapest of the above, but my favourite. Lots of Leica, a fair selection of Nikon and Canon, medium format etc. They stock other collectables like fountain pens and watches too. (I’m writing a story on Seiko right now). They have a little coffee machine and seating area, so its perfect for a break during an afternoon of ginbura.

Lastly, my friend Alfie Goodrich has a great post on his local camera shop. There are hundreds of small and (mostly) friendly camera shops in Tokyo and around Japan. Good luck on finding your own favourite!

I had no idea that pictures of astronaut underpants were in such demand.

This week, I’ve had three websites pick up on my blog post and story about Koichi Wakata’s experiments on the International Space Station. One was a large Finish website who linked to my blog and sent several thousand visitors.

Welcome Finns, I have always wanted to visit your country!

The other two sites have set me pondering the economics of the Internet. I received two emails asking to use my photos for free. I turned one down from a Czech website without thinking too much.

Here’s the second in full. It came from a VERY well known commercial IT blog, and it had the provocative subject line, “photo licensing”.

Hey there,

I’m writing a blog entry for [website name removed] about the japanese space undies. I was wondering if we could use your photo of the young lady holding them up? We can’t offer money, but attribution and a link back from a major blog we can do.

Let me know if it’s ok!

Thanks,

[name removed]

So what to do? Is this email an insult? I’m sure the person sending me the email wouldn’t do his job for free. A less interesting photo I took  minutes before re-sold for 100 dollars. But it was basically a reporting assignment and I just grabbed a few pictures for this blog.

Do I send an outraged email saying “if you were a major website, you would pay”? Do I ask for money? Do I send the photos?

The thing about photographs, as everyone who looks at them as a businessperson rather than a photographers knows, is that they have no fixed value. They could be worth 50 cents or 5000 dollars. It all depends who is selling them, who is buying them, and for what.

If you are just starting maybe you’ll be delighted to see your photos anywhere. If you are Annie Lebovitz, your photos probably won’t get out of bed for less than a wodge of $$$。. That was always the case, and is especially so today when the cost of distributing data is virtually zero.

So what is the commerical value of one of my (perhaps, any photographer who isn’t a household name’s) photos used at 250 pixels longest side on the Internet?  It depends on the website of course, but I’m guessing very little.

In the recession, even newspapers are turning to cheap subscription services and refusing to buy from individual photographers. Private blogs just copy and paste photos, and larger sites – apparently – try to convince photographers to provide their work for links.

I heard a story recently about a photographer who phoned his agency, irate, to find out why one of his photos had sold for  a measly 60 cents. He was told that it had gone to a blog. And it wasn’t 60 cents — his cut was 30 cents.

But back to the question, is it worth my while providing the photos, or should I ignore the email? Am I damaging the profession by providing my work “for free”. I made the following calculation:

I would never let my photos be printed for free, I never write for less than a certain per word rate, and up to now I’ve always said no, but . . .

The photo’s value on a website, say bought from a stock site, is probably a matter of cents. If there is significant potential to raise my profile or sell photos through my archive, why not? It was a pretty big site. I sent them the data in the hope of getting a surge of traffic to this blog.

And what happened?

Nothing at all.  I am still waiting for the photos to be used . . . . . .