Ordering Camera Gear From Japan: My latest experience and tips for how to order camera equipment from Japan
This year I decided to fully invest my time and effort into film photography and that I’d try to do some professional work on film. Naturally, that meant finding professional-grade 35mm equipment that could rival modern tech and have me be taken seriously when I show up for a shoot. Since I’m already a Minolta fanboy, I picked up their flagship Maxxum 9 and began the hunt for Minolta’s renowned G Series lenses. First on the list was the versatile 28-70mm f/2.8 G, which brings me to the point of this post; ordering camera gear from Japan.
Minolta wasn’t a particularly popular brand among pro photographers of the day and wasn’t widely imported (compared to Nikon or Canon). Thus, finding the 28-70 stateside proved to be exceedingly difficult and finding one in good condition at an acceptable price was damn near impossible. In fact, I found exactly 3 copies for sale in the United States; one had sticky aperture blades, another was loaded with fungus and the third’s lens elements were starting to separate. So I turned to the international side of eBay to see what our friends in the land of the rising sun had to offer.
Japan is great for finding vintage camera gear that is extremely rare and expensive or non-existent in the US. A lot of it is either “new old stock” complete with boxes, manuals and accessories or used gear that’s in excellent shape. I found that the Japanese sellers on eBay always had very detailed descriptions in their listings and photos of the item from any angle you could possibly want to see it from. I didn’t experience any communication or language barrier issues with my seller, and we messaged back and forth A LOT (you’ll see why later).
Buying from Japan isn’t without its downsides, however. Shipping can add another $40-50 to the cost the item and shipping times can vary wildly, anywhere from a week to a month. Also, you’re going to pay more for items in top condition, obviously. So when you combine the higher price with the shipping costs, I wouldn’t recommend ordering anything that could be found stateside with a little patience.
So I searched, I watched, I waited, I set up eBay alerts on my phone and after a month or two I found the one; flawless glass, great price and it would be at my door within a week with free shipping. After another 3 weeks of hemming and hawing I decided to pull the trigger on it. The coronavirus was starting to shut things down, including international flights and I figured it was now or never and I placed the order. International shopping during a global pandemic, genius idea, I know. Within 24 hours of placing the order, the lens was shipped out via JapanPost EMS packet, and now the eager waiting begins.
3 days go by and the lens is still sitting in a Japanese airport. I message the seller and after a day of investigating he tells me that no one knows where my package is but he’ll keep on top the situation.
2 more days go by and the seller tells me the package has been found, still sitting at the airport, no one knows when it will ship out due to restricted flights into the United States.
Now it’s been a week, the lens SHOULD be at my front door, but it's still in Japan. I can’t start the return process to get my money back because the lens already shipped. I start to get a little anxious at this point. The seller lets me know that JapanPost is suspending shipments into the United States and he’s going to look into other options. I suggest to him that he try FedEx or DHL since I know both of those services are still shipping without issue. The only obstacle now is, can he even get the lens back from the airport to re-ship…
Another two days go by and finally some progress! I see the JapanPost tracking number had finally been updated that the lens had been returned to the seller. Within a few minutes of me finding this out, the seller messages me with a new FedEx tracking number.
4 days later and the lens is at my front door and the moment was Biblical. I cut into the box and find the most well-packaged item I’ve ever seen. This seller really went above and beyond to make sure the lens arrived in one piece. There was a protective filter and cap on the front element, the lens hood was installed for extra security and it was wrapped in some seriously intense bubble wrap. All of this was then nestled in a bed of packing peanuts. The real cherry on top was the Japanese thank you note complete with a perfectly folded origami crane. At least I think it was a thank you note, my Japanese is a bit rusty.
Final Tips:
Read the full description: some sellers will say “Excellent++ Condition” in the title but then state the lens has haze or some other issue in the description.
Message the seller BEFORE ordering: Ask them if they are still doing business during this pandemic and if they can still ship internationally. If they don’t reply to you, don’t buy from them.
Make sure they can ship via FedEx or DHL. The JapanPost ePackets/EMS service that is the standard choice for Japanese sellers is not shipping internationally at the time of this post.
Stick to hard-to-find items: the shipping costs will make it foolishly expensive to buy something that could otherwise be found locally with a little patience.