Akihabara being home to Tokyo’s Electric Town might make you think it would also be the home of the best of the used camera offerings, but it appears its mind is somewhere else. Although, I would say Shinjuku is the home of the used camera market in Tokyo and Ginza the place to go for high end film cameras, Akihabara certainly has plenty to offer with a healthy blend of the two worlds. Around Akihabara there are numerous used electronics stores, so beyond the shops on this list you’ll have plenty of other chances of finding used cameras. The list I have created here covers specialist stores and general second-hand electronics stores with reasonably large offerings of cameras in among their other bits and pieces. The list is no particular order, but does make for a nice walk as you weave through the streets.
1. Akihabara Nisshin Camera
Nisshin Camera has a wide variety of newer model used digital cameras and a sizeable selection of film cameras. At the time I visited it appeared they only carried Japanese brands. They also have a large selection of different types of film.
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2. Lemon Camera Akihabara
Lemon Camera has a great selection of used digital and film cameras. While this store is not as big as their other stores in Ginza and Shinjuku it is conveniently located on the 3rd floor of a building near the station. They also sell film.
3. Camera Kitamura Akihabara
Camera Kitamura Akihabara is a part of a long established chain of stores. In Akihabara they mainly carry used cameras and lenses, but there are some new ones to be found around the store. They have a large selection of both digital and film cameras and lenses on offer. There are also some medium format film cameras in the store, if that happens to be your thing. The used cameras and lenses can be found on the 4th floor.
4. Tokyo Camera
Tokyo camera has a selection dedicated to film cameras and has a large selection of film also on offer. They have a good number of medium format and 35mm film cameras. Specifically they have many Hasselblad models on their shelves. The store is on street level and is easy to find.
5. Sofmap Akiba
Sofmap Akiba, like their other store in this list, has a large selection of newer model digital cameras and lenses. Once again, it is part of their used PC section. They have no film cameras at all. You can find all the major Japanese brands including some Sigma cameras. Take the stair case down to BF1 to find the used cameras section.
6. Akiba U-Shop / あきばU-SHOP
Akiba U-Shop although mainly a used PC and PC parts store but they also carry digital cameras, so it is worth a mention. The store containing cameras is around the corner from the main store on street level.
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7. Imtiaz’s Camera Market / インティアズ・カメラマーケット
The owner, who speaks English, has been selling cameras in Akihabara for 20 years and 12 years in his current location. He has a large selection of film cameras and digital cameras. In his stock he has quite a few medium format film cameras. This store is easy to find, sitting on the the ground floor on the main street in Akihabara. You can easily stumble upon it as you explore the neighborhood.
8. Shimbashi Ichi Camera
This store has a decent range of medium format film cameras and other vintage cameras, including some plate cameras. There was one lone Canon digital camera which had managed to sneak past security and mingled with the vintage kits, otherwise everything else in the shop was film related. There were quite a number of Leica and Hasselblad cameras on offer.
9. Kikuya Camera
The store specializes in film cameras, mostly vintage. There is a small range of Leica and other foreign brands on display. The front of the store is misleading as it appears they only have watches, but cameras are inside, just around the corner. Watches consume a good portion of the shop.
10. Ameyoko Camera
This shop is on the 3rd floor of Ameya Center Building which is like a mall located in Ameya Yokocho. Away from the bustling street, the mall is much quieter. The store has a highly varied selection of mainly film cameras with the odd digital camera thrown in for good measure. It also carries a lot of other random camera-related bits and pieces, such as tripods.
11. Camera Kitamura Ueno
Located in the corner of the 7f of the Marui shopping center just outside Ueno Station. The range is mainly made up of used cameras with a small selection of new models. The used selection ranges between newer equipment through to quite a selection of film cameras. As mention earlier Kitamura is a large chain and has numerous locations around Tokyo, which is why it appears twice in the list.
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Unfortunately, that concludes my list of used camera stores from Akihabara to Ueno. Send us an email if you happen to know any I missed or if you have any questions or ideas for photography related blog posts and we will endeavor to make them a reality.
Gone but not forgotten
Chikuma Shokai (株）千曲商会
Closed in June 2021 this store after having been open for 75 years will I feel may be sorely missed. The store was packed tightly with a huge collection of film cameras and medium format film cameras. There was not a single digital camera to be found in the store. The shop had a decent selection of Leica cameras and lenses and a load of other camera-related gear besides bodies and lenses. The owner could speak English was very welcoming. The store also had an interesting array of printed photos around the shop, each with a note listing the camera and lens used to take the picture.
Akiba Camera
This store had a small selection of film and digital cameras and lenses. It was very close to the station so it was easy to get to. It had limited opening hours and at least for the month I visited it was closed on Tuesdays. The last time I walked past the location was occupied by a mobile phone repair shop.
Sofmap AKIBA5
Sofmap is part of a major chain of stores and carries mainly late model used digital cameras and lenses. So with this store closing things haven’t necessarily changed that much. They still have a presents in Akihabara and I imagine will continue to do so. The camera section was part of a bigger store of used electronics, and in the case of this outlet, mainly computers, phones and PC parts. But they still did have quite a few cameras on offer.
