Sim City

Nope, I am not talking about the game or a "questionable" phone shop, but a new discovery for me, a local friend and I where talking about cameras, and he mentioned Sim City as a source for second hand camera gear.

Interesting, as even after living in HK for years, I had never heard of this one. More proof you can learn something new every day.

Now while I am not actively looking for anything, other than a cable for my Solmeta GPS, I just cannot resist visiting this sort of place. Plenty of new toys to checkout.

So after fuelling up on breakfast, its time to head out. My destination is located in Mon Kok not too far from the computer centre, and for this visit to Hong Kong, I am staying close to the Happy Valley Race Course on Hong Kong island, so feeling a little lazy, I forgo the usual walk to central and get on the Star Ferry. MTR time, and the closest station to my hotel was causeway bay, a shot walk.

Took about half an hour to get to Mon Kok MTR station, and thankfully unlike a previous visit, no rain.

After a quick google, Sim City was only a block away, and yes I did get turned around and headed off in the wrong direction. Oh well its not raining and a nice and warm day. Finally heading in the right direction, I found Sim City.

Heading in, its just like the various computer malls I have visited over the years, a rabbit warren like layout with small shops, in this case selling just about anything camera related, from the bleeding edge of tech to antiques.

One of the first shops I went into looked very promising, display cases full of second hand lens, and yes as expected the collection of F-Mount nikon drew me in. Thankfully in this case the stock was fairly well sorted, and most had prices. More on prices later.

Yes I did spend a fair amount of time checking the Nikon Lens and some other accessories, one thing I did note was the stock was very clean, with no sign of anything being well used and abused. Some of the other stores could learn from this one.

And no I am not recommended this specific store, as I did not buy anything from them, so have no way of knowing how good or otherwise they are. I am just noting that the stock seems in better condition than some others.

As for me, I have been considering getting a Nikon AF-S TC-20E III teleconverter to use with my Nikon 200-500, which I use for some of my wildlife shooting.

I did look for one of these while I was in Singapore, but no one had one in a condition I was willing to accept, some where "beat to hell", others where is good condition but very close to the price of the new one. And yes I know, new ones are even harder to find, given the move to the new Z-Mount.

Continuing my wanderings through the Mall, and checking some other shops, I found some interesting stock, and thats not always a good thing. Some of the lens I checked out had a few mould spots, while others looked like they where trying to grow a new lens.

Now this is not specific to Sim City, although the amount of it I saw was higher than some of the other second hand camera stores. For example in Singapore which has a very well developed second hand market, I do not recall ever seeing anything.

Other than the mould issue, I also found way more dust than I would have expected. and no not at every store I checked out, some are better than others.

Are these issues a reason to avoid Sim City, in a word "No", its more of a public service announcement, to warn visitors to be very careful and check thoroughly before buying.

While wandering around I found two stores that where a first for me, one sold nothing but filters, and the other straps and a few bags.

Yes really, this store sold basically straps and a few bags. I went it, as just could not stop myself, interesting, they really had what looks like every strap known.

I have been looking for a new strap for the past few years, so I will take my D850 back to that store and see what they have which matches what I need. The primary need being, no plastic at all, all fixings need to be metal, far too many bad memories of plastic breaking.

Naturally I went in to check out what they had, not that I need any new filters, er well a really good circular polariser would be nice, but its not a critical need, but never say never.

I almost bought one, but not having my camera with me, I could not test how good their filters where. And yes I will go back with my camera, and test the filter on my 28-70mm lens. Expect updates.

Final Thoughts top

The Sim City Mall, well its an interesting place, with a larger selection of second hand than even the Singapore malls have.

The same buyer beware warnings are valid here also.

• Very carefully test before you buy, and do the testing on your camera body and not one of the stores.
• Check for mould spots on the elements, you need to very carefully look as these spots can be very hard to see, especially on some elements with coatings.
• Shop around, as the prices between stores are very different, as this being Hong Kong, haggling is very possible.

Moving forward I will add this Mall to my must visit list each time I am in Hong Kong.