After living for 6 months in Japan, specially in Tokyo, I’ve lost the ability to avoid these landmines… I guess I will get used to it fast, though I’m not planning in staying here for long. Japanese dogs do their stuff too (although dogs tend to be of smaller races there because of the size constraints of Japanese houses), but owners carefully pick up their pets deeds. In some cases I’ve even seen them wipe the creatures butt with humid tissues!

Trips

People

and these are some taken in the studio in Tokyo

So you’re planning to buy a second-hand Hasselblad in Tokyo? I will tell you my experience that you might find useful. I recently bought a Hasselblad 503cx with an A-12 back and a Zeiss 80mm/2.8 lens (the so called “basic kit”).

My hunt for a ‘Blad started a month ago after I had used one several times at National Photo’s studio in Harajuku (btw you can rent their 503CX by 6,000 yen/day or 3,000 yen/day if you use it at their studio). Initially I was interested in a Rolleiflex, but after playing with the Hasselblad 503CX I found that its size was rather manageable and that being able to change lenses and the film back was an advantage. I had discarded a Mamiya RZ67 because of it’s big size and weight, though this camera is relatively cheap in Japan compared to Rolleis and Hassies.

Before visiting the shops I did some research on which model to look for. This article by Karen Nakamura on the Hasselblad 500 series gave a lot of useful tips.

Since the Euro has dropped against the Yen (near 40%!!), it has been difficult to find bargains in Tokyo… if only I had bough it 3 months earlier… Tokyo is a paradise for buying used cameras, specially foreign brands like Leica, Voightlander, Rollei and Hasselblad, but also for locals like Mamiya, Canon and Nikon. There is a huge offer (it is said that 2/3 of all the Leicas ever produced are here in Japan) and the conditions of the hardware are usually excelent as Japanese people tend to be maniac with their photo-gear (and not only).

There are no certainties on when a good piece of hardware is going to be available and at what price, so the best thing is to visit the shops frequently. After wandering around several ones, these became my points of reference:

Lemon Camera in Ginza (see map)

Lemon is a big shop and a point of reference for new and second-hand cameras in Tokyo. Located in the 8th floor of a building that hosts a church, it is a paradise for people who adhere to the religion of photography.  As most shops here, they have an impressive array of Leica but also Rollei, Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Mamiya and some Horseman and other niche products. Prices are on the lower side of the spectrum (that is good) and they have high quality products and a long standing reputation for serious business. On used cameras, they get a % of the price, which is usually set by the seller, so there is no negotiation on the final price. The staff is very professional and some of them speak a bit of English. They accept major credit cards. At Lemon I found several 503 Hasselblads and many 500C/M plus lenses and backs.

Fujiya Camera in Nakano (see map)

Fujiya tends to have the best prices in new and used cameras. The shop is distributed in several buildings and Hasselblads are in the second floor of the main one (the same that carries Nikon gear). They have a smaller selection of Blads, but I found them all in good condition. Anticipation: I bought mine here (see the end of this article for more details). Some of the staff speak good enough English. The main store is a 1 minute walk from Nakano Station’s North exit.

Lucky Camera in Shinjuku (see map)

A small shop near the South entrance to the Shinjuku JR Station, Lucky camera had many expensive Hasselblads cramped on its shelves. Prices were more expensive than at Lemon or Fujiya. There was a lot of other interesting stuff and I suggest to visit it in case some good opportunities are available.

Map Camera in Shinjuku (see map)

Map Camera is divided in 2 buildings, one for Auto-Focus equipment and the other for Manual-Focus… although you will find medium format cameras in the basement of the former building. The first impact of this shop is given by the huge amount of Leicas that they have aligned in their shelves. Hasselblads are at the back of the basement and though the number of them is discrete compared to Lemon, there were several ones to choose from. The prices tend to be in the middle to high part of the spectrum, but quality is very high. I also found one of the members of staff that was fluent in English.

National Photo in Harajuku (see map)

These guys are Hasselblad experts (ask for Togashi-san if you need help, he is the ‘Blad expert and speaks English). They have few cameras on sale but each one of them is sent to Hasselblad in Sweden for a revision and eventual adjustment, so this is a solid warranty that the gear is in excelent condition. Their price tends to be on the high side of the spectrum because of this, but hey… if you want good quality and certainty on the state of the product it has a cost! The cameras are on the 2nd floor and you can also rent a lot of professional equipment (cameras, lenses, flashes, an even their excellent studio on the 3rd floor).

My final decision: I found 2 Hasselblad 503CX and a 503CXi kits at Fujiya and decided for the one in best conditions. The shop gave me a 10 days return period (money back if there is some problem with the camera or if you change your mind) and a 6 month warranty on eventual problems with it.

Links to more second-hand photography stores

This is a list of online resources to more camera shops:

• A Guide to New and Used Camera Shops in Tokyo
• Lightstalkers
• What’s Hot In The Tokyo Used Camera Biz?
• PhotoGuide Japan

This first model by Tomy is a bit clumsy and according to the company is targeted to women in their 30’s and 40’s (that might find it kawaii!) and families.

The pricing in Japan is of ¥34,800 for the camera and ¥880 for 20 sheets of photo paper (therefore cheaper than the Cheki/Instax mini ¥540 per 10 photos).

Zink (zero ink) is a tecnhonogy developed in the USA that allows to print photos without using ink but through a reaction to heat. You can find more details about how Zink ink works here.

Polaroid had also released a Zink product one year ago, the PoGo instant mobile printer.

I recently watched one of his great webinars entitled “How to Get Traffic and Relevant Ads by Writing Great Titles” and it was illuminating, with straightforward insights and suggestions.

You can watch Robin Good’s tutorial on how to write great titles by clicking on the following image.

Now I understand why one of my blogposts, titled “Camera Cabaret Shop, pornograhpy for photographers” is getting so much hits. Writing articles for several offline magazines, I’m often tempted to use more “creative” or attractive titles, but there is a big difference between a magazine and a rather small difussion blog: once you buy the magazine, the articles are already in there and you find them as you flip through the pages. With my blog there are two main sources of inbound traffic: 1) people that know me or my blog and follow through the RSS feed or through direct access or links posted somewhere else, and 2) people that arrive to this blog by using search engines which index my content, keywords and… of course… titles!

It is often considered that technological innovations tend to separate the family because we’re usually told the stories that went wrong: the kid that committed suicide because his parents confiscated his Playstation, people without physical friends that rely only on who they meet online. We usually give for granted the “good” stories. Technology has empowered us in a world that has changed since our grandfather’s times. Of course the same tools won’t be useful or even necessary to everyone and they are by not means a guarantee for happiness. But in a lot of situations technology has acted as a medium to allow us to communicate or even to share our secrets, in many cases rapidly bringing down the age-barrier.

Facebook (mainly but also many other online social networks) has allowed me to stay in touch with old & new friends all over the world, and Twitter tells me what many of them are doing right now, the kind of small things you don’t call them for but make you happy to know. Through Flickr (and others, lately Facebook too) I share images from my trips and through my blog I express open some of my thoughts for discussion. Skype, and now Gtalk video, make videoconferencing and calling to virtual or physical phones an everyday activity. Emails and sms/mms are an extension of my voice and Youtube or Vimeo let me show some action. Dopplr shows me where my friends are traveling to and tells me when we have a coincident trip or they come to my city.

“Today I want to draw sustainability in another direction. Towards technology. No, not technologies that save energy or clean the environment, but familiar technologies we use everyday. Computers, email, phones and the rest have not only sped up my life, they have also hugely enriched my family life. For a start, it means we can retain close connections when we are scattered across the globe – Auckland, Rome, New York, London. I can catch up on the latest family snaps, talk with any of them wherever I am (and on video if I’ve access to the right gear), get the short version in texts and the long version on email, and of course, there’s YouTube and Skype. It means Ro can see Stella every day (well, three times a day actually!). We also have a family blog where we share what’s important to us without talking to the world.”

Read the full article here.

A similar thing happens with disposable (mostly wood or bamboo) chopsticks: once required for hygienic reasons, nowadays Japanese consume more than 25 billion chopsticks per year, 95% of them imported mainly from China and other Asiatic countries. It is a huge industry but it’s becoming unsustainable for a world that is getting “hot, flat and crowded” (Tom Friedman dixit). A similar problem occurs in China, where more than 45 billion are consumed each year. It is not only about the waste produced by these tons of chopsticks but also the fact that with actual population growth rates and consumption, there is not enough bamboo to produce them and we are depleting bamboo forests at a higher rate that the time needed to regenerate them.

And what about plastic bags? Japanese are maniacs regarding packaging, in particular of food. While it might be a nice thing for presents, it is more often ridiculous to have something packed in 3 stratus of plastic, paper, etc. Even when you buy a bar of chocolate the salesman will try to put it inside a plastic bag.

I believe that in most situations the use of these products (one-use plastic bottles, chopsticks and plastic bags) can be avoided and we could make a positive impact on the environment. I understand that some industries will suffer but I also think that when a constraint is applied, a full array of new opportunities can bloom.

The solution I am testing on myself, to fully understand the implications, is to carry my own reusable chopsticks, an eco-bag that fits in my pocket and a plastic bottle that I can refill with tap water. These should apply for at least 70-80% of my everyday situations. There will be times that I won’t be able to avoid the use of these kind of disposable products, but I hope those to be the exceptions instead of the norm. And if I get a plastic bag to carry something, I will use it for my home’s garbage. If I want to buy a beverage apart from tap water, say a sports drink, I’ll buy a huge 2 liter bottle at the supermarket and refill my carry-on bottle.

I found the tools for this experiment, portable chopsticks, 500ml drink bottle and eco-bag, at (yes, you guessed right!) Muji, one of my fav stores. These guys usually sell very “environmentally conscious” products.

Most restaurants that serve their food in ceramic (or non disposable) must do the washing somehow, be it manually or in a dishwasher. Why not offer reusable chopsticks or cutlery and was them too? It is said that Japanese people don’t want to use chopsticks used by others, so they should carry their own. As a matter of fact, there’s a movement called “bring your own chopsticks” though in my everyday life I haven’t seen much people doing it. More on the “My-Hashi” movement here.

What would happen if everyone adopted a similar attitude?

How many trees would be saved?

How much garbage would never be produced?

How much less oil  (for making plastic produts) could we consume?

These are some of my photos from today. Enjoy!

The idea behind this small notebook is rather simple: they scanned the pages of other famous notepads and printed them together. Inside you’ll find squared and lined pages, plain and pentagrammed ones. Just a small touch of creativity, design and nostalgy. I guess they make it just for fun as their core business is somewhere else.

I made this small video of me flipping through its pages. Enjoy!

Powershovel Notebook of Notebooks from Gianfranco Chicco on Vimeo.

On the 15th anniversary of Nelson Mandela receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, South Africa is gaining attention for another world-friendly achievement. This time, it’s an electric car from Cape Town-based Optimal Energy that’s grabbing headlines.

The Joule has been the darling of the Paris Auto Show, and it’s easy to see why. The six-passenger car has a purported range of 250 miles, a 0-60 time of 4.8 seconds, and an out-of-nowhere backstory worthy of a Greg Gumble voiceover. Edmunds Inside Line reports that cost estimates are between $22,000 and $28,000 with an all-too-familiar release date of “somewhere in 2010.” Production will take place in So

uth Africa and the finished product will consist of about 50 percent local content.

Read the full article here.

and that the German automaker BMW has just unveiled an all-electric Mini.

BMW’s finally pulled the wraps off the 204-horsepower all-electric Mini it is bringing to America and says the car could be here as early as next year, although just 500 people will be lucky enough to get their hands on one.

BMW says it will lease the Mini E two-seater to “select private and corporate customers” in California, New York and New Jersey under what is essentially a big R&D project to develop EVs through its Project i. “Putting some 500 cars on the road under real daily traffic conditions will make it possible to gain widely applicable hands-on experience,” BMW says. “Evaluating these findings will generate valuable know-how, which will be factored into the engineering of mass-produced vehicles.”

Read the full article here.