Hong Kong Analogue Camera Trail – Dot Well Camera – Champagne Court

March 20, 2015 by mspau 2 Comments

Champagne Court is the hub for second hand gear. All the stores are in a little arcade – the entrance on Kimberley Rd looks like this :

Dot Well Camera

Friendly staff and approachable. The shop staff actively engaged with me as I walked in, asking about my Ricoh GR (yes, I was using an antichrist-ing digital for the walk!) and were very helpful.

They have both C41 in an hour and traditional Black and White processing which has a three day turnaround. I toyed with getting all my black and white done prior to leaving, but the three days is just a bit long. If I hadn’t brought a bag full of Black and White film, I may have even gone nuts on the Kodak BWCN or Ilford XP2 films which are both C41 process!

I got a couple of C41 rolls processed here to save me the trip when I got back – they looked pretty good, and two rolls developed with low res scans cost $70HK – A bit over $10 Aussie dollars…

Dot Well have a very broad range of gear, not really specialising in any particular genre. Like more stores, there are piles of gear everywhere, and the gems are sometimes hidden behind the roughies.

They have an excellent range of film and chemicals. A great place to pick up whatever you need when in town. There was a pretty good range of developers and chems. There doesn’t appear to be many rolls of each film in stock, but I suspect there might be more out “the back”…

Overall, a pretty good shop. Probably more for the bargain hunting kind of shopper. The gear was variable in both quality and price, but I think their price expectations are pretty reasonable. There is not a lot of “minty” gear for sale. If a bit beat up is your thing, then this is a good place to look for a bargain.

Dot Well seemed a pretty friendly place. Another collector who had come in also struck up a conversation with me. Some places are interested in new people, some are just interested in the local crowd, I suppose?

The staff are very knowledgeable. I need some fancy pants L76 batteries (not the wussy little A76 or LR44 ones) – as soon as I mentioned the camera he knew which batteries I needed, and dug them up. I asked for six (I am always super-prepared, which can get a little annoying) and he sold me down to four. He was right, I didn’t really need six!

Dot-Well are on the interwebs here.

You can find them here :

Champagne Court, 16-20 Kimberley Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

On the way out, the owner patted me on the shoulder to thank me for coming in – a nice way to start the Camera Trail!