[Ben E]

Hi everyone... I didn't know where to put this question so I figured I would just put it here...

So I have a good friend who wants to get a DSLR. Of course as a loyal Pentaxian I pointed out the awesomeness of Pentax cameras and let him try my camera out and now we've got a new pentax fan But anyways he's traveling to Seoul next month and wants to pick up a camera while he's there.

Could anyone help me out here? I'm assuming that Pentax is available in South Korea... I don't know its availability though. He wants either the K-r or K-30... and also a couple lenses, like the 18-250 and maybe an old manual prime, but I'm sort of figuring he might be able to find them here rather than Korea.

So anyways, can anyone help me with this? We must not let a possible pentaxian fall to the dark side of canikon!

~Ben

[liukaitc]

.....I think it should not be a problem to buy Pentax at Seoul (it is a big city)....
any store that selling canikon should also have Pentax....
just my assumption....

[miriya]

You can buy Pentax cameras at Pentaxzone, I-park mall 3rd floor at Yong-san, Seoul.
Pentaxzone is official Pentax importer/shop in Korea.
(Yong-san is the largest electrics market in Korea, so almost every Korean knows it.)

[Ben E]

You can buy Pentax cameras at Pentaxzone, I-park mall 3rd floor at Yong-san, Seoul.
Pentaxzone is official Pentax importer/shop in Korea.
(Yong-san is the largest electrics market in Korea, so almost every Korean knows it.)

Thank you!

How are the prices there? Would they have the K-r and K-30, do you think? Used cameras (or lenses)?

[sajah]

I'm not Korean but I currently live in South Korea. I see that a Korean already answered but since you PMed me I'll share what I know from my experience, from a non-Korean living in Korea perspective.

Yong-san is the electronic center in Seoul, similar to Akihabara in Tokyo (I'm guessing). The Pentaxzone mentioned is probably your best bet, though you can always try other shops, price shouldn't differ a lot between shops but in my case I always check online price for comparison. The I-mall park also the easiest to reach from Yong-san Subway station but there plenty more shops in other malls too.

If you want to check price, go to Gmarket, it has English version: Gmarket in English . There you can check that K-30 and K-x both available in Korea. Price wise, many of my friends asked me and expect Japanese electronic gadgets price in Korea is cheaper than in other countries (probably because it's close to Japan) but unfortunately not. In my experience the electronic gadget price, tax included, in Korea is pretty much similar to the price in Indonesia, my home country. Perhaps still better than price in Europe or Australia, but certainly more expensive than the USA price I've seen like from B&H or Amazon.

But there is this thing called Parallel Import in Korea, where importers directly import goods from Japan (to my understanding, I could be wrong, I'm not fluent in Korean). You can tell if its a parallel import from the manual book, the manual is in Japanese instead of Korean or in case of multi-language it doesn't have Korean. The box also usually does not have sticker (seal) written in Korean. These stuffs have cheaper price (about 100,000 won cheaper usually), but the catch is, your warranty almost certainly will not be honored inside Korea. Not sure if you bring it to other countries though (In case of Indonesia they will not honor it, official or parallel import doesn't matter, global warranty doesn't mean anything there).

I think Pentaxzone will not sell parallel import stuffs for sure because they're the official Pentax seller. But if you feel adventurous you can go to other shops and ask for 내수 / 비정품 (print the word and show to the seller).

Regarding second hand market. I don't live in Seoul so I don't visit Yong-san very often, but I never found any shops selling second hand camera and lens in Yong-san. As I know, if I want to shop for those, I go to Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장). Namdaemun is actually a traditional market and good for buying Korean souvenirs. There's no camera shops inside the market but along the main road close to the market there's a lot of small camera shops and there they sell second hand camera and lenses. The word for second hand is 중고 (pronounced choong-go). Don't expect too much for cheap second hand vintage lenses though, In Korea they're mostly collector items, and thus have collector item's price.

[tim60]

I went to Seoul about a year ago and stayed near NamDaeMun market. The street that has the many camera shops on both sides went between a circle near the main post office and the Korean Chamber of Commerce building. The shops had large arrays of camera stuff, including a lot of Pentax pieces. I was not in the market to buy at the time, so did not pay much attention.

The lights at the NDM market are really bright at night, no problem with exposures even on an older camera with low maximum useful ISO.

[Ben E]

Does anyone know if there is Pentax at the duty-free at the Seoul airport?

Never mind, sorry.

Thanks everyone!

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Last edited by Ben E; 08-08-2012 at 08:10 AM.

[crossmr]

Missed this thread and didn't know there were so many forums members in Korea. I'll relate my experiences for future searchers as well as this thread returns high in searches for Pentax Korea.

There is not a lot of Pentax in Korea. Korea is solidly a Nikon/Canon country and most retailers simply do not have Pentax anything in their store. If you want something you have to call ahead and they'll arrange to have that product there when you are there..sort of...

Recently I tried to by a Pentax mount Tamron 28-75 F2.8. I sent an e-mail via gmarket to one shop and asked if they'd have it in stock. I received a reply that they would, so I expected to go there the following weekend and look at it. Unfortunately that weekend I slammed by finger in a door and was otherwise occupied. The next weekend I went up there, and asked to see the lens. They didn't have it. The email just said "Come on down" nothing about calling first to make sure it was in stock, or that they were only going to keep it in the store for a couple of days before sending it back to their warehouse etc. I don't live that close to Yong-san takes me over an hour to get to their shop. We argued a little, he kept trying to sell me some 14-45 (give or take) f2.8, but I needed the very specific focal length of the Tamron.

So I started looking around Gmarket again and found another shop also selling it. Contacted them and told them I wanted to come and test the lens. They said sure come on down. I said okay, I'll be at your shop at 10 am. You'll have the lens right? They wrote back and said if you come at 11 it'll be better. So I said okay I'll be there at 11. You'll have that lens at that time right? Yes, come on down.
I got there at 11. No lens. I almost went over the counter at the guy. They turn around and tell me the lens wouldn't be there until 2 pm. Unfortunately I'd be at work at that time. Eventually I bought it from them, but not without more hassle. I needed it the next day, So I said okay you guys can send it quick delivery tonight? sure. Finally they get it, I transferred the money, 7 pm the guy finally calls with a tracking number. Will I get it in the morning? Yes sure,
3pm, still hasn't arrived, the delivery guy says he won't be there till 5:30, I had to shoot a hockey game starting at 5. Had to run to the next neighbourhood over to meet the delivery guy to get the lens. What a gong show. I wouldn't trust those guys as far as I could throw them. The only nice thing was that they gave me a further discount on what is very likely a grey market lens. So I got a lens normally retailing for 660,000 for 300,000 flat.

As for getting Pentax cameras themselves?
Don't bother shopping on Gmarket or anywhere else. The prices are ridiculously high. The K-30 body is going for around 1,100,000 on Gmarket right now. In America it's $624. Even with shipping and customs' fees I saved 300,000 by ordering it from B&H photo. I'd save much more if I was ordering a full kit with lens as those prices are even more inflated. You can use this Korean website to get a US address, and ship to Korea for much cheaper: Malltail It is a re-mailer. They get your package, you log onto the website, pay the shipping fee, and they send it on to Korea. When it gets to customs, you log onto the site and pay the customs fee there. I used it to get my K-30 Body just last week. Great site.

If you want to buy some local stuff, simple stuff, non-pentax specific stuff. Prices aren't bad here. Things like filters and that kind of stuff. I did get a Horusbennu (Korean company) 50mm prime F1.7 for pentax for only 50,000 on gmarket. That was a decent price and good lens. You can sometimes find second hand pentax lens, like older ones online. I got an old retro Vivitar 70-205 F3.8 lens from here: WE Love 35mm for Pentax. They have a big pentax lens section under "film camera" (it's just konglish). They're pretty easy to order from, their shop is in Daegu, but they ship pretty fast.

[majboyd]

I went to the I park Mall to find Pentax while I am here but couldn't find anyone that carried Pentax anymore. No one!!!! They had Pentax signs all over the place and millions of cameras but not one Pentax only cannon and Nikon. I couldn't find any lens either. Someone said go to the I park mall and that is where I went to the third floor where there are millions of camera but no one carries Pentax any more. I was there for a month and went to every camera store in Seoul and couldn't find one. I found one Pentax lens but that was it.

I don't know if they quit carrying them because of the change in ownership of Pentax or what but it is real frustrating.