Japan on Film:- Japan, land of the rising sun, sushi, heated toilet seats and of course film cameras since they knocked the Germans out of the game in the 1950s and 60s.
I have been privileged a few times in my life to visit and last year set off on a journey around the country. Over the next few months I will be writing up the experience of Japan using my classic film cameras. I’ll talk about where to go to get stuff, sights you might like to see and the ups and downs of film photography with vintage cameras in Japan.
Readers of my other ‘Being There’ articles will know I am always banging on about getting your arse is gear and going somewhere to get great shots rather than spending on new gear. Most of the iconic photos of the 20th Century were taken with cameras no more sophisticated that the original Nikon F so that’s what I used on what would turn out to be a 6 month odyssey. In fact Japan would be the Nikon Fs last outing before retirement and I thought it fitting that its last serious use should be in the land where it was made in 1964.So with no more ado let’s jump in and see what’s what.
Getting packed
I had to think about what I would most likely use on such a potentially long trip and thought in terms of back-up and also what lenses would be the most useful. This turned out to be a pretty good guess.
Bearing in mind I would be carrying the gear by hand, sometimes by hiking, so I had to keep the weight down. As much as anything carrying a huge bag of lenses can lead to issues when your trying to get a shot. The classic problem being the near constant lens swaps means missing the moment. On top of that the more lenses I took the more hoods, filters and adaptors I’d end up needing, so I decided to run with the Nikon F, a Nikon F-301 as backup and a selection of lenses including 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 135mm and a 38-100 zoom. The whole lot plus hoods and filters could be packed into one of my larger bags and I felt on most days I would probably dump some of the gear in a hotel to save weight because that lot in a bag is a fair old weight and bulk to lug about. I almost never use flash so that was something I left behind along with my tripod.
I chose just two rolls of Ektar 100 to take with me fearing airport scanners. As things happened staff at Gatwick, Shanghai and both Japanese airports I used were happy to hand check my bags but it was a sensible precaution. The idea was to arrive with two films ready to go and acquire more once in Japan. This is a smart way of doing stuff as film is generally cheaper in Japan.
Arrival
After the long flight I found my hotel in Tokyo and got some sleep ready for the first full day. First stop was Yodobashi cameras in Tokyo. There are two of them and one of them sells film for people like me who still use it. Film is still massive in Japan and Yodobashi, as expected, had massive stocks of literally dozens of film types. I had hoped to perhaps find some of the marvellous Fuji 100 technical film which I bagged up on my last trip at a bargain price as it was close to expiry but sadly the film is now well and truly out of stock as Fuji stopped making it.
Instead I settled on some 5 packs of Portra 400 which was significantly less expensive in Japan costing around £12 a roll in a 5 pack versus around £20 in the UK (prices correct at time of purchase in September 2025). Yodobashi had a huge range of films from Fuji, Kodak and Ilford plus many boutique films together with reduxed Polaroid type cameras and a staggering display of modern retro style point and shoots and this was common in most of the big camera stores I visited and a lot of the smaller ones too.
You can be sure the one thing you have access to in Japan is film stocks and, in most larger cities, shops who will process the film for you while you wait. A note here on film stocks is that colour print film can be processed very quickly but black and white or slide film is usually a 10 day turnaround. At one point in the trip I had to circle back to a previous location to get films processed due to the 10 day turnaround for Tri-X 400. On the trip I found two lovely shops who could process fast and reliably and even throw in postcard sized contact prints of the roll for very reasonable prices. What a joy to be able to drop films off, have a coffee and then go back and get the negatives plus some contact sheets. I would tend to pile up film and then once there were 5 or so rolls head for somewhere to get them processed.
While mooching around Tokyo I found time to visit the Nikon Museum at their headquarters, The museum is quite small but impressive with every Nikon ever made on display. The Japanese do museums extremely well and most feature beautiful displays. The staff at the museum were suitably impressed with my original Nikon F and very pleased to see someone still using one and here’s a tip for you…
When visiting camera stores, or even just out on the street, a classic Japanese camera is a great conversation starter. I was stopped quite a few times by people amazed and delighted to see a camera like the Nikon F still in use – including a gaggle of younger photographers with their digitals and an aged Japanese hippie (just like me in fact) who happened to be shooting an F3. In camera stores it helps to break the ice and open up conversation and may even get you a small discount. I got a discount some years ago when I bought the Nikon F from a small store thanks to the Konica S2 rangefinder I was wearing. It identifies you as someone who has a real love for these vintage cameras and that will often get you a deal. It’s worth mentioning that despite the social media hype, cameras in Japan are not amazingly inexpensive. Most stores will charge similar to what you may find on eBay. There are however bargains – these are usually in junk bins and stuff like accessories can be bought for pennies. I bagged up some original Nikon lens hoods and filters for not much money where I would be skinned on eBay for the same – this included a pair of hoods still in their original factory packaging.
I wasn’t there for film camera buying but there for photography, I only stopped by the occasional store for processing. There are so many camera stores in places like Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo you could spend a whole two week holiday getting round them all. But this trip was about using cameras, not messing about buying more gear to push into an already overstuffed camera bag so lets move on with hints about getting those shots.
Getting the shots
The first advice I would give people doing photography in Japan is keep a careful note of what you are shooting, where is it? What is it? And all the usual notes about lenses, film stock in use and camera settings. You may end up shooting a lot of film in somewhere like Japan. At some locations it would be easy to burn through an entire roll. I keep a shooting log as a routine and with a trip that would end up using over 45 rolls of film it was essential. Trying to identify stuff after the event is hard work and there are no end of misattributed pictures on Instagram. Making notes as you go will save time later when you come to do the post process work and try to manage the shots into some sort of sensible order. For me I created a journal of the time there so every evening I would write up notes on the day.
The second piece of advice is plan your day. Japan can be overwhelming and you can end up running down rabbit holes and wasting your time if you are not careful. Japan has become a huge tourist destination and the Japanese have not been slow to capitalise on this. You will be assaulted by an endless stream of tourists ‘musts’. Many of these may well be underwhelming so make a plan of what you want to see and try to stick to it. Some locations are full of instagrammers trying to capture the classic shot they have seen somewhere else and these locations are often best avoided (unless you ARE an Instagrammer trying to get THAT classic shot). Make a list of what you want to see and try and stick to it as far as possible. The list can be whatever your interest is – street work, landscapes, architecture etc. For me it would be all three and I tried in 6 months to capture a bit of everything.
The next thing that is hazardous in Japan, and something that is the curse of any photographer, is the weather. It can be hot, humid, very wet or bitterly cold and it can be very changeable too. Any landscape photographer knows weather can make or break a photograph so try not to get disappointed when the weather won’t play ball with you.
For me the biggest disappointment was Nikko. The rain never let up for a second and was totally torrential. There are however always shots to be had if you stay flexible and seek the opportunities.
For street photographers the Japanese are quite a private people and not everyone will be glad you took their picture so exercise due caution and good manners at all times. For some stuff you need to be very wary of local sensibilities. Photographing Geisha for instance can land you in hot water very quickly. With that said there are still opprtunites for street work but you just need to exercise care and consideration.
A cautionary tale…
I am going to wind this article up with a tale of a close call in respect of privacy and good manners and how, when less than a 100% sure you should err to the side of caution in Japan.
I was at an event in Kyoto where Geiko would be present (Geisha in Kyoto are known as Geiko). As this was a public event that had been publicised in a local website (though not to tourists) I of course went along, camera bag in hand. I arrived very early to get a good spot and found myself next to the Japanese press pack all awaiting the Geiko. Ceremonies of this kind are newsworthy in Japan so of course a large press presence was on location. Around me other Japanese were all standing around with high end cameras round their necks. The press photographers all saw me unhitching my aged Nikon F and no one said a word. There was a sign which said no recording but I took this to mean no video work. When you go to a concert in the UK there is a clear distinction between people taking a picture of the performance and people recording it and, given the large number of people standing there with expensive digital cameras and long lenses, I felt I was ok. I was of course mindful of laws in Japan about hassling Geisha for photographs and obstructing them and I would of course never do that but I felt as I was some distance away, clearly in with a press pack who were snapping away there was a certain leeway here. No such leeway existed at it happens. Just as I stopped shooting a very angry looking official headed my way and only stopped when he saw that i was putting my camera down having shot as much as I needed. Behind me, while I was shooting, a Japanese person had gotten a slap in the face and a bawling out for being disrespectful and taking pictures – my wingman told me afterwards how close I had come to getting the same. So there’s a warning for you DON’T make assumptions. Even me with my bump on Japan and a desire to be respectful and blend in was caught out. It could have been a lot worse as the Police take a dim view of this kind of thing with immediate fines handed out or even a chance to see the inside of a Police station.
Where’s the pictures? Out of respect for the Geiko I am not showing them publicly. A Geiko should be remembered only in the memory.
Just bear this in mind when shooting, even some temples allow no photography in the temple precincts and during my visit I was witness to two incidents where Japanese tourists, who should have known better, were subjected to a bawling out. So keep on the safe side of caution at all times. There’s nothing clever about a sneak photograph and you should always be respectful to any country you visit and that means adhering to local laws.
Moving on
In the next article I’ll show some shots that required serious effort and planning to get and and which put myself in no small measure of discomfort. I’ll also point out the stuff that most tourists are going to miss and some of the stuff where you may want to consider whether it’s really worth the effort to get. In the meantime – get out there and shoot some film wherever you are.