Tucked into Pakistan’s largest city is a place that feels like a living museum of photography — except everything on the shelves is for sale. New Zealand travel creator Karl Rice, known to his audience as Karl Rock, recently wandered through the Hashmi Electronic Center in Karachi, a sprawling market that has been trading cameras since the film era.
“This camera market has been selling cameras since the days of film. It’s probably one of the last great camera markets left in the entire world,” Rock says in his video. “It’s certainly Pakistan’s biggest camera market. I’ve never seen anything like it outside of Pakistan.”
The stalls are a roll call of classic glass and metal. Rock spots brands like Widelux, Rollei and Zenit stacked alongside one another. One shop displays a Zenit 122 next to a Yashica Electro 35 — and the merchant shares a charming bit of social history: in the old days, a bride’s family would gift the groom that very Yashica model as a status symbol, the equivalent, he says, of handing over a Mercedes-Benz today.
But Hashmi isn’t frozen in the past. Modern bodies with 100-megapixel sensors can be sourced here too, along with action cameras. One vendor claims he supplies kit to directors of photography working in Lollywood, Pakistan’s film industry.
The pricing is where things get interesting for bargain hunters. A Sony a6400 goes for 66,000 Pakistani Rupees ($237), while a Canon 700D can be had for 20,000 Rupees ($70). Those numbers are tough to beat in the US or Europe — but Rock advises haggling anyway: walk in with a target price and aim for it.
There’s a catch, naturally. Much of the inventory is second-hand, and plenty of it has already passed through a repair bench. “A lot of these point-and-shoots and the camcorders and the older stuff, it’s not new; it’s second-hand,” Rock cautions. “So you’ve got to make sure it works before you buy it. A lot of the cameras won’t have a warranty as well.”
Fortunately, the market is also home to skilled technicians who can resurrect a dead body on the spot. Rock chatted with repairer Mahmood Hassan, who says shutter faults are the most common ailment he sees. “When you come to us with an expensive camera, we use new parts to repair it,” Hassan explains. “So, after the repair, it’s like brand new.”
The standout detail is Hassan’s own handwritten repair manual for old film cameras — complete with diagrams and illustrations — which he started compiling back in the year 2000. It’s a reminder that, even as smartphones swallow the camera market whole, pockets of genuine craftsmanship and obsession survive in unexpected corners of the world. Rock’s full tour is well worth a watch.
