A customer examines a used Nikon camera for sale at a second-hand camera market in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu province. Industry experts say that the second-hand camera market will continue to exist because it's a profitable business in China. [Photo / China Daily]

Potential used-camera customers can easily find the information they need online and compare the prices of the same product with just a few clicks.

Liu Keli, a high school student from Shanwei, in South China's Guangdong province, bought his second-hand Fuji S205 digital camera in 2011 for 2,000 yuan, 500 yuan cheaper than the new one.

"I found the seller online and made the payment through Taobao.com, a deal with which I'm quite satisfied," Liu said.

Xiang Yang, who majored in photography at university and who now works as a professional portrait photographer, prefers to search for camera-related information on popular second-hand goods trading platforms, for example the website 58.com, instead of some transaction platforms which only involve photographic equipment, such as Fengniao.com.

"The cost and performance of second-hand cameras, details of which are available on popular goods sales platform, are better than that on fengniao.com because amateur photographers use the cameras much less frequently than professionals and they tend to go to those popular goods transaction platforms to find potential buyers," Xiang said.

Recently, Xiang bought a used Canon 5D II kit for 15,000 yuan from a man he met in a QQ group and paid for the digital single lens reflex camera through the online payment company Alipay.com Co. The brand-new licensed kit normally sells for about 19,000 yuan.

Both novices and veterans buy used cameras. Novices tend to learn the basics with decent used devices before they spend more on a new product. Veterans know exactly what they are buying and which second-hand camera is a good deal.

Liu bought his second-hand Fuji S205 when he was just starting to learn photography. Xiang said the used Canon 5D II kit he purchased is "quite cost-effective because the machine is 95 percent new, having a shutter count of 8,000, and it has not been used much".

"I think in the future, the second-hand camera market will continue to exist because it's a profitable business, but there won't be colossal profits because the online platforms have made the market situation more and more transparent," said Wang.

huangying@chinadaily.com.cn