In a city as big and vibrant as Tokyo, you can expect to find anything, but I have to say that old-school film cameras would be pretty low on my list. The future-freak nature of the city would lead me to suspect that you wouldn’t even find a regular digital camera, since everyone has autofocus 8MP cameras and xenon flashes on their keitai. But on the other hand, it’s a city and culture that thrives on pockets of deep obsession, so you’re just as likely to find a camera aficionado as a… I don’t know, a model train aficionado.
Photographer John Sypal has been collecting shots of other camera wonks’ gear on the streets of Tokyo for a while now, and has documented it all on a spartan little Tumblr blog. It’s a fun little blog and it reminds me of my prejudice in photography: having been exposed to primarily American and some European photographers, I always thought of this kind of camera-love as a sort of western thing. But clearly I’m mistaken; next time I’m in Tokyo I’ll have to keep my eyes open for Leicas and such.