Nostalgia for the old camera store?

<p>Great camera store I would like to have visited. Is the camera store from the late 30's serial, "Blondie meets the Boss". Shelves of folders,etc.</p>

<p>I wish i had a good old camera store near me (Perth, Australia). I recently inherited a Canon FT. I visted two stores, one was a film processor (Rabbit Photo) and the other sold more cameras, but both only had about three types of film for sale, mostly Fuji 400 stuff. Im thinkin I should stock up because it might not be there next time.</p>

<p>I'd love to be able to spend an hour or two in the Peerless camera store of the 40s and 50s in NYC. All those pre- and post-war (East) German cameras...</p>

<p>I'm actually very lucky to live now in a college town with a fairly large photo program, so my little local B&L Camera in Carbondale, IL not only sells new stuff, chemicals, film, and so on, but some of the people are camera collectors, so there are sometimes wonderful things on the top shelf. It's actually higher grade stuff than my old A-Smile-A-Minute, and someday, if I live long enough, I'll be nostalgic over it as it is now. They are always kind enough to let me show off my latest acquisition and chat with me about it.</p>

<p>I'm another big fan of the old Darkroom Aids store in Chicago. I remember walking in and asking for an Elwood lensboard with the Beseler size adapter and they turned around and pulled one off the wall. They had a few rooms full of used equipment including some monster size 8x10(and maybe bigger) enlargers. Lot's of stainless steel tanks and hangers. They also sold some used camera equipment and had a couple display cases of old cameras. Even had a gallery upstairs. Always a fun place to visit.</p>

<p>Anyone remember PhotoMat? Just Kidding. I didn't take my photos there...my mom did! That was in her days. Up until two years ago, I went to an amazing place called Photo Magic. I will never forget the whole smell and feel of the place. There were a totally full service lab and they could do virtually anything that you could think of (except Kodacrhome of course). They did amazing quality work. I have not found quite as good as them yet. They took tons of time on every roll and their prices were dirt cheap. They did things right. They made every single 4X6 as if they were going to give it to Ansel Adams for a birthday gift. They were truly amazing. They have left now due to little buissness. Digital choked them.</p>

<p>I remember Photomat. That's where my mom got photos processed as well. Was it a chain? I guess it must have been, and they must have had some centralized lab, because it was a shack in a parking lot at a shopping center. That must have been before 1-hour photo counters. Were they any good? I didn't take my own film in for developing until I could drive, and we lived in Pittsburgh so I guess that would have made it the photo counter at Giant Eagle. Then in college I lived a couple blocks from a Ritz and I got same-day "BIG PRINTS!" IIRC they weren't that bad, but last time I was in a Ritz it was staffed by idiots.</p>

<p>Living near Kenmore Square there were actually a few good places near me (and the Ritz) - Campus Camera was somehow affiliated with Calumet and sold all the parts and supplies I needed for my B&W class, and there was a guy with a store called Camera Craftsman who cleaned the oil off the blades on my 58mm Rokkor. Even before that (1992 maybe) I did a school science fair project where I took B&W slides through color filters and projected pairs with 2 projectors superimposed through color filters and saw color images (an old Edwin Land trick) and the guy at the photo department of the BU bookstore processed the B&W slide film in some Jobo-like machine.</p>

<p>For me it was Fair Haven Camera in New Haven, CT. Run by two brothers, Vinnie and Fred. In the fall of 1963 I walked in with enough cash from summer earnings to buy a pre-Spotmatic Pentax. But they steered me to a Nikkorex F which I bought although my dad had to cover the difference with $20. I never looked back and still have the camera, 50mm f2 lens and Gossen Pilot meter - all are still working. Four years later I came back to buy a Nikon F body with TN finder and they let me take one for a few days to try. Amazingly, although not a frequent customer, they didn't ask for a deposit or even ID before letting me walk out the door with it. I came back a few days later and made the purchase. About fifteen years ago I finally got my first Pentax (a Spotmatic) at a pawnshop. Since then I've acquired Pentax H1, SV and S3. I forget what I was after back then but it must have been one of these.</p>

<p>I grew up in New England, Camera Barn in Worcester was the last of the independent shops to disappear, before that Fallon Camera downtown went by the wayside.<br>

I moved to FL, there is one big store in Tampa, Noth Tampa Photography, they are still open, but with my vast collection there is not much old stuff for me to buy.<br>

I remember the NYC stores very well from the mid 80's I sibscribed to Modern photography and it was 1/4 NYC ads. I actually went to NYC once to buy a camera - those guys did not have time to suffer anyone who didn't know exactly what they wanted. When that F-1 got stolen, I went back to a different store and bought another and a motor drive and zoom lens.</p>

<p>Chris Tobar:</p>

<p>Here in northwest Ohio, I tell people we're in a bit of a time warp, about 30 years behind the rest of the country. We still have a Ben Franklin store in nearby Bowling Green, and as a matter of fact they're framing some panos for me as I type this:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.benfranklin-bg.com/">http://www.benfranklin-bg.com/</a></p>

<p>They don't do film processing there, though. They send it down the street to Main Street Photo, which was called Studio 157 until recently, when it was purchased by an employee, nice guy named Todd. Main Street Photo has turned out to be the "last man standing" locally in the film / camera field. Castle Photo, a 2-store local chain, folded about a year ago. Ritz Camera has folded. Buncha other mom-pop stores are long gone.</p>

<p>They sell Canon, but also do a decent business in 35mm and medium format film processing and printing. I think it helps that they're in a college town where the college photo program, and local high school photo programs, remain film-based. Now and then Bowling Green will have an art fair or similar, and Main Street Photo will ask me to display my pano work there, showing what they can do in the way of odd / unique printing:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bgstudio157.com/Index.html">http://www.bgstudio157.com/Index.html</a></p>

<p>Oh, and it was "Fotomat," not "Photomat." When I first got involved in real photography, ie, 35mm; I lived in Phoenix, and there was even a Fotomat showroom. I have a very nice $30 compact tripod purchased there in 1982 or so, sized to carry in the tank bag of my motorcycle. I still use it, once in a while. Although now that I own a car, not so much....</p>

<p>Fotomat still exists, too. I didn't know that:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.fotomat.com/home/home.asp">http://www.fotomat.com/home/home.asp</a></p>

<p>My first 35mm camera had a shutter problem. I was about 14 years old.<br>

I payed $10.00 for it used. No rangefinder, had to buy a rangefinder that<br>

slid into the flash shoe. 3 shutter speeds and 3 apertures. Knobs that you<br>

had to turn forever to advance film or re-wind. Took it to a camera shop<br>

on Kingston Road here in Toronto, Canada. The middle age gentleman<br>

hand wound me a new spring and installed it. Charged me 10 cents!</p>

20 years later (1980) when I could afford a new Nikon F2AS for $1,400.00,

guess where I went ? The older gentleman was still there. Made me feel

good all over. Those days are gone forever, sigh.

Best regards,

/Clay

<p>oh wow...hey, I <strong>DO</strong> remember Fotomat! I remember seeing them when we first moved to California, when I was a kid. I thought it was the weirdest thing...this little shack out in the middle of a parking lot, where you could drop off film.</p>

<p>I can even kind of faintly remember what the envelopes looked like. I think it was kind of a maroon color, with gold lettering that said Fotomat. I seem to remember a green envelope too. I'm sure they changed the design over the years. But it was actually kind of nice, it looked more like a real photo album, made out of leather and plastic. It wasn't like the cheap paper envelopes you get at photo labs now. My parents probably still have a couple of old Fotomat envelopes laying around somewhere.</p>

<p>I don't think I ever used Fotomat for my pictures. (A drive-thru photo lab doesn't make much sense when you're 10 years old). I know my parents took film there all the time though, because I do remember the name and what the envelopes looked like. After we moved to California, I usually just gave my film to my parents and they got it developed for me.</p>

<p>Now it looks like Fotomat is online and digital pictures only :(<br>

<br />And Doug...I'm really lucky because there is actually a camera shop near me that DOES still support traditional photography. They actually carry a pretty good stock of 35mm and 120 film (they even have Ektar 100!) They also have a ton of antique cameras on display (which they will also sell). I've bought a few vintage cameras there. They also sell photo paper, chemicals, negative sheets, etc. They just moved into the building in the last couple of years or so, but the store was at another location for many years I think. When you walk in, you almost feel like you're stepping back in time. Of course, they have digital cameras and modern stuff for sale too, but seeing all the antique cameras on display feels as if it's from a different time period. It's actually a comforting feeling. It's weird, but I guess in a way, I'm nostalgic for a time period that I never lived through. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong decade.</p>

<p>Bruce , i like your story alot.<br>

There was a camera shop here in Monroe Ny . I was called A-1 Photo. was owned and operated by two men. One was the sales man and the Asian gentelman was always in the back fixing cameras and things. In the 8th grade when i inheareted my brotheres minolta x370 and started into photography it hade only the 50mm lens. So in the following years I would buy the cheepest lense I could find on this new auction site called e somthin or other. And for 50 dollars the asian gentelman at A-1 would take appart the lens and rebuild it and take out any dents on the filter ring too. they would work like new. I got 3 rokkor lenses all under 15 dollars and after the $50 rebuild i still think i did well. But i seemed to have more money back then when i wasn in high school, don't know why. The camera store closed a long time ago but they are still listed in the phone book..lol<br>

I wish i knew where that Asian man was now</p>

<p>I have all of the slides from when my mom was a kid right in their Fotomat boxes. Thanks for the site. It was neat to see what one of those shacks actually looked like!</p>

<p>Finally found photo of the family camera shop. I took this photo about five or six years before we closed up.</p><div></div>

<p>Photosource, in Rochester NY, and it's still there selling used cameras including large format!</p>

<p>Mike, that's a great picture.</p>

<p>Thanks, JDM. I have a lot of memories from the family camera store- too many to list in one post. I worked after class in college and on Saturdays after I started a full time job. I got stuff at cost and got to "play" with the stuff that was still too expensive. The first year that we had a Konica dealership we sold 25 of them (some T3's, C-35's, S3's, and a couple of S2's. Not bad considering our town only had about 8,000 people then. Our police department graduated from Polaroids to a Konica SLR. We did their B&W developing. Sometimes I got to print the mug shots and crime scene pics. I still have the Konica Auto S2 that I got at cost back in 1974. By then it was discontinued, I think, but we still had a few in stock.</p>

<p>As is so often the case, I was tootling along on another forum and started to go seriously off topic as I remembered the camera store where I bought my first serious camera in 1959-60. I stopped and thought I'd better wander on back here where I might be appreciated...</p>

<p>It was a Heiland Pentax H2, and I got it at the A-Smile-A-Minute Camera store in Salina, Kansas.<br>

It was a fondly remembered local store located at 119 South Santa Fe. The last trace I can find of them is a small business loan in 1984, but long after that, when I went back to visit family in Ks, the store stood closed, but with all its stock, everything, still sitting there, including window displays and everything. Then, sadly, a few years ago when I went back the store was empty.<br>

Alas (sob), I have no pictures, but the one below was taken looking north from near the store.</p>

<p>Do the rest of you have memories of such old-fashioned, full-service stores? Maybe even pictures?</p>

<div>[ATTACH=full]361087[/ATTACH]</div>

I worked at A-Smile-A-Minute Photo Co. in Salina for about a year, 1957-58. My bosses were Bob and Ernie Vishneske. Their elderly parents, Lotte and Frank (? not sure) worked there as well.

I have not had the good fortune of having a good hometown camera store. My wife's family lives near Tampa, Florida and one thing I always looked forward to was visiting the 3 camera stores near there. Two of them have closed during the 15+ years we have been visiting family. There is one small one in New Port Richey, Florida that is a nice little camera store. I try to stop in and buy something every time we visit, even if it is a little more expensive than online shopping. It is a small store with a mix of new and used cameras and equipment. If any of you are in the area, I suggest stopping in. The name of the store is Pasco Camera.

Nearly 12 years on from the original post, and things have got exponentially worse it seems.

 

Even big chain Photo stores have gone bust in the intervening years, or are now severely struggling.

 

Long gone are the small family or independently-owned shops where one could have a friendly and lengthy natter with the proprietor then leave without a purchase, or maybe buy just a used filter or lens cap without feeling guilty.

 

There was one shop that I knicknamed 'The Camera Club', because whenever I visited it had at least 3 or 4 retired camera enthusiasts standing around chatting. They very rarely seemed to buy anything, or even acknowledge the presence of the proprieter. Seems like another world now!

Edited February 8, 2021 by rodeo_joe|1

In Leicester we had Jessops, which started here as a small shop before becoming a national chain. They had the "World Camera Centre" in Hinckley Road, plus a large store in town. Also Cecil Jacobs main store in London Road and another in Granby Street. Then there was Youngs Cameras in Belvoir Street - Youngs and Jacobs also had chains of shops in other towns. There were also independent shops like Midland Film Services. And Dixon's had two stores at one time. Now, nothing apart from a small "new" Jessops in the Highcross Centre, a place I've visited exactly twice.

I had favorite camera store windows. I felt I couldn't afford to walk inside. Bromfield Street in downtown Boston was a magnet. Also Mass. Ave. in Harvard Square. And I always read the Olden ad in Pop Photography when a new issue came out. Actually bought a few things there. A Kodak Retina I (discontinued). And Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston sold Kodachrome 25 36 exposure cartridges (including a Kodak mail in develop and slide mounting sack) for $3.45 (less than 10 cents a slide. This last fall a 36 exposure roll of Fujichrome Provia 100 was approaching a dollar a mounted slide.

Over the years my family owned and operated two "minilabs", the last of which closed it's doors a year ago, as turnover had dropped to unsustainable levels. I sometimes miss opening the store in the morning, with the warm smells of the processors coming up to operating temperature and the expectations of the day ahead. These days, down here in New Zealand, there are a variety of online businesses which have filled the gap so far as processing goes, but nothing will replace the fun of a little shop patronised by camera enthusiasts.

We still have a local camera store here. Fine Art Photo- he's been in business forever and has certainly done his best to roll with the changes over the decades. He's in the process of moving, apparently he's been renting space in a small strip center all these years and they have asked him, unceremoniously, to move shop, IE; to get out.

I do try to give him some business when I can. Fortunately he still sells film, he also has a decent bit of new and used cameras & related gear & equipment. Also, fortunately, he's moving just across the street- so clients don't have to go out of their "usual" way, or search to find the new store.