Closed Camera Stores - We Miss You!

[miatab]

Closed CameraStores- We Miss You

Closed CameraStores- We Miss You

Camera Corner, in Newcastle, NSW AUS, last there more than fifty years ago! What a blast from the past. . . bought a little Robot 24X24 there in early 1960, then an awful Edixa SLR, (no prism, just ground glass) and passed that store almost daily when I was attending Newcastle Teachers" College. Used to drool over the Leica 111G in the window until I bought my Canon 1VS2 at Camera Corner's competition, down the block on Hunter Street, in late 1960. Wow!. . . Thank you. Still buying cameras, new and used, but now digital, and have bought two Fujis recently- X-100 and XE-1. But I still cherish the RF era of my youth. Craigs List eBay and Kijiji provide the camera, but absolutely sans atmosphere- like drinkintg fine wine out of a jam jar. . . closed camera stores. . .

 

[lam]

Am I the only one that regrets seeing this thread bumped up in the "Recent Threads" List? 🙁

 

[marcr1230]

Helix Camera in Chicago is closing - honestly I'm not too sad to see it go, their prices were way too high vs other local stores, and the service was slow.

now we are left with Calumet - good service and nice modern facility, and Central Camera (don't stock much professional equipment, used film cameras way overpriced, and facility looks like a poorly organized garage sale)

 

[Uglee]

I miss a little shop called Camera Corner in Oakland CA. It was located next to the Oakland Tribune newspaper. In its day, the little shop was filled with a great assortment of used camera gear and accessories, I assume much of it from the photographers working for the news paper. I miss being able to simply dig through the boxes of equipment that they didn't have room for in their display. It was the best form of treasure hunting.

 

[dmr]

Another that I think deserves mention, is Spiratone. They were mainly a mail order store, but I believe they also had a retail outlet. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

You are correct. They had two walk-in shops, the main one out in Flushing and a branch in Manhattan. I was most familiar with the Manhattan shop and was a semi regular there when I was in my late teens. I bought mostly film and odds and ends there and used them for my Processing By Kodak for Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides.

I only remember visiting at the Flushing shop once.

My brother bought this huge and ridiculously cheap telephoto for his Pentax there. It had this very funky two-ring aperture stop-down thing which I have never seen on any other lens. It did actually work quite well.

Fred Spira passed away a few years back and his son posted some recollections on one of the boards (APUG I think) about the business. They were bought out by somebody who ran the company into the ground.

An interesting aside is that the family name was pronounced "Spear-A" but the business was pronounced "Spy-ra-tone", or at least that's the way they answered the phone. 🙂

I also liked Willoughby's up the street from Spiratone and Minifilm where I bought my Spotmatic. I wandered into Olden a few times. Those were all very good shops. (LOL -- Cambridge was considered the shady one of the bunch back then.) 🙂

I do miss the "real" photo shops of the era!

 

[kshapero]

Back in the seventies and eighties, I lived deep in the rural areas of the Appalachian Mts. No camera stores near by. Shutterbug classifieds was my camera store.

 

[Ronald M]

Here in Chicago...


Altman's
Darkroom Aids <-- this one I miss the most
Shutans
Camera Exchange
Wolk's
plus many more

...all gone 🙁😡

I remember them well. Altman`s was the best.

Shutan opened in a northern suburb. Central Camera is still in Chicago

Nice store was on South side of Chicago Ave near State. Can not remember the name . I will come as soon as I hit submit.

Now we have Calumet which is a hugh store near north side with a parking lot. Also a suburban location in Oakbrook. La Grange Camera & video is a great store.

 

[squareshooter]

I am so old I remember Freestyle Photo's old location, before the moved to Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. I can't remember if it was on Western Ave. or Vermont in Hollywood. It was a junked up kind of war surplus store. Then they moved to Sunset Blvd. near my favorite Akron store.
And Spiratone. Great stuff that a guy could actually afford. So maybe the 105mm f2.5 lens was preset, it still took great photos. I got some fine photos of the Beatles with one of those, at a "secret" press conference in 1964.
I miss Porter's Camera in Cedar Falls Iowa. If I didn't know what a whatyamacallit was called I could look in their great big catalog. Like the twin gummed set of numbers -- you put one on the roll of film and on on the caption sheet so you could keep it all straight. I'd buy some today if I knew what the darned things were called.

 

[philcycles]

I'm a Leica user and when I lived in Los Angles the Morgan Camera Store was my favorite. Morgan was the co-author of The Leica Manual.
A great store.

 

[philcycles]

Spiratone... several pages each month in the back of Pop Photo and Modern Photo... and the place to go for wild and wonderful gadgets when you were in the Apple!

I'm staring at a photo taken with a Spiratone preset 400mm. It's been on my wall for almost 40 years. Wish I still had it.

 

[Bob Wilson]

I miss Yellowknife Photo, which I worked at when I was sixteen and bought in 1983, after graduating with my degree in photography in 1983. Ran it for twenty five years (probably three years longer than I should have...). I was the second owner; the business ran for fifty years total. It was heartbreaking to have to shut it down, but the business model didn't work any more. Computer stores and category-killers cut the margins to the bone, there was no photofinishing revenue once digital hit, and the internet was the final nail. Manufacturers weren't at all interested in supporting small retailers, either. Glad to hear others miss the old-style camera stores too. We owners loved running them.

 

[SausalitoDog]

I have fond memories of Brooks Cameras on Maiden Lane in San Francisco... long gone, now, but not forgotten.

Ahhh...many was the lunch hour spent there...

 

[Vince Lupo]

I have about a 20+ year collection of camera-related ephemera, and remembered that I had this. For all you Torontonians:


Gallery Cameras Ad by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

 

[kbg32]

I was a darkroom salesman at Camera Barn Stores in New York City from 1978-1982. I worked the main store on camera row, 32nd street, between 6th and 7th avenues. Willoughby's, Olden, were just down the block. Spiratone was around the corner on 31st, as was Executive Photo. I met a lot of interesting characters working behind that counter and sold darkroom supplies to many a famous photographer at the time, Friedlander, Winogrand, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, to name a few. Real gentleman all. Tons of fond memories! That's me in the middle circa 1979-80.

 

[MISH]

I lived in Dayton Ohio from 1987 to 2006 and what a wonderful time it was for visiting camera stores. Everywhere I turned there was a great store. B K Photo in Troy Ohio, these people loved Leicas and had one of the giant M3 display cameras hanging over their counter (wonder what ever happened to that). Fairborn Camera in Fairborn Ohio, they were Leica dealers and I went to several Leica days there with Leica reps and plenty of cameras to play with. Malone camera in Dayton, this store was about four blocks from my house and I could always drop by when I was bored. Provident Camera in Cincinnati with their big front window and just about everything imaginable inside. All those stores are now gone and are greatly missed. The other great thing about living in that area was making the pilgrimage to Columbus to go to Columbus Camera Group and especially Midwest Photo. In the 90's they had tons of used equipment and you never knew what they would have. If you were patient sooner or later everything showed up there. Before it became so easy for us to sell our used stuff on the internet places like this were a easy outlet for people to sell or trade their equipment and they had tons of it. Midwest always had ten to fifteen Leicas in their case and probably that many large format cameras hanging from the ceiling. Best of all was going into Midwest's bargain basement (now closed) and digging around, I spent hours in that place and came away with many a bargain.

 

[Harryo1962]

Wall Street Photo in NYC was great. I would go into work with my dad, and spend most of the day there. Saved my money forever, and bought a Nikkormat body and several lenses. I remember riding the bus with a bunch of those Nikon yellow plastic bags.

 

[vdonovan]

How about some good news here? The last locally-owned, full-service camera store in the East Bay (Berkeley and Oakland) is thriving and EXPANDING. They are moving to a new larger store, with two, count-'em TWO, brand-new public darkrooms.
http://www.lookingglassphoto.com/

One of the staff told me that the owner had purchased a refrigerated rotating cake display for the new store. "Whatever for?" I asked. "For FILM, of course," was the reply.

 

[news shooter]

In California...

In California...

In California, Monterey, was Russell's Camera West. Great selection of gear. Burned down I think twice. It was on Alvarado Street. Russell in the past couple of years is selling B&W prints.
Bought a used Nikon F3, 80-200mm nikkor, Rolleiflex and various other equipment. Fun place to go meet other photogs and chew the fat.

 

[kbg32]

Who remembers Nikon House in Rockefeller Center?? The "house" looked over the plaza where the skating rink and the tree is. One could go there and "play". The technicians there would adjust your Nikon for free!

 

[Travis L.]

I lived in Dayton Ohio from 1987 to 2006 and what a wonderful time it was for visiting camera stores. Everywhere I turned there was a great store. B K Photo in Troy Ohio, these people loved Leicas and had one of the giant M3 display cameras hanging over their counter (wonder what ever happened to that). Fairborn Camera in Fairborn Ohio, they were Leica dealers and I went to several Leica days there with Leica reps and plenty of cameras to play with. Malone camera in Dayton, this store was about four blocks from my house and I could always drop by when I was bored. Provident Camera in Cincinnati with their big front window and just about everything imaginable inside. All those stores are now gone and are greatly missed. The other great thing about living in that area was making the pilgrimage to Columbus to go to Columbus Camera Group and especially Midwest Photo. In the 90's they had tons of used equipment and you never knew what they would have. If you were patient sooner or later everything showed up there. Before it became so easy for us to sell our used stuff on the internet places like this were a easy outlet for people to sell or trade their equipment and they had tons of it. Midwest always had ten to fifteen Leicas in their case and probably that many large format cameras hanging from the ceiling. Best of all was going into Midwest's bargain basement (now closed) and digging around, I spent hours in that place and came away with many a bargain.

I worked at Fairborn Camera much of the time you were in Dayton, and remember BK and Malones well (check page 2 of this thread for a few Leica day pics). Columbus Camera Group is still there, though their inventory is a shadow what it used to be. I make semi regular trips there and over to Midwest. Mainly hoping to converse with the other "oldtimers" about days gone by.

The big M3 display piece belonged to Roy Baker (owner of BK) he sold it soon after the store closed, via the Cincinnati Camera Show. One of the used dealers offered him a ludicrously large sum for it.

Here's Roy right before he let it go..