Vintage Camera Repairers Are Retiring, Who Will Replace Them?

It is notoriously difficult to fix a broken film camera; the vintage technology requires knowledge, experience, and perhaps most importantly, spare parts.

When Pentax decided to make a brand-new film camera, the Pentax 17, it said the most difficult aspect of the project was sourcing the mechanical parts.

Camera repair folk also tend to skew older. As a result, many are now looking at retiring rather than years of work servicing the analog renaissance, which has seen younger people embrace film and all its quirks and aesthetic pleasures.

This begs the question: After the generation of camera repairers who worked through the 1970s and 1980s retires, who will repair them?

ABC News Australia recently spoke to camera repairmen in the country, most of whom are in the twilight of their careers.

“My clients are anywhere from teenagers to anyone who is getting back into film, even customers who I’ve dealt with for 30 to 40 years,” Clinton Howe, a camera repairman from the city of Perth, tells ABC News.

Howe has been repairing cameras in the Australian city of Perth since 1978, starting when he was a teenager. He says dealing with new and enthusiastic film shooters keeps him young, but he is aware that he is part of an ageing profession that has always been small in number.

Howe reckons there are only 10 vintage camera repairers left in Australia, and out of those 10, almost all of them are retired and just “dabbling” in the industry.

“It’s a very hard business to get into because there are so many idiosyncrasies, and so many different things to learn, and each camera’s different,” Howe tells ABC.

“Once you learn the basics, it gives you the tools with which you apply to most cameras and that’s why I’ve always been a hands-on repair man.”

However, ABC also spoke to a younger camera repairman called Daniel Ward, who stands to inherit Howe’s massive collection of vintage cameras and parts when he retires.

Ward, who says he fixes “medium format, 35mm, and panoramic cameras,” says the biggest challege is finding replacment parts for old cameras, but believes that 3D printing and the international market could help. “I think it will be fine,” says Ward.

“I think film photography will stay,” adds Howe on an upbeat note. “Digital photography will go.”

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.