Saw a camera shop in Portland with a 'no vintage' policy on the door

I was walking around the Pearl District last week and stopped by a place called Focus Point, only to see a printed sign saying they won't even look at any film camera made before 1990. The guy at the counter shrugged and said 'parts are a headache and people don't want to pay.' I get that some jobs are tough, but does turning away a whole chunk of the craft hurt the trade in the long run?

3 comments

3 Comments

paul2331mo ago

Three hours to find a tiny spring for twenty bucks." That pretty much sums up why that sign exists. I walked into a shop once with a 1960s Kodak and the guy laughed before I even opened my mouth. I guess if you're paying Portland rent on camera repair margins, you don't have time to play archaeologist for old parts. It's a bummer because half the fun of film is the weird old junk, but I can't blame them for not wanting to starve to death over a broken shutter. Maybe they should just put a tip jar on the counter marked "vintage sadness" and move on.

xena_miller312mo ago

Wow, I totally get why that feels wrong. I used to think shops should try to fix anything old that came in, like it was their duty. But then I watched my friend who repairs cameras spend three hours just to find a tiny broken spring for a 1970s SLR. He made maybe twenty bucks after all that. It's a fast way to go out of business. So now I see it as them just being honest about what they can actually do without losing money.

tara_palmer2mo ago

Consider the cost of parts and labor. That spring probably cost more than the job itself. Where do you draw the line between a good deed and a bad business move?