Peer into the window of University Camera, a medium-size photo specialty store on a busy commercial corner in the heart of downtown Iowa City, and you have the unmistakable feeling you’ve been magically transported back to the 1970s. Arrayed before you is an unlikely collection of vintage and ordinary film cameras—a Nikon F, a screw-mount Pentax, chrome Contaflexes, boxy old Argus 35s, a mid-50s Brownie, and a majestic Crown Graphic 4×5 outfit.
Once inside, you see ample evidence of the store’s split personality—glass-topped cases in front stuffed with traditional photo hardware, and behind the counter, shiny new DSLRs and point and shoots displayed next to scores of hanging cards replete with 27 varieties of rechargeable batteries and ProMaster memory cards. To the left is a forest of tripods, camera bags of all types, lighting outfits and darkroom paraphernalia (would you believe the world’s last known supply of Spot-Tone?).
University Camera, with its friendly, unhurried ambience, is a member of that endangered species known as a good old-fashioned camera store. With one foot firmly planted in the analog past and the other striding confidently into the digital present, it’s like Alice’s Restaurant—a place where you can get anything you want, including sage advice from its irrepressible proprietor, Roger G. Christian.
“There are three things that define this store—its location in a major university town, its incredibly diverse customer base, and the quality of its staff,” says Christian. “Iowa City is a smallish medium-size Midwest town with a population of about 68,000, but the world-renowned University of Iowa gives it its distinctive character and demographics.
“It’s a center of technology and medicine with one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country, and in many areas it’s cutting edge and world class. That’s why we’re able to serve a diverse range of requirements that include medical imaging, art students specializing in traditional photography, and the physics department, recognized as a center of aerospace research and satellite construction.
“Our mission is to provide information and direct people to services. Fortunately, that meshes nicely with my own proclivities: I really enjoy helping our customers; I’m adept at networking resources; I know a lot of people; and I know where to get information. To serve our diverse demographic, we have to operate seamlessly between the realms of art and science, and that’s an attitude and mind-set that the staff absorbs almost by osmosis,” adds Christian.
“Our business model is less about business per se than customer relationships. For example, I just spent an hour with two customers explaining the nuances of their Canon 50D DSLR outfit, and sold them about $150 in merchandise. Was this an efficient use of my time? You bet, because they left knowing we really care about helping them get more out of their photography. And one of them commented, ‘I’ve been looking for a good camera store and I think I’ve found one. I feel very comfortable here.’
“Because of the educational thrust of this town, the international presence and extraordinary ethnic mix, we’ve become very proficient at offering a wide variety of processing services. In a sense, we’re stuck in the ’50s while still going full speed ahead into 2010. We carry film—lots of film. We process E-6, C-41 and B&W on-site, and we haven’t seen a precipitous drop in traditional film and darkroom, even though we actively promote digital and offer a full range of digital products and services. We run a Fujifilm 360 film processor, a Fujifilm Frontier 570 printer and use a Noritsu 410 for E-6. We use traditional wet processing for black and white and have an Ilford 2150 paper processor. Essentially, we’re the last picture show, the film processor of last resort in Iowa. Our finishing machines are no longer made, so we’ve become a de facto parts warehouse. We’ve got three E-6 machines, four Ilford 2150 printers and four Phototherm Sidekicks in the basement that we strip for parts. We’re on a mission to keep these processes alive as long as possible for the benefit of our customers.
“We’re also committed to the used camera market,” says Christian. “When it comes to film cameras we’re able to buy great cameras for no money and sell them at attractive prices. While the profit margin is high, the overall revenue stream is fairly modest, but it helps us stay afloat. Frankly I’m ticked off about the general disservice to film users. Film didn’t die a natural death; it was killed as retailers moved headlong into an exclusively digital world, giving film users no choice. Film was abandoned, but we chose not to abandon it.
“Maintaining these products and services has made us money and kept us going, but we also know we have to have a firm foot in digital to accommodate our customers. We may be at the intersection of Stargate and the Model T, but it’s a successful strategy that has kept us around. Another major factor that’s helped us prosper is our active, enthusiastic membership in the PRO organization, a group based on friendly cooperation among dealers. We know it’s us against the mass merchants, and this is one effective way to level the playing field.”
It’s also evident that University Camera has a dedicated staff that includes James Davies, Digital Imaging Specialist, the resident Photoshop geek and retouching expert that “prepares things in the digital realm for optimum output.” Not surprisingly he’s also attuned to the “resurgence, appreciation and nostalgia for older technology” manifested in the store’s brisk sale of the Holga and other low-end, antitech film cameras that appeal to students.
Yes, University Camera does have an online presence, but what they’re really about is good old-fashioned Midwest relationship marketing.
