Analogue digital camera technicians with many years of expertise retiring amid increase in movie images

Nestled away in a small second-storey store in Perth’s CBD, Clinton Howe dissects an analogue digital camera because the sound of mechanical whirrs fill the air.

The workshop smells of metal, leather-based and dirt. 

It’s an surroundings the technician is aware of effectively — in any case, he is been fixing cameras for nearly half a century.

Mr Howe is among the final of his technology of analogue digital camera repairers in Australia, and he is nervous it is changing into a dying artwork as he nears retirement subsequent September.

Yet enterprise is booming on the twilight of his profession, as extra younger folks uncover the enjoyment of utilizing movie cameras. 

“They’re tactile, they’re everything. You know, when you pick it up, you just go, oh, god, how good is this?” he says.

Young embrace movie

Mr Howe has seen a resurgence in younger folks utilizing classic cameras, with most of his clients aged underneath 35.

“I like the fact that I can deal with people, especially young people. It keeps me young,” he says.

He estimates there are lower than a dozen folks in his job throughout the nation, and fewer than 5 in Western Australia, most of whom are semi-retired.

“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,” he says.

“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.”

His arms have been onerous at work since he took a break from college in 1978 to work at his stepfather’s store in Perth’s picturesque London Court.

Forty-eight years later, Mr Howe continues to be there, making him considered one of Perth’s longest-serving repairers nonetheless working. 

Film ‘extra exact’

Many within the tight-knit movie images business know of Mr Howe’s work, even when they do not know his identify. 

Among them is 21-year-old music photographer Lizzie Wilkie, who’s been capturing analogue for six years.

“It’s an exciting process, I love it,” she says.

“When it comes to film, I’m a lot more precise and careful with the photo … it’s a stronger memory.”

Ms Wilkie has outdated cameras from her grandparents, and buys some second-hand from op retailers. Not all of them work.

She’s been laying aside fixing some, however feels a way of urgency now figuring out that technicians like Mr Howe are retiring.

“My film camera, I use a lot with bands and for my job. If that were suddenly to die, I’d probably not know what to do,” she says.

The new guard

When Mr Howe packs up store in September 2026, it will not be the top of his legacy.

Daniel Ward, a 37-year-old digital camera technician, has purchased Mr Howe’s sea of spare elements, and is ramping up work for movie digital camera repairs on the store he owns in Malaga in Perth’s northern suburbs.

With 19 years of fixing movie and digital cameras already underneath his belt, Mr Ward says he is “not at all” nervous about the way forward for movie, but it surely would possibly change into tougher to seek out digital camera elements.

Mr Ward has learnt a number of issues from his colleague — former co-owner of the digital camera store in Perth’s north and retiring technician, 69-year-old Nigel Boots.

“I have a lot of confidence in Daniel because he’s been doing film cameras for [more than] 16 years, plus all the other ones,” Mr Boots says.

Mr Boots has been repairing cameras for 53 years, and thinks his former enterprise is in good arms, with plans to coach up different younger technicians.

Optimism in regards to the future

While Mr Howe has religion within the youthful technicians, he’s nervous a technology of hands-on expertise might change into misplaced.

“Even now I’m getting problems I’ve never ever seen before, and I’ve been in the game for nearly 50 years, so what chance has a kid that’s been in the game for five years?” he says.

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But he stays optimistic about the way forward for movie.

“Honestly, I think film photography will stay. Digital photography will go,” the digital camera stalwart says.

“I guarantee that there will be certain [film] cameras that will still be going in another 100 years.”

The veteran technician nonetheless plans to do the odd restore job after he leaves the workshop, but it surely’s the relationships he is fostered with clients that imply probably the most to him.

“To me they’re part of the family and they always have been,” Mr Howe says, the trace of a tear in his eye.

“I look forward to seeing them again.”

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