Washtenaw County Has Lost Its Last Camera Store with Closing of Huron Camera

The iPhone 6 Plus is being heralded as having “the best smartphone camera” ever. But it was the iPhone 4 that made headlines over three years ago as the “most popular camera on Flickr.” [1,2,3]

Against that, “serious” photographers fear that this portends the demise of an art form. [4]

‘It’s really weird,’ says Antonio Olmos. ‘Photography has never been so popular, but it’s getting destroyed. There have never been so many photographs taken, but photography is dying.’

At the same time, once ubiquitous Kodak Picture Spots have become a thing of the past. But it’s not that hard to reconsile all of this. Technology has at once put great picture-taking in the hands of the masses, fulfilled the promise of the so-called “best camera,” and all-but replaced film as medium of image capture. [5,6,7,8]

Locally, Sun Photo on Packard at Platt was an early casualty to this. Over on Stadium, the once impressive photography equipment department at Big George’s Home Appliance Mart had been shrinking for some time before the store moved to its new location in 2007. Once there, what had managed to transfer over amounted to a token presence — smaller than what the Saline CVS currently offers for photographer support. [9,10,11]

Huron Camera gave every impression that it has survived the transition to digital, found the right mix of legacy and new, and thus it could survive.

For a brief period of time, the Dexter-based business had a store right here in the City of Saline, in what is now the Huntington Bank building. In 1996, Huron Camera advertised one of the then “Most Popular Cameras” in The Saline Reporter. This was the Nikon N70, priced new at $599.00 (body only.) [12]

But that was not to be the case. As of two weeks ago, Huron Camera was no more. [13,14]

mLive reported that it permanently closed on December 30, after four decades in business. “According to published reports, Huron Camera had an estimated annual revenue of $1 to 2.5 million and a staff of five to nine people,” writer Dana Afana wrote.

Area professionals and aficiandos still have the options of ProCam and Woodward Camera for brick and mortar, which is great. But they’re not Washtenaw County. [14,15]

References

1. “The iPhone 6 Will Have Apple’s Most Advanced iPhone Camera Yet” Victor Luckerson (September 9, 2014) Time.
2. “iPhone 6 Plus review” Nilay Patel (September 16, 2014) The Verge.
3. “iPhone 4 most popular camera on Flickr [Updated]” Kelly Hodgkins (June 21, 2011) engadget.
4. “The death of photography: are camera phones destroying an artform?” Stuart Jeffries (December 13, 2013) The Guardian.
5. “Kodak spots leaving Disneyland” Sarah Tully and Joshua Sudock (December 14, 2012) The Orange County Register.
6. “Kodak Picture Spot, 1920-2012” Andrew Hudson (December 31, 2012) PhotoSecrets.
7. “Kodak is at death’s door; Fujifilm, its old rival, is thriving. Why?” (January 14, 2012) The Economist.
8. “Best Camera by Chase Jarvis | Chase Jarvis” Chase Jarvis (September 22, 2009) YouTube.
9. “Sun Photo, 1975” (September 8, 1975) Ann Arbor District Library.
10. “Sun Photo, 1980” (1980) Ann Arbor District Library.
11. Big George’s Home Appliance Mart (About Us).
12. The Saline Reporter (November 20, 1996).
13. “Dexter’s Huron Camera permanently closes its doors” Dana Afana (January 6, 2015) mLive.
14. “The Last One Standing … Closes. Huron Camera, RIP Dec 2014” Mark O’Brien (December 31, 2014) Random Camera Blog.
15. ProCam (home page).
16. Woodward Camera (home page).