Bright Economic Picture Is Behind Camera Store Boom.

Chalk it up to the hot economy, rampant consumerism or man's basic obsession with the latest high-tech gizmo, but many of L.A.'s old-time camera stores are in the midst of a building boom.

Samy's Camera just opened a new 38,000-square-foot store on Fairfax Avenue near Farmers Market - double the size of its old store - and Freestyle Camera is building a 46,000-square-foot store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Photographic Rental Service, a Hollywood-based equipment rental house that caters to professional photographers, is opening up a new satellite store in West L.A., and Bel Air Camera, which caters mostly to amateurs, has settled into a newly renovated 17,000-square-foot store on Kinross Avenue in West-wood.

"The general economy is hot and people are traveling more and buying cameras," said Frank Ponder, general manager of Bel Air. "I think a lot of it has to do with stock market gains. I can almost look at our sales chart and tell you when the stock market slowed down."

Whether because of the hot stock market or not, sales at Bel Air Camera grew nearly 40 percent in 1999, to $18 million. Business is so good that the company was able to pay off the $400,000 cost of the renovation within a single year.

"This is the best I've seen it in 25-years," Ponder said.

Photography goes digital

One reason for the boom, besides the hot economy, is technology. While some store owners complain of a drop in film sales, digital camera gear is more than making up the difference.

The boost in sales in the local market mirrors what's happening nationally, said Eliott Peck, director and general manager of the camera division for Canon USA Inc.

"There's been an explosion in digital camera sales. The growth rate has been phenomenal the last couple of years, and it's expected to continue the next two to three years," he said.

Businesses are snapping up digital cameras to post photos on Web sites, and as the price of decent equipment drops from several thousand dollars to less than $1,000, general consumers are buying cameras too, he said.

At the same time, interest in digital gear seems to be driving renewed interest in Canon's traditional equipment. Sales of its single-lens reflex cameras are up 10 percent this year, said Peck.

Eric Joseph, general manager of Freestyle Camera, said demand for digital gear is one of the underlying reasons his company is moving to larger digs at 6400 Sunset Blvd.

"We're just bursting at the seams. Our business has grown tremendously. The industry as a whole is changing, and with the shift to digital we have additional products we need to carry," he said.

The new store; tentatively scheduled to open at summer's end, will feature 17,000 square feet of retail space, a 13,000-square-foot warehouse, 8,000 square feet of office space and 7,000 square feet of shipping and receiving space for the company's catalog component.

The store will have room for live darkroom seminars as well as ongoing classroom instruction, said Joseph, who declined to say how much the new facilities are going to cost.

Samy's Camera moved to its new location on Fairfax because it too needed the room. The new 38,000-square-foot building features expanded retail space as well as classroom and seminar rooms.

Going in, owner Samy Kamienowicz had hoped to keep renovation costs to $500,000 or $600,000, but the final tab was more like $1.5 million.

The store, which also has a rental business, caters mostly to professional photographers. A good digital camera body - which can be used with a standard lens - can retail for as much as $20,000 or $30,000.

No film needed

The downside is that the shift to digital gear has resulted in a drop-off in film sales.

"People used to buy a lot of 4-by-5 and 8-by-10 film. We're talking thousands of dollars per photographer, but that's drying up," Kamienowicz said.

Still, despite the decrease in film sales, the store's overall revenues have been growing at about 15 percent a year, said Kamienowicz, who declined to reveal sales figures.

Photographic Rental Service has carved out a profitable niche for itself by renting digital equipment to professional photographers.

A pro may need a certain lens with a digital body for a specific shot, and rather than buy it, he or she can simply rent it and bill the customer, said Keith Vallot, the company's rental manager.

Business has been good, but his is a fickle niche. "Some photographers are really busy and some are not working at all. It's a weird industry," Vallot said.

With all the stores undergoing expansion, the danger arises of over-saturating the market. While they admit to being a little apprehensive about the expansion of their competitors, most store operators say they've carved out their own specific niches.

At the same time, a number of the old-time camera stores in L.A. have gone out of business for one reason or another over the last decade or so, and that means more customers for those that remain.

"There's certainly enough business to go around," said Freestyle's Joseph. "I don't see what we're doing as creating a glut."