Will there be any camera stores left in Melbourne's CBD after COVID? Camera Lane moved to Spotswood and Michaels is closing permanently tomorrow. Not a good development.
:-( There's Ted's and Digi-Direct. At least both carry some film (and I bought some darkroom trays from Digital-direct online!). But for processing all the odd formats Michaels used to do - I'm told Hillvale has bought all their lab gear, which is great, because I have a box of E6 8x10" film waiting for a perfect project...
I guess Vanbar also still develops sheet film but they moved further out as well. Surprised digidirect stocks darkroom trays. The winner of these recent developments must be the Leica store. With Michaels and Camera Lane two significant Leica dealers left the CBD.
I read about Michael's closing in today's Age newspaper, fortunately when I visited the City last March to see a specialist, I wandered to Michael's to once again check out their camera collection.
Without a doubt, it had the best private camera collection in the world. The only other time I have seen a better collection was when the Deutsches Museum celebrated 150 years of photography with a fabulous collection of photographic history.