Camera Craft Barrie – Barb Provan collection, Barrie Historical Archive
Toronto. As a kid I bounced between radio and photography. The first ‘real’ camera shop I ever entered was Vi and Joe Waterer’s CameraCraft in Barrie. The store was at one end of a long block. I had joined the telephone company near the other end of the block. At the time it was on street called Elizabeth Street which later changed its name to Dunlop Street as it was that street’s extension west of the five points.
My buddy and I were both in our teens. He had recently bought a 35mm Paxette II camera from Joe and wanted me to see if I could get as good or better deal. Nope. I was still content with a Kodak box camera using 620 roll film. I never moved to 35mm until the late 1950s when I bought an Exakta VXIIa.
After I used the Exakta for a while, I decided a larger negative would give better resolution. With that in mind I went off to see Joe and ended up buying a Rittreck set. It was like a Graflex but with a far easier to set shutter. I saw Joe a bit earlier just after getting my Exakta. Curious about the Braun Hobby electronic flash, I went to discuss the pros and cons with Joe and ended up with a used Ultrablitz Reporter II electronic flash. It had two flash guns, and an auxiliary condenser to double the watt-second capacity. Plus a lousy battery which I replaced a bit later with a cheap lead-acid 6 volt battery that fit the Ultrablitz case.
Years later, after Joe died, his wife and daughters took a table at our fair to sell off the remaining goods from CameraCraft.
The photo of the store at Maple and Dunlop was taken in 1991, nearly 40 years after my first visit. The photo is part of the Barb Provan collection at the Barrie Historical Archive. Joe expanded his store to sell sporting goods, special high fidelity LP records, camera books, etc. And for a brief time he had a second store run by a son-in-law. It was further to the east near the old Barrie Railway Station.
This post was named after the 1968 Mary Hopkins song.
