Photo booths - where were they?

When did film cameras become “analogue” cameras?

I’d say when reliable sources such as ABC started to use the word in that meaning, at the latest.

In case it matters, the “ABC” linked to here refers to the Australian ABC News, not the American ABC News. (I think an American would spell it “analog.”)

The shopping mall still has photo booths even today—the contention is that they are all digital.

There is also the “chemist’s [shop]”, more in the UK I would say; at any rate, I would expect to find pharmaceuticals there.

If you count smartphones, yeah. :smiley:

AFAIK, the one to which I refer is now too upscale for one of these things.

It went back farther than that. The reason cameras and photos became associated with drug stores is that when photography spread to being a hobby, hobbyists would have to develop their own film. That meant they needed to get the actual chemicals to develop the film, so they had to go to the local drug store to order the chemicals. (I’m talking about over a century ago, pre-Kodak, and before there were rolls of film backed by paper.) That established a connection between drugstores and photography and cameras. Eventually, as Kodak evolved, you just dropped off your rolls of film and the drugstore would send it to the photolab to be developed.

There is one pharmacy chain in Canada that still maintains that strong connection: London Drugs is just as much an electronics / cameras / computer store as it is a drug store, unlike other chains like Shoppers, which no longer are much involved in photography.

Source: family history; I come from a long line of retail druggists (as they used to be called).

Cool! In the 80’s-90’s it wasn’t too hard to find photographic paper and chemicals in the camera department of almost any store - then only hobbyist places. I can’t say I recall drug stores being the last stand yet what you say makes sense.

We did black & white developing in junior high school shop class. I dabbled a bit in the attic and then decided to try color. Processing onto paper came with a whole lot of nope, nope so I decided to go with slides. It can’t be much more difficult than developing B&W film negatives, right? Nope again. I reckoned I’d not trust myself with anything more than test snapshots so it was back to Fotomat for them and some place you can totally trust for stuff like eclipses.

In the US, I don’t think I ever remember seeing any developing equipment or chemicals in a department store with a camera section. Granted, my memories for that really only start mid-80s or so. You would have to go to an actual camera store like Wolf, Helix, Calumet (in the Chicago area), B&H or Adorama in New York.

I do remember the paper and chemicals being available in a department store in NYC in the late 70s - early 80s. Might have been others , too but that particular one was in the neighborhood. I think developing your own film and printing your own photos was a more popular hobby during that time period than it was even ten years later.

Yes, correction: should not have said the chemicals. Just the paper. I worked in a wal-mart in 2010 and they still had Kodak paper but never saw fixer or developer chemicals. When I was doing B&W I cannot recall where I got the chemicals, spool thingie to develop the negatives in or projector. I’m just picturing the shopping center near me and it was either Radio Shack or the drug store. I bought the 12" parabolic mirror for my telescope via some ad in Astronomy magazine so it could be I got things that way.

ETA: I didn’t know about 47th street photo yet probably could have bought everything there - maybe including parabolic mirrors. I did get the camera case for my little Celestron scope from them.

I paid little attention to this thread until last night.

I went into the Brookfield Square mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Haven’t been in there for well over a decade, even though it isn’t all that far from my home and I drive past the place at least twice a week. Place is dead inside. More closed out of business stores than open ones. It’s like a ghost town in there.
I went in to get something at the JC Penney.

Anyway, there was a photo booth down towards the movie theater. $7 per photo.

The Mineshaft restaurant in Hartford has one too.

True, although I have seen Shoppers locations with a “Passport photos taken here” sign (maybe not recently, though).

I saw one this week, too, at the Japanese daiso ‘dollar’ store (most items are $2.25). It looks like they enjoy a large fanbase but I don’t know how to link Instagram or Tiktok at the moment feebly shakes fist at whippersnaps

I didn’t pay close attention (the booth is next to the exit) but I think the photos were $4 for 2 strips, cheap! I did notice a sign to prepay at the register so I’m also not sure how automated the booth is.

Edit:
Hello Tokyo
Niles, Illinois

A+ recommendation! Very fun store.