Business Profile: Authorized Camera Repair - A Little-Known Treasure in Upper Moreland

It took young Matt Fuehrer, now 41 and owner of the highly successful Authorized Camera Repair in Willow Grove, a few frustrating years to discover what to do with his life.

Raised in Iowa and Illinois, he moved after graduating college, from the bitterly cold Midwest (His eyelashes once froze while pumping gas.) to be with his family in sunny Florida.  

But what would he do for a job?

One day his sister Penny called.

"I’ve found a job for you,"  Fuehrer, then-23-years-old, recalled his conversation with Penny. "A camera shop needed a repair man."

"But I don’t know how to fix cameras," Fuehrer protested.

Although he’d been taking photos for his junior and senior high schools, and even had his own photography office at Waldorf College, Fuehrer couldn’t afford to own a camera after moving to Florida.

Penny reassured him, telling him he’d figure it out. After all, she said,  as a kid you were always taking things apart to see how they worked.

That’s how Fuehrer became an apprentice and learned how to repair cameras under the “great masters,” as he calls them.

“It’s the only way to learn the trade,”  he said.

Within four years, he became the lead “tech” at Green’s Camera Tech in Daytona Beach.

At last, in his mid-30s, he was independent. No more forced privations.

“I had money to pay the bills and then some,” he said.

Things got even better after he moved up North.

But why forsake the sunny South for Pennsylvania where he didn’t know a soul?

Simple: Go where the jobs are.

Four of the camera techs he worked with in Florida had migrated from Comet Camera in Philadelphia. Now, Cardinal Camera in Lansdale was calling.

Not only did he do well at Cardinal Camera, but he loved his adopted city of Philadelphia.

“It’s incredibly beautiful here,” he said. “I love the changing seasons, and there are so many wonderful places to visit,” he said.

He relaxes after work on the patio of his Montgomery County home with his partner Robert Beckmann and their Jack Russell terrier, Lola.

After a successful stint at Cardinal Camera, Fuehrer and Beckmann decided it was time for Fuehrer to open his own repair shop. Fuehrer's mom, with whom he remains close, suggested the name Authorized Camera Repair.

“It sounded official and authoritative,” said Fuehrer.

In January of 2005, Authorized Camera Repair (ACR) opened its doors at 339 York Road, across from the and next to the .

It took off like a racehorse.

“We’re a turn-key business,” said Fuehrer. “You turn the key,” he explained, “the customers enter, and you’re an instant success.”

There are two ways for camera users to repair their equipment, said Fuehrer. They can send broken cameras back to the manufacturer. Or they can bring them to a nearby camera shop.

Chances are, said Fuehrer, if you live in the Delaware Valley—or further afield—Authorized Camera, with its three-man team, has repaired your digital camera, video camera or older camera-with-film.

According to Fuehrer, camera stores such as Larmon Photo in Abington or Ritz Camera downtown routinely ship broken camera equipment to ACR in Willow Grove.

Orders pour into the shop, which doubles as a museum of Americana with old cameras, a dial telephone and a huge tube-operated radio. (See photos.)

Some of the collections are Fuehrer’s, and the others are from customers who would bring in items they couldn’t throw away.

On the floor next to his work station are a dozen cameras he is currently working on. His most cherished time is spent fixing cameras.

That’s where Bob Spangler comes in.

“I don’t know what I’d do without Bob,” said Fuehrer

Some days, customers flock inside unstoppable, crowding the front counter. Bob Spangler, who works part-time, handles them while Matt works, head bent over the work bench while the wall air-conditioner tries to keep up with the hot summer weather. 

On the huge picture windows in the front of the store, Fuehrer put in "Energy Film." It reflects light and heat to keep the heat out in the summer and in during the winter. 

"The 'comfort level' changed," said Matt, "making it a little cooler during sunny afternoons when the sun bakes the shop."

June, July and August are the shop's busiest months.

“People want their vacation photos,” said Fuehrer. “The economy goes up, the economy goes down, but people don’t let go of photography. They’ll give up other things first.”

On this particular day, a distraught woman brought in a new, expensive camera on a recent Tuesday, his busiest day. (They are closed on Monday.) Somehow, she dropped it, though it was still in the padded case. She beseeched him to fix it before she and her family go on vacation Saturday.

Fuehrer leaned over the front counter and examined it with the long graceful fingers that have repaired cameras at Green’s in Daytona Beach (recently closed down) and at Cardinal Camera in Lansdale, which recently closed the repair unit of its still-expanding business.

He tells the harried woman he can squeeze her in and won’t charge her the “express fee.”

Good customer service has earned ACR stellar ratings, especially with employee Bob Spangler.

“Matt knows how to communicate with the customer. He is also the best technician I’ve ever seen,” he said. “He trained me.”

Spangler, who’s been in retail for more than 50 years,  is a casualty of the digital age.  

As the former owner of the Photo Spot on West Avenue in Jenkintown, he saw the writing on the wall as business kept dropping.  

“That was the end of us,” he said, never believing he’d work in a camera store again.

“Matt is very gifted,” he said. “But no matter how talented you are, you still have to have those intangibles: the ability to diagnose the problem and know how to solve it.”

ACR does not need to advertise.

“I save a lot of money by no longer putting ads in the Yellow Pages. It used to cost me almost $300 a month,” said Matt.

Customers arrive by word-of-mouth, referrals and the ACR website, whose content was written by Fuehrer. Bob Spangler calls it a “teaching website.” 

Much of their business arrives by mail. Fuehrer said he is always surprised when new customers drive in from as far as Allentown, Harrisburg or Wilmington to hand-deliver their cameras, rather than simply mail them in.

“They want to see you in person,” he said. “Anyone can have a website. They want to see that you’re real, that you speak in intelligible sentences.”

His customers range from professional photographers to police departments to those with “point and shoot cameras, your everyday pocket cameras,” which sell from $50 to $200.

A rather desperate Terry Banks from Mount Airy brought in his Nikon on a recent afternoon. Like many professional photographers who depend on their cameras, Banks didn't want to part with his camera, even for repairs.

From behind the counter, Matt looked the camera over.

The moment Fuehrer sees and handles a camera, he does a two-second mental assessment, he said: “What’s wrong with it? Can it be fixed? How difficult will it be? How long will it take to get the parts? What will it cost for labor and parts?”

He opens up Banks’ camera.

“I don’t know what it is about these Nikons,” he said. “The rubber reacts to hand sweat.”

The tripod mounting socket was stripped out, he told Banks.

He told a surprised Banks that the repair cost for his $4,000 Nikon would be about $110, with a $40 deposit. Certainly better than buying a new one, he reminded a hesitant Banks, who finally gave in.

Banks told Fuehrer that his freelance photography had become a full-time job, one that "pays the bills and keeps the lights on."

ACR does not sell cameras. Its retail business is confined to camera batteries and accessories.

But this location at 339 York Road once did house retail stores.  

Not long ago, said Matt, an older man stopped by. His family owned Bert & Tom's Candy Store, a variety store at this very spot, according to Joe Thomas, president emeritus of the Upper Moreland Historical Association. 

The family lived in the apartment behind the store. The variety store sold candy, cigarettes, soda and magazines. It was popular among school kids.

(Back then, the Upper Moreland schools were in different locations.The Willow Grove Giant Supermarket, located at the site of the old Home Depot, was originally a four-room junior high school, which opened at that site in 1919, according to Thomas. In 1930, it expanded with the addition of an auditorium/gymnasium, an athletic field and a concrete stadium.)

Only a few old-timers remember this, many of whom post on Facebook: I Remember Willow Grove.

Fuehrer was so impressed by this piece of history, he scanned a portrait of the family into his computer, where, seemingly, a thousand other images reside.

“Today,” he said, “we’ve become gatherers of electronic information. Nothing is on paper anymore.

 “You’re not going to get a box full of pictures to look through anymore,” he said with his lazy Midwestern drawl, as he stood near his iMac with its 22-inch screen, cellphone ringing on his desk.