A Little About Us
How we got to where we are today...
The cameraworks story began in 1972, when the co-founder, Alan Starkie started work for a camera store in Manchester UK (Godleys of Shudehill). Already a keen photographer, the young Alan was delighted to get the job and be able to handle the many types of camera, both new and used that the store supplied.
Later, Alan who was interested in the inner workings of things, got his first job in the service department of a cine specialist - Cinephoto of Salford, becoming adept at servicing projectors, cine and editing equipment. During the mid 1980s, Alan moved to London to work for Laurie Atkinson as workshop manager of The Studio Workshop, being responsible for a busy service department dealing in Sinar large format equipment and Bron studio lighting.
After a brief Technical Directorship of Martel Laser Technology of Manchester, Alan co-founded PTS Ltd, a specialist professional photographic equipment repair company, with branches in Manchester and London.
PTS had contracts with British Aerospace, Rolls Royce Motors and Turbines, colleges and universities and of course many large studios around the country. We supplied and serviced a wide variety of studio lighting - Bron, Strobe, Bowens, ProFoto as well as cameras such as Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya and large format equipment.
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Alan joined the corporate world for 17 years at the start of the century but this became unrewarding and spurred-on by the resurgence in film photography and many requests for help, cameraworks was born.
Today, joined by James Starkie, cameraworks specialises almost exclusively on the Leica brand. We concentrate on non-digital rangefinder cameras and are based in the North-West of England. Our client base includes the UK but also Europe and beyond.
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Introducing James and Alan
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