This Sydney institution is riding the wave of a Gen Z-fuelled revival

1 day ago 5

If Sydney Super8 had a shopkeeper’s doorbell on a Friday afternoon, it would be ringing constantly with the steady stream of young people coming and going.

The old-school film and camera shop is considered an institution in Newtown with passing pedestrians getting a peek inside the bright Kodak-yellow exterior.

Lilly Orrell, 26, outside of Sydney Super 8 prefers shooting on film because “it captures the moment.”

More often than not, it’s millennials and Gen Z who occupy the narrow shop space, dropping off single-use cameras for processing, buying rolls (and rolls) of film from the fridge or asking technical questions of current owner Nick Vlahadamis and former owner (and now worker) Christopher Tiffany. While some things have not changed, others have.

“Our customers are 90 per cent young people and maybe 75 per cent of the time they are female,” says Tiffany.

“You get half a dozen girls at the table outside going through their pictures, giggling, laughing and carrying on like crazy.”

Vlahadamis says the store has attracted a younger crowd since the store opened in its current spot in 2013, with an increase after the pandemic, “but more so now than ever”.

“Social media has an impact, it’s really weird, [that] digital social media has an impact on an old technology. I think the same thing happened with records,” says Vlahadamis.

Sydney Super8 owner Nick Vlahadamis and Christopher Tiffany.

Twenty-six-year-old Lilly Orrell was dropping her camera into Sydney Super8 for a repair, a Pentax Espio camera she received on her 21st birthday.

Orrell shoots on film for fun and because it looks “cute”. She brings her film camera on nights out, to take photos of her friends and on holidays, like on her recent trip to Europe.

“It captures the moment, you can’t be like ‘I look ugly’ and re-take it… The photo is what it is,” says Orrell, who has been on a break from Instagram because of the pressure to capture and share a ‘perfect’ moment.

“I look back through my parents’ pictures, and it’s all about the memory and not about performing. When I get to 60, I can look back at my film photos and reminisce,” says Orrell.

In August, photography company Eastman Kodak reported its quarterly filings, including significant debt, which led to news headlines that the company might be facing closure. Kodak called these media reports misleading and released a statement to clarify that “Kodak has no plans to cease operations” and is “confident it will repay, extend, or refinance its debt.”

In November 2024, the iconic 133-year-old camera company had to temporarily pause its film production to make upgrades to its New York factory to keep up with the motion picture and still image film demands.

“It’s funny talking about what’s going to happen in the future. We don’t know. Pentax is the only manufacturer who have produced a film camera in 20 years,” says Vlahadamis.

Japanese camera manufacturer Pentax launched the Pentax 17 last year, the first new film camera from a major brand since the 2000s.

“It’s a camera that shouldn’t exist today. They have almost sold out globally. But as a major manufacturer, Pentax has gone out on a limb,” says Vlahadamis.

The stores street view; The well-stocked film fridge.

Christopher Tiffany getting a single-use camera ready for processing.

In August, FujiFilm Australia took a similar risk and re-launched QuickSnap, a 35mm single-use camera targeted at Gen-Z customers.

FujiFilm Australia’s general manager Mary Georgievski says the product relaunch comes at a time of culture shift and taps into the younger generations’ craving for nostalgia.

“Gen Z are a lot about mental health, slowing things down, realising what we had in the past was great. While they’re highly connected digitally, Gen Z is driving a renewed appreciation for analog, choosing film not in place of digital, but alongside it,” says Georgievski.

Film photography is experiencing a wave of revival at the same time as compact digital cameras. Both trends are trying to tell the same story – perhaps the instant gratification of a smartphone camera is no longer satisfying for young people.

Denis Hasagic was originally saving up to buy a digital camera when he was actively searching for a hobby.

Denis Hasagic, 25, was originally saving up for a digital camera when he found his love of film photography.

Instead, the 25-year-old Sydney Super8 regular picked up his dad’s old Pentax MZ-50 and started shooting film. Only four out of 37 photos turned out, but Hasagic was already hooked.

“I saved up all this money for a digital camera and then got a film camera for much cheaper and spent the extra money on film and development,” says Hasagic who bought a Pentax P30.

Although saving his money was short-lived.

“Around the new year, I counted up how much I spent last year and it was about three or four grand. So probably double that.”

Hasagic loves that shooting on film forces a sort of mindfulness that makes you slow down and go with the flow.

“There’s also the surprise element. When you get the scans back and the photo you thought was going to be really good turns out bad, but the photo you took accidentally is really amazing,” says Hasagic.

Professional photographer Julia Sarantis, 29, says that mistakes are to be expected when working with film.

Julia Sarantis outside of Sydney Super8 wearing a tie that previous owner Christopher Tiffany gifted her.

“Even though it’s heartbreaking, there are so many rolls [of film] that just didn’t turn out ... but it’s magic when it happens,” she says.

Sarantis accidentally discovered her love of film photography when taking a required university elective.

“As soon as I got in the dark room and saw the magic of the development, I got hooked,” says Sarantis.

“I’ve always had an interest in old technology. But I think in a larger, cultural way it’s a deviation from immediacy of digital technology,” says Sarantis.

Sydney Super8’s Vlahadamis wishes that more younger people wanted the physical prints as well as their digital scans, but understands the drive to post their shots on social media and is happy that they are embracing the old-school tech.

“You get one shot. We are in such an era right now where everything is instant … You’re going back to the future in a way.”

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