When it comes to the markings of Saver’s Cameras in Montclair – Oaklan’ds oldest camera shop – David Sarber has been there from the beginning.
David used to sleep in the store closet while his parents filled the shelves and did the books.
Now president fo the susiness, he runs the Moutain Boulevard institution and its sister store, Sarber’s Portrait and Framing, in Montclair Village.
Davids’s parents - Nancy and the late Peter Sarber - got into the business 40 years ago.
Peter was always interested in photography. His family owned a camera store in Ukiah. While serving in the Korean war as an auto mechanic until the military discovered Peter’s photographic talents and exchanged his wrench for camera and dark room equipment.
Peter returned from Korea and started a free-lance photography career, met Nancy in 1958. Shortly after they got married, he opened a dark room and later a small studio on College Avenue. The couple lived with first child, Janet, in the back
“We had no money,” remembers Nancy Sarber, but Peter was a man of his word. “He always did what he said,” remembers Nancy. She felt that this quality was a key ingredient to Peter’s success.
One day in 1962, Peter came across an add in the newspaper that Oakland’s oldest camera shop – the Oakland Camera Exchange located on 14th street - was for sale. The couple borrowed money from everyone they knew and managed to scrape together enough to buy the store. Their lenders each received a payment of $25 a month.
Within a couple of years, Peter thought the downtown area was going no-where. In the meantime, the Sarber’s had settled their family in Montclair. When driving home one day, Peter spotted a deli going out of business in Montclair Village. The Montclair Camera Exchange opened its doors to business in October of 1964.
The Montclair Camera Exchange soon became the Sarber’s Montclair Camera Exchange as the result of a lawsuit filed by a competing camera store in Montclair Village, Steppan’s Montclair Camera’s. Today, the store is simply known as Sarber’s Cameras, despite the fact that the official corporate name is still Oakland Camera Exchange.
Running two stores on their own proved to be hectic for the couple - which by this time had three children. The Sarbers closed their downtown location in 1965. Peter would man the Montclair shop during the day, Nancy would come and night and do the bookkeeping and help stock the shelves, kids in tow. David and his two sisters would sleep in a closet fitted with mattresses under the stairs.
The entrepreneurial Peter opened a camera store in Davis in 1972.”Peter was an entrepreneur. He could make anything out of nothing,” says his daughter in-law Jessica Sarber. He loved creating new businesses but Peter was not a shopkeeper, David and Nancy agree. Peter closed the shop in Davis in the early 80’s..
Over the years, the Sarber family has opened and closed shops in several location. They opened a shop in the Orinda Theatre Square in 1992, but closed it and moved to their current Solano Ave. location in Berkeley.
In 1993 they opened a portrait and frame studio in Montclair Village on 6232 La Salle. Today the studio is run by master framer Scot Charland and new-comer Gretchen Deutsch, portrait photographer. The studio also exhibits the work of local and award- winning artists, such as Larry Keenan and Frederic Neema.
The 80’s brought recent graduate David Sarber on the scene. Back from a stint in the Navy in 1983, he was hired not by his parents, but an employee Charlie Palmer – who was the son of a Berkeley Camera store- owner Palmer Cameras. David began working on the sales floor.
Gradually, David’s responsibilities expanded. “I basically took my position,(meaning took over)” said Sarber. “My father loved it. It was a natural transition,” says Sarber. “Like me, my father gravitated towards what worked.” David at the helm of Sarber’s Cameras seemed to be working.
By the mid-eighties in-house photo processing was the rage. David and company jumped on the band- wagon in 1987, introducing what is today the most profitable leg of the business.
David met Jessica – his wife and the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of Sarber’s Cameras – in 1983. By the early 90’s Jessica had become indispensable to the business. She had begun to take over the book-keeping and had begun to computerize the company.
By the mid 90’s, Nancy began to have health problems. Jessica jumped into to help and later assume Nancy’s responsibilities. Peter Sarber died in 1998 leaving the legacy he started three and a half decades ago.
On the eve of the Sarber’s 40th anniversary at their Montclair location on 1958 Mountain Blvd., the family reflects on the history of their corporation and ponder it’s future. At the dawn of the digital age Sarber’s Camera’s, under the direction of David Sarber is reinventing itself.
Sarber describes the shop as it’s own ecosystem. They sell cameras and camera accessories, film, and offer film developing on-site. They have a portrait and framing studio, which also sells frames, photo albums and fine art photography.
Not surprisingly, the digital age has brought about changes at Sarber’s, most notably, in addition to their standard photo-processing, as of last year, they now offer digital prints. Customers can download their pictures form their home PC’s or bring in their memory cards and have Sarber’s staff do the work.
At first, people were mesmerized by the idea of downloading their pictures onto their home PC’s and printing them themselves, points out David. However, the reality is that the printers, paper and ink cartridges required to make prints at home are costly and will not guarantee you archival quality. Not to mention the time involved. Do you really have time to download and print 500 pictures from your last vacation, he asks?
The digital age has also providing some challenges in inventory. The manufacturing of cameras has become increasingly integrated with the electronic and computer industries, Jessica Sarber explains. In the past, the latest model camera would last three to five years. Now, due to the fast pace of the electronic and computer industries, a camera can be obsolete within three months.
Both Jessica and David Sarber stress the quality of their service as the key ingredient to their success. 70% of their customers are regulars, says Jessica.
Five time World Press winner Philippe Bourseiller broke a lense while shooting on location in Hawaii. A replacement was not available in the Hawaiian Islands or anywhere on the west coast except Sarber’s Cameras. Sarber’s staff managed to get the lense to Bourseiller in Hawaii. “I was very impressed with the extra effort they made. They saved my shoot,” said Borseiller.
“What works in most places doesn’t work in Montclair,” says David. “Montclair shoppers aren’t just buying an item. They are buying into a service…into a way of life…Merchants must always be responsible to the people who live here.”

© 2005 Mimi Rohr

Oakland, CA.