Our milestones
From a microfilm truck to the store you’re browsing
Youngstown Microfilm Company
Peter Yankush starts Youngstown Microfilm Company on the east side of Youngstown — picking up medical records from local hospitals and converting them to microfilm, and filming local high-school football games, developing the 16mm film right at the shop.
The microfilm company becomes a camera store
Pete always had a camera around his neck. Through his microfilm connections he could buy Honeywell Pentax at wholesale — and before long, he had a camera store, with a new location near downtown Youngstown.
The second generation
Pete's son Jim begins working at the store after school and on Saturdays.
Boardman
Youngstown Microfilm opens in Boardman.
755 Boardman-Canfield Road
Jim purchases a building in South Bridge and the store moves to its current home at 755 Boardman-Canfield Road.
Youngstown Microfilm becomes YM Camera
The name officially changes to YM Camera — the initials carrying the microfilm company it grew from.
The third generation
After graduating from Baldwin Wallace College, Jim's son Robby begins working at the store. Third-generation family business — his grandfather's passion for photography and his dad's passion for business.
A record year
YM Camera celebrates a record sales year and hires more staff.
The Loft
YM expands the store and adds the second-level Loft — a space dedicated to learning and experience within the store.
E-Tailer of the Year
YM Camera wins the Digital Imaging Reporter E-Tailer of the Year award for excellence in online sales.
The store you're browsing right now
Seventy-five years after the microfilm truck first rolled, YM Camera rebuilds its home on the web — same family, same counter, same phone number: 330-758-7005.
The longer story — photography’s history alongside ours
Photography is born
Louis Daguerre introduces the daguerreotype in Paris — highly detailed permanent photographs on silver-plated copper. The world starts keeping its memories.
You press the button, we do the rest
George Eastman's first Kodak camera puts photography in ordinary hands — and starts the company whose film still lines our wall today.
The Brownie
Kodak's $1 Brownie makes everyone a photographer. Snapshots become part of family life.
35mm arrives
Leica introduces the 35mm format to still photography — the film format our lab develops more than any other, a century later.
Youngstown Microfilm Company
Peter Yankush starts Youngstown Microfilm Company on the east side of Youngstown — picking up medical records from local hospitals and converting them to microfilm, and filming local high-school football games, developing the 16mm film right at the shop.
The modern SLR
Asahi's Pentax popularizes the eye-level SLR. Within a generation it's the camera around every serious photographer's neck — including Pete's.
The microfilm company becomes a camera store
Pete always had a camera around his neck. Through his microfilm connections he could buy Honeywell Pentax at wholesale — and before long, he had a camera store, with a new location near downtown Youngstown.
The first digital camera
At Kodak, Steven Sasson builds a toaster-sized prototype that records images to cassette tape. Nobody at the counter suspects a thing.
The second generation
Pete's son Jim begins working at the store after school and on Saturdays.
Boardman
Youngstown Microfilm opens in Boardman.
The DSLR era opens
Nikon's D1 brings digital to working photographers. The next decade rewrites the camera counter.
755 Boardman-Canfield Road
Jim purchases a building in South Bridge and the store moves to its current home at 755 Boardman-Canfield Road.
Youngstown Microfilm becomes YM Camera
The name officially changes to YM Camera — the initials carrying the microfilm company it grew from.
The third generation
After graduating from Baldwin Wallace College, Jim's son Robby begins working at the store. Third-generation family business — his grandfather's passion for photography and his dad's passion for business.
A record year
YM Camera celebrates a record sales year and hires more staff.
The Loft
YM expands the store and adds the second-level Loft — a space dedicated to learning and experience within the store.
E-Tailer of the Year
YM Camera wins the Digital Imaging Reporter E-Tailer of the Year award for excellence in online sales.
The store you're browsing right now
Seventy-five years after the microfilm truck first rolled, YM Camera rebuilds its home on the web — same family, same counter, same phone number: 330-758-7005.
