Sid Wallingford is a doctor of sorts.

He fixes broken and at times neglected cameras, with all of the bedside manner hoped for in a good physician.

For 44 years, Wallingford has fixed, tested, cleaned and cared for cameras for people in Casper and across the Rocky Mountains.

This month, Wallingford closed Photo-Electronics, located in the house he grew up in, less than a block north of the Wyoming Medical Center. Part of the closure was due to retirement, as he turned 69 this month, but Wallingford also blames the digital age.

"Cameras used to be made of metal and handmade in Germany," Wallingford said, sitting in a chair nestled between testing equipment and boxes of parts and tools. "Then we moved to digital and if you can buy a camera for $300, you're not going to spend $100 to $125 to fix it."

He said business began to slump and so did his desire to continue learning how to repair digital cameras.

Wallingford will miss working on cameras, but not as much as working with people.

Mike Keogh, an art and photography professor at Casper College, said the feeling is mutual. Wallingford helped Keogh both as a photo instructor and as a photographer.

One of the services Wallingford provided for Casper College and the community was to examine all of the photo students' cameras, Keogh said.

"He would check everything out for free," Keogh said. "If it worked fine he would tell them and if there was anything that needed fixed he would give them an honest price for the repairs."

Even though Keogh is happy that Wallingford is able to retire and do more of the things he loves, the instructor is not sure what his students will do now. Keogh is also working to find places to take his own cameras.

Wallingford was, as Keogh said, "the only show in town." In fact, he was the only camera repairman in the state. The next closest is Englewood, Colo., Keogh said.

Saunders Camera Supplies owner Jerry Saunders said Casper residents were spoiled to have a skilled camera repairman in the city.

"There's a shortage of repairmen all around the country," Saunders said, adding that most people are trained now by camera companies and rarely branch out to work on their own.

But closed doesn't mean gone for Wallingford. He stopped taking new repairs on Oct. 1, but is still working on the ones he has in the store, and will guarantee those up to six months. He will officially be done April 1.

Will he fix someone's camera if they are in dire need and whine enough?

"Probably," he said. "Because I'm a softie."

He took pride in fixing cameras for people while they were in the store, and if it was simple he wouldn't charge.

Wallingford said he remembered a young man who was riding his bike across the country when his bike - and his camera - broke in Muddy Gap Junction. The man hitchhiked into town and while his bike was being fixed, he brought in his camera. Wallingford fixed the camera and gave the man a ride back out to Muddy Gap to continue his journey.

"It was getting late," he said. "And I didn't want him hitching a ride in the dark."

Wallingford sat with magnifying lenses over his glasses and with careful precision pushed small droplets of oil out of a syringe into the gears on a Pentax K1000. Some of the new technology is an improvement, he said, but some older cameras, such as the Contax 3A he bought in 1959, are still the best.

"It's just a wonderful camera," he said. "It was well-made, has superb lenses and takes wonderful pictures."

Reach Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@casperstartribune.net