Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Here's Hawai'i | November/December 2003

Here's Hawai'i

Riding a Photographic Trend

Three surfing buddies take an inventive idea into international waters

They are three friends who used to surf together on O'ahu's North Shore. Between the sets at Mokule'ia Beach, they pondered life's big questions, such as what it would take for them to leave their jobs and make more time for fun. Joe Ganahl was a manufacturer's rep for major brand-name cameras. Mark Zanetti was sales manager for the publishing chain Gannett. Dan Ihara was vice president of Servco Pacific, the prominent automotive and appliance company. They shared a love of business and the ocean, and eventually they did the inevitable: They decided to work together.

Today, their line of inexpensive, reusable cameras, called Snap Sights, is revolutionizing the industry. The cameras are sold in more than 40 countries, including Russia, Egypt, Australia, Tahiti and western Europe, as well as across the United States. In Island supermarkets and drugstores, in a David-and-Goliath scenario, Snap Sights cameras often hang next to similar models sold by two international giants, Fuji and Kodak. "We're literally around the world," says Ganahl incredulously. "We're still a very small company, but it's pretty exciting to be a bunch of beach bums doing this international business."

The three "beach bums" are actually high-powered businessmen running a tight-knit company of seven workers, based on old-fashioned team spirit. If the office were the ocean, they would be sharing every wave. Lana Migita, the administrative backbone of the company, is the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave. Liz Wong is the other wizard. Together they run the office while the three partners travel the world selling cameras.

The niche they have created for Snap Sights-simple, pre-loaded, 35 mm waterproof cameras-is bucking the digital revolution, they say, driven by vacationers, sightseers and the recreation and water-sports market. Although the cameras are priced inexpensively enough to be disposable ($5 to $20), they are reusable. They produce good photos, are virtually indestructible and simple enough for kids. The top-of-the-line model, introduced this month, is waterproof to 95 feet deep, and has a built-in flash. Individually stress-tested at the manufacturing factory in China, the products, says Ganahl, reduce stress for their users, too. "You don't have to worry if you lose it. You'd lose your pictures, but if you lose a digital camera, you've dropped at least $400 down the drain."

Particularly for environmental reasons, the three surfing buddies encourage customers to reuse the cameras. "People are becoming much more environmentally conscious," says Ganahl. "We use recycled plastic wherever possible, such as in the body of the camera. Whether or not you're planning on using it again, reusability is still a value. I know a customer who has reloaded one of our water cameras 70 times, but that's very unusual. We think most people don't actually reuse them, but they're beginning to recognize that they can."

Zanetti explains that single-use, or disposable, cameras were invented less than a decade ago by Fuji, which allowed camera makers to jump on the bandwagon and help develop the market. About two years ago, when Fuji began exercising its dozens of patents, many smaller manufacturers were forced to close. Like the racehorse Seabiscuit, the underdog Snap Sights created its own new renegade niche: keep them simple and cheap, but reusable. "It was because of Fuji that we actually got in the reusable mode," says Ihara. "It was a matter of survival."

Soon they will introduce their own Snap Sights film, made by top-ranking Ferrania, in Italy, and Agfa, in Germany. In this holiday season, with stockings begging to be stuffed and memories wanting to be
captured, things are looking pretty bright for the three Mokule'ia
entrepreneurs.

There's only one drawback, the partners agree. They're so busy realizing their dream that there's not much time left to surf-not now, at least.

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