You can still buy a film camera at Kits Cameras in Oak Harbor, but you will have to hurry.

Manager Philomena O’Rourke searches the display shelves when asked about a film camera. Coming up with nothing, she starts opening drawers below the shelves, eventually pulling out a small white box. There’s a big orange sticker on the box, revealing a special price.

“We’ve got a Canon Sure Shot 150N on clearance,” O’Rourke announces triumphantly. “It’s my last one.”

So if you want the honor of buying the last in-stock film camera at Kits, this is your opportunity.

Kits Cameras is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Oak Harbor’s Safeway shopping center this year, and technology has come a long way in that time. All the cameras were film in 1982, but today it’s totally digital, except for that one Sure Shot.

“The companies aren’t making film cameras any more,” O’Rourke said.

Developing film was once a staple of the Kits Camera business, but no more. There are still plenty of people shooting film with their trusty old cameras, but demand for film developing has dropped 80 percent, from about 100 rolls a day to 20. O’Rourke remembers a time when there were film drop-off kiosks in many grocery store parking lots, but those days are long gone. With digital cameras, you just pop a card into your computer and download the images.

In theory, people can print their own pictures at home, which would seem to threaten Kits’ business. But that’s impractical for many people because of the time it takes and the cost for paper and, especially, ink. “The ink is the hidden cost,” O’Rourke said. So instead, many people just go to Kits where they can instantly print their own pictures cheaper, and choose from a wide variety of photo products to print themselves or have the staff make up.

Five years ago Kits offered photo T-shirts, coffee mugs and mouse pads, but now there are more than 60 “photo gift” products to choose from. Just last week Kits installed a fancy new printer that allows people at the touchscreen kiosks to make their own photo collages, albums, posters, greeting cards and calendars. It takes about an hour to customize your own 12-month calendar, including typography, and for $20 you have a unique gift.

At present, Kits enjoys a monopoly on such processes in Oak Harbor. “No others have this technology on-site yet,” O’Rourke said.

Kits has been challenged by the growth in competition through the years, particularly Wal-Mart’s arrival in Oak Harbor, but it has found ways to grow by keeping up with technology and emphasizing customer service. “Wal-Mart hurt us at first but we found our niche again,” O’Rourke said.

The staff of O’Rourke, Kyla Applegate, Patrick Shanahan, Michael Geist and Michael Louder is knowledgeable about the camera products they sell and are patient and helpful in teaching customers how to use the on-site technology. When you buy a camera, it comes with photo classes on how to use it. “The chain stores don’t offer that,” O’Rourke said. “We had to go outside the box — the big box.”

They don’t sell Polaroid or Instamatics anymore, but what they do sell is far better than the old film cameras, in O’Rourke’s estimation. “You can get great pictures with a small, point-and-shoot digital camera,” she said, noting that they allow various modes of shooting, from action to portrait to landscape and much more. Some cameras even feature “dog” modes and “cat” modes. They can also fix such common photographic headaches as red-eye and flash burns, all thanks to digital technology. “It makes you a better photographer,” she said.

O’Rourke has been at Kits Cameras Oak Harbor store the last 13 of its 25 years, but to her the job isn’t getting old. How could it be, with all that new technology?