Collin Brendemuehl wrote:
The quality German cameras were never cheap. A person had to save a lot of money to get a good camera. For many in 1950, $30-$50 was a half-week's pay!
Yessir. Point taken.
And $30-$50 for an Ikonta or C3 (hypothetical items as I don't
> know their original selling prices, but to make the point) gave you > something very nice.
Today a nice camera also costs you a half-weeks pay. $300 to $500. Not much has changed in percentage of income spent. In the 1950s, an inexpensive family camera as a Kodak Pony 135. Good lens but very plastic body. No rangefinder. No meter. Leica, Contax, & Rollei were never for the average consumer. That was always Kodak and a few others on the low end.
Well stated.
In my more impecunious days (when I was growing up, and first married) I bought used cameras AND cars!
The only way I could afford good quality...
Heck, look at Contax today!
I wish I could afford an old rangefinder (IIa or IIIa, for example, in excellent condition) and a few lenses! Even today that kit would almost equal what are considered normal prices for a pro camera ~ and that's for a 50+ year old camera!
A lovely old Contarex (Carl Zeiss) is even more expensive, but the quality is, even today, rarely matched, and almost never surpassed.
Back then? When they were introduced? No way I'd ever have been able to afford one...
Sincerely,
C. Brendemuehl
keith whaley
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