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1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:07 am
by bakubo
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/a ... 944848453/

Leica M3 for $456 -- adjusted for inflation that is $3676 in 2013 dollars.
Nikon S-2 for $415.
Rolleiflex for $349.50.
Speed Graphic Press Camera for $399.50.

Lots of other cameras, accessories, film, etc. Kind of cool to see.

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 9:34 am
by Birma
Interesting Henry - it suggests that cameras really have become more expensive.

Waiting for Henry's 4,000th post! :)

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 7:40 am
by bakubo
Birma wrote: Waiting for Henry's 4,000th post! :)
I think this one is 5231! Did you see number 4000? I don't recall what it was. :lol:

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 6:54 pm
by Birma
I must have blinked and missed that one! I bet it was the next one after the one at the top of the page.

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 2:32 pm
by bfitzgerald
Something exciting about changing a flash bulb that is no longer here. I'm sure they would have paid a fortune for a modern flash back then

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:10 pm
by bakubo
bakubo wrote:http://www.vintag.es/2012/10/1958-sears ... talog.html

Leica M3 for $456 -- adjusted for inflation that is $3676 in 2013 dollars.
Nikon S-2 for $415.
Rolleiflex for $349.50.
Speed Graphic Press Camera for $399.50.
The current digital Leica M10-P sells for $7995. The Leica M3 that cost $456 in 1958 is $4035 in 2019 dollars when adjusted for inflation. A couple of things to note:

1. With the M3 one would have to spend lots of money for film, processing, taxes, etc. over time. With digital there is no incremental cost to taking photos (other than the minuscule amount spent storing them on digital media such as hard disks) so the higher digital camera price is not particularly important, IMO. One does need some sort of computer, but pretty much anyone even reading my post has one of those already. Doesn't even have to be all that powerful a computer if shooting jpegs or doing straightforward raw processing. Lots of software doesn't require very high end hardware to run well. Lightroom and some others do though need pretty good hardware.

2. There are lots of 60+ year old M3 bodies still in use. How many think that an M10-P will still be usable 60+ years from now? :) Even if it still works properly (pretty unlikely) the chances of memory cards, batteries, etc. still being available then for it is pretty much nil. Also, digital file formats may have changed so much that most or all software can no longer handle the files it produces and old software may not run on whatever people are using in 2080. There is an excellent chance though that lots of M3 cameras will still be working...as long as there is film and processing chemicals still easily available. :)

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 3:11 am
by bakubo
bakubo wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:10 pm
bakubo wrote:http://www.vintag.es/2012/10/1958-sears ... talog.html

Leica M3 for $456 -- adjusted for inflation that is $3676 in 2013 dollars.
Nikon S-2 for $415.
Rolleiflex for $349.50.
Speed Graphic Press Camera for $399.50.
The current digital Leica M10-P sells for $7995. The Leica M3 that cost $456 in 1958 is $4035 in 2019 dollars when adjusted for inflation. A couple of things to note:

1. With the M3 one would have to spend lots of money for film, processing, taxes, etc. over time. With digital there is no incremental cost to taking photos (other than the minuscule amount spent storing them on digital media such as hard disks) so the higher digital camera price is not particularly important, IMO. One does need some sort of computer, but pretty much anyone even reading my post has one of those already. Doesn't even have to be all that powerful a computer if shooting jpegs or doing straightforward raw processing. Lots of software doesn't require very high end hardware to run well. Lightroom and some others do though need pretty good hardware.

2. There are lots of 60+ year old M3 bodies still in use. How many think that an M10-P will still be usable 60+ years from now? :) Even if it still works properly (pretty unlikely) the chances of memory cards, batteries, etc. still being available then for it is pretty much nil. Also, digital file formats may have changed so much that most or all software can no longer handle the files it produces and old software may not run on whatever people are using in 2080. There is an excellent chance though that lots of M3 cameras will still be working...as long as there is film and processing chemicals still easily available. :)
I forgot to mention that the Leica and Nikon rangefinders above include a 50mm lens:

Leica M3 + Summicron 50mm f2 for $456 -- adjusted for inflation that is $4106 in 2020 dollars.

Nikon S-2 + Nikkor 50mm f1.4 for $415.

Nikon S-2 + Nikkor 50mm f2 for $333.

The Leica M10-R for $8295 does not include a lens. We can add one though. The Leica Summicron f2 is $2695 so that makes it $10,990 for body and lens.

The old link for the 1958 catalog is broken, but this new link has all the scanned pages too:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/a ... 855318409/

Very cool!

Re: 1958 Sears Camera Catalog

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:39 am
by bakubo
It is cool seeing the film pages in the catalog to check out the 1958 film. Of course, the film ratings were pretty slow even compared to what I was using in the 1970s. And they are extremely slow compared to what we are accustomed to with digital cameras. Here are some examples:

Kodak Tri-X B&W film was ASA/ISO 200. In later years it was increased to ASA/ISO 400.

Kodak Panatomic-X B&W film was ASA/ISO 25. In later years it was increased to ASA/ISO 32.

Kodak Plus-X B&W film was ASA/ISO 80. In later years it was increased to ASA/ISO 125.

Kodachrome color slide film was ASA/ISO 10. In later years there were 3 types of Kodachrome that were ASA/ISO 25, 64, and 200.

Ektachrome color slide film was ASA/ISO 32 and was rated as High Speed. In later years there were several types of Ektachrome that were ASA/ISO 64, 100, 160, 200, and 400.