Question about Zorki-1 and Fed-1 prices in 1953

Just for comparison's sake.

In June 1953 a Leica-IIf-body was 131USD at the Leica shop in New York, with an Elmar-50/3,5 it was 199USD.
How much was a Fed-1 or Zorki-1 in the western world at that time? Both Fed and Zorki might be around #350000 at that time. There was an export batch for the Zorki-1 (#323xxx till #326xxx), later export Zorki-1 were really rare. Fed-1 might be sold only domestic in the USSR.
Of course the Leica-IIf was modern at that time. It had the 1/25 and 1/50 speed and a synchronizer. At the end of 1953 it got the 1/1000 speed.

Hi Lenny,

A bit surprised by the prices you announce: in France Leicas were far more expensive those years... But I don't follow you when you say that the IIf was modern at that time. Not really more or less than a Fed or a Zorki 1. As for the 1/1000th, it was unherited from the Leica III (1933) and we already have it on prewar Fed S too...

The production of these three cameras was stopped c. 1955. And others appeared: the M series for Leica and the III for KMZ, much more modern, that time!

I try to find the comparisons of prices you talk of.

Amitiйs. Jacques.

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Originally posted by Jacques M.

Hi Lenny,

A bit surprised by the prices you announce: in France Leicas were far more expensive those years... But I don't follow you when you say that the IIf was modern at that time. Not really more or less than a Fed or a Zorki 1. As for the 1/1000th, it was unherited from the Leica III (1933) and we already have it on prewar Fed S too...

The production of these three cameras was stopped c. 1955. And others appeared: the M series for Leica and the III for KMZ, much more modern, that time!

I try to find the comparisons of prices you talk of.

Amitiйs. Jacques.

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Thank you Jacques,

with modern I meant between these 3 cams at that time, Leica-IIf, Fed-1 and Zorki-1. Of course there were the Fed-S earlier and the Fed-Zorki with 1/1000.
In 1953 there was the Zorki-3 but it might be at double the price for a Zorki-1. Also interesting would be the price for a Zorki-3. In June 1953 a Leica-IIIf-body was 210USD, with Summitar-50/2.0 368USD and with Summicron-50/2.0 393USD. I could imagine that more Zorki-3 were exported to the west.

Hi Lenny, I know at that time price of Zorki-4 was 75 rubles which translated to USD by the exchange rate at that time (1p=60c) is $45.

Cheers,
Vlad.

My math is horrible It's $120 LOL, sorry

For the moment, I have only found the French prices for Leicas in 1954:
http://www.summilux.net/documents/TarifsLeitz1954.pdf

It seems that the prices for Leicas were more or less the same in New-York or in Paris, contrarily to what I thought.

But it doesn't answer your question, Lenny!

Jacques.

Finally, I doubt...
I have checked other French prices for the same period.

A Foca Universel (the French equivalent for the Leica IIIf) costed 51540 francs in 1954, without lens. Compared with the Leica IIf (5680 francs) or the IIIf (8468 francs), both without lens and both for 1954, it's just impossible. There must be a "0" less in the Leica prices!

The conversion of these 51540 francs into 2013 euros gives 1112Ђ, ten times more... But perhaps I am worse than Vlad in maths!

Amitiйs. Jacques.

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Originally posted by Jacques M.


Finally, I doubt...
I have checked other French prices for the same period.

A Foca Universel (the French equivalent for the Leica IIIf) costed 51540 francs in 1954, without lens. Compared with the Leica IIf (5680 francs) or the IIIf (8468 francs), both without lens and both for 1954, it's just impossible. There must be a "0" less in the Leica prices!

The conversion of these 51540 francs into 2013 euros gives 1112Ђ, ten times more... But perhaps I am worse than Vlad in maths!

Amitiйs. Jacques.

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Thank you,

I think it was impossible to find a Zorki or Fed in a shop in France in 1954. If you wanted to buy one you needed to go to a former east-block-country, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and all the others, not so easy at that time.
Later, in the 1970s russian cams were available in the west of course, especially Zenits, because they were not expensive.

Hi Lenny!

In 1954, I was a boy of ten years, and I had to take the train everyday to go to the Lycйe, in Paris.
On returning home, I stopped very often at a camera shop, near the station. And I was amazed by the profusion of second hand cameras: Leicas and Focas, but Russian ones too, certainly prewar Feds. I don't know where they were coming from, and I never pushed the door to ask the seller! Of course, I often missed my train...

All that was at 100 meters from the Gare de l'Est, of course!

Amitiйs. Jacques.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jacques M.

Hi Lenny!

In 1954, I was a boy of ten years, and I had to take the train everyday to go to the Lycйe, in Paris.
On returning home, I stopped very often at a camera shop, near the station. And I was amazed by the profusion of second hand cameras: Leicas and Focas, but Russian ones too, certainly prewar Feds. I don't know where they were coming from, and I never pushed the door to ask the seller! Of course, I often missed my train...

All that was at 100 meters from the Gare de l'Est, of course!

Amitiйs. Jacques.

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Bonsoir Jacques,

how did you know they were Russians?
When I became interested in cameras I saw Zeniths, but didn't know they were from Russia. At that time back in the 1970s I wasn't even interested in Leicas because they were expensive. Little did I know and I'm sure I wasn't interested in bottom-loader. Wish someone had adviced me to try a Fed-2, but I wasn't lucky. Maybe I would have said that the Fed doesn't have a stroke-winder. Sad, because how much fun I missed to use a Fed or a Zorki, nice Leica copies.

Now, if I could be back in 1953 I would be interested in a Leica-If, or maybe there were a chance to get a used Leica and if I would see a Zorki-1 at a good price that would be wonderful too. I really miss all these camera shops at the main railway stations, everything has changed.

When I started photography in the 70ies I certainly knew what was Soviet Union production. I was also very visible in the street view with Lada-VAZ and Moskvitsch.
My choice was between Japanese (Cosina), DDR (Practika or Porst) and Zenit as I wanted an SLR after my fathers Kodak Retina. All rangefinder-cameras with interchangeable lens were very rare here, new or used, due to WWII which didn't go so well here. So people skipped many camera generations and types.

Best regards,
Juhani

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Originally posted by Lenny

how did you know they were Russians?

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Easy: I was unable to read or even to spell what was written on the cover! It's there that I discovered the cyrillic alphabet, after checking on a dictionary.

All that sounded very mysterious to me. One of the reasons why I collect them?

Jacques.

What about this Zorki 1

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Camera-ZORKI-LUNOKHOD-1-USSR-1970-YEAR-s-n-003-100-/151454027793?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item23435d1011

Will

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Originally posted by Will

What about this Zorki 1

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Camera-ZORKI-LUNOKHOD-1-USSR-1970-YEAR-s-n-003-100-/151454027793?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item23435d1011

Will

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This was a Fed before it was fresh painted, now it's only a fantasy. It's not new, nobody can build this new for only 149USD.

It's certainly not my type of camera.

Will

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Originally posted by Will

It's certainly not my type of camera.

Will

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I don't prefer this fantasy types either. The numbers of original Feds are getting less day by day.