$2500 for a Pentax Spotmatic F

[jeremy_tok]

I read that the Spotmatic F with a SMC Takumar 50/1.4 cost $600 when

it was introduced in 1974. Using an online inflation calculator, that

$600 is $2500 in 2005 dollars.

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Kinda puts Leica prices into perspective.

<p>

(I love my Spotmatic.)

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<img src="http://www.xitek.com/papers/xixi/spot-image/sp204.jpg">

[stephen_w.]

I remember my dad buying me a Nikon F2 Photomic + 55/1.2 for $550 in 1977 for photo/darkroom class.

[Troll]

More like $125 than $600.

[al_kaplan1]

Going back to about 1961 the Pentax H2 with an f/2 Takumar was $169.95. That was followed by the H1 with an f/2.2 at $149.95 and H3with an f/1.8 at $199.95. Outside of the U.S. they were called S instead of H.

 

Around that same era a Leica M2 body (no self timer) was $199, $249 with a self timer, and an M3 was $288. When the M4 first came out it was the same $288 price as the M3.

[awahlster]

Well in 1976 a Canon AE-1 a then brand spaken new camera on the world market sold mail order for $289.00 w/ 50mm f1.8. An FTb sold for less and a F-1 was only $339.00.

[steve_levine]

In 1966 the Spotmatic with 50mm f1.4 sold for the suggested retail price of $289.00.( source Dec 1966 MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY) According to the same issue's buying guide we find the following prices. Leica M2 w/50f2 summicron sold for $345,with the Elmar F2.8 it was only $276. The M3 is $438 and $357 with the above lens options. An Alpha 9D w/50mm 1.8 Switar sold for $532. The Topcon Super D w/50mm 1.4 was $420.The Nikon f Photomic T w/50mm 1.4 sold for $433.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Jeremy; your price of 600 sounds way too high; maybe even above list price; off by a factor of two or more from the typical mail order prices.. Maybe Canadian dollars ?:) <BR><BR>When I bought a new Nikkormat FTN with 50mm F1.4 Nikkor-SC mulitcoated lens in the fall of 1973; the lowest price was from Olden Camera by mailorder; 301 bucks. The local dealer wanted 450 bucks; and could not get a mulitcoated Nikkor 50mm yet! <BR><BR>The Honeywell Pentax with 50mm F1.4 muliticoated sold then less than my Nikkormat with F1.4 ; but not radically less; maybe 250. <BR><BR>The list price for a Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic F with 50mm f1.4 was 414.50 in 1976; and 491 for a Nikkormat FTN with 50mm F1.4 ; according to the Olden Catalog of 1976.

[stephen_w.]

http://www.aier.org/cgi-aier/colcalculator.cgi

[kelly_flanigan1]

Jeremy; in 1974 the minimum wage was increased to 2 dollars per hour; and the Pentax Spotmatic F with F1.4 was about say 250 by mail order. Thus the fry man at McDonalds required a 125 hours; ie maybe 3 + weeks pay for this beauty; say a month. Gas was say 28 to 33 cents per gallon. 45 percent of ALL wages in 1974 were the 2 dollar per hour minimum wage.

[stephen_w.]

I remember making minimun wage of $2.25 per hour washing dishes and mopping floors at my families restaurant in 1976, sometimes doing a double shift simultaneously when the other did not show up. Did I get paid double? No. The vast majority of my scars are from glass in the silverware soak tray. My parents insisted I learn the business from the bottom to the top. I was a carryout packer at six. I made manager at 19. I even instituted a glass recycling system based on color of the glass, continued to this day, but personal, not in a restaurant.

 

I bought the only new car I ever bought in 1978 for a 1977 Datsun 280Z, and gas was 0.78$ per gallon.

[__jon__]

>Mark Wahlster , may 22, 2005; 08:09 p.m.

 

> brand spaken new camera

 

Is that German?

[jeremy_tok]

It appears that <a href="http://whitemetal.com/pentax/sp_f/sp_f_info.htm" target="_blank">my source</a>

is mistaken. Here's Steve's data in tabular form:

 

<p>

<table border width=400>

<caption align=top >Source: Modern Photography Dec 1966</caption>

<tr>

<th width=30%>Camera</th><th>List Price Dec 1966 (in US$)</th><th>Extrapolated Price 2005 (in US$)</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Leica M2 w/ Elmar 50mm F2.8</td><td align=center>276</td><td align=center>1641</td>

</TR>

<tr>

<td>w/ Summicron 50mm f2.0</TD><td align=center>345</td><td align=center>2051</TD>

</TR>

<tr>

<td>Pentax Spotmatic SP w/ 50mm f1.4</td><td align=center>289</td><td align=center>1718</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Leica M3 w/ Elmar 50mm f2.8</TD><td align=center>357</TD><td align=center>2122</TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<td>Leica M3 w/ Summicron 50mm f2.0</td><td align=center>438</TD><td align=center>2604</TD>

</TR>

<tr>

<td>Topcon Super D w/ 50mm f1.4</TD><td align=center>420</td><td align=center>2497</Td>

</TR>

<tr>

<td>Nikon Photomic w/ 50mm f1.4</TD><td align=center>433</TD><td align=center>2574</TD>

</TR>

<tr>

<td>Alpa 9D w/ Switar 50mm f1.8</TD><td align=center>532</td><td align=center>3162</TD>

</table>

[kelly_flanigan1]

The 1973 to 1974 prices can vary alot in many items. Gasoline in the USA jumped from 30 cents to about 50 in this period. Consumer items tied to plastics radically went up in prices.<BR><BR> Gasoline was about 59 to cents in the Spring of 1979 in the Midwest; the skyrocket over a 100 cents in the summer of 1979. <BR><BR>In the early 1970's some gasoline was still 25 cents at the cheaper places; and they pumped you gas too. Remember the free road maps; free drinking glasses with a fillup?<BR><BR>Many gas stations places started the "self serve pumps" with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973/74; as a way to control costs. A weird side effect was the natural gas pressure in some towns dropped to zero; and relighting the pilot lights; cold morning showers happened sometimes. One house I lived in had a hot water heater in the other side of the attic; one had to stoop down and go monkey like to the other side of the attic; and light the pilot; which might last for a week. The embargo started in October 1973; about when I bought my Nikkormat. Some places rationed gasoline; odd plates odd dates; even plates even days.

[awahlster]

Jon, I want to thank you for following me around looking out for me I don't know what I would do without you!

 

And no "Spaken" is not German as I used it, it is in fact a typographical error. I type a bit faster then my proof reading which I rarely bother with.

 

If you are unable to understand my message as writen you have my permission to completely skip anything posted after my name.

 

Glad to be of service.

[jeremy_tok]

<img src="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/jmtok/streaming.jpg">

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<img src="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/jmtok/smile.jpg">

[jeremy_tok]

Both taken at Hamburg's Fish Market on a Sunday morning.

[graham_line]

If I still had credit card slips from 1974 I could tell you; I bought a pair of new Spotmatic F's in 1974-75 from Robert Waxman Camera in Denver, probably for about the price Kelly Flanigan quotes.

 

Nikons were quite a bit more, the FM was three years in the future, and at the time, my paper in Idaho was paying something like $140 a week. The Spots and SMCT lenses were excellent; they paid for themselves over and over again.

 

My new '74 Opel 1900, bought as a leftover early in 1975, cost me $2600 and ran well past 140K.

[andy m.]

Beautiful Spotmatic images, Jeremy. I must get myself a Spotmatic ;-)

 

I always loved the Pentax MX- my first serious camera. Lenses alsways seemed highly flare-resistant.

 

Cheers, A

[stephen_kruft]

For what it's worth, my first Spotmatic around 1966-67, which I think I still have around, was $249 with a 50mm f1.4. So was a used Rollei 2.8F Planar in truly mint condition at the same time, which I wish I had. I also have a Spotmatic II box with a price tag of $249.99. That was with the f1.8.

[tom_halfhill]

My Java applet inflation calculator, updated annually:

<p>

<a href="http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html">Tom's Inflation Calculator</a>

[jack_lo_..._t_o]

Spotmatic's a damn nice camera. They had the small easy handling thing down years before Olympus did. Good lenses too.

 

I bought my Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL(yecch) for $169.00 plus taxes in 1969, at Olden Camera, for which price I could have gotten a Spotmatic, whose metering system was then considered out of date. I think Nikkormats and SRTs and Canon TL-QLs were about $20 more. They had a deal that week on Exakta VXIIas + 3 lenses at that price ($169), but they did not have a solid feel, to me, then.

 

The salesman there had the face and personlity of a dying goldfish, and wasn't much help. I went to Olden's for the prices rather than to my pal Hank Greenberg at Willoughby's, whose home-runs were one liners, but who also knew his stuff.

 

The Mamiya had a good lens, but handled like a truck with a low front tire and a cluttered viewing screen. I forget how much they gave me in trade for my IIIf.

[summitar]

In April of 1967, I bought a brand new Canon FT-QL with a 50 mm f/1.8 FL lens for $65. It was marked down from $75 because the mirror was in the locked up position and the counter manager at the Military Exchange in Saigon thought the camera was broken. At that same time, Pentax Spotamtics with 50 mm f/1.4 lens were going for about $110. A Konica Auto S2 was selling for $35.

[stephen_gilbert1]

in 1968, as a freshman in college, i took my student loan money over to willoughby's and

purchased a pentax spotmatic w/ 50mm 1.4 for the princely sum of $250.00. i still have it

and it still works.