Sears camera catalogue

[jim_gibbons]

<p><a href="http://www.retronaut.co/2012/05/seers-camera-catalogue-1961/">http://www.retronaut.co/2012/05/seers-camera-catalogue-1961/</a></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>A wide selection of old camera catalogs, including some Sears ones, in pdf format is also available at http://www.butkus.org/chinon/catalogs_photo.htm .</p>

<p>It's a free download, but if you appreciate his work, make the $3 donation.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>"The Bolex Snorizer helps you put your audience to sleep even more effectively with movies and sound."</p>

[starvy]

<p>I see that that Nikon's were still expensive.</p>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>My research shows the Sears produced their Camera catalogs in the following years:</p>

<p>1903, 1905, 1909<br>

1912, 1913<br>

1920<br>

1938, 1939<br>

1940, 1941<br>

1952, 1953-54, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959<br>

1960, 1961<br>

1976-77, 1977-78. 1978-79<br>

1980-81, 1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1984-85</p>

<p>If anyone knows of any other issues please let me know.</p>

[johnw63]

<p>That $375 Nikon would be $2700 now.</p>

[User_4525289]

<p>Who was a manufacturer of Towers?</p>

[brian_m.1]

<p>Sears made cameras into the 80s?</p>

[mfophotos]

<p>Sears never made their cameras. They were made by other companies and had a Tower logo put on them at the factory. Various companies manufactured them, some from Japan, some from Europe. I suppose in the early days, they were made by Seneca and similar companies.</p>

[ken_l2]

<p>I believe that many of the better Tower cameras were made for Sears by Mamiya and possibly Olympus; other smaller Japanese manufacturers also made cameras for Sears. Of course, the manufacturer would vary between the different models, and from year to year. Montgomery Wards had their own private label cameras made for them, too.</p>

<p>It seems that one could get quite a nice Tower camera at a considerable savings over an equivalent model from the name brands. </p>

<p>Sears never actually 'made' cameras; they just re-badged other cameras with the Sears/Tower label. In the 70s and 80s, many Sears brand SLRs were actually made by Ricoh. </p>

<p>Also, the Minolta SRT-SC II and SRT MC II were special models of the SRT 201 made specifically for Sears (the SC II) and K Mart and JC Penney (the MCII) in the late 70s. As surprising as it seems to us today, places like K Mart actually had somewhat decent photo departments at the time with a selection of low to mid-range SLRs, lenses and accessories. They even sold some darkroom chemicals and papers. Quite unlike the poor selection of mostly low end point & shoots that you'd find at a K Mart or Walmart today. </p>

<p> </p>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>Here is a listing of who made Sears Tower cameras.</p>

<p>http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sears</p>

[subbarayan_prasanna]

<p>I bought my first Praktica PLC2 from a Sears Catalog Store in Memphis, TN in the 1970s. It is working still as accurately as when I bought it. I remember that their prices were competitive with the New York prices of those years, perhaps with better quality control on the goods. Thanks for the post, <strong>Jim. </strong>sp</p>

[jim_jones3]

<p>Marc, I relied much on a Sears photographic catalog in 1962 and 1963, but don't remember the actual date on the catalog.</p>

[lauren_macintosh]

<p>Thank you all for the blast from the past :</p>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>Jim Jones,</p>

<p>Thanks for the info. I will continue my search.</p>

<p>I do know that Montgomery Wards published a photographic catalog continuously from 1938 until 1963. In some ways it was better than the Sears version.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>You can often see these catalogs on ebay, but I've never had the urge to buy one. Some sellers sometimes give a preview so you can get a look. Also, the general catalogs had a camera section which listed their most popular models. I ordered a Sears 127 rollfilm camera that took flashcubes (really an Imperial Cubex) for about 5 dollars around 1967 or so. I still have it. I also have a Wards AM 550 (Konica Auto S2) which is jammed and has a dead rangefinder.</p>

[royall_berndt]

<p>In 1954, the Sears camera catalogue was my drool-over book. </p>