A perfect Christmas

[Jan Van Laethem]

I've added another Nikon ad to my small collection.

"Nikon will make your Christmas photographically perfect."

(see the first ad in the link below)

http://www.treefrog.be/photography/RF_ads.php

Wouldn't we all be happy with a few of the listed items ?

 

[gb hill]

the camera wasn't cheap was it? I wonder why it didn't gain popularity like the leica M's did. I'd love to have one none the less.

 

[James24]

"Nikon will make your Christmas photographically perfect."

I'm not sure about perfect but they've been doing a pretty good job all these years.

 

[bonatto]

I'd buy one for $345!

 

[Vics]

That's a really nice collection you have there. Merry Christmas!

 

[L David Tomei]

Out of curiosity, I checked one of the sites that calculates historical prices. The $345 price for the Nikon with the f1.4 in 1952 is equivalent to $2997.00 in todays money (cfhttp://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=345&year1=1952&year2=2012). The prices appear to be close to the prices of a good Nikon today.

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

The $345 price for the Nikon with the f1.4 in 1952 is equivalent to $2997.00 in todays money.

Thanks for that, it certainly puts things in perspective. Getting into the Nikon system or into a comparable system of another manufacturer back in the 1950s meant a considerable amount of one's income / savings.

Not much different than today.

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

That's a really nice collection you have there. Merry Christmas!

Thanks Vics. It all started here, looking at these vintage ads made me curious about the Nikon rangefinders. Bob Rotoloni's book did the rest, as well as a little "help" from fellow RFF members. 😀

Merry Christmas.

 

[Range-rover]

Great ads thank you for sharing, I liked it when it said better pictures tomorrow!
they still do.

Range

 

[shadowfox]

Jan, what a neat collection of vintage ads.
Thanks for sharing this with the world.

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

Another SP ad

Another SP ad

I've added a new SP ad here :

http://www.treefrog.be/photography/RF_ads.php

You couldn't travel incognito with your SP back in 1958, or at least that is what the ad wants us to believe, and I don't think you'll travel incognito today either.

 

[oftheherd]

That sure was a young looking Peter Gowland!

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting link. I love the demonstration of the "Kiev" grip.

gb hill wondered why they didn't catch on. They were Japanese at a time when the Japanese still had a reputation of cheap immitations; that might be part of it. The price certainly didn't help. But I have read that the Nikon and Canon RF gained a lot of popularity with war correspondents as useful and tough without exposing their Leica or Contax cameras to the regors of combat in Korea.

 

[Highway 61]

I've added a new SP ad here :

http://www.treefrog.be/photography/RF_ads.php

You couldn't travel incognito with your SP back in 1958, or at least that is what the ad wants us to believe, and I don't think you'll travel incognito today either.

Haha, I have an original copy of that Cristoforo Colombo's Nikon SP "Che bella !" ad (still have to frame it, though).

I do confirm that travelling with a Nikon SP nowadays still gathers other people's attention. 😉