geordifish
Newbie
Hi All
I have just heard from Oleg and am now awaiting the arrival of my repaired and serviced Zorki1D and I got to wondering .What did a Zorki cost in the FSU in 1955?
What proportion of Comrade Joes monthly pay check?
Geordiefish
dOleg
Member
i check my manuals from 1950's with Zorki, and find inscription 765 roubles.
in average salary was from 400 - 600 roubles
in average salary was from 400 - 600 roubles
geordifish
Newbie
Thanks for the info.They must have been a valued possesion
Screwy
All the gear no idea
Wow It makes you wonder how there are so many FSU cameras about if a new one cost you more than you earned in a month .
Paul
It makes you wonder how there are so many FSU cameras about if a new one cost you more than you earned in a month .Paul
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
a new MP with a Summicron is actually cheaper to buy now for most folk in N. America and Western Europe than that Zorki was then in the USSR.
Superbus_
Established
Its a fact that in former socialist countries and in the especially in the USSR almost every basic thing was cheap: energy, food etc. so you could save your money to buy your camera.
On the other hand even when we calculate with this fact I think it was an expensive camera at that time...
What was the price of a smena or skolnyk? I think these cameras were the really cheap ones. I'm positive that later kievs, feds and zorkis were not so expensive and this is the explanation why we can find such a number of these great cameras...
On the other hand even when we calculate with this fact I think it was an expensive camera at that time...
What was the price of a smena or skolnyk? I think these cameras were the really cheap ones. I'm positive that later kievs, feds and zorkis were not so expensive and this is the explanation why we can find such a number of these great cameras...
Jocko
Off With The Pixies
We've discussed this before People often forget how cheap complex goods are now: British dealers in the early 50s charged £35-40 for a (secondhand) FED, which was easily more than the average monthly salary.
Cameras became cheap in the west thanks to the Japanese, but only in the mid-late 60s. For example, the June 6, 1960 Amateur Photographer has a job ad for a scientific photographer at a salary of £262 10s. In the same issue a New Zorki 6 is £23 12s. 7d - in every meaningful sense the same price as in the USSR.
Cheers, Ian
People often forget how cheap complex goods are now: British dealers in the early 50s charged £35-40 for a (secondhand) FED, which was easily more than the average monthly salary. Cameras became cheap in the west thanks to the Japanese, but only in the mid-late 60s. For example, the June 6, 1960 Amateur Photographer has a job ad for a scientific photographer at a salary of £262 10s. In the same issue a New Zorki 6 is £23 12s. 7d - in every meaningful sense the same price as in the USSR.
Cheers, Ian
dee
Well-known
Hey - I paid £200 for a Minolta SRt in the early 70s - and my Citroen Dyane car cost £800 in 1970 - so , no way was a japanese camera inexpensive !
But it's just magic to pick up a Zorki or Fed for pocket money today !
I do rcognise the priviledge of using a camera - Zorki, Fed , or Leica II / IIIc which was such a treasured possession so long ago.
dee
But it's just magic to pick up a Zorki or Fed for pocket money today !
I do rcognise the priviledge of using a camera - Zorki, Fed , or Leica II / IIIc which was such a treasured possession so long ago.
dee
gb hill
Veteran
dOleg...Thats a cool keyboard. Could I learn Russian on that thing?
santino
FSU gear head
In the 70's in Poland you paid more for a Pentacon Six body than for a new middle class car. There was only one camera available that was more expensive, a Hasseblad 500C.
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
xayraa33 said:
you get so much more than 6000$?? where do you live and what's your job?i want to move there!zorroflores
Zorroflores
Just to add that it is great to have dOleg posting directly form the country of origin of the Zorki, first hand information (or rather second hand.. those old manuals really look vintage!)
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
I live in the Great White North and like most people, work very hard, and yes, seven paychecks would cover the cost of an MP and a Summicron, but mortgage payments and car payments and heating costs and food costs, insurance cost, taxes, would all have to wait.Pherdinand said:
trying to explain all that to the family..well not priceless.. more like I would be asking for trouble... now that would be expensive.
zhang xk
Well-known
I wonder what a Contax II cost in the 30's Germany? How many weeks wages of a worker's? They must be expensive because not so many were made. A Kiev II was very expensive in the 1950's China. One could buy a 3-4 rooms country house with the money.
dOleg
Member
gb hill, think no )))) try to say:
Ti mne, ya tebe, sirenevenkaya glazovikolupivatelnuca s poluvilomannimi nojkami...
ZorroFlores - welcome! )))
PS i read Arkhipelag Gulag now... and summ for food to z/k in mounth (convict man) was 10 roubles...
try to say:Ti mne, ya tebe, sirenevenkaya glazovikolupivatelnuca s poluvilomannimi nojkami...
ZorroFlores - welcome! )))
PS i read Arkhipelag Gulag now... and summ for food to z/k in mounth (convict man) was 10 roubles...
andy_v
Established
765 pre-reform roubles in 1955 = 76.5 post-reform(1961) roubles. So, these cameras were not so expensive. I think, less than minimal monthly income of a young engineer or a doctor (I asked my parents).