Monochrom
Well-known
Hi, i was looking the "Illustrazione Italiana" from 28 march 1937 and jumped into a Kodak Retina II ad...full page!!!
Un prodigio di rendimento, di sicurezza, di estetica per la fotografia 35mm
Prices are:
Retina II Ektar f3,5 lire 1200
Retina II Xenon f2.8 Lire 1400
Retina II Xenon f2 lire 1800
Can´t tell how much is today but i can make a parallel between these prices and the song from that time "1000 lire al messe"
That song is about a man who wants to earn that amount of money (L.1000) in order to fulfill his dreams of economical progress and belong to the emergent middle class pro´s...a sweet beautiful wife, a house in the suburbs and every little modern advance of that age....
in my country such dreams would mean tween 3k to 4k dollars a month....
So 1800 lire for the top retina II with Xenon f2 is a lot of money!!!!
Exakta Ihagee ad had a1/10 of a page and chanel nº5 only a half page!
Un prodigio di rendimento, di sicurezza, di estetica per la fotografia 35mm
Prices are:
Retina II Ektar f3,5 lire 1200
Retina II Xenon f2.8 Lire 1400
Retina II Xenon f2 lire 1800
Can´t tell how much is today but i can make a parallel between these prices and the song from that time "1000 lire al messe"
That song is about a man who wants to earn that amount of money (L.1000) in order to fulfill his dreams of economical progress and belong to the emergent middle class pro´s...a sweet beautiful wife, a house in the suburbs and every little modern advance of that age....
in my country such dreams would mean tween 3k to 4k dollars a month....
So 1800 lire for the top retina II with Xenon f2 is a lot of money!!!!
Exakta Ihagee ad had a1/10 of a page and chanel nº5 only a half page!
RichL
Well-known
According to the the Italian national statistical bureau one 1937 Lira was equal to 1386.6 Lira in 1998. Also in 1998 1 lira was equal to 6.60 us dollars.
However you figure it, it was bunches of money
However you figure it, it was bunches of money
Tijmendal
Young photog
That would come in at over 20.000$... Damn.
Dez
Bodger Extraordinaire
I think you have a wandering decimal point there. I think 1 Lira was around 0.06 cents, or $0.0006 around 1998.
Cheers,
Dez
Monochrom
Well-known
i guess there are a lot to say about convertion from lire to dollars...that´s why i quoted the song to give an idea of what could be bought with such amount...and as someone said it´s a bunch of dollars
to give an idea of what could be bought with such amount...and as someone said it´s a bunch of dollars 
nparsons13
Well-known
"Italian lira" in Wikipedia says the tourist exchange rate in Italy was set in 1936 to 24.89 to the US dollar. According to the inflation calculator (http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/), the 1936 dollar was the equivalent of $16.75 today. So the cost of a late-thirties Retina II with the Xenon f/2 would have been about $1,211 in 2013 dollars--give or take differences in inflation and devaluation between 1936 and 1937.