Zorki 1 price going up?

jcline

jcline

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There is a Zorki 1 at a local shop sitting next to a Leica IIc, a couple IIIc's and a couple IIIf's. The Zorki 1 complete with lens and yellow filter they wanted $270 for the zorki! The IIc + elmar was only $240 (wobbly shutter knob, AS IS), and for $399 you could have a great IIIf no lens. I didn't handle the zorki, though maybe I should have, just to find out what a $270 zorki feels like. :rolleyes: I mean come on now, its not even a gold one! :p
 
Nope, zorki through and through. Don't get me wrong it was a nice looking camera... I would say they were trying to pull a fast one, but no one there really knew about the leica's either.
 
Very tempting actually! But now that I've been bitten by the FSU bug, I'll want to try a variety. Probably a Zorki 4 after my zorki 1 arives. I have this feeling I won't know if I should line them all up in a row or hide them everywhere... Someone will be at my place having a beer or watching a movie, and WAM I'll pull a FED out from between the seat cushions and take your picture.

By the way, beware being sick, its much to easy to sit on evilbay and droll at everything, especially with RFF being up and down. Thank goodness for the new server, and for feeling well enough to get out of the house!
 
$270? Heck, that's a bargain at twice the price. :rolleyes:
"I didn't handle the zorki, though maybe I should have, just to find out what a $270 zorki feels like."
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Let me see ~ Yeah, I've got several Zorki.1s that feel like at least $270. But hey, for a fellow RFFer, I'd let just one go for, say, $250. Actually, I think Wayne might have one or two that feel like $270, right Wayne? gabrielma, how 'bout you? (Back me up here guys... ;) opportunity knocks. )
 
Now you know what it's like to Live in Britain! The £125 Zorki is by no means unknown in our splendid camera shops, but it was ever thus :) In the July 1956 British edition of Popular Photography there's a picture of the second-hand window of a London camera dealer, offering a FED at £39.6.6 ($111) or £700.00 (c.$1200) in modern terms! Gentlemen, your Zorkis are gravely underpriced!

For the record, a second-hand Leica IIc with a coated elmar was £69.0.0/$192 (£1213/$2062). Makes you want to kiss e-bay, doesn't it? :D

Ian
 
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Don't forget that before the break up of the Soviet Union, Soviet cameras were rare in the USA and expensive. If you go to the sad remnant of Olden Camera in NYC you will see Soviet 35mm RF cameras with 25 year old price tags reading $400-450! When the flood started through eBay I bought far too many as they seem almost "free" to me.

Michael
 
outfitter said:
Don't forget that before the break up of the Soviet Union, Soviet cameras were rare in the USA and expensive. If you go to the sad remnant of Olden Camera in NYC you will see Soviet 35mm RF cameras with 25 year old price tags reading $400-450! When the flood started through eBay I bought far too many as they seem almost "free" to me.

Michael
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I came to e-bay fairly late - but yes indeed!

It's startling to think how expensive photography was. In the mid 50s £10.00 a week was a "respectable" wage and most families had only one income. Imagine if we now had to pay a considerably more-than-Leica-M7 price for a Voigtlander Bessa - but that's how it was.

When the first Fed 2s ("as shown at the Russian Trade Exhibition") were imported to the UK in 1961/2 they probably were "amazing value" at £26.12 with erc - and, as the adverts pointed out, were something of a technological triumph "from the country that sent a man 17 times round the earth"!

Thank you Japanese photographic industry - otherwise I'd still be saving for a Brownie 127 :D

Ian
 
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Ian/Michael ~ Interesting input guys. Thanks for sharing. The history of FSU gear is part of the enjoyment for me, so any tidbits about "back-in-the-day" always makes me sit up a pay attention. :cool:
 
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