Last night I was looking at the directory in the photo and I got to wondering how the price of photography would compare to what we experience today. According to the Dollar Times calculator one dollar from 1955 would be equal to $8.45 today.
One of the most basic needs for every photographer in 1955 would be for film.
| Film | 1955 | 2012 |
|---|---|---|
| Tri-X 20 exp | $2.50 | $21.54 |
| Kodachrome* 20 exp | $9.75 | $82.38 |
| Ektachrome 20 exp | $5.65 | $47.74 |
| Anscocolor* 20 exp | $1.98 | $16.73 |
I am wondering if there isn't something wrong with my cost comparison here, however this is the result of running some of the prices for mail order film through the inflation calculator. Like today you could save some money by buying bulk film. I saw one ad for a 100 feet of Tri-X for $3.98. That would come out to $33.63 in today's dollars. That's a deal I would jump at since Tri-X usually is more than $50 for a hundred feet these days. My best guess about film prices is that color film was probably much more expensive than color film is today. I can remember reading in a few places that one of the reasons the half-frame cameras became popular in the 1960's was that color film for 35mm had improved enough that a half-frame could produce a decent enlargement. Combine that with high prices for color film and a camera that could double your images had major appeal. As color film prices fell in the late 1960's so did the appeal of the half-frame camera.
So it would look like the photographer of the 1950's paid a lot more if he wanted color images than we do today. I imagine that is why I don't see many color pictures from that time.
I think I will stop here with just a look at cameras and film from 1955. Its an interesting period to me since it is a couple of decades before I got seriously into photography. Probably it is the height of the all-mechanical camera manufactured in the West. By the time I came along most camera production had moved to Asia and electronics and plastic was starting to take hold.
Great post. I was thinking not long ago about how much film and processing cost me when I was a kid in the '70s. I remember buying a roll of 620 Kodacolor II for something like $4, or was it $6? I usually bought 126 film, which was less expensive, but I don't remember the price. If I had Hook's Drugs do the processing it was like $7 or $8. So I usually mailed my film to Clark Color Labs, which processed it and sent me prints for maybe $3 or $4. The Clark prints faded much worse than the ones from Hook's.
ReplyDeleteToday I buy Fujicolor 200 in four packs at Meijer for $6 or $8. I can get it processed at CVS and the scans burned to CD for $6. If I buy b/w or medium format, I get it from B&H Photo. The b/w films I use range from $4 to $6 for 35mm. Color and b/w medium format is around $8 for 120, and $12 if I splurge for pre-respooled 620. The Darkroom will process any of it and send me a CD of scans for $14.
For me, film photography is a much better value today than when I was a boy.
I may have to turn this into a post!
I look forward to reading that post. I agree about film photography being a better value today. And it is nice that we can buy a nice assortment of film cameras for so little money. With all the options for image making today I think that we live in a golden age for photography.
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