My students often bemoan the fact that photography is an expensive pastime. And I agree. Buying a great DSLR and a couple of good (not kit) lenses can easily put you over the $1,000 mark. If you’re in the market for pro-caliber equipment, be prepared to spend $5,000 and up for a body and a few “luxury-series” lenses. Without any frame of reference it’s easy for folks to assume that prices are high because of the technology that goes into creating these tools. But good cameras and good lenses have always been expensive.
Take the Canon AE-1, for example. It is probably one of the most famous cameras ever. Chances are you know somebody who had one, or whose parents had one, and maybe their grandparents, too. Much like Canon’s Rebel-series today, the AE-1 was just as ubiquitous.
According to an ad in the back of a 1979 issue of Modern Photography magazine, the list price for an AE-1 body by itself was $329. For most of us, that sounds like a price we’d be more than willing to pay over what our options are now. But also for most of us, we tend to look at those past prices in a nostalgic manner that completely ignores inflation and its effects. And if we want to make an accurate comparison, we need to adjust for this.
According to the American Institute for Economic Research’s Cost of Living Calculator, $329 in 1979 is the same as $1114.94 in 2017. And that seems to reflect what we see in today’s camera prices.
What can we get for $1100 today?
If you look at prices for “body-only”, then you could get a Nikon D7200 body for that much. A Canon 80D and Sony a77 II can be had for just about the same. But you should also note that you can get a Nikon D3300 with a lens for less than $500. And you can get a Canon Rebel T6 with lens for less than $550.
So, for about half the cost of what an old AE-1 would have cost your parents (or grandparents), you can get a decent camera and lens combo. Add to this the fact that you won’t ever have to pay for film and processing and this hobby of ours is looking more frugal by the minute!
By the way, one of my ongoing projects is aggregating original price data for classic cameras and photographic equipment. If you’re a collector – or happen to have an old camera or two – you may be interested in checking out the Original Price Reference. It’ll never be complete, but I add to it weekly.
Vintage Camera Digest 