[ChrisPlatt]

Popular Photography 1/81 - 12/08:
https://books.google.com/books?id=rzH31j84pn8C&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1

American Photographer 1/89 - 12/08:
https://books.google.com/books?id=UPL5T7YyEy8C&dq=photo+magazine&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1&atm_aiy=1980#all_issues_anchor

Chris

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Last edited by ChrisPlatt; 09-15-2019 at 04:23 PM.

[normhead]

Popular Photography - Google Books

For those who want the copy my favourite composition article is from, there it is. Also some Pentax ads for those of you who have forgotten what they used to look like.

It's been posted on the forum many times.

[ismaelg]

Cool! I found the ad when I bought my first K1000 in 1989!

[stevebrot]

Wow! I had forgotten about the cigarette ads and was gratified to find the Camera's West ad that I used to purchase my original Ricoh XR7,* Tamron 28/2.5 (02B), and Tamron 70-150/3.5 (20A). The XR7 was ordered with the XR Rikenon 50/1.7, but a Pentax-M 50/1.7 was substituted. This was fine with me, though strangely enough the XR7 was kitted that way by Ricoh in the factory-sealed packaging. Go figure.


Steve

* That camera's mirror box was munged by a defective Zenitar fisheye...still not happy about it, though those things happen when couplings go wrong.

[D1N0]

Wow the sheer amount of advertising is mind boggling.

[ChrisPlatt]

FWIW many (most?) of those mail order dealers were pretty unscrupulous.

Those published prices were seldom honored. They were invariably higher when you called or visited.
Further they would often use "bait and switch", e.g. substituting cheaper third party lenses in outfits.

It's fun to see those old ads for all that film gear, but I definitely don't miss those clip joints!

Chris

[stevebrot]

FWIW many (most?) of those mail order dealers were pretty unscrupulous.

I got caught once on the bait and switch and learned to read the descriptions carefully and to confirm all items and prices and whether the items were from the authorized distributors (U.S. warranty). On the flip side, I have stated on this site that "Abe's of Maine" has never been in Maine. Paging through the ads reminded me that there used to be several mail-order camera shops located in Maine and that Abe's was one of them. Those are all gone and Abe's is currently in N. Jersey. It makes one wonder if Maine changed their consumer protection law or some-such.


Steve

[Not a Number]

Camera West (out of business within the last 5 years), B&H and Adorama were all companies I bought from back in the 80s without any problems. Many of the other NY advertisers were a bit shady.

Plenty of brick and mortar stores in the Los Angeles area at the time, maybe only 3 or 4 still in business today.

[35mmfilmfan]

Fascinating ! Does anyone know of a similar archive for UK photo / camera magazines, please ?

[gofour3]

The old Pentax & Kodak ads are great! I'd be in heaven if Kodak had these films available now.

Thanks for the links.

Phil.