UK camera trading in the 1950's

[Stephen]

Whilst looking up an old Wallace Heaton Blue Book, the famous catalogue that the London based retailer published each year, I noticed a few details, and started a bit of research into the availability and pricing of cameras in the early 1950's.

The 1940's are easy, the war, and then a total ban on imports after the war during Mr Attlee's Government.
Changes came by 1953, and the Coronation period, and restrictions became less severe, as Mr Churchill and Mr Eden came to power.

The 1954 Blue Book still shows a total ban on Leica and Rollei, unless a "Priority" requirement, but many German makers are in the list, Zeiss, Agfa, Adox, including East German Balda. No 35 mm reflexes except Rectaflex, Alpa, and Wrayflex, and the only Leica clone was the Reid. The Periflex was on sale though.

Most of the cameras are still roll film, both UK and German. Both Hassleblad and Minox are listed.

There are no Japanese products at all, these started when Mr Strasser of Photopia brought in Minolta cameras in 1959.

Virtually no separate lenses are listed, except for cameras closely associated with the model like Paxette, AKA, Futura etc.

Prices are all inclusive of Purchase Tax and import duty and no discounts were allowed by law as retail price maintenance was very strictly enforced.

Outside Heaton, one major make, Exakta was imported by Ken Corfield of Periflex fame,

Now does anybody have the 1955 0nwards til about 65 to trace the makes available and lenses available?

Stephen.

[philbirch]

I'll have a look in Real camera next time I'm in Manchester.

[Stephen]

Very noticeable in 1954 is the absence of Pentacon, and the Practica brand from Wallace Heaton. These were imported by CZ (Instruments) Ltd., of Borehamwood North London, by the mid 1960's, who were supported by the East German government to an extent.

So were any East German Contax or early Pentacon ever sold here? Once the Practica brand became known here in the mid 1960's it became a dominant force. The L series was very popular, our shop stocked hundreds at a time. CZ (Ins) ltd., took over the Exakta brand at the time Pentacon absorbed the old Ihagee company into state ownership.

Edixa are in the Blue book,the importer though was Charlie Strasser of Photopia, Newcastle, Edixa were an early success with them, but reps reported Edixa were very slow with deliveries.

It was 1960 before any Japanese cameras appeared here, Asahi Pentax were about the first reflex in smaller shops, with Photopia distributing Minolta.

Charles Strasser was a friend of the owner of Dixons, Stanley Kalms, and Kalms bought the rights to Miranda in Europe, with importing handled by Strasser.

By 1965 Rank Photographic were selling Mamiya as a Rank brand in the UK.

It seems the first Russian camera imported was the Lubitel, which came via Photopia at first, but then the Russians themselves stepped in to market cameras direct in the UK. They set up an importer, TOE (UK)Ltd., owned wholly by the Russian Embassy.

Another company involved with importing were Hunters who imported Rollei from the 1930's onwards. They faced huge restrictions after the war till 1962 when quotas and restrictions were finally dropped.

The Blue books are regularly on ebay, but are a bit costly to get a set to say the least!

Stephen.

[philbirch]

I have a Hunter 35 camera, a German model imported by Hunters in or about 1957. A nice little camera and quite simple to use. Also known as the Steinette it has a Steiner lens. This camera was widely advertised so perhaps because it had a British name it got round any import restrictions.?


I thought I had a scanned ad for it but I can't find it.

[Stephen]

It appears the import restrictions were two fold, at one point about 1950 it is quoted that any camera could be imported if it's value was lower than £5.10s 0d including the cost of importing and insurance. Anything over and it was restricted, the total value of the model sold must not exceed £15,000 per year etc, and the Board of trade set the band and value.

I am not sure if the £5.10s was trade net or retail value, which was strictly price maintained, no discounts.

Restricted meant only "priority" users, and basically you ordered the camera and waited on the list till the next allocation by the Board of Trade. However you could appeal against the board, and get a personal import at very much higher tax rates.

It was common to find Hunters, Heaton, or Boots names on cameras from Germany.
By 1957 in theory, the restrictions were over, but no Japanese cameras appeared till 1960. Purchase tax was put up on luxury goods in 1957 anyway.

Stephen.

[philbirch]

From 'Cameras The facts 1957' a book that I've been scanning. An introduction touching on this subject. I've got more in a BPJ annual, I'll scan that in too for a 50's perspective.

[Stephen]

I'd like to find out who started discounting camera retail prices, it must have been Stanley Kalms or Charles Strasser. Kalms owned Dixons and Wallace Heaton, and Strasser was owner of Photopia who imported cameras.

Strasser had used "tricks" to import cameras, completely legal, but odd things like ordering Edixa cameras without rangefinders to get them under the tax fence, and fitting the rangefinders in the UK!

It must have been the early 1970's before discount shops like Mr Cad. But what had gone on in the late 1950's and the 1960's.

Smaller private shops relied on retail price maintenance, but began giving cases as part of a deal, and offering a free film and processing with cameras. The receipt would show the RPM prices and tax of course.

RPM was abolished in 1964 in the food trade, books remained covered, but I assume cameras came out of the restrictions.

Do later 1950's and early 60's Blue Books feature lenses for cameras more? I remember camera shops full of lenses but many were secondhand, new were impossibly expensive. Even Russian lenses were expensive, several weeks wages at the time.

Most smaller shops were stockists of T mount lenses as they only had to stock one or two lenses and a drawer of adaptors to keep the customer happy.

One item the forum does not cover much is Cine, people spent a lot of money on it in those days, a decent Nizo and a projector could set you back months of wages, let alone weeks! We were selling about one a week in about 1971/2, and at Retail prices.

The biggest sales were developing and printing all week, and cameras on Saturdays!

Stephen

[philbirch]

Dec 9, 2014 15:31:27 GMT -5 Stephen said:

The biggest sales were developing and printing all week, and cameras on Saturdays!

Stephen

Our biggest day was Thursday when AP came out, we had about 8 pages of camera ads. In store credit was the biggest aid to sales and most cameras bought were on 2 years credit. I remember filling the forms in - what a tedious process when there was a shop full of customers clamouring to see the Pentax K1000 at £199.

Cine was immensely popular, especially when Kodak brought out the XL range of cameras. Goodbye f2.8 lenses and slow film, here were F1.3 lenses and 160 ASA films. Actually Super 8 Kodachrome 40 ASA film was artificial light balanced and had a filter permanently over the lens knocking the effective speed down to about 25 ASA.

D&P was a major part of the business.