Hi Andrew,
900 GBP in 1995???!!!
And that was "cheap" !!!
In today's money, adjusting for inflation, that's about $4,000 (in US dollars).
Meepzorp
Closer to $2500 today, $1500 then. It does seem absurd, but everything is included in this setup, no lighting or other gadgets needed,
nor is any development needed, it included instant high
quality printing,
nor was any expertise needed (after all I could use it), and it was very compact as compared with alternates (though massive by today's standards). The
price should be compared with the combined cost of a
good SLR with a macro lens plus Danner-style equipment to take care of lighting automatically, or an alternative lighting jig, plus development or darkroom costs, plus the space needed. At the time a full setup to take and print publication
quality photos would have cost significantly more, and today a full setup, to include lighting, and high
quality printing, would
still cost significantly more. The way I factored in the cost was that it was one
Julius Caesar denarius and one pound
per coin thereafter, and needed no expertise and took little space. I was collecting high
quality coins at the time, so the
per coin cost seemed reasonable.
I didn't however count on it being redundant five years later, but then again neither did Kodak (went bankrupt)
nor Polaroid (went bankrupt) so I'm in
good company.