What was the price of a brand-new Praktica Super TL 1000?

Question

I've recently found a Praktica Super TL 1000 in a second-hand shop and bought it for a small amount of money. The light sensor doesn't work but with some tuning of the manual settings I'm getting decent pictures.

Googling around about its original price didn't get me far, so I wanted to ask here whether anyone knows what was the price (or price range) of this camera in the '80s.

Any further information is greatly appreciated (e.g. how many items are left nowadays, how to retrieve the year of production given the serial number, etc).

My camera has a leather cover, not a plastic one (as shown in the brochure and manual linked above). The lens is a Pentacon 50mm f/1.8.

Answer 1

According to my father, he bought the above stated Praktica for 350 D-Mark (the currency here in Germany during that time).

This may be a "tad" too late, but I guess it might help anyone interested in buying a used one.

Answer 2

I bought a Nikon FM around 1980 for about $200-250, which might have been a bit on the high side for a consumer camera. A professional camera like the F3 would have been $400-500. So $200 seems a good guess, which is $500 or so in today's dollars.

As for serial numbers (and a lot of information on price and history) there is a wealth of information at Mike's Praktica Collection

Answer 3

I purchased my TL 1000 in 1980 from Dixon's and the basic price with the lens was £49.00, the same price as an Olympus trip back then. I may be a little late with this but it may help in the future. All the best.

Answer 4

I bought one today, and I kid you not, it still had its pricetag. R149 - that is South African Rand. In those days the ZAR was trading at R1 to the USD.

Answer 5

I have bought a Praktica super Tl1000 in 1980, and I have paid 14.000 pesetas (actually about 84 €). Great camera.