{"id":19337,"date":"2020-12-09T04:46:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T08:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=19337"},"modified":"2020-12-08T01:22:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T05:22:31","slug":"typewriters-and-cameras-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/typewriters-and-cameras-really\/","title":{"rendered":"typewriters and cameras? really?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

LIFE magazine ad for a typewriter and camera<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. When I was a kid, a popular saying was that “a picture is worth a thousand words<\/a>“. \u00a0In the late 1960s, there were two big ideas in amateur cameras: Super 8 home movies, and 16mm sub-miniature cameras. By then colour photos were a growing portion of \u00a0films and prints. Film resolution had improved to the point that both super 8 for movies and 16mm rolls for stills were both practical and desirable.<\/p>\n

To attract a wider clientele for its portable typewriters, Smith-Corona<\/a> offered a huge discount on a camera when one bought their electric or manual model. This pp18-19 June 27, 1969 ad in LIFE<\/a> is typical of the strategy manufacturers of the day used to gain market share: link your product to a non competitive but desirable product at a deep discount. In this case, buy a Smith-Corona typewriter for your student and get a cheap (low end) movie or still camera for a few dollars more.<\/p>\n

Within two decades, the typewriter was dead or dying – replaced by the ubiquitous computer. In business, the word processing system replaced typing pools. At home, the computers and printers of the day replaced the personal typewriter. Such is history.<\/p>\n

Thanks to my old friend George Dunbar for sharing this ad with me. George spotted it while researching photographic history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. When I was a kid, a popular saying was that “a picture is worth a thousand words“. \u00a0In the late 1960s, there were two big ideas in amateur cameras: Super 8 home movies, and 16mm sub-miniature cameras. By then … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[973,195,425,308,3434,1852,3433,3432],"class_list":["post-19337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-advertisement","tag-ansco","tag-life","tag-minolta","tag-smith-corona","tag-sub-miniature","tag-super-8-movies","tag-typewriter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19341,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337\/revisions\/19341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}