You can afford a Leica

I can?

Amongst all of our Leica manuals and product catalogs we have stored away in the filing cabinet down the hall, I came across this brochure from what I guess to be 1934.  Inside it shows That you can buy a Leica Model D with a 50mm f/3.5 Elmar for a mere $110.  Sacrifice the built in rangefinder and it would make a Leica Model E and would set you back a mere $78.  Or, you can go for the "Ultimate Leica," the Model F.  The F features a "one full measured second" shutter speed and comes with a cable release for a whopping $130.

No Leica has ever become obsolete.  I guess that's pretty fair even today.  Why, in 1934 they would use a photograph of a chimp holding a baby to emphasize that point, is beyond me.  Anyway, if you couldn't afford the Leica D or F, you could buy the E and have it upgraded when you had enough money.  That's pretty cool.  I doubt Leica was nearly as expensive back then as it is for every little thing today, but I wonder what the cost to upgrade was.