The Tanack IV-S

Tanack IV-S with 1.8/50mm Canon Lens

      Estimating the value of a specific vintage camera is always interesting. That's because prices rise and fall like yo-yos depending on many factors. Timing is important, and so are the condition of the camera and its availability. Finally, to quote McKeon's Law, "The price of an antique camera is entirely dependent upon the moods of the buyer and seller at the time of the transaction."
      For example, at this writing there are only five listings for this hard-to-find camera on a leading auction site. Four of the listings are for units equipped with either Nikkor or Tanar lenses. The "Buy It Now" prices for those units are $399, $501, $737, and $980.
      The fifth listing offers the Tanack IV-S without a lens for $599. The Collectiblend website suggests a range of $180-$520 for a similar unit. I paid $179 for the flawless camera body shown at the right. I added the Canon 1.8/50mm lens later.
    

Tanack IV-S

Leica IIIb

     At first glance the Tanack closely resembles any of several Barnack Leicas, the IIIb for example. But when you look more closely, you can see the differences.
     For one thing, the rewind knob on the Tanack (black dot) is larger than that of the Leica. And the Tanack's shutter speed dial (yellow dot) is larger and shaped differently from the Leica's shutter speed dial..
      The low speed dial (red dot) on the Tanack reads T 1, 2, 04, 25 with 25 marked in red. On the Leica the low speed dial reads T, 1, 2, 4, 8, 20. The high speeds on the cameras differ as well: 500 on the Tanack and 1000 on the Leica.
      The shutter release  on the Tanack (violet dot, above left) is larger than the Leica's shutter release, and the film advance knobs on the two cameras differ as well. The Tanack knob (green dot) has a film reminder set into its top, but the Leica's knob does not. The Tanack has two synch connections (white dot). The Leica does not provide for flash synchronization. What's more, the Tanack has two black metal bands encircling it from front to back while the Leica remains unadorned.

Tanack IV-S

       Finally, the Tanack is blessed with a swing back for easy film loading. The Leica, unfort-unately, is a bottom loader.
       The Tanack IV-S was manufactured in Japan for two years from 1955-1957.  I couldn't find much information about it on the Internet, but I did discover that with a serial number of 78614 it was probably a later model, of which just 4,000 were produced. Lucky me!





       COMING SOON: The Tower Type 3and Nicca IIIA