Shanghai 58II

From Camerapedia.org

Picture by Jay Javier. (Image rights)

The Shanghai 58-II is an improved Shanghai 58-I that was a Chinese Leica copy introduced in 1958. It was based on the Leica IIIa. The Shanghai 58-II which was launched about a year after the original, has a combined rangefinder and viewfinder optics, while later versions was made without the strap lugs, and on the last version also the dioptre adjustment was deleted, all in order to reduce production costs. The Shanghai models were manufactured over a five-year period. The "58" referred to the year 1958 - a year of the "Great Leap Forward" campaign of the People's Republic of China. The "58" was also used in other Chinese goods from that period, from watches to cars. The RF cam in the camera is patterned after the fixed teardrop cams found in FED-1 cameras, not the roller wheel found in Leica or Canon cameras.

Douglas St Denny has researched thoroughly the Chinese camera production and presented his results in Cameras of the People's Republic of China (1989).