Shanghai 58

Shanghai 58 II image by Canadian Pacific (Image rights)

The Shanghai 58 is a Leica copy made from 1958 by the Shanghai Camera Company (later Seagull). The Shanghai 58-II is an improved model made about a year after the original. The Shanghai models were manufactured over a five-year period.

The 58-II has combined rangefinder and viewfinder, very similar to those found in the rangefinder/viewfinder mechanisms in Canon and FED/Zorki cameras. Comparing the internal mechanisms of the Shanghai 58-II RF/VF will reveal striking similarities, albeit with much simplification, with the Canon III/IV or the FED-2 RF/VF.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.

The later versions were made without the strap lugs, and on the last version also the dioptre adjustment was eliminated, all in order to simplify production or perhaps to reduce production costs.

The "58" referred to the year 1958 - the year of the "Great Leap Forward" (大跃进) campaign of the People's Republic of China. The "58" was also used in other Chinese goods from that period, from watches to cars.

More Images

Shanghai 58 II image by je245 (Image rights)

With clip-on lightmeter image by je245 (Image rights)

Bibliography

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

Links

Examples sold at auction:

• Shanghai 58 serial no. 5 872 204, sold at the auction Photographica 10 by Rahn AG on 29 November 2009.
• Lot of three Leica copies, including Shanghai 58 II serial no. 5852948, sold at the 24th Westlicht Photographica Auction in November 2013.