Great Wall

image by Mark O'Brien (Image rights)

Great Wall was a camera brand name used by the Beijing Camera Factory. This factory got its name after it tried to launch its spring-motor driven rangefinder camera as Beijing SZ-1. The government had doubts that the camera name given by the half state-owned company Da Lai could offend the camera factory workers of Shanghai. Da Lai had roots in the pre-revolution era as the Da Lai Precision Machine Shop. After complete take-over by the state the company was renamed to Beijing Camera Factory and its camera models were renamed. After a while all its products got the brand name Great Wall.

Cameras

• Rainbow (Ricohflex copy), prototype was Da Lai TLR
• Temple Of Heaven (Ricohflex VIIS copy)
• Great Wall SZ-1 (35mm rangefinder), hand-made 12-piece pilot series was Beijing SZ-1
• Great Leap (Pionyr copy)
• Great Wall 35 (Rollei 35 copy) (only 5 were made)
• Great Wall DF (medium format SLR)
• Great Wall PF-1 (SLR in compact camera style)

Links

In Chinese :

• Great Wall at Chinesecamera.org (archived)