Zi Jin Shan
The Zi Jin Shan ('Purple Mountain' or 'Purple-gold Mountain')[1] is a 35mm single-lens reflex camera made in about 1959 in China.[2] It is metal-bodied with chrome plating, and black leatherette on the body (and leather panels on the prism housing). It is rather similar to the original Zenit of 1952;[3] perhaps a little narrower, and the prism housing is different (more pyramidal, like that of an Kine Exakta or Miranda). Like the Zenit, it has a 39mm lens-mount, and the lens is similar in appearance to the rigid-bodied Industar-22; compact, with a focusing tab, and with the aperture ring at the front (and the aperture scale on the front, not visible to the photographer without turning the camera round).
The camera has a focal-plane shutter with speeds 1/25 - 1/500 second, plus 'B'. The shutter-speed control is like that of the Leica shutter (or the Zenit), but is placed inconveniently close to the prism. The camera has a knob for film advance, with a frame-counter. There is a small button set in the top plate to release the film for rewinding. There is a PC socket for flash synchronisation next to the rewind knob. The camera has a delayed-action lever on the front.
The camera's name is embossed above the lens mount, in highly-stylised Chinese text. 'ZI JIN SHANG' appears below this, with (presumably a model number) 'Z 135-I', Below this in clearer Chinese characters, is '南京电机械厂' (Nanjing Electric Machinery Factory).
Notes
- ↑ The camera is named for a mountain on the eastern side of the city of Nanjing. The phrase 'purple gold' means copper, and may refer to the copper colour of rocks on the mountain.
- ↑ Zi Jin Shan, version 2 according to the auctioneer's notes, with lens and leather case, offered for sale at the 39th Leitz Photographica Auction, on 20 November 2021; several excellent pictures of the camera.
- ↑ Indeed, Vladimir Zverev states that this and several other Chinese cameras were produced with active assistance from Soviet producers; see Soviet-Chinese Camera Collaboration - the Birth of a Giant, a blog post at Kosmofoto.com.
