Great Wall Plastic Factory Banner (N° W20A) |
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Manufactured or assembled in Hong-Kong from (Circa) 1965 to (After) 1965.
Index of rarity in France: Frequent (among non-specialized garage sales)
Inventory number: 3130
See the complete technical specifications
Chronology of cameras Great Wall Plastic Factory
The company that manufactured this camera was based in Hong Kong, an English colony, but also produced in Macao, a Portuguese colony. Their very low-cost cameras were exported to the United States and Europe, where they mostly became promotional gifts. The most famous of this production was the Diana, which by metonymy gave its name to this type of camera. Great Wall Plastic Factory produced dozens of different models, and increased their number simply by changing the name. Some of them had what looked like a reference number.
Made entirely of plastic, including the lens, they had many manufacturing defects. Mobile parts like the back often fit poorly into the rest of the camera, causing light leaks. The film advance was sometimes uneven. The lens produced poor results, such as blurriness, aberrations, distortions, etc. The results were unexpected. This was enough to create a fashion trend in the 1990s, to the point that the company Lomography produced modern copies of these cameras in the 2000s and started selling cameras that could be found for just a few francs a few years earlier at flea markets. It should be noted that Lomography's attempt to trademark the name Diana was rejected by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) because it deemed the name to be used generically for a certain type of device and could not be applied as a trademark.
Some types of cameras include:
Id number | Some models | Shutter release | Flash | Winding knob | ||
151 or W20A | ![]() |
Diana Banier Banner Altic Lina |
On the lens | No | on the right side | This is the archetype of the Diana Type, often two-tone. |
808 | ![]() |
Debonair | On the lens | No | on the right side | Derivative of the Diana. Different lens barrel. |
162 | ![]() |
Diana-F | On the lens | Double pin on the top | on the right side | like Diana except for the flash |
7031 | ![]() |
Asiana | On the lens | No | on the right side | Top housing incorporating a fake light meter window |
W20 | ![]() |
Anny | On the lens | No | on the right side | Top housing incorporating a fake light meter window |
155 | ![]() |
Dana Diana De Luxe |
Sur le capot | Flash bulb socket | left side | fake light meter |
W373 | ![]() |
Banner Deluxe Leader Camera |
On the lens | No | left side | fake light meter around viewfinder |
? | ![]() |
Photon | Sur le capot | Flash bulb socket | left side | |
? | ![]() |
Revue 4 x 4 | On the lens | No | on the right side | fake light meter around lens |
Cet exemplaire a perdu le petit enjoliveur sur le bouton d'avancement du film et l'anneau chromé autour de l'objectif.
Notez que le viseur est rectangulaire, alors que le négatif est carré.
![Great Wall Plastic Factory Banner](../../diana/images/Banner.jpg )
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