Topic: diana: made in macau??

[formica]

i just picked up a second diana. i was pretty surprised to find that instead of being made in hong kong it was made in macau. the instruction booklet is even in portuguese. does anyone know what the story is on this? maybe it's old news, but i found it kind of interesting.

            william

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[sapata]

Wow... !  I didn't know about that!  Great find...

[moominsean]

pretty sweet! probably super rare.

[sapata]

Since my first language is portuguese as I was born in Brazil...I decided to google a bit. 

According to wikipedia,  95% of population of Macau are Chinese,  2% are portuguese and the rest are portuguese/chinese mixed . Considering that Macau is the most densely populated region in the world those 5% (or whatever it was in the 60s) was a quite big market for the company.

Whatever is the reason I guess you have a very rare camera. You could also try getting in touch with Alan as he has a respectable Diana camera collection  http://www.allandetrich.com/diana.htm. Maybe he knows something about it !

[formica]

ah, so i wasn't the only one that didn't know that some were made in macau! it does make it kind of special. i'm looking forward to trying it out this weekend.  that's a good idea about contacting allan. i may do that.

          william

[gregor]

interesting. I thought I knew all there was to know about the Diana and it's clones....   A rare bird indeed it seems.

Nice to see that it has the (non-English) manual as well - did you find it in box as well?

[formica]

no box. it was being sold on a local(taiwan) auction site. apparently, the seller had 100 of them.  i'm not sure if they were all the macau version. at least one friend of mine bought one as well, but i haven't heard if his is the macau version or not.
 
                william

[Skorj]

apparently, the seller had 100 of them. 

100; now, that's coolio! My Diana F was made in Macau too. Knowing how the hinterland industries in China worked in the 1960s, makes a Macau / Hong Kong manufacturing base common. Skj.

[formica]

interesting skorj! i think this lot of 100 are all from macau as i just heard that at least one of my friends that bought one was also the macau version. for some reason dianas are pretty rare here in taiwan.

              william

[Alain G.]

Hi! Will,
I also have one made in Macau, but rarely use it since there's huge leaks from I don't know where? I have 2 Dianas, the other one is a regular one, but don't use them at all. I prefer the good 'ol Holga.