Hi Eric,
Seeing the brand, it brought back some memories.
When I first visited China in 1985, at popular locations such as
the Forbidden City, you would happen across locals eagerly queuing to
have their portraits taken by photographers wielding boxy twin-reflex
cameras branded "Seagull".
They used 120 rolls of black and white film.
See :-
http://www.8storeytree.com/shop/imag...4a10702900.jpg
By western standards at the time, these cameras look like
a throwback to the 1950's and were one obvious example to me
of how far behind the People's Republic of China was technologically.
Most individuals couldn't afford them as they cost the equivalent of more
than a year's wages of the average worker.
So just to get your photo taken at the time was a big thing
for the average Chinese.
Fast forward to 1995 and I noted how many Chinese now owned their own
personal low-cost digital point and shoot cameras. They were ubiquitous and
Chinese ownership of digital cameras was far more common than in the
West at that time.
It reminded me of how in the West, Kodak Box Brownie and later,
Instamatic cameras, were the type of consumer goods people would
first aspire to buy when they had saved enough. Perfect for making
memories of family outings. The Chinese were now doing the same,
just a few decades later and were doing it digitally rather than using film.
That initial high Chinese consumer demand certainly would have helped push
down the collective price of digital camera sensors.
Best regards
Gary
