MINGCA

The Mingca is the decendant of the Pearl River S-201 camera.  It kept most of the features, but some were changed or removed.

Mingca S-201M

The Mingca S-201M was produced after the production of the Pearl River S-201 stopped.   They were no longer allowed to label their product "Pearl River" after a Trade Mark law suit settlement.  The name "Pearl River" now belongs to the Guangdong Photo Equipment Company -- which mainly makes tripods.  While changing the name, they developed an improved model of the Pearl River S-201 and called it the Mingca S-201M.  Like its ancestor, it uses Minolta lenses, but it is a variation on the Minolta mount.   It is not a Nikon clone, like the Pearl River S-201, although it has the same basic features.  It had a mechanical shutter (1 second to 1/1000), plus B and 1/60 flash synch. It's normally seen with a 58mm f2.0 lens, but other lenses were made, such as a one-touch, 35-70mm f3.3/4.5 zoom!  Some of these lenses have the focusing ring moving in the opposite direction from the normal Minolta mount, but this is not a substantial obstacle to their use.  The body and features are nearly identical to those of its predecessor, but it dropped the mirror lock-up and only has a PC contact for X-synch.  The add-on flash shoe and interchangeable heads from the Pearl River fit just fine.  It was soon followed up with the Huaxi S-80 which saw more changes.

There was also a Mingca S-207, an MCk1000, and an MCk1000A which all have a Pentax K mount.

Shutter

Shutter speeds

Flash synch speed

TTL meter- ing?

ISO settings

Auto expo- sure?

AE lock?

View- finder info

Flash shoe

Sensa- switch?

PC plug?

Multi- expo- sure?

Cable release plug?

Stop down button?

Self timer?

Mirror lock-up?

Motor drive option?

Battery used for

Film indicator

Mingca 201M

cloth, horizontal

4-1,000 B

1/60

N

N/A

N/A

N/A

None

Cold

N/A

X

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N/A

In shutter speed dial