Braun
Braun Paxette I and Super Paxette image by Rick Soloway (Image rights) |
Braun (Carl Braun Camerawerk) of Nuremberg, Germany, was originally founded in 1906 as an optical and industrial production house. In 1948, the company began producing box film cameras, in rollfilm and 35mm format. Its best known cameras are the Paxette series of 35mm rangefinder cameras. Most of the company's cameras were consumer-level models, though the company did briefly produce several more advanced 35mm rangefinder designs as well as an interesting 35mm SLR line with leaf shutters, the AMC/Paxette Reflex. The most advanced of Braun's rangefinders and SLRs had interchangeable lenses and built-in light meters.
In 1954, the company began producing slide projectors, a mainstay of its business for the next forty years.
Braun ceased making cameras in the 1960s, in part because of high labour costs and a resultant inability to compete in the consumer level camera market. The company began to focus on its established line of slide and optical projectors, selling more than four million units by 1997. In 2000 the company became insolvent.
Contents
120 film cameras
Rangefinder
- Gloria
- Gloriette
Folding
- Norca
- Imperial (folding)
Box
- Color Box
- Ideal
- Imperial
Compact viewfinder cameras
127 film cameras
35mm film cameras
Paxette II image by Alf Sigaro (Image rights) |
SLR
- Paxette Reflex
- rebadged Chinese SLR bodies:
Rangefinder
- Braun Colorette / Wittnauer Professional
- Paxette and Super Paxette
Viewfinder
- Gloriette
- Paxette electromatic
126 Cartridge
- Braun Automatic 300
- Paxette 28 (1965-68)
- Paxette 28 Auto (1967)
- Paxette 28B (1967)
- Paxette 28BC (1967)
- Paxette 28F (1967)
- Paxette 28LK (1967)
Links
- Braun page at Collection G. Even's site
- Cameras and User manuals at www.collection-appareils.fr
- Braun cameras in Andrys Stienstra's camera collection
- Braun - including 126 models at UKCamera.com in German/English